CHAPTER 119: THE FIRST SEAL

Sage POV

The reality tear screamed.

I stumbled backward as the huge rip in the air let out a sound like a thousand glass windows breaking at once. Through the jagged hole, I could see the Void - endless black nothingness that made my witch magic recoil in terror.

"Hold the circle!" I shouted to my coven sisters, but three of them were already on their knees, blood streaming from their faces. The tear was getting bigger every second, and our bond spells weren’t strong enough.

"Sage!" My sister Maya grabbed my arm, her face pale with fear. "We can’t seal it alone! It’s too powerful!"

She was right. This reality tear was the biggest one yet - twenty feet wide and growing. Through it, I could feel the Void King’s attention turning toward our world like a big eye opening in the darkness. If we couldn’t seal it soon, he’d be able to send his troops through.

That’s when I saw her running through the trees - Lily, the Between Walker girl everyone was talking about. But she looked wrong, like she was only half there. Parts of her body flickered in and out of existence, and her eyes glowed with silver light.

Behind her came Caleb, the Alpha’s brother, supporting Elder Iris who looked barely aware. They were running from something, and whatever it was made the hair on my arms stand up with fear.

"The seal!" Lily gasped as she reached our group. "You have to complete the seal now!"

"We can’t!" I said desperately. "The tear’s too strong. We need more power than my group can provide!"

Lily’s flickering form settled for a moment, and I saw determination in her glowing eyes. "Then use me."

"What?" Maya stepped forward, shaking her head. "That’s crazy. You’re barely attached to this reality as it is!"

"Exactly," Lily said, looking back at the forest where shadows were moving between the trees. "I live between worlds. I can channel power from both sides - your magic from this reality, and energy from the space between worlds."

Elder Iris raised her head slowly. "Child, no. That much power will tear you apart."

"Maybe," Lily allowed. "But if I don’t try, that tear will keep growing until the Void King walks through it himself."

A bone-chilling howl echoed from the trees. Whatever was chasing them was getting closer.

"Void Lieutenants," Caleb said grimly, his hands sparking with Alpha power. "At least six of them. They want to keep the tear open."

I felt my stomach drop. Void Lieutenants were bad enough on their own, but six of them could overwhelm even our united power. We needed that seal closed now.

"How would it work?" I asked Lily, my mind racing through spell options.

"Your coven forms the binding circle," she said quickly. "I stand in the center and become a channel. The between-world energy flowing through me should increase your magic enough to seal the tear."

"Should?" Maya looked scared. "What if it doesn’t work?"

"Then we all die when the Void King comes through," Lily said plainly.

The howls were getting closer. I could see red eyes shining in the darkness between the trees.

"Do it," I decided. My group sisters looked at me like I’d lost my mind, but I was the High Priestess. The choice was mine. "Everyone back to places. Lily, middle of the circle."

As my twelve coven sisters took their places, Lily walked to the middle of our line. The closer she got to the reality tear, the more solid she became, like the chaos energy was calling to her.

"Remember," Elder Iris called softly from where Caleb held her, "you’re not trying to control the between-world energy. Let it flow through you like water through a pipe."

I began the chant, feeling my sisters’ power join with mine. Our united power rose like a golden dome around the circle. But when it touched the reality tear, the Void pushed back, making the rip grow even wider.

"Now, Lily!" I shouted.

The girl spread her arms wide and tilted her head back. Silver light poured from her eyes and mouth as she opened herself to the space between worlds. Power - raw, wild, dangerous power - began flowing through her into our spell.

The feeling was incredible and terrifying. It felt like trying to direct a lightning storm with my bare hands. The power was too big, too wild, too alien for human minds to fully control.

Two of my sisters collapsed instantly. Their human brains couldn’t handle directing that much otherworldly energy.

"Hold on!" I screamed, though I could feel my own mind starting to fray at the edges.

But it was working. The golden dome of our combined magic was pushing against the reality tear, causing it to shrink. The Void’s screaming grew louder as its doorway into our world began to close.

That’s when the Void Lieutenants burst from the trees.

Six creatures that looked like wolves made of living shadow and red fire charged our group. Caleb stepped up to fight them, but even an Alpha couldn’t handle six Lieutenants alone.

"Don’t break the circle!" I ordered as my sisters flinched away from the attacking creatures. "If we lose focus now, the seal will fail!"

One Lieutenant leaped straight at me, its burning claws directed at my throat. I couldn’t dodge without breaking the spell, so I closed my eyes and waited for death.

Instead, I heard Lily scream.

When I opened my eyes, the Lieutenant was frozen in mid-air, caught in a web of silver light that poured from Lily’s hands. But the attempt was destroying her. Her form flickered wildly between solid and transparent.

"I can’t hold them and channel the sealing energy!" she gasped, silver blood pouring from her nose.

The reality tear was still twenty feet wide. We needed at least two more minutes to close it completely. But Lily was already past her limits, and the Lieutenants were breaking free of her silver bond.

That’s when I felt it - another presence in the trees. Something bigger and more terrible than the Lieutenants. Something that made every supernatural feeling I had scream in terror.

Through the trees came a person in a black cloak. Where his face should have been, there was only whirling darkness. But I knew who it was from the pure wrongness that came from him.

A Void King Avatar. Not the real Void King, but a piece of his energy given form in our world.

"Foolish children," his voice was like winter wind through a graveyard. "You think you can seal what I have torn open?"

He raised one shadow-wrapped hand, and I felt our spell beginning to unwind. The reality tear stopped shrinking and started growing again.

"Lily!" I shouted desperately. "We need more power!"

She looked at me with eyes that were now completely silver. "There is a way. But if I do it, I won’t be coming back."

"What do you mean?"

"I can burn out my connection to this reality completely," she said, her voice echoing strangely. "Use my entire life as fuel for the seal. It will close the tear forever, but I’ll be consumed in the process."

My heart broke for this brave girl. "There has to be another way!"

"There isn’t," she said softly. "And they’re counting on me."

The Avatar stepped closer, and I could feel reality twisting around him. In seconds, he would destroy our magic completely.

Lily closed her eyes and whispered, "Tell Caleb I love him."

Then she screamed and silver fire exploded from her body, pouring every ounce of her between-world life into our sealing spell.

The last thing I saw before the blinding light swallowed everything was the Avatar’s face turning toward something behind us, his expression changing from confidence to shock.

"Impossible," he hissed. "How are you here?"