by SGD Singh
And lying amongst them, pale and still, the Seer.
The boy of foretold prophecies. The One creatures of multiple realms waited for so eagerly.
Asha looked at him and gasped as a wave of sadness nearly overwhelmed her senses. He wasn’t sleeping, which explained why Sid had thought the building was empty. His chest hardly moved. His eyes were closed, and Asha found that her heart ached to witness them open, to watch him smile.
He wore a simple black suit over a white shirt, and Asha felt a wave of protective rage when she saw his jacket’s seams were torn at the shoulder. His dark curls hung in waves against the pillow, and his hands, smooth and unscarred, were crossed at his chest. Even in an unnatural sleep, he exuded a kind of sweet innocence, an unwavering empathy for all life, and Asha felt a fierce urge to protect him against anything that would change that.
She moved across the room, mesmerized, and as she reached for his hand the air became charged, humming with electricity. Every hair along her arms stood as if her skin had been rubbed with a balloon.
Asha released the Underworlder energy still coursing through her as her hand made contact with his, and she refused to let go even as a jolt of energy hit her like a kick to the chest.
Holy shit.
The moment her skin touched his, Asha knew her destiny. She gasped, feeling and then actually seeing her eyes glow bright.
She felt the acceptance of being a part of the universe, and the endless universe becoming a part of her.
Total and complete commitment to her path.
Infinite futures spiraled beyond her comprehension, reaching with blinding clarity, an exploding sun of possibilities that then contracted back to the present moment in the blink of an eye.
She had been merely waiting her entire life for this moment, now and forever an irreversible part of her, and Asha knew she would happily die for this Seer. She knew with certainty that this boy in front of her had always been the purpose of her multiple Talents.
The world slipped into perfect balance, like a finished puzzle. Here was the living realization of the Triputi Prophecy. The living trinity: to know the truth, to practice the truth, to die for the truth.
Asha was so overwhelmed, she almost didn’t notice that her healing wasn’t working. Almost didn’t feel the fracture in the perfect peace.
A part of the trinity was missing.
“You do feel it!” Ranya’s laugh rang out behind her, and Asha spun.
The Witch appeared, as if out of thin air, and Asha reached out with her senses, failing to detect a portal.
Ranya leaned against the wall, grinning in apparent satisfaction at Asha’s surprise. She brought her hands against her smile, the twisted image of a little girl trying not to giggle. She tapped her metal nails together, her eyes blank darkness behind her glittering mask.
Tap, tap, tap.
“What have you done to him?” Asha felt a rush of anger boil within her, as if a younger brother had been hurt by bullies much older and much crueler than his innocence could fathom. A knife was in her hand before she realized it. “Why won’t he wake up?”
Ranya shrugged. “You tell me. You’re the psychic.”
They looked at each other as the silence stretched. Ranya’s lips still twitched with a smile. The holes of her mask unreadable.
Tap, tap, tap.
Then Asha felt it.
No. Oh, no.
“It’s you,” she whispered. “You’re the missing piece. The three of us are the Trinity. It was you and I all along who were meant to keep him safe. That’s why they took you. That’s why they tried to take me…”
Ranya threw her head back and laughed, clapping with glee.
“You feel as connected to him as I do, don’t you? That’s why you haven’t killed him. You can’t.”
The bedroom doors slammed closed.
Chapter 44
Jax took a deep breath, concentrating on stilling her shaking hands. “Okay. I’m ready.”
“What, you figured it out already?” Ursala looked at his watch. “In forty-two seconds.”
“You’re sure?” Aquila frowned doubtfully at the tangle of tubes and wires in Jax’s hands.
Kelakha sounded personally offended when he said, “She’s sure, yaar.”
The three Jodha looked at each other for a moment, then tensed as the silence transformed to the sound of nightmares. Jax thought she recognized Uma’s voice, screaming in battle-rage. Hissing snarls and shrieks filled the darkness, the sound clawing at Jax’s sanity until she was sure her ears were bleeding.
Kelakha’s hand was on her shoulder, and Jax realized she was trembling.
“It’s okay,” he told her, his voice impossibly calm. “We’re gonna get out of here, Jax, don’t worry.”
The Urnayu appeared then, crawling between the crop rows in the distance, skittering into the glow of the awful tower, coming straight toward them, and Jax felt hysterical laughter threaten to bubble over.
Of course everything’s okay! Why in the world would anyone think everything’s not okay? Sweet baby Jesus, I’m losing my fucking mind right now…
Uma and Chakori staggered toward them under the weight of ten figures who leaned on the warriors and each other for support.
The nuns.
Jax heard Lexi shout something in the distance, and Ariella replied.
A moment later the two girls turned the corner, yelling at a second group of survivors to “Move your fucking ass if you want to live,” and Jax made a mental note to suggest a chapter on Compassionate Civilian Rescue for future Guard manuals.
If we ever got out of this hell-hole alive, that is.
Thinking “hell-hole” made Jax feel like laughing again.
You thought you knew what that meant before, but just look! Now you’re in an actual, real live hell-hole.
Aquila spoke in a hushed voice he seemed to think civilians couldn’t hear. “Yaar, she’s about to totally lose her shit. Do something.”
Kelakha snapped something in Punjabi, then said, “Jax. Jax, look at me.”
Jax heard someone giggle, and realized it was her own voice. “Hello,” she said.
Kelakha’s eyes were a beautiful black, like star-filled night skies.
“You can do this, Jax. It’s almost over. Breathe.”
The Urnayu had nearly reached them. “Come on, motherfuckers,” Ursala yelled, twirling his ax.
“Jax,” Kelakha turned her face from the Underworlders, his touch firm and gentle at the same time. “Focus on what you need to do and nothing else, okay? We’re here. We won’t leave your side. I promise.”
“You promise?”
He kept his eyes on hers, completely focused on her alone, and nodded once. “Ji.”
Jax glanced once more at the chaos around her.
There were at least thirty survivors crowded around them now, their blank stares and too-pale skin like Zombies in the gloom. Uma and Chakori were covered in gore.
Lexi turned to Jax and shouted, “Get ready, Civilian, last group,” as she and Ariella sprinted back out of sight, as if eager to join a party.
Ylva was limping slightly as she joined Chakori and Uma. “We can’t hold them off much longer,” the Werewolf panted. “Urnayu reinforcements will flood this whole area.”
“Understood.” Uma sprinted after Lexi, calling over her shoulder, “Get the detonator ready. We move out when I get back one way or another, people!”
The sound of a screeching eagle rose above the shrieks of Underworlders, and the next second something round rolled toward Uma. She leapt sideways, and Ursala lunged forward to stop the thing from rolling into Jax as Lexi came back out of the darkness, her blonde hair turned red with blood on one side.
An Urnayu body.
“Now, Jax,” she shouted. “The holy water grenades only stun these fuckers, even with all their legs severed.”
Jax rushed to open up the Urnayu, fairly confident in her assessment of their machine-to-organic-life configuration. “Did she say seve
red?”
“Uh…” Kelakha shot her a worried glance, then whirled to stab what had to be a Lizard. It screamed, a terrible sound Jax felt in her bones. Its black teeth snapped futilely against the reeking air as its translucent skin was torn apart like smoke at the end of Kelakha’s weapon.
After staring numbly at the gruesome mess for a precious second, Jax took Kelakha’s advice and focused solely on her task. She refused to look around again no matter what horrific sound she heard, and worked on extracting one of the round explosive devices she’d seen the Urnayu vomit. Without looking up, she directed Aquila to cut, pry, and hold open various slime-covered portions of the creature, hoping the whole time that thing didn’t come to before they were finished.
At the base of the Urnayu’s throat, Jax felt around until her fingers found something round and metallic.
“Got it!” Jax pulled out what looked like a futuristic cannon round shot about the size of a bowling ball and held it above her head.
“Stop showing off and do whatever the fuck you plan on doing with that thing,” Aquila snapped, his patience obviously running out. “I’d rather not stand here with my dick in my hand while you—”
“Attach these wires into here,” Jax told herself, trying to ignore the fact that Aquila was yelling at her. Again. She heard Kelakha growl something in Punjabi, and Aquila turned to join Ursala. Whatever was making that horrible noise began making even louder horrible noise.
Now for a spark…
The sounds faded as Jax focused on wires. She twisted a piece of Blood Lettuce around one end of the foreign tubing, ignoring the burning along her skin, then stripped back the outer layer of the wire, careful not to pull it, aware of Kelakha watching her closely.
“We’ll only have seconds once this fuse is lit,” she announced to whoever could hear her.
“Understood,” came Dinesh’s voice to her left.
Kelakha screeched a signal to the others over the din of battle, and Jax heard it repeated in the darkness. She felt the others sprinting toward them, and their feet crowded around Jax. She still refused to look around.
“Ready?” She risked a glance at Kelakha. His hair was in his face, blood smeared along one cheek, and his clothes were torn and filthy.
He still looked perfect.
He gave her a thumbs-up. “Ready.”
Jax looked at the empty space to Kelakha’s left. “Uh, Dinesh?”
“Yes,” the Upperworlder’s voice was a beautiful haunting.
Jax had done all she could. She finally looked up to see everyone gathered around her. Only a few dozen survivors stood, quiet as ghosts. They had saved all the civilians they could.
Jax glanced in the direction of Dinesh’s voice. “How does this work? We hold hands?”
“Yes.”
“Then do that now.”
Chakori barked orders at the survivors, telling them to hold each other’s hands if they didn’t want to die.
Jax glanced at Kelakha.
He nodded.
Jax touched the markings along her Urnayu explosive, twisting it until it opened, revealing purple electric currents along its center. She held the end of the treated wire to it gently, and the fuse lit.
She was distantly aware that the sounds of claws on stone in the darkness grew closer.
Blue-white sparks moved hungrily along the wire, indifferent to the death they would bring to hundreds still trapped against the glowing liquid.
Jax felt Dinesh take her hand.
Then Ariella made a sudden strangled cry at the end of the line, and Jax looked before she remembered she wasn’t supposed to look around if she wanted to keep her sanity, and she watched helplessly as something in the darkness grabbed Ariella and dragged her away, scrambling for purchase as the Jodha’s shouts of rage faded.
Dinesh must have been watching Lexi, because the moment she let go of Aquila’s hand and lunged into the darkness after Ariella, the Upperworlder came into focus, his golden skin shimmering in the purple glow.
With an agonized groan, he dropped Jax’s hand and dashed after Lexi.
Jax barely had time to wonder why Dinesh had made Lexi his priority when Ursala sprinted into the darkness after them, his howl of rage filling the entire cavern. Kelakha squeezed Jax’s hand once before bolting after his brother, Aquila by his side.
Jax’s heart flipped painfully in her chest as she watched the four warriors disappear out of sight, along with the only one who could get them out of there, feeling trapped within a horrible nightmare.
Uma and Chakori shouted orders while keeping the survivors together and holding Ylva and Dolph back with curses.
Then Jax heard Lexi scream.
It was not her usual joyous battle-cry of adrenaline-laced fury that Jax recognized so well by now.
Lexi was screaming in agony.
Oh, shit.
Jax watched the fuse with mounting dread as it crept closer to the end of all their lives. Her legs could no longer hold her and she sagged to the ground, her head bowed, her eyes squeezed closed.
I’m sorry, Lucas. I’m sorry I thought I could finally make my life count for something. Stupid to think I could make your death count for something. I was wrong.
Then someone slammed into her, and Jax felt strong arms wrap around her.
Kelakha.
He pulled Jax to her feet and she staggered against him as he shouted something in Punjabi.
Dinesh swooped from the darkness, Lexi held in his outstretched arms like a human offering. He beat his enormous black and white wings once, laying Lexi at Kelakha’s feet, and resumed his place beside Jax.
Ursala and Aquila emerged from the gloom a moment later, supporting Ariella between them as she stumbled, her bloody arm hanging at a horrible angle.
Jax felt numb.
Lexi looked dead.
“Shit…” Jax knew she was finally and forever losing her shit. “What happened?”
“They would’ve killed Ariella,” Kelakha told her softly. “Lexi… she put herself between them and they…”
Ursala took Aquila and Ariella’s hands at the end of the line. Kelakha, still holding Jax’s hand, reached for Lexi’s, and Aquila’s expression was like stone as he crouched to take Lexi’s other hand, completing the chain.
The sparks along the fuse had almost reached the tower.
Hundreds of Urnayu came into focus, pouring out of the gloom toward them, their eyes shining with hunger, thousands of legs like so many deadly clawed fingers dancing between the awful crop.
Ursala screamed, “What the fuck are you waiting for, you gold-ass motherfucker?”
Jax felt her other hand gripped by wet fingers, and knew it was Lexi’s blood as everything went black.
Jax’s mind, mercifully, stopped.
Chapter 45
Seven Witches appeared out of the metal walls.
One moment Asha and Ranya were alone with the Seer, and the next they weren’t.
“Neat trick,” she told the blank stare within the mask. “I was wondering where your entourage was.”
Ranya smiled at the white-haired females. “Thanks. This portal is one of my personal inventions.”
“Fascinating.” Asha crossed her arms so she wouldn’t throw a knife at Ranya’s throat. “Are you going to wake him up? He needs to eat and drink. You’ll kill him.”
Ranya threw herself into a chair with lazy grace and waved a hand at a matching chair.
Asha didn’t leave the Seer’s side. She considered using the life-forces of the other Witches to heal the Seer, but knew he would tell her not to if he could.
Ranya laughed as if she knew what Asha was thinking, and wagged a finger at her.
“There’s no reason for you to look at me like that, Sandhu.” Ranya giggled. “You can relax. Our little game is over. You’ve lost. I’ve won. The only choice left for you is to join me.”
It was Asha’s turn to laugh. “Oh, I get it. This is the part where you try to entice me over to The
Dark Side.”
Ranya frowned, tilting her head at Asha, as if she were searching for signs of a head wound.
“Save your breath,” Asha said. “I will never join you.”
“Still with the smug and superior attitude, even after everything? It makes me want to rip those glowing eyes out of your skull.” Ranya sneered with disgust, then smiled again. “It doesn’t matter. Saving the world holds its own rewards.”
“Look, Your Royal Empressness.” Asha tried to keep her voice calm. “I’m sure we’re all very impressed with your power-wielding abilities. Now kindly let me take him back home, and I’ll be happy to let you get on with your wedding preparations.”
When Ranya giggled it was a truly chilling sound. “Oh, the groom. He is rather… less tender than one would expect.”
The Witches joined in the giggling.
“Still. He has his uses. For now.”
Ew.
“You’re not listening, Sandhu.” Ranya leaned forward. “I said our little game is over. There is never going to be any wedding, see? There is never going to be anything. The Prophecy meant him, and now that I have him, there’s nothing to stop everlasting peace. So… you’re welcome.”
The room felt suddenly colder. “Peace,” Asha said. “Meaning…”
Ranya directed her blank eyes to the ceiling. “The Buddha says that when you dig a well, there is no sign of water until you reach it, only rock and dirt to move out of the way. Once you remove enough filth, pure water will flow.”
Ranya quoting the Buddha? Seriously?
“I don’t think he meant what you think he meant,” she said. “Genocide is hardly a Buddhist concept.”
Ranya leapt out of the chair and in an instant was inches from Asha’s face. Asha still couldn’t see the Witch’s one remaining eye. “You don’t get to judge my methods, you murdering Infernal Guard bitch. I am healing the world.”
“You know what else the Buddha said?” Asha pretended to study her nails. “He said, peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”
Ranya waved a hand. “Oh, shut up about the Buddha.”
“Fair enough.”
The Witch started to turn away, then spun back, gripping Asha’s chin in her clawed grasp. Asha fought back the urge to slice Ranya’s hand off, something deep within her Seer’s Talent warning her against going too far.