Last Dragon Standing (Heartstrikers #5)(85)

And it was beautiful.

Short as their time was, Marci couldn’t help but stop and stare. No mortal eyes had ever seen all the magic of the world together in one place. Given how dark the Sea of Magic normally appeared, she’d expected the spell to look like a black hole, but it didn’t. It looked like a star. A shining orb of every color that glowed so bright it hurt to look at. It was heavy, too, dense enough to weigh down even their wind. If she held it for much longer, the weight would crush them against the Leviathan’s back, but Marci didn’t need to hold it. Thanks to the Empty Wind, they were already in position, which meant all she had to do was let go. So, with a triumphant smile, Marci opened her hands and let the magic drop, releasing the spell that was so simple, it had only one word.

Scatter.

True to its form, the banishment fell like a star, picking up speed with every inch until it was screaming through the air. When it hit the Leviathan, the entire world went silent, holding its breath as the condensed magic imploded in a blinding flash, blowing everything apart.

Including them.

The exploding magic crashed into them like a wall. One moment, Marci was flying as part of the Empty Wind. The next, she was scattered across the entire Great Lakes area. For a horrifying moment, that seemed to be the end, but then, as always, the Empty Wind caught her, hauling both of their magic back into the quiet safety of his black-and-white realm.

Marci snapped back together with a gasp. She was still a disembodied soul, but she was no longer in the Heart of the World. Instead, they were back in the basement of the cat house at the edge of town, standing over her unconscious body, which was being kept warm by a purring blanket of stray cats. Outside, the sky was white through the broken windows. Marci couldn’t see more than that from this realm, though, so, without even waiting for Ghost to tell her how, she jumped back into her body.

It hurt a lot more than she’d expected. Not having died this time, Marci expected to just pop back up like Myron always seemed to. But even when you did it the nonlethal way, traveling to the afterlife on the Empty Wind still clearly had deathly overtures, because she woke up with the same horrible heaviness in her limbs as when Raven had taken her back the first time. She didn’t have to claw her way out of her own grave, and the cats had kept her warm, but it was still horrifying. She was gasping the air back into her lungs when Ghost shouted in her head.

Marci!

His excited voice was surprisingly quiet. Softer than it had been in weeks. When Marci looked up to see why, the Empty Wind was a cat again, his fluffy white body smaller and more transparent than it had been since the time she’d accidentally almost snuffed him by taking him out of his domain. As dim as he looked, though, Ghost’s glowing blue eyes were wide and excited as he hopped onto her chest. Come see!

Marci forced herself to her feet. On the way up, her body made it clear in no uncertain terms that moving was a very bad idea, but after all they’d just gone through, she wouldn’t have missed this for anything. It hurt and made her sick, but she kept going, staggering through the blown-off basement door into the grass outside.

Into the sunlight.

She shielded her eyes at once. The winter afternoon sun was hazy with smoke, but after the Sea of Magic and the dark of the Leviathan’s shadow, it felt as strong as a spotlight, primarily because it was there. The sky above their heads was empty. They’d done it.

“It worked,” Marci said, her face splitting into a grin as she blinked frantically in the light. “It worked!”

The Leviathan was gone. Where he’d been, a fine mist of water was falling like rain, but other than that, there was no trace of him anywhere. He was simply not there. Banished, just as she’d promised.

“We did it!” she cried, grabbing Ghost so suddenly he yowled. “We banished a Nameless End! We saved the world! Do you have any idea how famous we’ll be when this gets…”

Her voice trailed off as something clenched hard in the pit of her stomach. Now that she’d blasted all the magic back out into the world, she and Ghost were no longer blended into everything, but she’d have had to be deaf, dumb, and blind to miss the yank that had just happened at the pit of her soul.

“Ghost—”

I felt it too, he whispered, hopping up on her shoulder to look around. But I don’t know what—

He was cut off by the whoosh of thousands of gallons of water suddenly being sucked back into the air. All around them, the rain that had been falling from the banished Leviathan was reversing. The water even left her clothes, the wetness pulling out of the cat-hair-covered fabric like someone was vacuuming it up. In the space of a few seconds, all the magic the banishment had scattered was back in place, and as it coalesced, the hazy sunlight vanished yet again as the Leviathan reappeared.

“No,” Marci said, her eyes going wide. “No!”

This couldn’t be happening. They’d won. The Leviathan had been gone. How was it back? How was this possible?

He must have re-formed, Ghost said quietly. Banishments are only temporary.

“Not that temporary!” Marci cried. “And re-formed where? He has no vessel! No home! How did he pull himself back together so—”

“Marci!”

The yell came from far away, and she looked up to see a small blue shape racing toward her across the city. A few seconds later, Julius landed panting beside them, his feathered face grim beneath the crown of his Fang. “Are you okay?”