Chapter 17

The Devil

“Torry, you sure you’re up for this?”

“Who’s the best student at the Academy, Floyd?”

“That’s an entirely separate issue from actual pragmatic combat.”

“And how much experience do you have?”

“Save your lover’s quarrel!” Krysta yelled, tired of the magic duo’s argument with each other. Terrill refrained from rolling his eyes, his blade locked on the threat that was building at hand. Whatever LeBrandon was now, it was far from human, and much the same was happening with the pirates with him. Too uncomfortably did it remind Terrill of the monsters he’d fought time and time again. Worse yet, the fortress was shuddering; army invasion or no, this place was coming down. “We’ve got bigger problems on the horizon.”

“I need to get out of here,” the mayor spoke softly. It was desperation, and Terrill was glad to hear he kept his composure. There was no denying he was worthy of the position he’d held for many years. “At this rate, I’m the only one who can stop Serotin from marching, and there’s no telling what that madman can do to my people.”

“Leave LeBrandon and the pirates to us, Mayor Rainert,” Terrill assured him. The other three combatants agreed with murmured assent. “The second we find an opening, Krysta, Torry, I want you to get your father out of here. It’s important that they see you’re just as safe, and Krysta is a genius at creating barriers.”

“How about we talk later? Here he comes!”

Floyd’s warning came none-too-soon, as LeBrandon was indeed on the move. He was a blazing bullet; a dark force that corroded the roof they stood upon. His claymore came down, and Terrill and Floyd were the first to defend, with Terrill blocking one end and Floyd going straight for the man’s legs, his daggers out. It didn’t work too well, as Terrill saw the water reform around LeBrandon’s body. Without the storm or with it, no difference was made in the armor that surrounded his body. Terrill threw his sword off, spinning around to aim for the pirate’s chest.

In an unexpected move, the man grabbed Terrill’s sword, his hand dripping with blood as the manic expression made his eyes rather apoplectic; a frightening visage for anyone to look at.

“I am king! I am free!”

“Floyd, any time now!” Terrill screamed. Floyd had dodged behind the man, the temperature lowering as he plunged both his blades downward. The redhead was rebuffed by the watery mail, but Floyd kept chipping away at it, hoping to break through. Terrill put his full weight behind an attack of his, hoping to force LeBrandon to let go of the blade. The crazed pirate refused.

Then his lackeys struck.

One attacked Floyd from behind, a nasty, rusty scimitar aimed for the boy’s back with a feral cry. Floyd had no hope of turning in time, but lucked out as the man was encased in ice. Or his arms were, at the very least. The increased weight caused him to plummet and crash through the roof to the floor below them.

“Be a little more careful,” Torry said to him, her finger held out and glimmering with frost. Floyd grinned back at her.

The pirates were rushing past Terrill and his engagement with LeBrandon. From the looks in their eyes, they had but one thing on their mind: killing the mayor. LeBrandon, too, was staring in the man’s direction, paying Terrill no heed. In spite of that, he remained a powerful foe, perhaps more so in his wild state.

Terrill was done being stuck in their stalemate, and he twisted his sword, breaking it free from LeBrandon’s hold. He whirled around and aimed for LeBrandon’s side, finding the mail still as impenetrable as ever. The infamous backhand soared out, striking Terrill across the face and sending him stumbling back. Floyd lunged for his wrist, making sure he didn’t fall off the wet roof.

“You all…are shackling us!” came more crazed mutterings from LeBrandon’s mouth. He lifted his weapon high above his head, where it rippled with deadly force, set upon eviscerating the mayor. “No more! As king, I will set you free!”

“Father, to the side!” Torry yelled. Terrill watched as she pushed her father to the floor. One of the pirates came at her, but Krysta intervened, allowing the girl to focus on the descending strike. Torry’s bare hands flew upward, a frosty chill exuding from her fingertips to stop LeBrandon’s watery blade where it came. The frost trailed all the way to LeBrandon’s mail, beginning to freeze it.

“She really is the top student, huh? Now’s our chance!”

“You got it!”

As LeBrandon dealt with his newfound problem, Terrill and Floyd flanked him. The ice was continuing to spread, the pirate’s nigh-impenetrable mail becoming solid, like a cocoon meant to held him for eternity. Floyd was ready to attack first, and Terrill created a stone for him to get height. The boy’s leg lit on fire, and he soared in with a kick that broke straight through the mail to collide with the pirate commander.

Before he could retreat, LeBrandon grabbed his foot.

“Not goo-” Floyd was thrown, colliding with Terrill. The two boys slid across the slick surface of the roof, rolling to where the fire had been lit just a few hours ago. They coughed at the ash that invaded their mouths, but returned to their feet quick as they could.

Stars popped about Terrill’s vision, recovering from the tactical blunder they’d made. He could still see the girls fighting, their backs against one another. Floyd hadn’t been lying about Torry’s skill as she ducked under one of the pirates’ swinging blades, launching fire at another, and with a snap, created a quick bolt of lightning that left a pirate convulsing. Not that she was perfect. She left herself open far more times than she could count, and her focus left her father wide open to the single-minded obsession of the pirates.

Where she faltered, Krysta covered, showing a far better grasp of the battlefield. At every opportunity that Torry left herself open, Krysta would step in with shield, sword or shining light to blast the pirates away. Some fell to the floors beneath them, while others slipped off the roof to the oceans below. Terrill could appreciate the precision with which Krysta danced, her beat matching Torry’s to deal with the pirates, all while preventing casualties.

LeBrandon had other ideas.

He was waiting for none of his men as he swung his weapon out. It turned to liquid, like a scythe to cull all of those he wished to see perish in his mad quest for freedom. It was akin to a rushing waterfall, battering aside his own men with indiscriminate violence, all to kill the mayor who stood with defiance. He made no move to get out of the way.

“Floyd, slow it down!”

“Father, move!”

Terrill’s command was obeyed, but Torry’s was not. Her father was staunch in his refusal to move, showing he was afraid of nothing this false king could throw at him. Terrill was pretty sure he should have at least been afraid of being bisected, and he worked to prevent just that. Floyd crossed his arms in front of himself, and for the first time since they’d met, Terrill could see how he was working his magic. His hands were growing colder, indicated by the blue pallor they took on as they reduced all heat in the air. It didn’t change LeBrandon’s trajectory, and it didn’t give that much more of a window, but Terrill determined that it was enough.

To buy himself just a little more time as he ran, Terrill flipped forward, his fingers tapping to the ground and bringing up a stone shield. The whip cut through it as nothing, but Terrill saw how it slowed by an even further fraction. That was the time he needed between saving the mayor and not.

His sword was raised, now the last remaining shield between LeBrandon and Gerald Rainert. It hit with immense force, creating welts upon Terrill’s arms without even touching him, until the tip of the blade dug into the skin near his shoulder. He held against it, giving the mayor time to be grabbed by both his daughter and Krysta. Not much more time was granted, for as soon as he was clear, Terrill was thrown back, hitting the roof and bouncing along it towards the edge.

His blade left his hand, spinning out of control before it embedded itself in the surface of the roof. Terrill wildly flailed before he caught the edge of the fortress, hanging on for dear life as the prior rain threatened to make him fall.

“Get…him…out of here!” Terrill attempted to shout through gritted teeth. He tried to pull himself up, but all he did was lose the little footing he might have managed to gain. The only boon of LeBrandon’s attacks was that his men were downed, a number of them sprawled across the roof, with the shadow that had bound them receding.

“Captain… What…what happened?”

“Wh-what’s wrong with him?” another shouted, backing away from the terrifying visage that was LeBrandon. Terrill grunted and groaned, but looked up as he saw Floyd slide across the roof to reach him, extending his hand to help pull him up. A horrible cracking sound split the night air, and Floyd nearly fell with him. “Is the haven falling apart?”

“I’m outta here! No use sticking around!”

“Don’t you dare leave! Not at the cusp of glory! Fire all cannons, or I’ll fire you with them!” LeBrandon’s attacks became even more of a frenzy, slashing this way and that, leaving deep gouges and making the already unstable haven shake all the more. No one was obeying his orders. “I will slaughter all of you myself!”

He made true to his word, wildly spinning with his sharp whip of water that slashed at one of his former comrades’ legs. Said man tumbled down the broken stairs, crashing further to floors below. Terrill grimaced, until finally Floyd was able to pull him back up again. He wasted no time in finding his sword again, only to see that Torry, Krysta and the mayor were trying to maintain their balance on the rickety structure.

“Just go!” Terrill shouted. LeBrandon’s gleaming eyes found him in the darkness. Terrill’s voice drove him madder. “This place is going to crumble, so get moving!”

“Stop interfering, hero!” The whip reformed to the giant sword the pirate had been using and he brought it screaming down to where Terrill intercepted it. The roof threatened to give way, already lowering and losing the support below thanks to the fire that was blazing its way towards the upper floors. Terrill began to feel that heat on his skin.

“I am really getting sick of people calling me that,” Terrill growled out. He breathed out, steadying his muscles and pooling what little peace he could find into his body. Floyd was ushering the girls and Mayor Rainert towards the remnants of the stairs downward, keeping an eye to where Terrill and LeBrandon were locked in their newest stalemate. “I’m just me. I’m just Terrill Jacobs. Not some hero out to stop your precious ascension, but I will put you in the ground, or a jail cell. That’s up to you.”

If Terrill’s words had one effect, it was that LeBrandon’s eyes drew inwards, his pupils whitening with rage. A pirate emerged from below, but the man didn’t even care when Torry blew him straight down the stairs with a gust of wind to allow them passage. All LeBrandon had eyes for now was Terrill, and the obsession on his mind.

“I AM KING!” His shadow exploded, his body no longer able to contain that which he could not control. The burning darkness was like a sphere that aggravated the welts and wounds upon Terrill’s body, pushing him back and eating away at what was left of the floor. He and the pirate commander fell to the next, tumbling among the misplaced cannons. Terrill landed on his feet, realizing he was on the cannon side of the room, while LeBrandon was on the other. A great gouge that showed the burning fortress below split the room. The pirate commander looked up. “Move. My cannons. I must fire them.”

“He’s gone an extra ten steps towards crazy in the last minute alone.” Floyd’s voice was a welcome one, his hands fidgeting with the blades he held. With all that nervousness, it was a wonder he didn’t bolt, but he dropped down and remained by Terrill’s side. No matter how much he may have wanted to run with the three that were fighting their way through fire to the ground floor, he still stood here with Terrill. “He’d destroy this whole fortress if it suits him, and take everyone with him. Pirate or no, we can’t allow that, right?”

“You sure about this?”

Floyd laughed in response, a short shallow one that belied his actual state. “Truth be told, I’m shaking here. But you know, after everything, I’m starting to think we need each other. You’re not so hot at magic, and I’m not that great at putting others first. Maybe we can learn from that and kick this guy’s ass, yeah?”

Although Terrill didn’t say it aloud, he was truly astonished by Floyd’s reasoning. It was an implicit question of asking him to trust him; that after all their squabbles, they could still lean on each other.

Perhaps, even, they understood one another.

That alone made them well-suited for a team.

A sudden explosion rocked the side of the fortress, blowing through the already unsteady floor below them. There were no screams, indicating that the whole floor was evacuated, but it spelled out the arrival of the Serotin army. Time was all too short, and with LeBrandon charging at them, there was no more time to delay.

“Back me up then, partner.”

“Aw yeah, Terrill and Floyd: Tag Team Formation!” Their forearms bumped against one another, each careful not to hit the other with their weapon. Immediately following that, they parted, causing LeBrandon’s sudden charge to be ineffectual in harming them. It did put him closer to the cannons, though. “Let’s do this! Flame Shot!”

The orb of fire formed between Floyd’s joined daggers, and he fired it like a cannon blast, straight for LeBrandon’s back. The man turned with alarming quickness, his claymore turned to its usual watery whip. The fiery artillery Floyd was packing didn’t stand a chance. It was ripped apart by a single whip, screaming through the air with intent to bisect both of them. Terrill ducked quick as he could, while the whip appeared to slow near Floyd, allowing him the chance to leap over it.

Their feet were on the move the second Floyd ran, both looking to flank LeBrandon again as they approached. Terrill’s sword flashed out and Floyd’s daggers glinted in the blazing fire below, both set to strike.

The water reformed into its rippling blade which LeBrandon held in front of himself in order to ensure that both attacks were blocked. His mouth widened, teeth and slobbering drool revealed for both to see. That dark aura intensified, and Terrill knew if they remained locked any longer, he and Floyd would be the ones in most danger. Instead of waiting for the worst, Terrill slammed his foot, and underneath LeBrandon, a pillar of stone emerged, breaking his defense. The second it was high enough, Terrill pressed a free hand to the stone, and with one move, broke it apart.

With a grimace, Terrill noticed his movements were already becoming more sluggish, and another blast rocked the Devil’s Haven, sending one of the cannons in the room against the opposite wall and out towards the ocean. The floor began to come apart at its seams. The only good part was a floundering LeBrandon, falling from his disappeared high perch. With a cry, Terrill swung his blade upward, only to find that LeBrandon wasn’t as helpless as he appeared. His claymore locked with Terrill’s blade from midair. From the force, Terrill found the wood beneath his feet was cracking, threatening to plunge him into the blaze below.

“Burning Blades!” Floyd had leapt upwards, his knives burning with crimson heat. It was something LeBrandon didn’t anticipate. Using the remnants of the plinth Terrill had left behind, Floyd soared, leaving a trail of fire behind him as he cut through LeBrandon’s abdomen. The man cried out as his armor was seared open, the wound smoldering with the heat that the burning blades had left behind. The grip on his claymore loosened.

“My turn!” Terrill threw the attack off of him, twisting his sword around. With one swift movement, he drove the hilt into the burning wound, causing the pirate commander more pain.

In his demented state, however, LeBrandon seemed impervious to pain past a point. His arm dropped, but still swung his rippling blade out to catch Terrill in the side. The two attacks harming each other caused Terrill and LeBrandon to separate. Unfortunately for Terrill, he dropped to a knee from the fresh wound he’d taken, his body starting to delay response to what his brain wanted it to do.

Floyd picked up the slack.

Where LeBrandon had fallen, Floyd had skidded backwards, holding both of his daggers before he tossed them at the man’s feet. They were still burning with fire, and Floyd smirked through the haze of heat that both could feel on their faces. “Point Inferno.”

Floyd snapped, and where LeBrandon stood, a pillar of flame emerged. If they weren’t already baking from the fire below, Terrill most definitely felt like they were in a roast now, with LeBrandon as the main attraction. The fire licked at the pirate’s body, scorching the wood beneath him and cracking it bit by bit. For the few seconds the attack was active, Terrill was able to find time to recover, ignoring the pain to see the fight to the finish.

Floyd’s offensive was short-lived. Water exploded from LeBrandon’s figure, the mail of storms back to obscuring his figure. It was erratic, the way it covered him, as though this ability was no longer within his control. Considering Winifred’s words from earlier, Terrill had a feeling it was never his to control.

It made him no less deadly.

“Die!” The single word from LeBrandon was enough to signify his threat. His whip of water had become jagged, whirling around the entire floor they were on. Had there been any of his subordinates remaining, it would have likely been the end of them, as it was for the cannons he slashed through. Each slice turned them into nothing but hunks of metal, the corroding darkness rising in wisps from where he cut them. Terrill hazarded that LeBrandon’s current frenzy of attacks was more darkness than water, the corrosive influence more deadly than anything they could deal with.

With every lash and whip, Terrill managed to stay underneath it all, and Floyd was nimble enough to avoid the majority of the strikes coming his way, no doubt from slowing each hit down before it could make contact. The redhead was slowing, though, his body less responsive to the environment around him, and when another magical attack rocked the base of the fortress, he lost his footing.

LeBrandon cackled as he brought his whip screaming down.

Floyd tossed his hands up, bringing what fire he could to the fore in the hopes it would protect him from the attack. Terrill ran at LeBrandon, hoping to get to him before he could cleave Floyd in two. The floor around them began to fall, and Terrill spied Floyd’s daggers as he ran, their precarious position threatening to toss them into the flames.

The water collided with Floyd’s fire, and the wood broke underneath Floyd, one of his legs slipping to the next floor. His face was contorted, his rippling cheeks screaming for assistance and relief from LeBrandon’s horrific and barbaric onslaught. Terrill was more than happy to provide. He slid along the ground, scooping Floyd’s daggers and throwing them to the boy. They spun, and just as the whip was about to break through, Floyd deftly caught them with one hand, alighting them with an even brighter flame that he used to cut through the whip.

“Aaaagh! Aah! My…string! It burns!” LeBrandon’s unanticipated reaction to having his whip be severed provided the distraction Terrill needed to get close. Floyd, too, yanked his leg out of the hole it was stuck in and joined Terrill in engaging the commander. Another blow struck the roof, and more planks of wood tumbled to the inferno.

The two reached LeBrandon and slashed with all the might they could put behind them. Though his whip was broken, his blade was stalwart, and the pirate reformed his claymore to stop the attacks. This time, they didn’t hold or push back. The second LeBrandon had blocked the blow, they backed off, circling around to strike at a different part of his body. He whirled about, attempting to take each blow with nothing more than the weight of his sword and his watery armor. Terrill attempted to slash at it, only to find his sword glancing off. It didn’t take long for the claymore to find him right after, this time forcing himself to block.

His body was blown back, near to the chasm that would send him below, but he righted himself in time to see Floyd bring another pair of burning slashes on LeBrandon. This, too, was blocked, but the fiery sparks that resulted from them alit upon the storm mail, making it disappear in places.

“Of course…fire is bright light that can cut through shadow…” Terrill grinned, pushing off from his placement, slamming his sword towards the floor, hoping it wouldn’t break with his newest strike. “Let’s turn the tables! Go for his legs with your fire, Floyd! Fang of Earth!”

The stones raced out faster than before, even as the energy was taken from Terrill’s body. Like jagged terrain, they came right for LeBrandon, sliding under his foot. The imbalance allowed Floyd to break out of their clash, his blades lighting on fire once again as he danced around the pirate, slashing at his legs. The darkness was cut, the water receding, and LeBrandon found himself on the backfoot.

Floyd popped up and he and Terrill moved in concert, hoping to land the decisive blow.

In their eagerness, they forgot about his madness.

“No further!” LeBrandon’s cry signaled his latest explosion of shadow, and Terrill managed to break off his attack, stepping outside the sphere of influence. Floyd was less lucky, though he had enough sense to bring his flaming blades closer to his chest. A mere moment after he managed that, the shadow ripped out from LeBrandon’s body, breaking away more of the wall, expanding the chasm that Terrill nearly fell into, and sending Floyd hurtling through the air until he crashed against a broken cannon. It didn’t take a medical expert for Terrill to see that Floyd’s wounded leg from earlier was back to bleeding heavily. There was no possible circumstance in which he stood again for this fight. “I will not be mocked. Not by you. I will smite the mayor and I will reign!”

“I don’t think a petulant baby who goes into a tantrum every time he’s defied would make a good leader,” Floyd chuckled out. His defiance was noted, and LeBrandon hated it. He rose his claymore high above his head, its size expanding as he planned to end things in one blow. Terrill set off running. The blasts appeared to have stopped, but the rickety fortress was reaching its last legs, making every movement count.

A step across the rubble here, a leap to avoid the collapsing floor there. LeBrandon’s weapon came down, and with a final lunge, Terrill dashed between him and Floyd, holding his sword up high to absorb the brunt of the blow.

“Terrill?” Floyd sounded shocked, like he expected something different. Terrill couldn’t respond, holding off the massive sword with every bit of strength his body could muster. Wood fell around him, and the fires reached their level at last, beginning to lick at the cannons. The room was a powder keg, one second away from exploding. “You should have attacked him! Ended this!”

“Shut up, Floyd! Do you really think I’d just let you die simply to end a battle?” Terrill managed to grunt out. He tried pushing up, but found the wood was giving way beneath him, making it an all too horrible option. “There’s no point to this unless we all walk out of here alive!”

“Don’t be an idiot! We need to end this battle to-”

“You think I don’t know that?!” Terrill’s shout was pained, and LeBrandon’s ugly, darkened face began to widen into a smile at hearing it. The blades were beginning to slide off one another, with only one intending to be the victor. Terrill looked behind himself, past Floyd and out to the plains beyond where the Serotin army had a line of mages standing, preparing another blast that would no doubt wipe out everything inside the fortress, including their own mayor if they weren’t careful.

That is, until Terrill saw the three black forms darting from the flames below.

There was still hope for the conflict to be resolved. He just needed to give them the signal it could be over.

“Floyd…I made a promise,” Terrill insisted. He once more tried to push, his body howling with exertion. LeBrandon pressed all the harder. “I promised to never let anyone fail to come home. I promised to protect them. Well, guess what, you selfish asshat, that means you, too! You, Torry, Mayor Rainert. I’ll make sure you all get home!”

“What a noble hero!” came the cackle from LeBrandon, his face distorted further by the rippling waters around his body.

“I’m not a damn hero, or a Chosen One, or any other thing you want to call me!” Terrill shouted. He found what strength he could, and with his legs burning in pain, he pushed off from the floor. His action brought his body into the air for just a moment so that his leg could swing around. His pant leg was torn by the churning waters left over, but the place that Floyd had broken the armor was exposed, causing LeBrandon to be pitched to the side. With the ascension of his hilt, Terrill drove his sword upon LeBrandon’s chin, tossing him into the air. “I’m a Guardian.”

“Perish, hero!”

LeBrandon was lost, the shadow controlling each movement in a never-ending haze.

So, Terrill decided to end it.

“All right, Terrill. Have it your way. End it!” Floyd screamed.

As LeBrandon spun about in the air, trying to swing his claymore with less than precise strikes, Terrill used another clot of earth to bound up after him. The pirate swung, and Terrill blocked, his body sent careening towards the wall, or what was left of it. The magical energy below was reaching its zenith, even in spite of the mayor’s yelling that carried on the flames. Terrill landed on the walls and pushed off.

The claymore came for him, but with a single blow that put all of Terrill’s weight behind it, he knocked it aside. His sword was torn from his hands, spinning about and then falling to the floors and flames below.

But Terrill was already focused on one last assault.

Earth power… All that magic… It’s mine. So, I’m going to use it! His magical energy gathered, the last of his strength that he’d built up, saved just for this moment. His fist came forth, ready to sink into LeBrandon’s shocked face. As he did so, that same fist was set aflame, and a glance below showed it to be the doing of Floyd.

It was all the advantage he needed.

“I am Terrill Jacobs, one of those blessed, and a Guardian!” he cried. “I don’t care if you’re king, pirate or whoever, I won’t let you hurt another person. I’ll knock you from whatever perch you’re on, LeBrandon. Stone Fist!”

His fist hardened, becoming as stone from the very depths of the earth. It felt no pain, and received no damage, even as it punched into the whirling mail of storms that adorned LeBrandon’s figure. The fire burned through it, and with all the force Terrill could put behind that singular attack, he hit home on the pirate.

They hung there, suspended in air for a moment until LeBrandon screamed, and then fell.

It was a blow powerful enough to tear through all of the floors of Devil’s Haven, ripping the fortress to shreds. Most of it blew outwards in a radius surrounding the tower, leaving those on the bottom levels safe from all but the flames. Wood and metal hit the water, and fire struck the ships, beginning an unstoppable conflagration. Terrill’s body traveled down with LeBrandon until, at long last, they neared the bottom floor, where they became visible to all.

That single driving punch, a show of mastery over Terrill’s magic, was seen by the army of Serotin and the pirates of Devil’s Haven both. With it, the leader of the pirates was driven beneath the rubble that fell around them, deep into a hole that was covered with the remnants of his twisted fortress. With it, the battle had come to an end, and the Guardian waited for the dust to settle out, standing in the flames that were beginning to subside.

It didn’t take long, and when the dust cleared, Terrill Jacobs was standing there, looking at the astonished army of Serotin, and the pirates who shook with fear.

“He…he took down LeBrandon…”

“Abandon ship! Everyone, abandon ship!” They had to have meant that in more ways than one, as some had approached the ships only to find them aflame. Many a pirate jumped into the water, while many more began to run past the army across the plains. Said army could do nothing but watch, their magical spell fading as they had lost their reason to attack.

Near the frontlines, Terrill could see Krysta and Torry, tired but clapping their hands together in jubilation. More than that was the mayor shaking his head and giving an amused chuckle at the state it had found itself in.

“Well, I believe you soldiers have a job to do. Round them up, but no casualties,” the mayor huffed. “We’ll find a use for these leaderless pirates yet.”

“S-sir!”

Hearing the war averted, Terrill nearly allowed himself to slip to an unconscious state, only to find someone was there, holding him up. It was Floyd, and in his hands was Terrill’s most precious blade. Handing it over, both buckled beneath their wounds, beginning to laugh under the night sky at what was no longer Devil’s Haven. They were joined by Krysta a mere second later, listening to Torry chastising the mages in the army.

“You boys did good.”

The exhausted laughter continued, all of them joining hands as a symbol of their team. As Terrill saw the shadow that had plagued this place disappear into the night, turning the moon and stars a little brighter, he knew they’d succeeded.

For now, at least, all was well.