"Mother!"
A second later the blast of light was loosed and a bang erupted on the ceiling.
Standing behind Morgana was Gavin; he held his mother's wrist and had forced her to miss. He looked a mess; his back was bleeding again, the scabs had re-opened, he was breathing heavily, but other than that he was fine.
"Gavin!" Kendra gasped, sitting up weakly in Bracken's arms, silver hair falling down her shoulders.
Keeping his eyes on his mother, Navarog came closer to her voice, "Your mother asked me to go find you so you could eat dinner, but seeing as you were so compliant to letting the others go while you couldn't, I see I assumed correctly that you would be here."
He glanced over at her for the first time and doubled over in shock, he reeled backwards and his knees shook. "Adalyn?" His voice came out in a choked whisper that nearly shattered Kendra's heart. He looked at her with such shock and pain that rendered both of them speechless.
And she remembered everything. The way he dug his teeth into her flesh and ripped her apart, teased her by running a dagger deep into her skin when they both knew it wouldn't kill her, tormenting her in front of her brother during her final moments. She hated him. She loved him. What?
"Enough sentimentals." Morgana snarled, firing another bolt at her son's back. He screamed and fell down; Kendra still wrestled with the urge to run to him until she remembered the sword she carried. She tossed it to Seth.
"Take it!"
He caught it and unsheathed it, the black blade dancing with crimson flames. Seth's eyes gleamed with steely determination and rage. He looked down at the baby version of Roshanak nestled in the crook of his arm and seemed to make a decision.
He moved closer to Kendra and handed the child to her, "Take care of her if I can't. Her name is Roshanak. She's the reincarnation of a friend." He then stood back up holding Vasilis, ready to face Morgana.
Quick as a flash, Bracken grabbed the Dark Horn from Seth's chain-belt and stood up next to Seth. Seth was more surprised than all of them as he watched Bracken put an arm out to push Seth behind him.
"Seth, I need you to get Kendra and run out of here, do you understand?" He said in an eerily clam voice, his eyes fixed on Morgana, who seemed to be pleased with the turn of events.
"Bracken! You can't!" Gavin yelled from where he lay on the floor. He pushed himself up on one elbow, "You'll destroy the world!"
Seth blinked, "Is that what summoning Melkor will do? Then don't! Bracken, I've got this, I can take her on."
"Oh no, do go on. I'm curious to see how terrified their expressions will be." Morgana goaded, twirling her fingers so that a black mist appeared. "Because you are going all out, Bracken, dear; I suppose I'll just have to use a spell I've created for this very occasion."
She uttered some enchanted words while waving her hands; the mist grew thicker around her and concealed her shape.
Gavin struggled to his feet and ran towards Bracken.
Seth readied his sword.
A giant black Dragon rose from the dark mist towering over them all and crashing though many pillars, causing a majority of the ceiling to come crashing down. Morgana in her newly regained draconic form roared into the sky a shrill cry that shocked them and their allies to the core.
As the black stone came hurtling towards them from above, time seemed to slow.
Seth gripped Bracken's shoulder and said, "Summon him; I don't know how we're going to deal with this unless we do. Please,"
Bracken turned to Seth with a heartbreaking smile, "I know. There's no other way." He raised the Horn up high and it became a beacon of darkness, like a black hole it sucked in the stone falling from the sky and blasted them all away from him.
As Seth flew backwards and rolled on the floor to slow himself, he subconsciously recalled a memory of sitting in Roshanak's cave-home.
Yes, He had lost his third horn it is said
Why was he thinking of this?
As the story goes Melkor begged Avitus to make an exact copy of his third horn. The Shadow Charmer warned the unicorn of the risks, but Melkor wouldn't listen. Avitus accepted the challenge and made a perfect copy of Melkor's third horn, and once the unicorn touched it, he became more and more tainted.
He was pure before the horn had touched him, and Avitus realized his mistake and tried to take the horn back, but Melkor evaded him for years. Finally after the evil of the horn and its master had lain waste to the known world, Avitus got close enough to take it and seal the dark taint on the unicorn himself
As the dust cleared and Seth opened his eyes again Bracken stood in the center of it all, the horn was gone, but Bracken's skin had turned into a stone grey with webbed lines of cracks. When he turned back to look at Seth, his eyes were completely black. Power radiated off the Unicorn, dark power.
Seth realized what had been in front of him all along; the Unicorn who didn't have a third horn, Bracken's connection to Mi'aiq and Mi'aiq to Avitus, Bracken's sudden sickness by just touching the horn.
Bracken grinned back at Seth; it was not the cheerless smile he had made just moments before, but a twisted, mad smile. And it shocked Seth worse than the roar of an ancient, evil dragon.
"You're-!"
"Melkor."
