The Soulless

by Kate Martin

“That you’re here because you’ve realized I spoke the truth. That we belong together.” Kai came closer, standing just off his shoulder, just visible. “And that you’re sorry you ran from me.”

  “I didn’t run from you. I couldn’t break out of the myst, not by myself.”

  “When I came for you, would you have gone with me?”

  “Not willingly.”

  Kai snorted. “Then you as good as ran.”

  Now Bri turned to look at his brother. He had so many things he wanted to say, but upon seeing him, they all dissolved. “What happened to you?” Long cuts marred both Kai’s arms, no longer bleeding, but still new and very red. Dried blood was crusted around his fingernails and along his knuckles. His clothes were dirty and torn, and he was never so pale. The dark circles under his eyes were more pronounced than they had been the last time Bri had seen him, and there were faint, healing burn marks on his throat—marks that resembled fingers.

  For all that, Kai seemed confused by Bri’s question. He didn’t respond until after Bri cautiously reached out to touch one of the long cuts. “Huh? Oh, that’s nothing. Just the remnants of some good work well done.” He didn’t draw his arm away, letting Bri inspect the wounds.

  Bri could almost feel the pain of the blade dragging along his skin. “You do this to yourself? For her?”

  “It doesn’t hurt. Not anymore. Besides, all witches do it, otherwise how would we scribe? That witch you’re always with must do the same.”

  “Not like this! Kai, not like this. I’ve never seen her open herself up from wrist to elbow!”

  Kai shrugged, taking back his arm. “I work more complicated spells than she does. Tonight especially. I’m creating a god.”

  “Why? What do you get out of all this?”

  “Power.” He said it like it should have been obvious. “I’m the most talented witch in the entire realm, the youngest to scribe and understand as many labrynths as I do. And once Lillianna is a god, I’ll have access to even more power.”

  “You really think she’ll share that power with you?”

  “I think she won’t have a choice.”

  Sighing, knowing there would be no arguing the point, Bri turned his attention to the labrynths laced into the walls. “Where are we? What are all these for?”

  Kai leaned up against the wall. “We’re in Talconay, on one of the recent battlefields. Lillianna is just outside, performing the ritual of becoming a god. It’s too bad I can’t trust you, I really wish you could see it. I’ve worked so long, planned so much. This whole war between Talconay and Vaah? It was all planned by me. So much blood is needed to power a spell like this, to turn a demon into a god, but I got it. I soaked it into the very earth.”

  You’re sick. He didn’t dare say the words aloud. Kai was calm at the moment and talking. Bri wasn’t ready to risk angering him. “Are these labrynths a part of that?”

  “These? No. These are for you.”

  “For me?” Gooseflesh rose on his arms.

  “You mean you didn’t notice? Is it not working?” Kai turned to the lines nearest him, tracing them and watching their light ebb and flow.

  He dreaded the answer. “What are they supposed to do?”

  “Well, that one,” Kai pointed over his shoulder, “was to let you in, but the others, they hold out the myst. Didn’t it work?”

  The myst? As soon as he said it, Bri felt the distance between him and that ever present force. He had been so concerned with being trapped, with what Kai intended for him, that he hadn’t noticed the absence of what had always been there. Different from the quiet Alec’s touch induced, this was less jarring, less absolute. The myst was there, off to the sides, clinging to the edges of reality, but instead of being shoved away as when he touched Alec, it was simply there. Waiting. Waiting for him to acknowledge it, to command it.

  “How—how? How did you do that?”

  Kai grinned, an expression so wide it lit up his entire face. “It did work? I did it? You can feel it now?”

  “It’s like…like I’m in control.” Experimentally, he reached out for a tendril that hovered nearby. It glided towards him, slowly, calmly, not with the mad rush he usually experienced. When he touched it, the vision slipped softly into his mind, showing him a glimpse of a quiet town, sleeping in the dark of night. Bri released the image, and it floated away without so much as a hiccup, leaving Bri free and alone in his own mind once again.

  “See?” Kai clapped his hand down on Bri’s shoulder. “We’re stronger together. Our powers are meant to be mixed. I can help you; I can make your life better, easier. And you can help me. With access to the myst, and my spells, there’s nothing we couldn’t do. Trust me, Bri.”

  Reeling at the level of control lent to him by Kai’s labrynths, Bri stared at his brother. He couldn’t deny anything he said. How could he? Dorothea had never been able to give him this level of peace, not even with the labrynth she had burned into his back two years ago.

  We’re stronger together. The words echoed in his mind, irrefutable.

  Bri breathed and marveled at the lack of pain he felt. Pain he had hardly been aware of until it had been dismissed. He nodded. “You’re right.”

  Alec had stood over Dorothea as she scribed. He had watched Carma speak with Olin, then confront Lillianna face-to-face. He had felt the pressure in the air shift as they began soul-stealing from one another, and he had managed not to flinch whenever Olin glanced his way, not challenging him, making no attempt to stop Dorothea’s spell. He didn’t know why. From what he understood of the demon, Olin was always calculating, always furthering his own ends. Yet he just watched. The heat of Hell burned in Alec’s hands. He wouldn’t risk releasing it, even as it traveled through him like a wave of intense, addictive pleasure. He almost wished Olin would attack, give him a reason to use the power, a place to focus it. Then it wouldn’t be so damn alluring.

  When Olin proclaimed the boxed hearts dead, Alec felt the mood shift. When Tassos appeared, laughing at the demon-turning-god, he knew the volatile standstill would collapse.

  He contemplated the boy that stood at one of the nine points… wondering if he could be fast enough, if he could withstand the power of the labrynth long enough…

  Lillianna had absorbed four of her nine sacrifices. The fifth, a middle-aged man, had turned to a shriveled husk, clutching the ground from one knee. Despite the effort it must have taken to drain him, Lillianna noticed Tassos and fixed him with a gaze that could have melted stone. “What are you talking about, reaper?”

  Tassos wandered the edges of the nine-pointed star, toeing one of the now dead hearts in its box. “Sobriety. The opposite of being drunk. Strictly speaking, we reapers aren’t supposed to partake of such things, but I never could resist. It mottles our blood, you see. Renders some of our powers…impotent. Good luck maintaining your stolen pulses. They are going to collapse under the weight of too much power.”

  Lillianna’s silence carried the promise of painful death.

  Tassos shrugged and made his way towards Alec. “How’s the view from over here? I want to make sure I see it all.”

  Charged with the power of Hell as he was, Alec found himself more than normally angered by Tassos’s attempt at a charming smile. “This is no place for spectators.”

  Tassos took up a place beside him. “Don’t worry, handsome. I’m here to help.” He winked.

  Just then the sky flooded with light, as though all the stars had exploded at once. Alec raised an arm to shield his eyes, but Tassos simply looked up. “Ah,” he said, giving Alec a little nudge with his elbow, “here comes the cavalry.”

  The shape of wings filled the bright night sky, darkening everything once again. Lillianna snorted in fury and a bolt of power erupted from her that threw Carma out of the star violently. As Alec rushed forward to catch her before she could hit the ground, Lillianna gathered power so quickly the air rushed as though in a storm. When she unleashed it, the force surged outward in a shimmering wall, pass
ing over them and through them, knocking them all to the ground.

  Grass burning beneath his hands, Alec struggled to stand, his ears buzzing and his head swimming. Once unsteadily on his feet, he froze, not believing what he saw. A dome had formed, encompassing the entirety of the star and labrynths, and even Dorothea and her counter spell. The dome rippled like water, translucent so that the blazing night sky was still visible. In that sky, uncountable seraph charged downwards from Haven, swords drawn, wings stretched, as if unaware of the barrier that loomed before them.

  They hit it, and the concussion sent Alec reeling once again. Where they touched, hellfire flared, blazing red and blue and scorching their white and brown feathered wings. The seraph fell, one by one, tumbling over the dome and to the mortal ground, crying in pain and surprise. Those furthest back made attempts to stop once they saw what was happening to their comrades. Some succeeded, others did not.

  Laughing, Lillianna stood fully transformed at the center of the spell, her skin hard onyx, her body clawed and fanged, still sucking the life from her victims and reveling in the power. The energies rolled off her, visible and tangible. With her free hand, she reached upwards, snapped her fist closed and yanked. A hole opened in the dome, and a single seraph tumbled through, crashing to the ground at her feet with enough force to send a cloud of dirt and dust into the air. The dome closed tight once again.

  Carma clawed at Alec with her demon hands, and he helped her stand. “She is not drained enough,” she said.

  “Really? What gave you that idea?”

  “We will have to get close again somehow. She won’t let me near.”

  Alec knew what she meant, what she intended. It wasn’t something he was eager to experience. He also knew it meant abandoning his hopes of saving the boy. “Are you sure it will work?”

  “No. But we have no choice.”

  Watching yet another mortal dry up and keel over, Alec sighed. “Fine. How do you plan on getting me there?”

  “I’ll let you know in a moment.”

  “Pica,” Alec said, “you’ll guard Dorothea?”

  “Yes,” she said, no games in her tone.

  “Promise me one more thing? If the opportunity arises, get that boy out of there.”

  Picadilly had once been a seraph of death, she knew all too well what happened in war, but she straightened her shoulders and nodded.

  Alec was satisfied.

  At Lillianna’s feet, movement stirred in the ground. A hand emerged, then another, then a single outstretched wing. The second was badly broken, bent at a painful angle and bleeding. The seraph stood, half hunched and shaking. Her closely-cropped brown hair was matted with dirt, and her armor had been dented and dulled. There was no mistaking that face.

  Gabriel.

  “Why did she let Gabriel in?” Despite all the fire, the possibilities made Alec go cold.

  Carma shook her head, still clutching his arm for support. “There can be no good reason.”

  Outside, the wounded seraph writhed and dragged themselves along the ground. Those who had escaped the dome either assisted the wounded, or launched attacks at Lillianna’s barrier. Nothing got through. Not spear, or sword, or holy arrow. Everything turned to ash.

  Lillianna smiled. “Gabriel. How good of you to come. I knew you would.” She extended one hand. “Come. Come see me.”

  Gabriel took one step forward, then another. By the stiffness and the expression of horror on her face, she did not move of her own accord. She said nothing as she kept moving.

  Carma surged forward. She made it to the edge of the star before Olin intercepted, using his entire body, transformed and hard as marble, to throw her to the ground and pin her there. Her wings snapped. Alec started towards her without thinking, but Carma threw up a hand signaling for him to stay back. She was face-to-face with Olin, neither speaking, yet a thousand words seemed to be said between them. Deciding Carma could take care of herself, Alec turned his attention to Lillianna and Gabriel, who had gotten dangerously closer in the moments that had passed.

  Tassos appeared at his side again, leaning close and whispering in his ear. “If you can get inside, I can shuffle the souls out.”

  Alec didn’t dare turn his head and risk being closer to Tassos than he had any desire to be. “I can’t see how I can get close enough.”

  “All we need is a distraction.”

  Gabriel cried out, the sound more of a low moan than a scream. Lillianna had her hand embedded in the seraph’s chest, fingers drawing blood even through the thick blessed armor. As her flesh burned, Lillianna was undeterred. Her fingers flexed and dug deeper.

  “Think she’s distracted now?” Alec said.

  “It’s worth a try.” The reaper didn’t sound overly confident.

  Unable to watch everything, Alec focused solely on Lillianna and her prey. He would have to trust that Carma had Olin under control, and that Pica would watch over Dorothea long enough for her to finish her spell.

  Gabriel clutched at the hand in her chest, unable to free herself. Lillianna finished sucking the life force from the sixth mortal and went on to the seventh, her power so great already that the two tasks did not seem to tire her or split her attention. She glowed in the night, brighter than the moon and darker than the sky. Blood gushed from Gabriel’s chest, silver and thick, coating her armor and hands. Alec stepped over the edges of the star, afraid to actually touch the lines, and skirted around the runes and smaller labrynths burned into the ground. He crept closer and closer to the center.

  And paused only when Gabriel went suddenly still.

  The cackle that erupted from Lillianna’s lips was pure madness and reeked of corrupted power. “What’s wrong, little Gabriel? Afraid to move? What does it feel like to have my hand wrapped around your heart? I’ve torn my own from my chest, I do not think it will be so hard to tear away yours. Will you tell me what it feels like?”

  The muscles in her arm tightened, preparing. Gabriel didn’t so much as breathe.

  A hand shot through Lillianna’s chest, emerging streaked with black and silver blood through her empty chest cavity.

  Lillianna stilled.

  At the momentary distraction, Gabriel shoved her own hand into her chest and dislodged herself from the demon’s grip then staggered backwards until she fell a safe distance away.

  Blood poured from Lillianna’s mouth. She choked, coughed, struggled to breathe. A second arm slipped around her waist, and Olin sat his head on her shoulder, marble and obsidian, just the barest hint of a smile on his lips.

  “Oh, my dear Lillianna. So ambitious, so genius. Yet you never see the bigger picture.” He turned his hand for her where she could see it, sticking out from the gaping wound in her chest. A flick of his gaze met Alec’s and he nodded once. “Now.”

  Alec should have hesitated. He should have questioned the situation, but he didn’t. The question of Olin’s motives would have to be saved for later. Concentrating every ounce of power he had drawn in to one spot, he drove his hand into Lillianna’s chest beside Olin’s and let Hell’s energy flow through him, into her, and back to his own emptiness.

  The souls within her jumped with anticipation and rushed forward.

  Alec had forgotten just how heavy one felt with the weight of a soul. He had never guessed how unsettling it would feel when it wasn’t his own, and for a brief moment there were flashes of memory—a childhood game, a father’s voice, a mother’s song. Then a hideous fire and unimaginable pain.

  Something cold and soothing slipped between his shoulder blades, and in a single smooth motion that soul and those memories were gone. “Simple,” Tassos said behind him. “Keep going.”

  Alec had no other choice. A second soul had already rushed into the vacant space left by the first. These memories were harsher, full of darkness and despair, and the strange sensation of being female. When Tassos slipped his hand in once again, tearing away the displaced soul, Alec winced at the touch.

  Lillianna thrashed
in Olin’s arms. The connection between herself and the eighth human soul still burned brightly, cracking like lightning and snapping like a whip. The power within her continued to grow, a crushing presence that surrounded Alec’s arm within her chest. It didn’t feel like she was dying. More like she was about to burst and splinter the whole world. Olin’s bloody hand rocked where it emerged from her chest, twitching with the effort of remaining in place.

  If ever Alec would have the chance to save that boy, this was it.

  Tassos removed the souls as fast as they entered, leaving Alec with a percussive wave passing through his body at an alarming rate. Heavy and light, vacillating too quickly to be separate. The force of them buckled his knees, and he struggled to remain upright, choking on the memories that were not his.

  The air stilled a moment, dense and fragile all at once. Then the wind picked up, swirling around their bodies and stirring the hellfire flames. Lillianna stopped her struggles, and smiled. “Too late,” she said, and before she had finished off her connection to the eighth soul, she tapped into the ninth.

  Alec was thrown from her body, her innards catching on his arm as he flew backwards, landing awkwardly half on the ground and half on Tassos who groaned. Olin, too, had been cast down. A stone’s throw away, Picadilly paused in running her black-stitch through Gabriel’s chest, healing the hellish wound, while Carma knelt nearby.

  The ground beneath Lillianna’s feet shifted, the lines of the labrynth rising and glowing brighter than ever before. They lifted her from the ground, gifting her with the power of flight she had lost long ago. The wind whipped about her, gathering the flames and the blood from the grass. The labrynth spun and wound its way up her legs, over her torso, and finally over her head. In the flash that followed, the very realm seemed to shudder.

  Then there she was, hovering about the earth on a wave of flames, her skin a pearlescent hue that had never graced her demon form. Six arms reached and danced about her, and golden scales covered her legs, her hair a wreath of flame. The hellfire took the form of dragons and hellions, creatures no man, mortal, or immortal, had ever seen. These would be her children, her first creations. Not a one without claw, or talon, or fang. They were horrific—beasts of nightmares.