Villainous [Wattys 2021 Shortlist]

48: The Last Stand

Dante pushed the horse to its limits as they galloped up the twisting mountain trail, like wind given flesh. Delilah's head was ringing with the din of battle even as they left it behind - the sounds echoed through the mountains.

"Why are we going up here?" Delilah gasped as the air started to grow thin.

"There's another portal here - to the Spectral Realm."

"We're getting reinforcements?" Relief swamped her, making her feel dizzy.

"Of a sort."

Delilah's leg was burning, and she guessed it would soon become infected if the battle didn't end soon. She forced the pain to the back of her mind, but she knew that it would only grow.

The horse finally halted and reared in protest at what lay before them: another arch of stone.

Delilah and Dante dismounted. When her bad leg hit the floor she nearly crumpled, but Dante wrapped an arm around her.

They took a few unsteady steps towards it.

"Do you know what you're doing?" she breathed, as the war crown started to glow.

"No, of course not. Now touch the Opals. I need you to help me do this."

Delilah reached up and put her hands on the crown. Instantly, it was like she and Dante were connected, and she felt what he was trying to do: pull up all the Opals' power, drawing everything out into the open. He was fixated on the arch.

"Dante," she gasped.

"Trust me."

Then the wraiths began to emerge, like fog at first, circling around them. The rest of the valley had vanished beyond their hisses and malicious faces.

"The battle is already lost. You might as well give in."

"You will die. Your friends are already dead."

No. No - Delilah couldn't stop the images that burst in front of her eyes: Nell, broken and bloody in the mud. Kaya's neck snapping as she fell from her crow. Hawk, fighting to get to her but being overwhelmed, brought down by one mighty swing.

Was this real, or were the wraiths trying to trick them?

Then, most terrible of all: "Your feelings make you weak, Delilah. He is still using you, and yet you let him do it gladly."

Delilah trembled, praying Dante hadn't heard that last one. But Dante was shaking, his face bloodless as the wraiths climbed up their legs and stroked their hair.

This was hell. And they were trapped - there was no getting out.

Delilah let go of the Opals with one hand. She found Dante's and squeezed it tightly, trying to shock them both back into reality.

"We are worse than our demons," Delilah breathed. "We are more monstrous than them. We can do this."

"Now!" Dante rasped.

And they shot all of the Opals' raw elemental power at the portal.

A blast of light cleaved through the wraiths and into the portal - which lit up, as veins of lightning flashed through the rock arch. The light was blinding as the mountain shook around them.

Then there was a blast like a cannon and the arch exploded. Rocks flew everywhere and Delilah felt like crying - it hadn't worked - until a beam of sickly green light shot up, out of the portal, arcing into the sky.

The power it gave off made her knees weak. The portal had turned into some kind of beacon, its light burning their eyes, the thrum of its energy turning her bones to jelly.