Darkness & Light: Book 1: Shatter Our Fates [COMPLETED]

29 - Hayley

Lilith pulls me along through the tunnel she's carving for us, but we aren't out of the woods yet. The danger still lurks around every corner we pass. We are running, and I'm doing my best to keep up, but the pain of running is catching up to me fast.

I fall forward, slipping out of her grip, and hitting the ground. Lilith whirls, and rushes over, lifting up my cane, and then me. She carries me, her wings curled around the two of us.

She carries us through the dark tunnel she carved herself, but then we enter a massive underground cavern. I sense something deeper within. And so does Lilith, I know that.

My heart is breaking. My heart is cleaved in two, one where I am now, and the other .... Somehow, the other is with Drecca. And Drecca is dead.

"Your heart calls to him," says Aldrea. "As the gods always say, like calls to like. He calls to you, Hayley. And you call to him. He is not dead, not yet. You know that."

I look at Lilith, watching as she runs through the cavern, away from.... him. It's insane. But, I shake my head. "Lilith, we must go back."

"What? No, Hayley! If we go back, you will die. And I cannot lose someone else, I can't."

"You have to go back, Hayley," Aldrea says. "He needs you, Hayley. And you are the only one who can save him."

How, Aldrea?

"You need Lilith's help, she will help you kill the dragon," she says.

"Lilith. Listen to me. We need to go back, we need to help save Drecca. He needs us."

"He's dead, Hayley!"

"No, he isn't. Please, Lilith. We can do this. I trusted you, now you need to trust me."

She sighs. "Alright. But if we die, I'll haunt you."

I chuckle. "I wouldn't expect anything less, Lilith."

We turn back to the tunnel, and Lilith and I reappear back where we'd been. The other two dragons are gone, but now, the one who swallowed Drecca is still lurking there, snarling when she sees us appear.

"Trying to die, little demons?"

"You have one chance, dragon," I hiss. "One chance to return Drecca to us."

The dragon laughs.  "You are insane, little demon-blooded girl, aren't you?"

I shrug.  "Maybe. Maybe not."

The dragon unfurls her wings, roaring at us. I unfurl my own wings, and summon all of the magick Aldrea and I possess. The dragon leaps toward us, and I blast her with a powerful blast of purple fire. The dragon barrels into the shimmering fire. She roars in pain, and I blast her with more and more flames.

"You dare burn me, fool?" demands the dragon.

"Yes," I say. "Because if you don't give him back, I will destroy you."

"I swallowed that foolish demon Prince, how do you suppose I should return him to you? And why should I, anyways? He wanted to use you. He doesn't care for you."

"He does care for you, Hayley," Aldrea whispers.  "You'll have to kill her. Cut into her. Save Drecca, you don't have much time."

"Fine, then, dragon," I say. "It is to be death, then."

Lilith leaps past me, and conjures a spear of dark magick, slicing into the dragon's throat. The beast shrieks, beating her wings, trying to lift off the ground. I leap into the air, flying right at her. Lilith slides down the dragon, her magical spear digging a deep groove in her flesh.

The beast collapses onto her side. Lilith is falling, but I catch her, and we fall together. We hit the sandy floor, and we both cough. We look up as the dragon heaves her final breaths, before coughing up her blood, and dying.

"Help me save him!" I call, frantically blasting the dragon's belly with my fire, not knowing what else to do. Lilith rushes to my side, and slams the blade into the top of the dragon's chest, and digs down. I turn away, ignoring the nasty squelch of flesh and gore.

A faint gasp can be heard from the dragon's body, and I whirl, flames growing at my hands and arms. I stop when I see Lilith has cut into the stomach of the dragon now. She turns to me, then.

"If I keep digging like this, I could hurt him," she says.

I shake my head. "We have to help him. We ... we can't just let him die in there! All alone! In ... in the dark."

Lilith sighs and puts a gore-covered and bloody hand on my shoulder.  "Why do you care so much, Hayley?"

"Like calls to like," Aldrea whispers.

I turn back to the dragon's destroyed body. I feel a swell of guilt for her death, but then, I remember how she was going to swallow all of us.

"I'm not leaving him behind."

I plunge my hands into the disgusting gore in the dragon. I feel a strange, new magick swell inside my body, in my mind that makes me feel stronger. My mind seems to sharpen, and I unleash a scream as I think of Drecca, and pull.

There's a strange, tinkling sound that sounds almost like a whoosh followed by a snap. My magick in my body surges, and the power of it all surges forth, and coils around something. Then, with an almighty yank of power, I fall back onto my ass in the sand.

"It's too late," whispers Lilith.

I look up at the dragon's ruined corpse. Then, I scream. The very air vibrates, and then the sound devolves into that of a loud snap, and then, something bursts free of the scarlet ruin.

I collapse onto my side, laying there in the scarlet sands, my body exhausted. I open my eyes, and see a bloodsoaked demon laying in the sand beside me, his black eyes open and blinking at me.

"Like calls to like," I whisper at the same time Aldrea says it.

Drecca looks at me, his eyes widening. "Hayley...."

But I don't hear him. I don't hear anything, before I then pass out.