Into the Light

144

I was scared that my actions could cause someone else to get hurt or killed. What if the Darkness didn't believe what I was saying, so that I never got the chance to kiss her? What if she never 'opened her soul' or whatever it was that Ash had said? Would the others even have a chance at beating her? Would she kill me on the spot? I was terrified that something would happen to my best friends. My brother and sister. Sam was my twin flame, my brother. Katrina had become a little sister to me. I would protect them with my life, just as I would do for Anna. I had to pray that they didn't try to do the same for me. I wouldn't let them. I put all of my concentration into blasting our combined energy into the forest, and was rewarded every time I heard the wood splinter beneath the force of it. We practiced for hours, running only on a few hours of sleep. I felt my energy start to wane after a while, so I sat down on the forest floor with a bottle of water. Sam dropped down beside me a minute later, with Kat not far behind. "This is really tiring for something that doesn't require much movement," he said, taking the bottle from my hands. "Hey!" I exclaimed. He just grinned and tilted it up to his mouth. "I forgot to bring one," he replied, bringing it down and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. I grabbed it from him and put the lid back on. "I don't think this is a good idea," Katrina said, before she covered her mouth and yawned. "What? Fighting a mega witch?" I asked, ripping up the small patch of grass that was at my feet. "Well, yeah but no. What's a worse idea is getting no sleep and using the little bit of energy we do have practicing before we even get to the fighting part," she replied. Sam stood up and cracked his back. "You've got a point," he replied, then held his hand out to help her up. "Maybe we should call it, and go back to the hotel to get some rest. We can set an alarm and be back in plenty of time." I looked up at him and Katrina, then held my hand out to him. He just raised his eyebrows. "You can help her but you can't help me?" I asked haughtily, joking around with him. He rolled his eyes and grabbed my hand. I pushed myself up off of the ground, just as he pulled as hard as he could. This sent me flying forwards, straight into him. We both fell back onto the damp forest ground, me on top of him. I rolled off to the side and lay there for moment, staring up at the treetops in the sky. I didn't even want to move. Maybe I could just sleep here. It was peaceful enough. I put my hands behind my head and lay there, listening to Sam grunt as he got to his feet. "Come on, let's go tell Ash that we're gonna head out for a while," he said, standing over me. "You think he'll let us leave?" I said, quietly, only half joking. Sam cracked a grin, then looked up as footsteps approached us. Then I saw a goddess standing over me, with her raven hair hanging down over her shoulders. "What are you doing?" Anna giggled. "Relaxing," I replied, smiling up at her. "Wanna join me?" I held out my arms for her and was pleasantly surprised when she sat down on the ground, then rolled into them. "Well damn," I said. "What?" she asked, laying her head over on my arm, and looking over at me. "Didn't think I would play in the dirt? I'm not a priss." I laughed and leaned in to kiss her. "You're definitely not a priss," I replied. "What is going on over here?" I heard Ash's voice, just as his footsteps stopped at my head. I looked up at him and grinned. "Just taking a break, boss." He rolled his eyes, goodnaturedly. "Hey Ash," Sam said, getting his attention. "We were thinking about going back to the hotel to recharge. Maybe catch a nap along with that shower. We don't want to be completely drained before the showdown. What time should we be back?" Ash almost looked like he wanted to disagree with Sam, maybe tell him that we had no time for that, that we should be practicing, but something must've changed his mind. I watched his expression change, before he smiled at Sam. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Get some rest, spend some time with each other, and get your showers. Tonight is gonna be a real battle. You should...rest. Well, I know that we want to summon her before 3 am because that's when she'll be the strongest. Although, that's when the Coven will be the strongest as well. And the spirits. So, the Coven will be here at nightfall to go over things and make sure that everything is in order and that we all know what we are supposed to be doing. That's probably around 7. That'll give us time to get the spells and circles set up and ready to use. We want to call her before 3, so that we can weaken her, but we still want the battle to be happening at 3. Does that make sense?" I shook my head from down on the ground. Sam looked just as confused as I felt. "No, not-" "Yes, Ash, I get it," Katrina answered. "We want to weaken her, but just before the 3 am mark, so that we're still firing at her at that time. Since the Coven will be the strongest then, it makes sense. Doesn't leave a lot of room for error though. Do we need to be here when the Coven gets here?" How the hell did she understand what he had been saying? I was still lost. "No, that's not necessary," he replied, shaking his head. "I think that everything should be fine if you guys want to show up around midnight. That way we'll still have a little while to make sure everyone understands when and what they are supposed to be doing. Sound good? That should give you guys a while to spend some time together...and rest, I mean." Why did he keep saying that? Spend some times together. Unless...he didn't think that we would have time to spend together later. He didn't think we were going to beat her. That wasn't very encouraging and definitely didn't help the lead ball that had made it's home in my stomach. "Okay," I said, sitting up and bringing Anna with me.