“It might be our only option. And it doesn’t have to be permanent. In fact, it’s not even a long-term solution since soul tethering eventually fades. And when it does, more than likely darkness will consume Sky again. At least until she deals with her guilt over Brody. But this will give us some time to help her get over her guilt or at least find another solution to get darkness out of her permanently.”
He remains silent, his muscles wound up in knots, his hands clenched into fists.
“Look, I know this isn’t an ideal solution,” I say. “But it might be our only chance unless you have a better idea.” I know he doesn’t have one, though. I can sense it through the link and through his reluctant silence. “And you need to make a decision fast before we run out of time,” I add, giving a pressing glance in Sky’s direction.
He remains silent for so long I start to wonder if maybe he’s not going to ever answer, and I’m going to have to step in and make the decision.
But then he releases a trapped breath. “If we do this… If we let him tether her soul to his, what’re we supposed to do afterward? Like you said, it’s not a long-term solution.”
I really don’t have a damn clue and it’s kind of weird to be the one making the decisions. Usually Foster is the one doing it, mostly because he’s usually the most responsible of us. But I guess it’s time for me to step up. I just hope I don’t fuck it up like I do with a lot of other things.
“We’ll have to figure that out later,” I decide to be vague on purpose since I don’t really have an answer to his question. “But doing this will buy us some time.”
“And what happens if she’s tethered to him forever?” he bites out, lightning blazing above us. “You know that happens sometimes. Not a lot… But sometimes.”
“Would you rather her soul end up tethered to him forever? Or for her to end up becoming a prisoner to darkness forever?” I shift my position as the water flooding the floor rises higher and soaks through my jeans. “And honestly, you need to think of the bigger picture. She’s the power source to the elemental enchanter god, which means that if darkness gets ahold of her, then the god of darkness may be able to control her power, which means we’re all fucked.”
He starts breathing heavily.
I feel bad for him. I really do. While I’ve always kind of had a choice whether or not to be with someone, he never has. In fact, for most of his life he believed he was the only elemental enchanter left. Then Sky came along, a girl he wanted before he even knew what she was, and he finally thought he didn’t have to be alone. But if we do what I’m suggesting, that might change everything. Although, things were already kind of messed up because of the altered link. But the link should be able to be fixed if we can get Sky to Hunter. However, this soul-tethering thing could end up being permanent if her soul decides to latch onto his. It all really depends on how connected she feels with who I refer to as the weirdest of my brothers. If it weren’t for the altered link, I’d say she’d be fine, but with the weirdness going on between Sky and my brothers…
I guess I can see why Foster is hesitating, but still, like I said, there’s a bigger picture to this.
“You want me to try to get ahold of mom?” I ask when he remains silent for a dangerous amount of time. “Maybe she can help us make a decision. It might take some time to track her down, but I can try.”
He shakes his head from side to side. “It’ll take too long…” He takes a deep breath, then another before pushing to his feet. “Let’s do it, but we need to make sure we’re prepared in case the god of darkness tries to get through the portal. In fact, we might end up having a battle on our hands.”
He’s right. Trying to pull someone through a portal without them knowing is super dangerous as it is. And we’re going to have to do it through a portal that the god of darkness might try to slip through.
“Maybe it’d be better if we went to him instead of trying to bring him here,” I suggest as I rise to my feet and wring out the front of my soaked shirt.
He gapes at me. “You want us to leave the safety of this world and go to who the hell knows where, since we have no damn clue where he is, and just hope everything will turn out okay?”
“If we go to him, we can be more sneaky about it since we’ll be the ones controlling the portal. But if we open a portal that leads to here and try to suck him through it, it means all sorts of other creatures could get sucked through with him, including the god of darkness,” I say. “Plus, this world has been making my powers weak, and if it affects him the same way, he might not be able to help her as easily here as he would someplace else.”
He mulls over what I said with a frown. “I get what you’re saying, but leaving the safety of this world is risky.”
“Neither solution is ideal,” I point out. “But we have to do one of them before…” I glance at Sky.
I can barely see her through the cloud of wisps twirling around her, but if I look close enough, I can make out her eyes. The normally lightning blue color has changed into a shadowy grey, showing how far into the darkness she’s gone. I hope that’s not a permanent thing because I really love her eyes. But I guess that’s not important right now.
Foster gives me a dirty look with his brows arched. “Are you seriously checking her out right now?”
“No.” Well, I was checking out her eyes, but I’m not going to tell him that. “So which one are we doing?” I ask, shoving thoughts of Sky’s eyes aside.
He glances from Sky, then back to me and blows out an exhausted breath. “I guess let’s take her to him.”
Unsure whether to be relieved or worried about his decision, I still nod. “All right, let’s do this then.”
“Where do you think he is?” Foster asks as he raises his hands and starts to channel his power, lightning sparking across his skin.
I do the same, my skin dewing with raindrops. “Well, he’s supposed to be with Max, Hunter, and Holden, but you never really know with him,” I reply with a shrug, pretending to be calmer than I am.
Out of all our brothers, Foster and I have had the least amount of practice with creating a random portal that doesn’t have a set location. Plus, my powers have been a bit unstable in this world, so there’s a chance we might mess this up. But I try not to think about that and focus on letting my power emerge and combine with Foster’s.
Swirls of multicolored light begin circling between us.
“Hopefully he’s some place safe,” Foster mutters worriedly.