Prophecy: Tome of Magic

19. Judgement Day

Would there be any place more fitting to fight the final battle? Together they all stood in the field-the field that had caused so much pain and loss. Toby stood at the front, just a short distance from Percy. Cliff and Myrna stood back a ways, hand in hand as they waited, and Qui'hara and Liam were just behind them. Either they would be triumphant, and Andreegys would hopefully be the last to meet his end in the blood stained field, or they would be. It was the place where Dill and Austin had died. Where Dede's life had been taken, and Blair had been lost, and where Lorelei had been mortally wounded. The place where Byrenion had brought her back out of the portal, dead.

"It's strange, how familiar it all feels," Percy spoke quietly, moving directly beside the leader as she surveyed the scene, feeling uncomforted by the dead silence that blanketed the city. "It seems like we've been here so many times before. Are you sure you're ready to do this?"

"It's time." He commented, answering her in the best way he could as he too focused on the unsettling atmosphere. He knew that it wouldn't be long before the one they sought found them, especially considering that Byrenion was no longer with them to offer any kind of shielding with his magic. No, he was away in search of the true vessel, and whether he would find it or not was irrelevant. There was no going back, and Toby looked to his friend. "There isn't any other choice."

"I don't know if I can do this," the ghost went on, knowing that he understood what she meant-that she wasn't sure she could go through with their plan to kill Blair, even if it was what the good sister had wanted. But he gave her the same look, and she also knew that there were no different options. That was the same inevitable dread that settled on them all, and Cliff also turned his eyes to look at Myrna. In return she did the same, and everything they could've said was known in that minute, but for him it wasn't enough to be unspoken.

"There's no way we're all going to make it out of this alive," he shook his head, swallowing the lump that was growing in his throat. The chilled wind that swept through the field made him shiver-but not from the cold. She held him steadily though, his rock to keep him right where he was. He couldn't be without that. "I don't want to lose you again. Not again."

"Let him come, I'm done running and hiding. It's like I said, we've come all this way, made it through whatever was thrown at us, and here we are, right? We'll be okay, both of us. I promise." She reassured him, squeezing his hand for emphasis. But the brave exterior she reflected was not how she felt within, and inside she thought the thin tape that was holding her together might break apart at any minute. But she told herself to be strong, just a little longer, for him.

"I love you." Cliff whispered, sounding like she felt. But there were no words that she could give him without revealing that, so instead she just looked at him, waiting for a moment before she leaned over slowly, pushed herself up onto her tippy toes, and kissed him. He was grateful for the embrace, comforted, just as she was, and together they prepared to see out the end. Of course their romantic moment of intimacy was witnessed by the two others who were behind them, and both Liam and Qui'hara were burned with jealousy to see it.

He had no claim, really, no right to be offended, but the demoness did. It had been her that had searched relentlessly for Andreegys after he'd taken Myrna's body, her that had tried the hardest to save her-not Cliff. Cliff did nothing. Yet he got the reward, the only thing that she wanted, and she was stuck in the back, watching, a cruel reminder of what she was to the woman she loved, what she would always be. Liam, well, Liam was more superficial, hating to see anyone having what he believed was his.

Indeed it was clear that none of them were actually ready for what was about to come, but all the same they could not stop it. After all, it was what they wanted-to get it over with-and after standing in the field for only minutes the ground began to shake, and the sky split open, and all at once they were surrounded. Crystalline warriors, the undead, and even the brainwashed innocents. It was an army, and they were but a small group of refugees, but they stood valiantly all the same as a light shown down and their adversary descended into their midst.