The Ultimate Sacrifice, Talia Jager [novels to read .TXT] 📗

only you—will need to stab him three times. The last time needs to be directly in the heart, and you will need to leave the dagger in as far as you can. Ramsey or I will take over from there.”

Sounded easy enough.

“It does,” she responded. Sometimes I forgot she could read minds because she usually kept it to herself. “Getting close enough to him will prove to be difficult. He is strong. And if he gets ahold of you first, it could very well be over—quickly.”

“When do we leave?” I asked.

“Soon. I won’t make a decision until I’m ready to leave. Just in case he has a watcher. I’d like to take him by surprise.”

“I’ll be ready.”

“Kassia, you are ready.”

I smiled. That was big coming from Vala. “I hope I make you proud.”

“You will. You already have.”

Three days later, Vala woke me up. “It’s time to go.” Quickly, I dressed in jeans, a white T-shirt, and my hoodie.

The three of us started walking after shoving some food in our mouths. “Will we be walking a long time?” I asked.

“No. Just to the portal,” Ramsey answered.

“Portal?” I was flabbergasted. “We have portals?”

Ramsey chuckled. “Yes, there are quite a few, but they’re only used when necessary.”

“Where is it?” I was a little annoyed Vala had made me walk all the way to Ramsey’s if there were portals.

“About half a day’s walk.”

“Oh, so nowhere nearby?”

“Near enough,” Ramsey answered.

“Is the battle happening today?”

“Yes, the demons will be there by dusk.”

“Will we?”

“Yes.”

“There won’t be time to socialize, Kassia. You can do that later,” Vala advised.

“I understand.” Thinking more about these portals that existed, I asked, “Can anyone use the portal?”

“No,” Ramsey answered, but he didn’t elaborate.

After a few minutes passed, I asked, “How does it work?”

“You just step in.”

That wasn’t exactly the answer I was looking for.

“Some things just don’t have an explanation. It just works,” Vala said.

We walked through forests and across meadows, stopping only to eat and take short breaks. “Keep up your strength,” Vala said, shoving a sandwich at me. “You will need it.”

During the mid-afternoon, I asked out loud, “Do you think they’ll hate me?”

Nobody answered. Either it wasn’t something they could answer or they didn’t think I’d want to hear the answer. I left it at that. This walk was easier to handle than the trek there. I was in shape now and didn’t mind it at all.

The sun was low in the sky when we reached a secluded area on the outskirts of a large city. I had no idea where we were. “Will this hurt?” I asked skeptically.

“No. Just watch your landing,” Ramsey responded.

“Where does it come out?”

“About a mile from the school.”

“Really?” I couldn’t believe there was a portal that close to the school and nobody had ever mentioned it.

Ramsey did some crazy things with his arms and a light appeared. It grew bigger until it was a large, colorful oval. Ramsey went through first; he just stepped in and disappeared. It was as if the portal opened up and ate him.

“You go next,” Vala said. “I’ll be right behind you.”

Hesitantly, I stepped up to the portal. I took a deep breath and walked in. The next thing I knew, it was ejecting me out into a forest. Ramsey caught me and helped me get my balance. “Whoa,” I gasped.

“You okay?”

“Yeah.”

Vala stepped out of the portal with grace and ease. “Years of practice,” she said, seeing my expression. “Let’s go. We have a mile to cover, and it’s almost time.”

Soon, I could see Glendale in the distance. My body tingled—but I wasn’t sure if it was from fear or excitement. The students and faculty were all lined up around it. We were coming in behind some of the demons. Vala put her finger up to her nose. The cat-hounds had already started their attack. “Let the others get rid of them. We don’t want them to sniff us out,” Vala whispered.

I tried not to breathe too deeply because the rotten odor was overwhelming. Must have been the number of demons in the area making it a hundred times stronger.

There were so many demons. Fear was taking over and I was shaking again. Calm down. Just breathe. There’s nothing to be scared of. You can do this.

Once the cat-hounds had been taken care of, the smaller demon dwarves rushed in. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something moving up in the trees. I lost my focus and looked up. It took only a few seconds for my eyes to adjust, but then I saw them. Faeries. They were a little bigger than my hand and their wings were transparent. This helped them to hide in the trees and blend in with nature. They were striking creatures, absolutely beautiful.

They each had a bow and arrow. Their weapons, being faerie made, were lethal. The arrows were made like the daggers, with magic. As they shot them into the demons, the demons immediately fell dead to the ground. The faeries never missed, never accidentally hit a student or teacher, never even hit the ground. I suspected a little bit of magic was in play there too.

Vala cleared her throat, reminding me I was needed. “Go,” she mouthed.

I hurried to a spot where I was surrounded by demons and without thinking twice, I killed them. My mind was trained now. I could separate the demons from the gifted. Picking them out so I wouldn’t hurt them was easy. I tried taking down every demon here, but there was way too many for that. I did get hundreds at a time.

Now that I was so much stronger and better with my gift, I could take note of things in the corner of my eyes. Suddenly, I saw her—Mira. She was fighting a demon with her dagger. It was obvious that she, too, had been well trained in the past months.

Seeing her threatened to break my focus. Part of me wanted to run to her, throw my arms around her, and never let go. When Daxton came into view, my heart almost flew out of my chest right then. Seeing him again after all these months had some crazy effects on me.

I noticed Vala giving me a look and realized I wasn’t doing my job. I focused for only a second longer, and the demons dropped to the ground. There were so many of them and I realized that to get more at a time, I needed to get in the middle. Running, I took off toward them. Then, planting my feet and opening my mind, I commanded them to die, and they did. Killing hundreds at a time was exhilarating. I was enjoying this more than I should.

There were so many gifted mixed in with the demons, it made it harder to focus. Remembering what I had been taught, I singled out all of the demons in the yard by using my power to make purple swirls materialize from my head to each demon. Then, with that power, I sent out a surge and the demons dropped to the ground.

Once the majority of demons on this side of the school were dead, I looked back to where my friends were fighting. They were doing really well, except there were some demons creeping up behind them. I hurried closer, knowing that I could do this without hurting them.

It was then that she saw me. I could tell by the expression on her face that she recognized me immediately. She stopped fighting and was staring at me now. I resisted smiling and running to her. I couldn’t yet. In a minute, she’d be dead because she was just standing there. Zane followed Mira’s gaze, and his jaw dropped as he recognized who she was staring at.

As I stared back at them, I realized how I must look. I hadn’t thought of that. I sure hoped I could drop these demons faster than Zane could throw that dagger into my heart. I wasn’t sure I could live through that twice. I only had to focus for a second more before the demons fell to the ground.