The Sage's Vow [COMPLETE]

28.1 || Lost

EVEN AFTER everything that had happened and the stampede of thoughts in her head, Mara couldn't resist the comforting blanket falling over her when she stepped out of the portal and into the Sanctuary.

Home. It had been weeks since she'd been back. She had never gone so long away since she'd first arrived. Everything that had gone wrong felt distant, as if it had been a horrible dream.

Except Cale still slumped against Jonathan, with his dragon just as unconscious in the clearing. The Paladins and Sages limped as they found a spot to truly rest without the weight of a dangerous dimension around them. And the worst proof of all, the whispering shadows. The ones that had always lurked in the back of her mind, but now they were darker, louder, closer.

Mara put barriers between her and the whispers. Kidron pressed against her consciousness, much closer in this realm than he had been in the pocket dimension. Guilt rose like bile, intensifying when she pulled away from his presence.

Kidron's resigned sigh was a stab in the chest. One she didn't have time to untangle any more than the dark thoughts lapping against the shores of her mind.

Jonathan placed Cale down on the grass beside Ezraim. Eliza kneeled beside them, her concern evident in the creases of her face. Fighting against the ball of worry weighing her down, Mara approached. She was only partially aware of Josh following behind her.

Xander barked out orders to the Soul-Bound to seek care, and a few moments later, another voice joined his.

Joel had arrived.

Both leaders' voices drew closer until Xander and Joel were also standing around Cale.

"What happened?" Xander asked.

"He Soulmerged when a hole appeared in the ship we were in," Jonathan replied in a far more halting voice than when he'd told her and Josh. He no longer seemed as convinced of what he'd seen. "He used enough energy to knock him unconscious, but..."

As if conscious enough to hear the conversation, Ezraim emitted a deep whine at that moment.

"Hisato? Can you come over here?"

Mara heard Hisato reply to Xander, but his words were a mere buzz. She studied Cale's face. She absorbed every twitch, every rise of his chest, every flicker of his eyes beneath their lids.

He was alive. She repeated that as she tried to combat another image, one where he splayed out on the ground, his breath a gurgled wheeze around blood, and an arrow stuck from his chest.

Alive. Alive. Alive. The word became a chant she clung to, and it was the only thing that kept the piercing pain in her gut away.

Hisato lowered to his knees in an unoccupied space beside Cale's chest. Taking a deep breath, Hisato closed his eyes and placed a hand atop Cale's heart. A crease formed between his brows.

"There's something unusual about his energy. It's like something is disrupting its flow. Let me just try..." A faint veil of turquoise surrounded Hisato's hand.

Cale's hazel eyes flew open. He shot up into a sitting position. Ezraim's booming cry swallowed his scream. Cale gripped his shirt over his heart. Gasping breaths shook his entire body as he curled in on himself.

Jonathan placed a hand on his shoulder and leaned closer. "Cale, what's wrong?"

"Give me..." Cale groaned, and his body pulled even tighter in on itself. "A moment. I need a moment."