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“Please, Osric. I’m begging you. Do not do this.”
There was a battle raging within him, the conflict between duty and his heart. But in the end, he turned away from her, the hammer still cradled in his arms.
“I am sorry, Hali. I wish . . . I wish things could have been different between us. But I cannot change who I am.”
And with that, he stepped forward, toward the lava.
“Osric, no!”
Agnith stepped forward, wrenching the hammer from Osric’s grasp. It pulsed with an ominous energy, casting an eerie glow across the obsidian landscape. The other members of the Forge of Vulkan watched, their faces hard and foreboding.
“I know you feel the call of your heart, Osric,” Agnith said. “But the Forge demands more from us. It demands sacrifice. It demands that we set aside the weakness of emotion, and do what must be done.”
“Osric, please. I’m begging you.” Hali reached out to him, her fingers brushing against the metal of the hammer. “Please don’t do this. I can’t lose you, too.”
For a moment, it looked as if he might relent. His shoulders slumped, the hardness in his eyes softening. And then, with a low growl, Agnith stepped forward.
“She is a threat,” Agnith said. “She must be silenced.”
“Agnith, no?—”
“Silence, you fool.” Agnith’s grip on Osric’s wrist didn’t budge. He didn’t even look at Halizanth. “It’s time for the Forge’s purpose to be served.”
But it was too late. With a cry, Agnith raised the hammer high, and brought it crashing down.
A wave of energy rippled out from the hammer, a shockwave of raw power. Hali was thrown back, the force of it lifting her off her feet. She tumbled across the sharp obsidian, the world a blur of smoke and heat and searing pain.
The world lurched beneath them as the Forge of Vulkan members channeled the hammer’s power, and then they were sinking into the earth, the obsidian landscape folding in on itself, and the acrid smoke of their passage was the only thing Halizanth could smell, could taste. She was vaguely aware of Sooty shouting, of Pippa’s wings fluttering frantically, of the ground rumbling and cracking, but it all felt distant, as if she were watching the chaos unfold from far away.
“Hali! Hali, come on, we have to go!”
Strong hands closed around her arms, and with a jolt, she was yanked back to reality. Sooty. It was Sooty, and they were still on the mountainside, the Forge of Vulkan disappearing into the volcanic rift.
“Hali, please, we have to go.” Sooty’s face was pale, his eyes wide with fear. “They’re gone. There’s nothing we can do.”
“I—”
Halizanth’s head was swimming, her thoughts a tangled mess. She reached up to touch her forehead, and her fingers came away sticky with blood.
“Miss Hali, please. We have to go. We have to get help.”
Sooty hauled her to her feet, and she swayed, the world tilting dangerously. Pippa darted in front of her, her wings a swirl of colors.
“He’s right, darling. We can’t do anything here. But we have to go, before the Circle’s goons arrive.”
Halizanth blinked, the tears stinging in her eyes. “I?—”
She turned, and saw the lava, still glowing in the distance, the rift still churning and spewing. Osric. He was down there, with the hammer, with the Forge of Vulkan, with the Obsidian Circle, with who knew what other horrors.
“I have to go after him.”
Sooty’s grip on her arms tightened, and she winced. “Miss Hali, please. He made his choice. He chose them.”
She shook her head, her vision blurring. “No. I can’t believe that. I won’t.”
But even as she said the words, she knew they were a lie. She knew Osric. She knew the depth of his loyalty, the strength of his convictions. He would not have gone to such lengths, risked so much, if he did not truly believe in the Forge’s cause.
She sank to her knees, the fight going out of her. Sooty dropped down beside her, his arms going around her, and she let him pull her close.
