To be totally honest, I was not made to be a conduit for this much power. I could feel my insides shrieking in agony. My blood felt like it was boiling in my veins and the smell of burning hair and flesh hit me so hard I’d have gagged if my stomach hadn’t turned to molten lava. It felt like I was burning up from the inside, the outside, and everywhere in between.
I gritted my teeth and forced myself to ignore not just the agony, but the fact I wouldn’t live through this. I was taking too much damage. That was fine though. I didn’t need to live through this. I just needed to make sure my sacrifice counted. Well, at least I’d live up to Dirge’s namesake. Besides, college was way too expensive, anyway.
As dragon fire flowed into me through my weapons, the symbols etched along their lengths began to pop like Christmas lights under a power surge. Then the swords began to melt. Fan-freaking-tastic.
“No!” I cried, grabbing onto the dragon fire flowing into the void with my metaphysical fingers. I reached out into it with spiritual hands that were turning to ash. I gathered it up anyway and threw it back at Nidhogg. What remained of the dragon’s head snapped backward as everything he’d thrown at me hit him like an uppercut to the chin, and for a second, I wondered if it had been enough.
Steam curled off my body as I hung there, suspended by the strength of Apep. His massive black body curled around me and held me aloft.
It wasn’t enough. Nidhogg swung his huge claw through the immense snake like the Egyptian God was made of tissue paper. It wasn’t surprising in retrospect. Apep wasn’t actually here. He was manifesting here, sure, but this wasn’t his physical body per se.
No, this form was more a matrix of magical energy than flesh and blood. Summoning a god, at least for most, was impossible. Hell, doing what I’d done, causing the god to manifest a spiritual construct was hard. Too hard for me to have expected him to withstand an attack from a creature like Nidhogg.
A shriek of pain sprang from Apep’s mouth, and the strain of keeping the gods grounded into our plane of existence fell upon me as the demon snake’s construct began to dissolve. The weight of it hit me like a sledgehammer to the temple.
As I listed sideways, the spot on my chest where Mattoc had burned Apep’s sigil into me began to burn. Pain erupted inside me, and instead of pushing it down, I let my agony, my anguish, my fear rise up and clear my head. I grabbed it just like I had grabbed Nidhogg’s dragon flame.
“Die!” I said, launching myself from Apep’s body as the snake gave way to the inevitable and slipped back into his ethereal void. I moved through the air like a comet with a red and blue tail. My melting blades turned black as coal as Set and Isis lent me their strength for one last attack. “Kuroman’etsu!”
I slashed, unleashing everything I had at the dragon. Twin blades of pure blue and red energy arced out of me and hit the dragon full in the face. The immense creature was flung backward. I wasn’t sure if I had knocked it off its feet since I couldn’t see that far down, but as it started to fall, its tail came arcing out of nowhere. I twisted, trying in vain to dodge something bigger than a giant redwood while in midair. It was no use. The hard scales of Nidhogg’s tail crashed into me.
The world went dark. It spun. It exploded with agony as my left arm shattered. My ribs broke. Blood spurted from my mouth. My hands slipped off the hilt of my melting swords, and I started to fall.
As I tumbled toward oblivion, the dragon turned from me, one giant claw reaching upward toward the sky like it was trying to escape. It burst through the rock above us, spilling sunlight down upon us. It threw its other arm up through the rock and hoisted itself up on its elbows. As it lifted its head into the light, its many legs kicked at the burning trunk of Yggdrasil, reminding me of a dog trying to chase a squirrel up a tree.
The hole above grew larger and people, cars, and the odd building or two started to fall down into the abyss. Once Nidhogg got up there, it’d decimate the remaining Dioscuri. I’d only done this well because it had been trapped by Yggdrasil. My trump card hadn’t worked, although I wasn’t quite sure why. My bullet should have killed him. It hadn’t. My ace in the hole had failed spectacularly, and I was running out of ideas. I knew there had to be a way to stop him, only I didn’t have any idea what it could possibly be.
My vision darkened around the edges, and the taste of blood filled my mouth, but I ignored it, reached into my pocket, and pulled out Idun’s apple. I’d only taken a single bite before. I could take another. I could eat the whole damned thing. I raised it to my mouth determined to do just that. I wasn’t sure what that kind of power would do to me, but I was about to find out. My fingers were so weak as I tumbled into the abyss, that it took all my concentration to hold onto the slick golden fruit. I brought it to my lips.
Connor caught me.
The jerk of impact nearly threw the fruit from my hands. As he surged upward, one hand holding both blades of Shirajirashii, the other around my waist, his power wrapped around me, enveloping me in a shield of dark magic. Thes lay across his other shoulder, alive but barely.
“We’re leaving,” he said. His voice brokered no argument, which of course meant absolutely nothing to me.
“To where?” I asked, and my words came out in a bloody rasp that seared my throat. It probably shouldn’t have hurt that much to talk, but then again, I was pretty sure my lifespan could be mentioned in minutes. It was a sobering thought. “To where, Connor?”
“Somewhere safe,” he replied, not looking at me. His eyes were fixed on the dragon, now halfway out of the hole. Its huge tail swung to and fro, cleaving gouts into the burning world tree. The tree would fall soon, and when it did…
“You need to go full destroyer and stop it, Connor.” I sucked in a breath that made my ribs grind painfully in my chest.
“I can’t. I’m not strong enough. I can feel the Horsemen’s power, and because of that, I know I’m not strong enough to stop them,” he said, turning to look at me as I shoved Idun’s apple toward his mouth.
“You can do this Connor. Let me give you my power. If that’s the issue, well, that one I can solve.” I gave him my best smile, the one I only used on my boyfriend when we were alone together. “Just go full destroyer and wreck their shit.”
His eyes opened wide as I touched his cheek with my other hand. I could barely feel him, barely see his face through the haze threatening to overtake me. Part of me wanted to eat some of the apple anyway, but I couldn’t. I wanted him to have every last scrap of power I could give him because if I didn’t give it all to him and he failed, I’d have no one to blame but myself.
“Help me Obi-wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope,” I said as he reflexively bit into the apple.
A jolt of energy exploded through him with such force I felt it just by proximity. It pushed the darkness clouding my vision enough for me to see his throat convulse as he swallowed.
“What the hell is that?” he asked, but instead of telling him, I pushed the apple back toward him.
“Eat it all. Then take Shirajirashii. Kill the dragon, Connor.” My other hand dropped toward his hand, and I wrapped my fingers around his, pressing them into the hilts of Shirajirashii. If it was power he needed, then I’d give him all I could, even if it meant giving up my most prized possessions. My swords. “Listen to him,” I pleaded in my mind. “Just help him save us. Please.”
Connor finished the bite of apple and shook his head. Little arcs of electricity danced in his green hair as he turned eyes blacker than the Devil’s soul upon me. My own soul recoiled, but I ignored it as I pulled my hand away from Shirajirashii. It hurt unlike anything I could have expected, like I was giving away my child and letting him float down the Nile toward a better life.
“This time they’ll listen,” I wheezed, and the taste of blood was way too strong on my tongue.
“I have to get you two to safety first,” he said as Nidhogg scrambled upward. I could see the last of his legs now. We didn’t have long.
“No,” I said, grabbi
ng Thes, and as I did, I reached out with everything I had left in my poor, battered body. It wasn’t a lot, and even that tiny effort made stars shoot across my vision and my teeth clench in pain. I threw the lasso of force outward, anyway. It struck the wall several meters away, and as Connor kept flying upward, we jerked out of his grip.
“Lillim!” he cried, spinning toward me as Thes and I careened toward the ashen bark of Yggdrasil.
“Go, Connor. Stop the dragon. I’ll get Thes out of here. I promise!” I lied, but since I had to make it look like we’d survive, I pulled us into a split in the tree. “I’ve got this. Trust me.”
I wasn’t sure if he heard me, but either way, he turned away and rocketed toward the dragon. I watched in amazement as Shirajirashii blazed to life in his hands unlike anything I’d ever seen. He hit the dragon straight on, punching through the creature’s ribs in a spray of gore.
Nidhogg bellowed, and the world felt like it was ending. The dragon reached down toward the wound, and as it did, the white of the void poured out of the hole in its ragged flesh. Then, like Connor had opened a black hole inside the creature, it began to pull inward on itself.
I had a last moment to smile, to know we’d stopped the dragon when all of reality shattered and the world tree burst into white flame all around me. Guess Thes was wrong because I’d seen this ending before and it sucked.
25
I leapt sideways, barely managing to pull Thes’s broken body out of the way as a flaming chunk of Yggdrasil crashed down in front of our hidey hole and sealed us within. Smoke choked my lungs as darkness spread across the land, and I knew, just knew, we were all going to die, and not in the, everyone on the planet was about to die sort of way.
No, we were about to die in the burning to death sort of way, which wasn’t exactly how I wanted to go out. Especially since it seemed like we might actually win. I wasn’t sure if Nidhogg had been stopped in time, but as I watched him get sucked inside himself through the cracks in the flaming wood, I had to hope he had been. If not, well, I didn’t want to think about it.
Still as the world tree burned to ash all around me, a sinking feeling filled my stomach. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong.
As that thought tickled my brain, a hand burst through the burning wood and grabbed my arm. Time seemed to slow as I was pulled past the raging fire and out into fresh air. The flames flickered so slowly, I didn’t even feel them burn me even though I should have. I tried to turn, to grab Thes’s body still slumped in the alcove and pull him to safety, but before I could, I found myself standing in midair.
“Lillim,” Caleb, my boyfriend, said. His voice was full of sorrow as he wrapped his strong arms around me and pulled me to him. In the middle of the madness, it felt like coming home.
I cried out even though I didn’t mean to as his muscular chest made my broken ribs grind against each other in a way they never should have been able to.
Instantly, his touch softened. It was almost as though he knew I was hurting and wanted more than anything to stop it.
“Caleb,” I wheezed. Everything inside my chest hurt, but not quite as much as I thought it should have. All around me darkness flickered and seethed, like it was waiting for something to happen, to let it take everything. “You came.”
“Don’t be stupid. Of course I did,” he whispered, putting his forehead against mine as he trailed one hand down my cheek. His touch was warm enough to cause tingles to skip across my spine and my knees to go weak. “Sorry, I couldn’t come sooner.” A pained look crossed his face. “I wanted to come, but I was trying to save the world.”
“I guess I’ll have to forgive you then,” I said, smiling because even after all this time, being with him was still kind of like a dream. Through everything, I still wanted Caleb. Sure, I flirted with other guys sometimes, maybe harbored a feeling or two I shouldn’t, but at the end of the day, Caleb was mine, I was his, and that was worth living for.
“Good.” He kissed me hungrily, and the taste of him was like strawberries and sunshine. My heart pounded in my chest as he ran his hands along my back, digging them into me with a fury only the end of a separation could bring about. I tried to cry out, though if it was from pain or pleasure, I couldn’t be sure. He kissed me even harder and his need was overwhelming, almost like he’d never get to do it again. The thought made my blood turn to ice water in my veins. He probably wouldn’t.
“Caleb,” I wheezed when he finally broke away. Blood trickled from his nose as he looked at me with sorrow in his eyes. “What’s going on?”
“We lost,” he replied, wiping the blood from his nose with the back of his hand. “We tried to stop Death, tried to conquer it, but in the end, it proved too strong. The world will be unmade.” He took a deep breath, and as he did, blue flames licked across his skin. It only lasted an eye blink, but it’d happened.
“Are you stopping time?” I asked, unable to process what he’d really said. There’s no way we could lose, not after everything. We’d stopped the dragon hadn’t we? Wait… was this what Thes had worried about? Why he’d told me to sacrifice Connor? Only Connor wasn’t dead. The dragon was dying, but Connor was okay, wasn’t he?
“Yes,” Caleb said and kissed me again. This time there was more force in it, more hunger, and more sorrow. I pulled him into me. This might be the last time I ever got to kiss him. If that was the case, It had better be the best kiss of all time.
“Do you trust me?” I asked as he pulled away. The vessels in his eyes had burst, and the smell of cooking meat filled my nose, but the feel of him was the same. He was still Caleb, and he was here. That was worth something. He was combusting under the strain of stopping time, but he wouldn’t tell me that. I knew anyway because I’d seen it happen before. Hell, I’d felt it happen before.
“More than anything.” He smiled and for what seemed like the first time in forever, I watched his smile reach his eyes. “Actually, more than anything I want to live, but yeah.” His lips peppered my face with kisses. “I wish I had a thousand years. Do you know that? I wish I had a thousand years so I could spend them all with you. I love you.”
“Trust me then. Let go of time,” I replied, meeting his lips with mine. “I know it seems impossible, but I think I know how to win.”
“Okay,” he said and there was a surprising amount of hope in his voice. He believed me. Even when we were facing the end of all things, he believed I could save us. It was more than I could have asked for.
Our lips met again, and as they did, I felt time spring back into place, felt the world erupt around us. Darkness filled the whole of the world, covering everything, and as it did, Connor stepped out of it. He stalked toward us, the molten blades of Shirajirashii in his hands as a blanket of white fire fell across the sky. As it descended toward us, Yggdrasil burned. The rocky cavern above disintegrated, everything turned to dust. The whole of the sky was fire.
“Lillim, what’s going on?” Connor cried as he rushed toward us, a shroud of darkness enveloping him. He stopped a few feet away and even though it was totally the wrong place for it, grinned at me. “I’m guessing this is the really tough boyfriend you always claimed would beat me up, eh?”
“Connor,” I cried, barely resisting the urge to smack him. “Can you stop this?” I gestured toward the all-consuming fire.
“I don’t know.” He shut his eyes for a second, and when he opened them, Connor wasn’t home. “Yes. It can be stopped if we hurry.”
“Is that who I think it is?” Caleb asked, but I smacked him in the chest. Now wasn’t the time for introductions.
“Your people call me Nanashi,” Connor said, turning toward my boyfriend because apparently we did have time for introductions. “Take me to War and Death. I can stop them.”
“How?” Caleb asked, and I wanted to hit him. What did it matter how? The goddamned world was ending. If we had any chance at all, we had to take it.
“I will take them with me to the void. They cannot unmake us
there.” He opened his mouth to say more, but wound up shaking his head violently. Connor smacked himself in the forehead with the Set’s pommel.
“Get out of my head,” he cried, turning toward me, and as he did, he tried to smile. It was a brittle, fragile thing.
“Can it be done, Connor?” I asked, and as I said the words, the look on his face told me it could.
“I think so, yeah, but I can’t do it.” He swallowed hard. “I’m not a hero, Lillim. I can’t do it. It’s one thing to play Superman when you can’t die. It’s another to do it when you can.”
“Being a hero is overrated,” I replied, stepping away from Caleb and grabbing Connor’s wrists. I was almost amazed it had worked because I’d half expected to tumble into the darkness below but whatever Caleb had done to make me float in the air worked even when I wasn’t touching him.
“I don’t want to die,” Connor told me, and I believed him with everything in me.
“You won’t die,” I lied. “I spoke to Thes.” I shook my head. “Not this one. The Thes from the future. He told me you win.”
“I do?” he asked, and I could tell he didn’t believe me. He wanted to believe me, but he just didn’t.
“Do you think I’d lie to you, Connor?” I asked, and as I did, I pressed my body against his. “Please,” I whispered into his ear. “You’re the only one who can do this. I believe in you.”
Connor kissed me, and I let him even though my boyfriend was standing right there. Well, he’d have to get over it. Maybe he saw me gesturing for him to stay back. Maybe he just trusted me. Hell, maybe he liked it. I have no idea why Caleb didn’t move, but I thanked anyone who would listen for it.
The feel of Connor’s lips on mine was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. This wasn’t staring into the abyss and knowing it looks back. No, this was tongue kissing the abyss and feeling it worm its way inside you. And I stood there and took it. When he pulled away from me, his eyes were hard and my soul was tarnished. One of us would have to live with that.
Fatal Ties: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 7) Page 16