I had to do something.To act.Instead of standing here frozen like a weak lamb.
In my hand, the potion continued go glow brighter.
What did that mean?Did the ritual want to begin early?
On impulse, I reached for the Sun Disk, my free hand landing on it.The second my fingers touched it, it pulsed bright gold.So bright, in fact, that Garrat flinched and shielded his eyes.
And when that pulse subsided, the black ooze started to abate.As if the Sun Disk had something to do with its retreat.
That gave me hope.
“You fool,” Garrat sneered.“You think you can defeat me?”
“Yes.”I lifted my head and met his terrifying gaze.“I can and I will.”
As I said the words, my chest burned bright and hot.The Sun Disk flared.The potion in my hand flared brighter—pink-blue light trapped in glass—until the vial was too hot to hold.
Overhead, the planets were beginning to align—though I couldn’t spare a glance.
I didn’t want to lift my hand from the Sun Disk, so I hooked the cork with my teeth, yanked it free, and spat it into the dirt.
“Crossroads, hear me—hold and heed,” I began.“Take my blood, but not my need.”
“NO!”Garrat shouted—and for the first time, real panic cracked through his voice.
The black ooze fizzed, like it recognized the words.
“Hickory root and Moonpetal flame, I bind this gate in Guardian’s name,” I continued.
“Stop, Piper!”
“Keep going,” Owen growled, his voice tight with strain.“Don’t you stop.”
“Shut the seam and still the roar—” My breath hitched as I tipped the vial.“One moon’s turn, and nothing more.”
The last drop splashed against the roots.
The Sun Disk pulsed—gold so bright it turned the clearing white.
A hiss split the air.
Garrat screamed as the ground beneath him fractured open, a blinding fissure yawning like a mouth.Shadow and ooze and magic dragged downward at once—hungry in reverse.
Garrat clawed for purchase, but the earth took him anyway.
The bubbling blackness slurped into the crack as if the wound itself was drinking it.
Then the fissure snapped shut.The light vanished.
And the clearing went still.The Sun Disk stopped glowing.
I knelt there with my hand on it and the empty vial clenched in the other, afraid to move—as if the spell might snap the moment I breathed wrong.
The air smelled… cleaner.Not good.But less dead.
Somewhere in the trees, a single cricket chirped—hesitant, like it was checking whether it was safe to exist again.
My mind tried to make sense of what happened and came up with one ridiculous thought.
