Hearts of Darkness

by Kira Brady

  Norgard appeared. He strode around a pillar and into the alcove, looking decidedly worse for wear. Dirt and spider silk covered his head and shoulders, and his clothes hung in tatters. “What the bloody hell is going on here? Corbette, get off your ass and help me. The Gate is breaking, and that idiot hasn’t laid any spells to leash the demon!”

  Corbette blinked up at him. It was an odd sight: the powerful Raven Lord sitting on the dirty ground with cobwebs in his hair and a smear of blood on his cheek. His steely command had abandoned him. He was helpless to do anything but clutch Lucia to his chest.

  “Ye gods, man!” Norgard looked helplessly between Kayla and Hart. “What did you do to him?”

  “A sacrifice opened the Gate,” Kayla said. “Maybe a sacrifice is what it takes to close it?”

  “Good thought.” Norgard pointed at Lucia. “Let’s throw them the blonde.”

  “No.” Corbette bounded to his feet with the girl held protectively in his arms. Electricity crackled from his skin. Everyone took a step back. Eddies of Aether swirled around him. The sparkling lights caught on the spider silk wrapped around Lucia’s wounds. Her wrists, thighs, and chest were bathed in a soft glow.

  Kayla dragged her eyes away and turned to Norgard. He stood tall and haughty, a king who hadn’t yet realized his kingdom was lost. She shouldn’t be surprised by his coldness, not after all he’d done. But she couldn’t help wondering, yet again, what her sister had seen in such a monster. He had to have some redeeming qualities, didn’t he?

  “Hasn’t Lucia been through enough?” she asked.

  “Exactly. Sacrifice the weak so that the strong may live.” Norgard looked at each of their shocked faces and landed on Hart’s. “What’s wrong with you, mad dog? You’ve always been detached, able to get the job done no matter the cost. This shouldn’t be a difficult decision. This makes the most logical sense!”

  Hart shook his head. His hand tightened on Kayla’s arm. “I’m free now. Free to make my own choices. Free to do what’s right—”

  The next moment the air shattered. The earth split open down the center of the cavern, breaking the stone altar in two. A crevasse opened. A river of light and shadow poured out. Inside the river floated an army of screaming souls. The river rushed along the cavern wall, spinning around the room in a circle, trapping Kayla and the others in the center of a giant turbine.

  A wild drumbeat pulsed in the rocks and air. The pounding took over her breath and seemed to anchor in the rhythm of her blood. A terrible wave of power rolled through the cave, knocking everything to the ground. Hart fell on top of her, protecting her with his body. She clung to him as the floor undulated violently beneath her.

  Fear broke along her skin. The wall of the alcove crumbled and fell as the river of souls carved into the sides of the cavern. Around and round the river flowed, gnawing into the rock walls like a demonic merry-go-round. Kayla watched the stalagmite spears overhead break off and fall toward them as if in slow motion. She clutched Hart and cried out.

  If only she could protect him. But there was nowhere to go. If it hadn’t been for her, he would be far away from here. He would be in Canada by now, safe. It was her fault he had stayed.

  The stalagmite dropped straight over Hart’s back. Midway it froze, suspended in the air. She watched, horrified, as the rock shattered and disintegrated into dust. The molecules of earth and air were sucked into the vortex of spinning souls. The raging river picked up speed, pulling rocks and pillars out of the ground into a giant tornado of spinning matter. So many souls were packed together that they were only a blur. Horrific shapes solidified and were gone. Men with the tails of scorpions. Half-lion, half-bird creatures with human faces. Dragons and clawed beasts too hideous to imagine.

  The drumbeat rose. The twister spun around them and shot higher. Its hungry maw consumed the roof of the cavern and began to eat through the layers of dirt and rubble below the city streets. Its terrible force radiated outward and upward, destroying the cave around it.

  In the center, where they lay, the air was still. Quiet even.

  Kayla moved beyond fear. All the worries of the past melted away. All the loneliness and guilt separated like atoms in a centrifuge and dissipated into the swirling light. She wrapped her arms around Hart and held on. If the tornado picked him up, she wanted to go too. Maybe if she held on tightly enough, the shattered world would fling them together into the great unknown.

  Chapter 23

  The eye of the storm was a circle about ten feet across. The deep crevasse cut across one edge. Soul-soaked light poured out of it to join the whirling vortex. Hart pushed himself off the trembling ground and helped Kayla stand up. She burrowed into his chest. He wrapped his arms around her.

  Fear had always been a foreign emotion, but now it dug its claws in deep. He had come to protect Kayla. He had failed. How could he save her from this swirling prison?

  Our Lady, he prayed in his head. I’ve never asked you for much. I know I haven’t lived according to your laws or kept the sacred vows. But, please . . . please save Kayla. Please let her live through this. I don’t want anything for myself. Just . . . save this woman. He closed his eyes and kissed the top of her head. She smelled of lilac, even covered in dirt and spider silk. If it came down to the wire, and there was no other option, he would sacrifice himself to the crevasse for the chance to save her.

  He opened his eyes and examined the wall of swirling Aether. Could he cross it?

  “Don’t touch it. You’ll get sucked in.” Corbette’s voice rasped. The Aether bathed his face in an unholy glow. Shadows flickered over his angular features. He didn’t look like the feared Kivati leader anymore. Something had broken in him.

  Hart tried not to feel disappointed. He’d never depended on the Raven Lord before; why should he now?

  “This is magnificent,” Norgard said, inspecting the giant funnel. “But where is Rudrick? Who is controlling this glorious machine?”

  Rudrick had disappeared when the Gate opened. Either he was trapped on the other side of the swirling vortex, or he had been sucked into the great river itself, just another string of molecules powering the twister of souls.

  Hart looked up and watched the twister bore through the ceiling of the cave. It ate through centuries of debris like a giant drill. The Aether sucked in the grave dirt and bones of his ancestors that lay beneath the city streets, and grew stronger from their magic. Soon, the concrete foundations of buildings could be seen overhead. Broken pipes and rebar were exposed one moment and disappeared the next into the rapacious funnel.

  The tornado broke out into the open sky and shot upward to join the churning storm clouds above. It had eaten sideways into the cave walls, removing enough earth around and above them that they no longer stood underground. Lightning crashed around the funnel. Hart could see through the thick Aether walls onto a scene of destruction. The earthquakes had left a city in ruins. Once-tall skyscrapers had crumbled into the sea. Jagged asphalt lay over crushed cars. Gas leaked from broken streetlights, and water gushed from burst mains. Bridges had collapsed in pieces like discarded Tinkertoys. Fire lit the skyline, destroying what was left of a once-great city. The air was hazy with smoke and particulate matter.

  Hart hurriedly searched the southern horizon. A cloud of thick black ash obscured Mount Rainier.

  “What happened?” Kayla asked in a whisper. She trembled in his arms.

  He wanted to lie. “We fell into a burning ring of fire,” he whispered. “Down, down, down . . .” His voice broke.

  “The mountains . . . you said they would erupt.”

  He could only nod. Every active volcano on the planet would have lost its top.

  In the cavern, Norgard hadn’t seemed worried, but now in the burning light of the open air he lost his cool. The blood drained from his face. His eyes dulled to hollow pits. Horrified, he took in the annihilation of the world he’d hoped to rule. His hand tore through his hair, again and again.

  “Dust to dust
,” Corbette said. He still hugged the princess to his chest. “The Gate kept the balance. Allowed the world to survive. You see this?” He thrust one hand out to the sky, where overhead the twister grew ever taller. “It will start moving and destroy the earth. Until nothing is left, and we are all once again part of the Sparkling Water as we once were—”

  “Shut up!” Norgard marched to Corbette and tossed Lucia from his arms. The girl fell to the ground like a broken doll, and her eyes blinked open. He grabbed Corbette by the shoulders and dug in his claws. “Fix it. Fix it!” He shook Corbette until his teeth rattled in his jaw, but the Raven Lord’s face was impassive. “Damn you! What about the compact? What about your famed power to manipulate the Aether? Use it! Use it, goddamn it!”

  Corbette began to laugh. If the Raven Lord couldn’t save them, no one could.

  “Don’t lose hope.” Kayla turned in Hart’s arms and raised a cold hand to his cheek. She smoothed her fingertips across his wet lashes. “As long as we’re together, there is always hope.”

  Hart had to clear his throat twice before he could speak. “I’m not going anywhere.” Not yet.

  “Good.” Kayla had a choice. She could sit here and wait for help—which was looking less and less likely to appear—or she could do it herself. Slipping out of Hart’s arms, she took a step toward the Raven Lord and slapped him. He stopped laughing.

  “Thank Tiamat, someone else has sense here,” Norgard said.

  “You, shut up.” She knelt by Lucia, who had woken and was staring wide-eyed at the swirling tornado around them. “Can you focus?” She moved her finger in front of Lucia’s face from side to side. The girl tracked it just fine.

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Corbette said we needed five powers to close the Gate.” Plus a blood sacrifice, but she spared the girl that information. “What’s your power?”

  “Water.”

  Thank the Lady, Tiamat, and whoever else was listening. Kayla stood. “Corbette, pull it together. You’re a Raven, so I’m assuming you can do air.” He nodded. “Norgard, dragons breathe fire. I don’t care if you aren’t Kivati. Make it up.” She turned to Hart.

  “Earth,” he said. “Wolves run on four paws.”

  She breathed a sigh of relief. “All right. Let’s do this thing.” She had always done everything by the book. There wasn’t a book for this. No directions. No instruction. No logic or reason. She had to be like Desi for once in her life—take a running jump and hope she landed somewhere soft.

  The tornado of souls twisted around them. Shadow shapes lunged and beckoned from the Aether. Hart squeezed her hand. He believed in her. She could do this.

  “Close your eyes and visualize the Gate closing, whatever that looks like to you,” she ordered. “Picture your own energy joining with mine. Imagine the souls returning to the crevasse, and the crevasse shutting.” She shut her own eyes and focused on the swirling Aether. Around her, the life energy of the others sparkled. She tried to direct it toward the tornado. Slow down, she ordered.

  Nothing seemed to change.

  Hart moved closer to her. The heat from his body enveloped her. She felt warmth and smelled pine. The soothing calm of the forest as light filtered through the leaves. Wet earth beneath her paws and the wind on her face as she raced through the underbrush. The call of an owl, and the howl of her own voice as she answered, wild and free.

  Kayla opened her eyes from the daydream to see the center of the twister filled with light. It poured, sparkling, from each of them and rent the twister’s walls. The shadows in the Aether cringed away. The momentum of the twister slowed. The whole funnel began to wobble.

  A ghostly figure slipped free from the crevasse. It eluded the rushing river that fed the twister, and stepped inside the eye of the storm. It solidified somewhat, still transparent, but now recognizable as a young woman. Her familiar heart-shaped face sent a spear of pain through Kayla’s chest.

  “Desi.” Her concentration broke. She took a step forward and stumbled. Hart caught her arm and steadied her on her feet.

  The apparition stretched out her hand. Her sister’s eyes were sorrowful. “Come,” she breathed. “Come with us.” She motioned for Kayla to follow her back into the crevasse.

  “No!” Hart shouted. His fingers cut painfully into her arm.

  Kayla turned to him and saw the anguish in his face. “Don’t you see? It’s the only way to free you. The Gate needs a willing sacrifice—”

  “No!” He shook his head violently. “If anyone’s to do it, it will be me.”

  “You? But my sister—”

  “Let go, sweetheart.” Hart cradled her face in his large hands. The lines around his eyes and mouth stood out against his pale face. Longing and frustration warred in his eyes. “Your grief anchors her ghost. Let go of your guilt and let the dead rest.”

  She glanced back toward her sister’s outstretched hand. She could be with her family again.

  “You will be with her again in the world beyond,” he said. His voice was ragged. His hands shook. “But not yet. You’re going to live. There are patients who need your help and puzzles that need your brain. A lifetime of adventures wait for you. This is not your time. When you die, you’ll be a contented old woman surrounded by grandchildren and great-grandchildren who will inherit your beautiful stubbornness.”

  She turned her eyes back to Hart, letting her gaze caress the familiar angles and faded scars on his handsome face. How could one person become so integral a part of her in so short a time? She couldn’t live without him. “Does your vision have a handsome husband by my side?”

  He lowered his lips to hers. His mouth tasted of bitter desperation and the sweet tang of hope. “There is nothing for me without you.”

  Kayla took a deep breath. “Lend me your claw.” She cut her left palm on his sharp claws and pictured the rune that Hart had taught her—Ehwaz. Dipping her finger into the blood, she drew the rune in the air. It burned white-red in her other vision, illuminating silver strands that wrapped around her heart and through the Aether to tie her sister to her. She hadn’t known they were there. She wondered if she had hurt Desi this whole time by tethering her to the living world. Sweat broke on her brow as she worked to untangle the knots that bound them. Hart lent his strength, much as he had done to heal Lucia. With each strand, she felt a constriction around her chest ease.

  When a single strand remained, she turned in Hart’s arms and faced her sister. Desi’s ghost lingered near the crevasse, her hands at her sides. Her lips parted, approval stamped plainly in her familiar, mischievous grin. Her gaze flickered to Hart, and she winked.

  Kayla picked up the last silver strand and let go.

  Ice moved sluggishly through Sven Norgard’s veins. How could his plan have been so misguided? He’d been so sure he could control the demon horde. Sure his magic would be powerful enough to leash the dead. Sure the breaking of the Gate would cause just enough destruction to shake up governments and ensure him a smooth takeover.

  Not this. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined this. Leif had been right: it was Ragnorök. The doom of the gods. The end of the world. There was nothing left to rule. No treasure left to collect. Only a broken kingdom of barbarians and dirt. He joked about the glory of the Dark Ages, but he liked civilization. This was so much worse than the Dark Ages he had lived through. Had his brother survived the cataclysm? Had his people? He hadn’t wielded the key that opened the Gates, but he had set it all up. Rudrick had followed his plan to the letter.

  Except, of course, leashing Kingu. Bloody hell. The demigod was loose in the world.

  Norgard turned as though drawn by invisible hands toward the dark crevasse. His cold heart shuddered in his chest at the vision before him: Desi, pale and withdrawn as she had never been in life. Her lush curves were insubstantial, forever out of his reach.

  “Damn you.” The harsh whisper escaped his lips. “Why did you leave me?” He took a shaking step toward the ghostly form, and another. She turne
d and saw him. Her lips slowly curved up. A smile, after all he’d done. Didn’t she see the damage he’d wrought? “I offered you everything, and you threw it away. This is your fault,” he said, needing to cast blame. The pain of her loss cut fresh. “If you hadn’t left me . . .”

  She stretched her thin hand out to him.

  “If you had stayed we might have ruled the world together,” he said. “We might have soared above the clouds with our child. If only—”

  He was caught off guard when she took his hands in hers. She had material form. Her skin was cold and silky. Her lips tilted in that charming half smile that had first pierced his cold, dead heart.

  “Come with me,” she said. Her voice was as melodic as he remembered.

  “I can’t,” he whispered, humiliated. “I have no soul.” Drekar only existed in the Living World, an empty body but no spirit.

  She shook her head and smiled to herself, as if he had said something funny, not bared his deepest shameful secret.

  “Come with me,” she said again. She squeezed his hands.

  Looking into her eyes unlocked something in his chest. Why not? he thought. Why not take her hand and leave this wretched, lonely existence once and for all? He didn’t know what waited on the other side, but there was nothing left for him here. Why not follow the only woman he’d ever loved into the dark unknown?

  “Together?” he asked.

  She smiled, turned and wrapped her hand in the crook of his arm. “Together.”

  Norgard took a deep breath and kept his eyes glued on his lady’s face. He didn’t look back. He didn’t look down. He held onto her hand and let her pull him over the edge of the crevasse. He felt himself falling and clung to her hand more tightly. A shadow passed above him—a nightmare shape with eight spindle legs—and was gone.

  The darkness rose up, terrifying and vast. Its drumbeat pulsed in his bones and took over the beating of his heart. Soon his vision cleared. Not darkness, but a million sparkling lights, more brilliant than the finest treasure. They wrapped him in their embrace. He squeezed Desi’s hand, and together they faded into the Aether below.