Mortal (27 page)

She searched deep inside herself, just
as she had done many times before as a guardian. She called it
forward. Her light pulsed and awakened.

She blinked the blood from her eyes
and strained to keep from falling over from exertion. She could
feel little tremors beneath her feet, as though the earth herself
was responding to her. She stepped forward. Her eyes blazed with
rage. She radiated power.

The earth beneath her feet rippled and
moaned like an earthquake.

The dark warlock turned towards her, a
moment of panic on his face.

Power coursed through her body. And
then Kara let her power go.

A bolt of silver lightening shot from
her and hit the obelisk. The giant structure lit up as though it
were on fire. Kara and the obelisk were connected by a stream of
silver light. Her body trembled as the connection held. She
strained to empty herself of all of her light, until there was
nothing left but an empty core. She exhausted herself—nothing had
happened. She stood in the silence for a moment.

Then, with a thundering crack—the
obelisk exploded.

Shards of rock and pebbles showered
the ground. Where the obelisk had once stood was now a giant gaping
hole the size of a garage. The ground began to shake again, and
hundreds of glowing green symbols and runes sprouted from the earth
and floated into the sky. They glimmered for a moment and then
dissolved.

"NO! This cannot be! This cannot be
happening! This is impossible!" the dark warlock wailed
hopelessly.

Tendrils of silver fire wrapped around
the other five warlocks, and bound them tightly in unbreakable
chains. The warlocks howled an inhuman sound as the silver flames
consumed them. Their bodies bubbled and hissed and finally
disintegrated.

The dark warlock screamed as his body,
too, was consumed by the silver electricity that coiled around him.
He rolled over, howling in pain. A silver glow emanated from his
chest and spread slowly all over his body until he was covered in
silver light.

"You cannot kill a dark warlock! I AM
FOREVER!"

He spat up thick black liquid as he
wailed and clawed at his own flesh. He lifted his arms in the air
as if he were praying, and then his body crumbled into dust and
disappeared in a gust of wind.

Kara drew in a shaky breath as her
silver tendrils snaked over the ground around the hole. Like a
brilliant tornado, it lifted with it the millions of shattered
pieces of the obelisk. In a whirlwind of pebbles and sand, it rose
in the air. Piece by piece, the spinning silver energy glued the
obelisk back together. When the final stone was back in its place,
the whirlwind dissipated. The obelisk gleamed in silver light and
cast a moonlight glow over the park. Its runes shone brilliantly
for a moment, and then the ancient rock shuddered, and the markings
returned to their natural cold grey color.

Kara smiled at the magic. It was
beautiful.

And then she collapsed.

K
ara dreamed she was at the edge of the world. Soft puffy
clouds covered the horizon, and she was flying towards the sun.
This must be how birds felt, and she thought it was
amazing.

White light blinded her. When she
could see again, she realized she wasn’t flying through the sky at
all but standing on solid ground in the penthouse on level
seven.

The room looked exactly as she
remembered, with soft sofas, armchairs, and plush carpets.
Twenty-foot high windows ran the length of the room on all four
sides, and Kara could see a black sky glinting with stars outside.
She blinked through the brightness of the light in the room and
felt heat on her face. It was like the luxurious apartment was
floating in outer space.

"Hello again, Kara. It’s been far too
long since we’ve last seen each other. How have you
been?"

Kara turned and gazed into the face of
an elderly man. He sat on a large sofa packed with fluffy pillows
in the middle of the living room. His round face, pink cheeks, and
small sparkling eyes, made Kara think of Santa Claus—except this
one wore a white kimono with gold stars stitched into the fabric,
and a golden belt tied around his waist. He looked like he was on
his way to a spa.

The Chief cracked open a jar of olives
and started to pop them in his mouth one by one.

"Uh...fine, I guess," answered Kara.
She couldn’t believe how many olives the Chief could put in his
mouth all at once—it almost made him look like a grandpa
chipmunk.

"I just love olives, don’t you?" said
the Chief. He dabbed his thick white beard with a cloth.

Kara shrugged. "Not really. I find
them too sour, and they always make me think of eyeballs—the ones
with the little red parts in the middle."

The Chief raised his bushy brows.
"Never thought of them like that. Eyeballs, you say?" Twisting his
face, he examined the jar as though it were the first time he’d
ever laid eyes on olives before. Satisfied, he placed the jar back
on the table.

"Come and sit with me, we have lots to
talk about, you and me." The Chief patted the large beige sofa
beside him.

Kara walked over and let herself fall
into the soft sofa. The coffee table was covered with food and
drinks—rice, fried fish, chips, bags of pretzels, a large plate of
vegetables and dip, gummy bears, egg rolls, licorice twizzlers,
bottles of soft drinks, and a giant bowl of spaghetti and
meatballs.

"Would you care for an egg roll?" the
Chief grabbed a plate from the coffee table and placed it in front
of Kara. "They’ve gone a little cold, but they’re still very tasty.
Try one—you’ll see."

Kara lifted her hand. "No thanks. I
think I’ll pass." She was amazed that the Chief could eat all this
food. Her eyes went to his large belly, but she knew better not to
ask.

"Is my mother safe?" she asked
instead, her throat tightening. She had been torturing herself ever
since she had left her mother’s side. Her last memories of her
mother had been horrible.

"Yes, dear. She is perfectly safe—just
as are all the other mortals who were infected by the dark
warlock’s magic. All is well in the world of the living, once
again."

Kara sat back relieved. The mission
had been a success.

The Chief placed the plate back on the
table and grabbed a handful of twizzlers. After tearing a piece off
one of them, he waved it like a wand and pointed it at
Kara.

"Once again you’ve
surprised us all with your skills, Kara. We are pleased how the
events turned out, you know. It was a gamble sending you out to
confront a witch and a dark warlock, but I knew you’d pull through.
I’ve always known it—I’ve been watching you for a long time, and I
never stopped believing in you. Besides, you were the only one who
had the
necessary
skills to defeat the warlocks."

Kara dropped her gaze. "So you knew
about my powers as a mortal all along? I think Ariel knew that my
elemental powers would surface. But why didn’t she tell
me?"

Kara felt her temper rise and tried to
keep her expression neutral. Had she been a pawn in the plan all
along?

The Chief tore off another
piece of his twizzler with his teeth. "We weren’t sure
how
they would
materialize—or if they were going to show up at all. It was risky.
The truth of the matter, Kara, is that we weren’t sure it was going
to work, but it was a chance we needed to take. We weren’t sure of
the consequences at the time." He waved a twizzler at Kara.
"Twizzler?"

"No thanks."

The Chief studied Kara for a moment.
"Kara, do you feel different from before?"

Kara shook her head. "No—should
I?"

"When you willingly sacrificed
yourself by pouring out the last of your power—when you gave your
life wholeheartedly to save the mortal world—that sacrifice changed
you."

"Different how?" asked Kara
cautiously.

"You are no longer
elemental
."

Kara felt a sting in her chest. For a
moment she just sat there, stunned. "What? But...but how can that
be? I thought it was a part of me? Being elemental made me who I
am? I thought it was like my third arm or something?"

"When you channeled every
last bit of your elemental power into that obelisk," said the Chief
carefully, "—every
last
drop, so to speak, well, it killed
you."

"I figured that much." Kara frowned.
"So I’m dead."

The Chief popped open a can of soda
and gulped it down in one great sip. He wiped his mouth with the
back of his hand. "Not entirely. You drained your elemental part
away—that part is gone for good."

"I don’t understand? How
can I not be
entirely
dead?"

The old man’s eyes sparkled, and he
smiled. "Just by being alive again, my dear. You will live a normal
life, just like any normal mortal girl. You will have your life
back."

Kara shook her head, mystified. "So,
I’m not elemental...but am I still a guardian angel?"

The Chief waved another
twizzler dismissively. "We won’t be requesting your services for
quite sometime, so the answer is
no
—for now."

"So I won’t have any more
demons trying to steal my soul, right? They’ll leave me alone now,
since I’ll be
normal
...right?"

"That’s what I said."

At first Kara wasn’t sure how to feel.
She had been a GA with a special ability for more than a year. She
had been unique, special, and even though she had been hated by
most of the other guardians, she had always secretly enjoyed being
different. It had been a big part of who she was—it was what made
her special. And now it was gone. But Kara wasn’t sad. She was
happy.

"So I won’t be able to see my friends
again? When they’re guardians, and I’m not, I mean? I won’t see the
supernatural anymore? I won’t see through the veil?"

"Yes and no. There are still some
perks to being a retired GA—we cannot erase your essence
completely."

"And I can have a life with David,"
she was almost afraid to ask, "—a normal teenage life?" It was too
good to be true.

"That is not for me to decide," said
the Chief with a sparkle in his eye and the tiniest of smiles. "Who
knows what the stars may bring."

But even in this incredible moment,
there was still something that bothered her.

"I know this might sound ungrateful or
selfish, but may I ask you for a favor?"

The Chief smiled. "Of course, Kara
dear, anything at all."

"It’s about my sister, Lilith. I know
she’s done terrible things, but she changed—she tried to save me
before she died. I believe people can change and deserve a second
chance. She’s dead now, killed by the warlock, and her body is just
lying in the snow. It feels...wrong. She deserves better—even her."
Kara strained to compose herself.

The Chief smiled warmly. "You never
cease to amaze me, Kara. But don’t worry about her, she’ll be
looked after, I can promise you that." He popped a handful of gummy
bears in his mouth. "It is almost time."

Kara screwed up her face. "Huh? Time
for what?"

"I’m granting you ten minutes to say
goodbye to your friends, and then when you wake up tomorrow
morning, things will be back to normal, so to speak. You will not
remember any of this."

Kara felt like she was forgetting
something. "Wait a minute. What about all the souls?"

"The souls are fine."

"But they’re trapped inside the
obelisk—"

The Chief lifted his hands to silence
her.

"And now my dear, you must
wake."

When Kara opened her eyes, she was
outside, and David was staring down at her.

"I’ve never been happier to see those
big brown eyes," he said. "Welcome back to the world of the
living—"

"—and the dead," interrupted Jenny.
Her purple hair reflected in the light behind David.

"Spirit walkers," Jenny laughed, "I’m
actually starting to like the sound of that—maybe those witches
weren’t so bad after all."

Kara smiled. "Maybe they weren’t.
Maybe they were just...different."

Besides having a jumbo migraine, Kara
felt fine. She let David pull her up to her feet. The ground
wavered for a second—and then she felt an emptiness, like something
was missing, like when you know you’ve forgotten something, but you
just can’t put your finger on it. Something was
different.

Kara turned her palms over and
examined her hands. She wasn’t sure what she would find— perhaps
some remnant of her power. Her hands didn’t appear to be any
different from before, and yet she knew her power was gone. She
just knew. Her elemental power was spent, like a dead battery. What
the Chief had said was all true.