-Alexia-
The silence that followed Finn and Jasper's pulse-wave was more terrifying than the noise of the battle. The air was dead, stripped of its natural charge, smelling of ozone and scorched earth. The great golden dome of Whisperwind was gone, leaving the school exposed beneath a sky that looked like an open wound.
I stood in the center of the clearing, my chest heaving. Beside me, Asher was a shadow made of muscle and fur, his breath coming in ragged, Bestial huffs. His hand was clamped around mine, his grip the only thing keeping me upright.
Fifty yards away, Gideon stood unmoved. The blast had leveled the trees around him and vaporized his army, but he remained untouched, a dark pillar in a field of grey ash. He looked at his shattered constructs with a flick of his wrist, as if they were nothing more than broken toys he was bored with.
"A valiant effort, children," Gideon said. His voice was no longer a whisper; it was a physical weight that pressed against my lungs. "You have burned out your home's heart just to clear a path to your own graves. Do you truly think the Weaver's blood can be defended by such... primitive displays?"
"It's not just the blood, Gideon," I said, my voice shaking but audible. I stepped forward, pulling the last of the school's lingering warmth into my palms. "It's the choice."
Gideon's eyes flared a toxic violet. He raised his black iron staff, and the ground beneath us didn't just shake—it screamed. A wave of jagged, obsidian spikes erupted from the earth, racing toward us like a row of teeth.
"Move!" Asher roared.
He tackled me to the side just as a spike the size of a tree trunk impaled the spot where I'd been standing. Before we could recover, Gideon swung his staff in a wide arc, sending a crescent of black fire through the air.
Soren was there in an instant. He had leaped from the battlements, his heavy claymore catching the black fire. The impact sent him skidding back ten feet, his boots carving deep furrows in the dirt, but he held the line. The white light of his blade clashed with the black fire, sparks flying like dying stars.
"He's too fast!" Soren yelled, his teeth bared in a grimace of pain. "I can't get close enough to strike!"
"Then we don't let him stay still!" Finn's voice echoed from above.
Finn and Jasper had descended from the walls, moving to flank the clearing. Finn was pale, his lightning flickering weakly, but he was channeling everything he had left into a series of rapid-fire kinetic pulses. Each hit forced Gideon to raise a shield, a momentary distraction that Jasper used to analyze the patterns.
"Alexia!" Jasper shouted, his spectacles cracked but his eyes sharp. "The staff! The crystal at the top isn't just a focus—it's a battery! He's drawing power from the ley lines beneath the school! If we can interrupt the flow, he'll be vulnerable for a heartbeat!"
"How do we interrupt a mountain's blood?" I asked, dodging another bolt of shadow.
"We weave it!" Jasper replied. "Use the boys! You're the anchor, Lex! Connect us!"
I understood then. The "Eternity Weaved" prophecy wasn't about me being a god; it was about me being a bridge.
I reached out my hands. One toward Asher, who was currently a blur of silver and shadow as he tore through Gideon's secondary barriers. One toward Soren, who was the iron wall between us and death. I felt for the lightning in Finn's blood and the cold, crystalline logic in Jasper's mind.
"Give it to me!" I cried.
The connection snapped into place with a roar of sound. It felt like my veins were being filled with liquid sunlight. I wasn't just Alexia Carter anymore. I was the kinetic energy of the storm, the weight of the claymore, the calculation of the compass, and the protective fury of the wolf.
Gideon's face finally shifted. The arrogance vanished, replaced by a flicker of genuine alarm. He raised his staff high, a massive orb of violet energy forming at the tip. "You would dare channel the school's core without a vessel? You will burn from the inside out!"
"I have a vessel," I whispered. "I have them."
I didn't throw a spell. I wove a net.
I sent Finn's lightning through Soren's blade, turning the heavy steel into a conductor of pure white heat. I sent Jasper's calculations into Asher's movements, allowing him to see the microscopic fractures in Gideon's defenses.
Soren lunged. His blade met Gideon's staff with a sound that shook the mountain. The violet orb cracked. At the same moment, Asher leaped from the shadows, his claws sinking into the black silk of Gideon's robes, dragging him away from the ley line anchor point.
"Now, Alexia!" they all shouted in unison.
I stepped into the center of the fray. The silver fox was a pillar of white light at my side, its tail fanned out like a halo. I reached for the very center of the "Bridge" Gideon had tried to build through me. I didn't push him away; I pulled his magic in.
I acted as a vacuum, siphoning the stolen energy from his staff back into the earth where it belonged. The black iron began to glow red, then white.
"No!" Gideon shrieked, his elegant features twisting into a mask of rage. "It is mine! I am the Great Weaver!"
"You're a parasite," I said.
I slammed my palms against the ground. The gold light of Whisperwind didn't just return; it exploded upward through the soil. It was a pillar of pure, unfiltered creation magic. It hit Gideon from below, shattering his staff into a million obsidian shards.
The feedback was immense. A shockwave of white light flattened the trees for a mile and sent the five of us flying back into the stone walls of the academy.
When my vision cleared, the clearing was empty of shadow. Gideon was on his knees, his robes tattered, his hands empty. He looked smaller—gaunt and hollow. Without the staff and the stolen connection to the school, he was just a man. A man who had lived far too long on power that wasn't his.
He looked at me, his eyes fading from violet back to a dull, human grey. "You... you don't know what you've done," he wheezed, blood leaking from the corner of his mouth. "The Council... they won't let a Weaver live free. You've traded a master for a cage."
"Then we'll break the cage, too," I said, leaning against Asher's chest as he helped me stand.
Gideon let out one final, bitter laugh. Then, the school itself finished the job. The ground beneath him opened—not into a pit, but into the mountain's embrace. The earth simply folded over him, reclaiming the essence he had stolen and burying the man who had tried to play god.
The silence that followed this time wasn't terrifying. It was peaceful.
The golden dome of Whisperwind flickered back into existence, stronger and brighter than before. The wards hummed a low, satisfied note.
Finn collapsed onto his back, staring at the stars. "Is it... is it actually over?"
Jasper sat down and took off his glasses, wiping them on his sleeve with trembling hands. "The signature is gone. He's not just defeated. He's been erased from the ley lines."
Soren sheathed his sword, the metal ringing in the quiet. He looked at me, then at Asher. A small, tired smile touched his face. "We did it."
Asher didn't say anything. He just pulled me closer, his heart beating a steady, heavy rhythm against my ear. I closed my eyes, letting the warmth of the four of them surround me.
We had saved the school. We had defeated the legend. And for the first time in my life, I wasn't waiting for the other shoe to drop.
I was finally, truly, home.