When Night Breaks

by Janella Angeles

  “Don’t you know I can smell lies now, Kallia?” He laughed. “And yours taste so sweet. You thought you really did something with that poetic little act of rebellion.”

  Doubt. He was trying to make her doubt.

  She knew his games, the way he twisted minds without reaching into them.

  “And all for what—waste your powers fixing a mirror that will only be broken again? Sending it away?” He laughed. “I thought I’d feel bad ordering Jack to throw your friends out there anyway, but now I’m glad I had the foresight.”

  The light feeling dimmed as a sound rolled in the back of her throat.

  “Oh, what was that? I can’t hear you.” He crouched down over her. “Yes, the trap Jack laid out for them is quite the hell for them both. They seem like they’re enjoying their time.”

  He smiled as if he could see it now, and that made Kallia act.

  If he could still see it, it was still happening.

  “If you get to them, you might be able to pull them out of it,” he said with a sigh. “That is, if you can find them out there. You’ll just have to tell us where the mirror is.”

  Kallia tried throwing him off, but he drifted away in a puff of smoke instead—materializing before her in corporeal form as she staggered to her feet. The darkness beyond the gate was endless and vast, but the devils stood in their orderly line, like soldiers waiting for the war to start. The first shot to fire.

  Demarco.

  Vain.

  The thought of them set her off through the maze of devils, the darkness beyond—

  A hand dragged her by the back of her outfit, forcefully enough that she heard a tear.

  “I hoped it wouldn’t have come to this, but you leave me no choice, my dear.” Arms crossed, Roth stood aside to watch Jack hold her back up by the neck. “Find out where it is or force her.”

  Fear lashed through Kallia.

  Jack smiled at the sight. “Easily.”

  No. She clawed at his grip on her, surprised he hadn’t crushed her throat at this point. He could’ve stabbed her right through the heart, and the overwhelming panic would’ve masked that pain. “No, please—”

  “Please?” Roth laughed. “That’s sweet. I’m sure you wished you hadn’t just wasted whatever meager power you worked so hard to get back. Because you know what’s easier to break than a mirror?”

  A sob knifed up her throat as she felt the telltale press of thorns.

  “The mind is far more malleable than glass, after all.”

  Kallia thrashed, kicking her legs out, but Jack easily held her aloft. Every time she stared in his face, there was nothing. His eyes were as shadowed as Roth’s. Whatever part of him cared for her was long gone to the devils. They’d destroyed that part of him.

  If it had even ever been real.

  Kallia pushed.

  Jack.

  Her mind screamed the name as she pushed back with everything she had. There was no way to stop him from coming into her head; she had to go into his head first.

  Jack.

  She didn’t know why she thought she could stop him, but she had to try. There was no effort on his face as the thorns came into her head. Overpowering her, as they always did.

  Her eyes closed as she waited for the darkness to come and take what it wanted. She couldn’t fight him. She never could.

  “Don’t you dare close your eyes, Kallia,” he ordered. “Look at me.”

  She didn’t know what called her to obey, but when she did, her eyes widened with a start.

  This isn’t real.

  This is an illusion.

  When she glanced down for a brief moment, in the darkness at his side, she caught the movement from the fingers of his free hand.

  The slide of his thumb across knuckles.

  Only when she dragged her gaze up to his did she find the smallest blink of noble eyes staring back.

  45

  Kallia’s eyes shot wide open.

  There were still shadows in Jack’s, endless shadows that took away the eyes she’d known. Noble eyes. And a proud smile.

  “What’s wrong?” Roth asked, annoyed. “Just do it already.”

  “She’s…,” Jack said in a convincing show of frustration. “She’s putting up a fight.”

  “Then end it.”

  Kallia’s heart was racing the hardest it ever had as her feet hit the ground. Jack’s clutch on her neck loosened. The fever of panic broke over her, and it was like she could finally see everything.

  And she felt it.

  Something she’d gone so long without. It filled every hollowed crack and crevice inside her. She’d almost forgotten what such a sensation felt like. That heat in the flame, that cold in the ice. She felt like a storm, with lightning in her blood and thunder in her bones.

  Power.

  She felt it the way she knew she was alive. With absolute certainty.

  “Get down!”

  Kallia threw herself out of the way as Jack launched himself on Roth. The two struggled against each other—Jack’s flung fist burning with fire, stopped by Roth’s wrapped in smoke. Shadows flared angrily like snakes all about them, a fight of silent orders met without compliance.

  Roth spat in his face. “You stupid bo—”

  With a merciless snap, Jack twisted the man’s arm into a shape that was all wrong. Roth, who claimed to feel no pain, howled out loud. Even louder as Jack lifted him by that same arm and threw Roth far, far over the heads of the devils that had fallen from the sky and gathered out in the distance.

  Breathing heavily, Jack turned with a gaze still shadowed and terrifying as ever, but his face no longer looked like a mask. A touch of warmth to the cold as he looked out all around them.

  “How?” Kallia dared another step toward him, breathless. “How did you … what did you do to me?”

  The words echoed between them now, one glimpse in his head was all it took. And she saw him now. Not an illusion, not a devil. Beneath those shadows, Jack waited.

  She almost reached out a hand to touch his face, just to make sure.

  “I didn’t do anything.” A ghost of a smile graced his lips before he turned so that his back was against hers. “He won’t be gone for long. I can feel it. He’ll be back, but the devils are there, all around him, so it’s only a matter of—”

  All of the shadow servants stationed out in the distance began to charge.

  So many, they looked like one moving mass of black.

  “There’s too many of them.” And even then, they would be able to just multiply. Kallia’s power was the strongest she’d ever felt it, but still nowhere near Jack’s. And even Jack’s alone wouldn’t be able to handle the incoming horde. “Do you have a plan?”

  “Maybe.” He looked all around them as if searching for something in the skies. An answer. “I thought I did. I truly didn’t think this far ahead.”

  “What?”

  “There were no guarantees with what you would do, Kallia,” he sniped behind her. “There was just banking on hope, and I sure didn’t think you’d get rid of Zarose Gate.”

  Her pulse thrummed as the devils raced, getting closer and closer.

  To them.

  And Zarose Gate.

  “They can’t get near it,” Kallia said. “If it breaks again—”

  She didn’t even want to imagine it. The break would be the start of everything all over again. The city behind them, powerful as it was, would be in ruins. Roth before would never risk it, but now, he was more than just a magician. He would risk anyone in his way.

  With the thrust of his hand, Jack took out the first line of devils with a cutting gust of wind. Like cutting a sliver off of the mass rapidly approaching.

  Kallia barely thought, she just threw what she had.

  Everything she could.

  Fire shot, ice spears. Roses with thorns and stems as sharp as daggers. It was like a rapid-fire duel in her mind, one illusion after another she conjured, stabbing the devils one after the other. />
  It slowed them, but it didn’t stop them.

  Jack cursed as he breathed heavily with a skyward gaze. Her mind was torn in every direction, her powers divided. She didn’t want to leave him to fight them off alone.

  Until a glimmer of light caught the corner of her eye.

  It trailed across the ground before one found the devil.

  Not even her illusions impaling them made it scream the way that flicker of light did.

  “Fucking finally.” Jack sighed as his head tipped up. Not in exhaustion, as he shouted, “Down here—”

  Kallia whirled around and caught the barest shape of a hoop.

  A blinding flash of light.

  Before someone crashed into them from the sky.

  “Please say that worked.” A blindfolded Ruthless fell on top of them, her head turning frantically. “Also, who am I on?”

  Kallia could barely contain the happy sob that rose from her before Malice dropped on them with a pained hiss, blindfolded as well.

  “This is so stupid,” she grumbled. “Is it safe to look? How the hell are we supposed to—”

  Kallia ripped off both of their blindfolds, to which they screamed with their eyes closed.

  “The gate, it’s gone,” she said, throwing her arms over them both. “You both can look.”

  Her heart swelled to have them back, but a hollowness still remained at the gaping absence of those missing.

  Vain, Demarco. Their names raced in time with her pulse, frantic.

  Kallia turned to Jack. She wanted to believe him, but at the same time, she was terrified to do so. “Where are they?”

  “Finally showing up.” He cursed, getting back to his feet. “We really don’t have time for this.”

  “How the hell are we supposed to trust you?” Ruthless shot at him. “Where’s Vain?”

  “And where’s Roth—” Malice’s eyes went wide at the devil horde coming at them. “Oh, shit.”

  Kallia’s breath seized as they took in the horde heading toward them. Kallia feared that Roth would be in there, charging behind the devils. He would return, Jack said, and she felt that force already coming back.

  The first person he would go for was Kallia.

  Just to get back the mirror.

  An impossible flash of light erupted from the distance. Kallia feared it might be Roth, blasting his way through the army to get to the front.

  The last thing she expected to see was a horseless carriage speeding through the devils, running over everything in its path. The devils hissed and scampered away from the carriage’s path, even beyond that for how it shone so brightly, even Kallia had to squint her eyes. The same sort of light that reflected off Malice and Ruthless from the cuffs around their arms.

  “What is that? What’s wrong with the light?”

  The devils didn’t normally shy away from light. They preferred darkness, but it never actually hurt them.

  “It’s a reflection of light, in a reflection of a world,” Jack said, eyes narrowed, glancing down at the girls’ contraption. “Mirror light.”

  “Turns out, the mirror boy is good at something,” Malice noted, admiring her armored cuffs. “Imagine that.”

  For the first time, he looked genuinely impressed. Relieved. Until he caught what was coming right behind the carriage. Not just a devil, but Roth chasing the speeding vehicle. Unlike the devils, he wasn’t shying away from the mirrored carriage. It didn’t debilitate him the same way it did to the others.

  “I know our plan now,” Jack said. “I’ll throw him off. But we need to take him down, and all the rest will fall. That’s our plan.”

  Just as he was about to rush off, Kallia grabbed his arm. “Wait, but what about you?”

  “I’ll be fine. You just have to figure out how—”

  “No, what about you?” she repeated harder. “We can’t get rid of Roth and the devils without…”

  Destroying Jack.

  From the tic in his jaw, he knew, all along, it would come to this.

  “No,” she said, shaking her head. “We need to find another way.”

  “Sometimes the only way is the only way.”

  Without another word, he pressed his hand over hers, before pulling it off and running in Roth’s direction. Before Kallia could even say goodbye.

  She didn’t want to say goodbye. To any of them.

  Somehow Jack vanished into thin air, before an explosion went off like a powder keg high into the sky, releasing the carriage. It came speeding toward them by the city gate, bruised and battered by the beating it had taken from Roth.

  It was a miracle that the passengers who staggered out of the door even made it out alive. First Vain, taking dizzy steps, her short hair disheveled and standing on all ends. “Where’s the fighting?”

  “Other way, darling.” Ruthless and Malice took her by both arms, steadying her.

  For a moment, the headliner looked close to being sick, until she caught a glimpse of Kallia’s face and something broke over hers. It could’ve been joy. “You good, mortal?”

  Kallia could only muster a teary smile as the two other passengers came out of the glass carriage. “Pull your weight, Demarco. I’m not some groom carrying you over the threshold.”

  “Zarose, I’m never riding in one of those ever again.” Demarco panted, his arm slung over Herald’s shoulder for support.

  “Too fucking bad. I need cover, and you can’t exactly—”

  Demarco stilled the moment he saw her.

  The moment she saw him.

  “Oh,” Herald scoffed, “now you’re up on your feet.”

  Kallia was on hers, too, running as he limped forward. She tried to be gentle, but she threw her arms over Demarco and he gripped her back just as tightly, shaking.

  “You’re all right,” he said, swallowing hard as he cupped her face. His eyes traced over every part of her. “You’re all right.”

  He repeated it again and again, against her hair.

  “What about you?” She pressed her cheek to his chest, his heartbeat steady. Alive.

  But there was something so different about him now. Something she couldn’t quite explain when he didn’t answer.

  “They’re coming back.”

  Everyone turned at the fear in Ruthless’s whisper.

  Whatever Jack had done to buy them time had fallen through. The devil horde was back and coming for them. More, from the looks of it, flying down from the sky.

  “There are too many,” Vain said, already trying to strategize and finding no clear solution in the odds before them.

  “We just have to take one down.” Kallia looked for Roth in the horde of them, but he was no longer in sight. Neither was Jack.

  The fact that the devils were still charging at them meant that their leader was still about.

  So they didn’t think. Didn’t pause. They ran toward the war, with mirror light in hand.

  Every blow from Roth, Jack served it back even harder.

  The fight was only even when he had his devils pull him by the limbs.

  Only to materialize, moments after.

  Every damned way Jack could die, he returned with a vengeance. It was the one time he was truly grateful for the ability. To die again and again, only to come back to haunt the living.

  The barely living.

  “We could go at this all night.” Roth laughed, his teeth glistening with black blood. The process of watching a magician become a devil was every bit as terrible as one would think. The human form was not enough to contain a devil—and as many as Roth held in him now, he was surprised to still see the familiar face in there.

  “You can keep punching me down all you like, and I can keep tearing you apart all I like,” the man continued. “But you all will always be outnumbered.”

  Jack gritted his teeth as he fought, pushing against Roth. If only he could tire out the king, the rest would fall. But he was still up. Still fighting.

  Which meant his devils would continue as well.r />
  “There’s no point to your plan anyway,” Jack bit out. “The gate is gone.”

  “The gate doesn’t just disappear. The party is still going on, which means it’s somewhere. And that bitch knows where.”

  Sharpening his elbow, Jack threw back a jab, but Roth was quicker. Without any effort, he grabbed hold of Jack’s elbow and twisted.

  Gritting his teeth, Jack grunted. He hardly felt pain from anyone else, but there was something to a devil fighting him that no magician could ever make him feel.

  Jack kicked Roth back and righted his arm back into place. He was tempted to throw all the magic he could at him, but it would only further feed him. As it did with all devils.

  A twinkle of light caught the corner of his eye.

  There, right before the glowing city, flashes like lightning tore through the army of devils. The one with the mirrored carriage drove through most of them, taking out a large chunk while the others on the ground fought with a combination of mirror light and magic as they soared through the air on their hoops.

  A valiant effort, but they were still too few against too many.

  “They won’t last.” The man’s voice slithered all around him. “Not like us, Jack. We will always be here, at the end of it. You and me. And without me, you go, too.”

  Jack edged back, and the two predators began circling again.

  “You think I fear the end? It would be refreshing, honestly.”

  “Martyr talk won’t impress her, you know.”

  The taunt stilled him for a brief moment, long enough to earn a derisive sigh. “This isn’t about her.”

  “It’s not?” Roth continued, “You’re an absolute waste. Perhaps the most powerful being in both worlds, and you would throw it all away for someone who chose a powerless magician! Such humiliation. Such shame.”

  “Oh, trust me, I know what that feels like,” Jack seethed. That shame had burned when he’d been nothing but the Dealer’s servant.

  Every order, obeyed.

  Every command, answered.

  Jack was never born with a choice; he’d found it. He knew how precious it was, more so now than ever. “You can’t make me do anything, ever again.”

  “No, maybe not.” Roth frowned. “But I can make sure you watch everything happen.”