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“I won’t leave you,” Kerrigan insisted.
Kerrigan wasn’t sure that her mother had Vulsan under control. They were still tangled. Blood flowing freely from open wounds they’d inflicted on one another. Then, Vulsan reared back and got one good punch into Keres’s face. Her mother went down in a heap.
Kerrigan used all of her power at once to blast Vulsan backward. She ran for her mother. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Keres said, coming shakily back to her feet. “I’ll be fine.”
But she didn’t look fine. The portal had taken so much of her magic. She didn’t appear to be able to even stand fully on her own. As if the longer this fight dragged out between her and Vulsan, the worse off she was going to be. And Kerrigan couldn’t leave under those circumstances.
Vulsan was back on his feet, stalking toward them. “You will pay for that, you bitch.”
Kerrigan rolled her eyes. “Real creative. Petty insults seem beneath you.”
Vulsan whipped flame toward them at lightning speed. Kerrigan gasped, raising her hands to block it. But she wasn’t fast enough. It glanced off of her shoulder, and Kerrigan screamed.
Fordham was there then. His shadows curling around Kerrigan and Keres. A moment later, they were farther away from Vulsan, back before the portal.
“We’re leaving. This is over,” Fordham told them. “Keres, you’re coming with us.”
Keres was getting to her feet, ignoring Fordham entirely. Fordham put a hand on her, and she struck him to remove it.
“He will never stop.”
“We have to go,” Kerrigan said, holding her bleeding shoulder. “All of us.”
“Go, Keres!” Vulsan said with a sadistic laugh. “There is nowhere I cannot find you.”
Keres’s face went stony. She pulled up her hands for another counterattack. Anything to keep him from them, but Kerrigan refused to budge. She wouldn’t let him do this to her mother. She had just gotten her back.
Then, directly between Vulsan and Keres, a bright blast of white light shattered their vision. Keres cried out, shielding her eyes. Kerrigan was seeing double, blinking back stars. It was like looking into the sun, but somehow worse. So much more direct.
“No,” Keres moaned. She turned then, blinded by the bright light that had formed between them. “Forgive me.”
Kerrigan blinked away the worst of the light, trying to figure out what her mother meant. Then, the bangle was yanked off of Keres’s arm and slid effortlessly onto Kerrigan’s own wrist. With all of her might, she shoved.
Kerrigan fell backward. Fordham taking her weight as they both tumbled into the iridescent portal. Just as the light materialized into a man. No, a god.
“Daughter,” the god said.
He Who Reigns had appeared.
53
The Contact
Kerrigan screamed as she plummeted through the portal. Her mother was still on the other side, facing off with Vulsan and He Who Reigns. Her own father. A god. A legitimate god. Who had appeared in a shower of light. With all the power of that world at his disposal. And Keres had sent them through rather than risk her father’s notice.
She landed on her knees in a field.
“Oof,” she groaned as she fell forward, barely catching herself from face-planting. “Scales.”
A moment later, Fordham hit hard on his back beside her. All the air whooshed out of his lungs, and he rolled over, coughing from the impact. “We made it.”
Kerrigan jerked upward. The portal still stood between them. An iridescent, shimmering archway in the middle of a Bryonican field. She could go back through. She could try to help her mom. She could make this right.
“Close it,” Fordham said. He grabbed her arm, as if seeing the moment when she might try to dart back through it. “We can’t help her. Use the bangle and close it.”
Fordham was right. They had barely been able to hold off Vulsan. He Who Reigns was so reviled that Doma in the afterlife were still fearful of him. What could they do against that power? Was this what Keres had feared from the start? Not that Vulsan would show up, but her father. Her worst fear come to life.
“Kerrigan,” Fordham pleaded.
She closed her eyes, held her hand out, and let the portal collapse. The rush of power at its release shoved them both back a few feet. Kerrigan coughed as she got dust in her mouth and eyes. But when she looked up again, the way back to Domara was gone.
She slammed her fists into the ground. Fury and regret ripped through her in equal measure. It didn’t help that she knew that she couldn’t have fought him off. That her mother coming with them hadn’t even been an option. And yet it was just another loss. Another loss with no way to know if her mother was even okay.
Fordham waited for her to run her anger out and then took her now-bloody fists into his hands. He brushed the dirt off of them, exposing the torn knuckles. Then, he brought each to his lips and kissed them. “I wish there were a way to make this better for you.”
