I nodded. It was time. “The cycle of history repeating ends now.” I plucked on all the millions of souls at my command. Scorpions, snakes, scarabs, crocodiles. Come to me. Outside, the barren streets moved with their countless bodies.
Everything hinged on what happened next. Trust in the lie. I had to make it work. I had to make them believe just a little while longer…
An arrow shot from the dark, narrowly missing my shoulder. Mafdet’s deep laugh filled the throne room, joined by the yowl of predatory felines.
“Wait…” Bastet held out a hand. The Slayer of Serpents had arrived with Bastet’s warriors. I could only hope Cat’s words had done enough to sway her queen.
I collapsed into ash and swirled around Cat. “Trust me.”
She lifted her face and peered through me. Ash snagged at her lashes and hair. She didn’t answer, but she did smile. She wasn’t afraid, and that was enough. I scooped her up and whisked her away from the throne room, through the corridors and up motionless escalators.
The End was here.
Wind and souls howled around the department store, but on the rooftop, the air hung still.
I set Cat down and wrapped myself up in the appearance of a man once more. Cat looked on, calm and defiant. She had already faced the Twelve Gates, stood up to Bastet, taken the Recka’s eyes, and died more than once. For her, this was just another day of the week. “What you’re about to see… don’t try to stop it,” I told her.
“What am I about to see?”
“The End of All Things.” I grinned and turned away.
“Ace?”
The name drew me up short. Looking over my shoulder, I caught her half smile. “Do you die here?”
“Perhaps, but the best villains always come back.”
“Are you a villain?”
“Depends on who you ask.” There was more to say, so much more, but our time had run out. “Thank you,” I told her. There was too much to thank her for. She had believed in me and sought out the truth when everyone else had given up on it. But most of all, she had understood.
She smiled sadly and nodded.
I strode toward an elevator motor hut and crouched in the doorway. Nile was sitting where Shukra had told me he would be, knees drawn up, face pensive. “You know what you have to do?” I asked him.
“I do.” His voice wavered.
“When Osiris comes, he will need your power.” I wasn’t sure Nile would survive. For all his power, he was mortal. I could tell him everything would be fine, but he would recognize the lie.
“It’s okay,” he said. “It was always going to come to this.”
Nile was the key. Without him, Osiris’s trap couldn’t hold anything more powerful than a scarab, but with the kid’s Light behind it and Shukra’s modifications, the trap would close and seal everything inside: the gods, their power, all of it. And once the gods were gone, the sundering would be over, forever.
Nile offered me his hand. I took it and pulled him to his feet. “I understand,” he said as I guided him out onto the roof. “I understand all of it now.”
“I’m sorry there wasn’t another way,” I admitted.
“I know you are.”
I stopped Nile at roughly the center of the rooftop and mentally stirred up the ash enough to cover the markings scratched around the edges—the same markings the witches had used to ensnare me, plus a few additional modifications courtesy of Shukra. The thought of facing that trap again twisted up my insides. But it was necessary. The deaths, the lies, the sacrifices. All of them had been necessary.
I just needed one more thing to sweeten the trap.
Briefly closing my eyes, I cast my mind out as I had in the Great River when looking for Hatshepsut. Souls flickered and darted. Some rushed in, trying to flood my thoughts with their will, and others rushed away. The darker ones watched and waited for instructions.
“Goddess of Light…” I cast the name outward. “Isis, come to my side.”
A star more colorful than all the rest pulsed in the Dark. She couldn’t resist my call.
I opened my eyes. “Stay close.” Nile nodded, but I’d sent my words into the storm. From the outside, the gods saw me building an army made of all the darkness in this world and the underworld, and in their righteous fury, they had no choice but to stop me.
Mafdet appeared first, and behind her came Bastet and her elite band of warriors. Their blades glinted with the same murderous intensity as their eyes. They approached carefully, wary and suspicious. But Bastet’s determination had softened. She looked at me with the expression she had worn when I’d stabbed Alysdair through her heart. Her faith had been tested, but now, due to Cat, she truly knew the things I had done and why my soul was black. It had to be this way.
Anubis circled in, lips rippling over a snout full of teeth. Above, the Recka sent out a cry before sinking through the eye of the storm and settling behind me. The backdraft from its wings blasted ash from the rooftop, revealing some of the markings, but none of the gods noticed. All eyes were locked on me.
“Show off,” I grumbled at the Recka.
“The Recka is mighty. It is myth and legend—”
“Cat’s here,” I told it before its ego could get out of control.
It bowed its head, tucked its wings in, and muttered obscenities in the old language.
Now we just needed one last guest: Osiris. Of course, the flashy bastard was fashionably late.
“Where is Seth?” Mafdet asked, raising her voice over the howling winds. From the sly glimmer in her eyes, I wondered if she already suspected she knew the answer.
“I ate his soul with some fava beans and a nice chianti.”
Mafdet snorted. Nobody laughed. Tough crowd.
The gods stared. They each knew I could topple them individually so none were about to make the first move. But as the seconds ticked on, the chances of them realizing not all was as it seemed grew.
Where was Osiris? He should have been here. This wouldn’t work without him.
“This has gone on long enough.” Anubis stepped forward. “You will cease this rampage and submit to the Scales of Justice.”
I scoffed. The little jackal god still thought he was getting my heart on a plate. “You are not qualified to judge me. Besides, all that would serve is pandering to your sense of theatrics. We all know exactly what I am.”
“The Dark will never overcome the Light. The gods will triumph.”
I rolled my eyes and started a slow, careful pace in front of Nile. “Good, Bad, Dark, Light. Day. Night. You’re all so hung up on their definitions when really, it’s all the same. It’s all just a matter of perspective. You can’t have one without the other.”
I was about to continue educating the gods, when the storm peeled open behind the line of gods and Osiris’s gargantuan statue leaned in and offered up its hand. The fingers gradually opened. Its huge stone face peered down into the palm of its hand.
Say what you would about Osiris, but he sure knew how to make an entrance. I might even have been slightly impressed.
Osiris stepped off the hand, golden armor gleaming, crook in one hand. Chuck dangled from his other hand. She hissed, spat, bucked, and kicked, but the girl wasn’t escaping his iron grip.
Kres. The scorpions should have protected her. If I hadn’t called them all to me…
Nile heard his mother’s cries and stepped forward. “Mom?”
I caught his shoulder and dug my fingers in, holding him back. He pushed against me. “Trust me,” I muttered under my breath and then touched the cuff on his wrist. “Raraoka.” Release. The cuff fell open and clattered against the rooftop. His considerable power flexed, pushing in before relaxing outward. “Trust in the lie,” I whispered for Nile’s ears only. It was a big ask. The kid had all the reasons in the world to despise me. But Nile knew the truth, and now, for the first time, he could hear the truth in my words clearly.
Light flickered in the corner of my eye. Shimmers wove through my
dark storm, building, coming closer.
Nile hesitated and then backed down. When I was sure he wouldn’t bolt, I turned my glare back on Osiris. Damn him. I’d had it all under control. I’d assumed he’d focus on Nile. He’d told me Chuck was nothing to him, and yet here she was. I could only hope Osiris had left Cujo alive when he’d taken her.
I deliberately set a brittle edge to my laugh. “What is this? You brought a date? Isis would be most disappointed.”
“Hand over the boy,” Osiris demanded.
On my right, Bastet tensed. She had seen her daughter die once before, and she cared—she always had. Her eyes narrowed, fixing the god in her sights. Around her, the warrior cats slid their focus away from me to Osiris. Bastet had picked her side. Cat saw and smirked a rare and very un-cat-like smile.
“A trade,” Osiris said, gold-edged eyes on me, but his attention wandered over my shoulder to where a soul hovered in the air. Isis. He could bring her back. Alarm cracked his stoic expression. His sister-wife was almost within his grasp.
A smile lifted my lips. He knew I could drink Isis all the way down in seconds. There was no coming back from a soul eater’s bite. How much did he want the world? How much did he truly want me gone? Was it enough to spend his remaining days alone? As much as he hated his wife, he loved her too. He couldn’t help but love her. Isis and Osiris were a constant. They despised each other, but there was madness to their love. The one thing I could use against him. Isis was his weakness.
He schooled his face. “You are cornered and out of time. It’s over.”
“Not yet.”
I had to give him Nile, but I also had to make him believe the lie, make him think I didn’t want this. “It is good of you all to come. You will witness this world bow down and worship in my name.”
Scorpions crawled up and over the edges of the roof, pincers grinding. Anubis shifted uneasily. His jackals were close. I counted their souls in the stairwell—thousands. Outside my storm, the trap’s teeth drew closer. I couldn’t see it, but I could feel the moment building, tightening, stretching time. Everything had been leading to this moment. The witches and their attempts to siphon off my magic, secrets found in Egypt, a prophecy of how a boy—Nile—would stop the End of All Things. And he would. Truths and lies. Myths turned to legends and breathed into life. And I was the anti-god who would stop them all. It finished here. My heart raced too hard. Thoughts whirred along with the storm raging around us. Whatever happened next, I had done the right thing. This was the only way.
“He won’t trade!” Chuck yelled. “He doesn’t care!”
“You should listen to the mother of your son, Osiris. I’ve only met her a few times. What makes you think I’d give up my impending reign over this world for a brat?”
He dropped her, but instead of freeing her, he hooked an arm around her throat and yanked her against his chest. When he produced the sword, Bastet lunged. Her warriors let out their war cries. And from behind me, jackals flooded onto the roof. I whirled in time to see one knock Nile to the ground. I kicked it off and saw Osiris throw Chuck down and make a dash for his wife’s soul. I reached for Isis’s brightness, but another jackal sprang in, sinking its teeth into my shoulder and yanking me around. Another slammed into my back, going for my neck, almost bringing me down.
“Ossacd!” I hooked into the hundreds of scorpion souls and threw them into the melee of jackals. The rooftop boiled with teeth, claws, stingers, blood, and ash. Teeth and claws clanged against my armor, scratched off, and sank in in places. I had known this would happen, I’d expected chaos, and as the battle erupted, I smiled. The End was a glorious sight.
“Nile!” I called.
There, crawling toward the smaller of two panthers: Bastet and Chuck. The big cats clawed at the jackals. Something about the sight of them twitched an emotion alive inside me. Mother and daughter. They would have this moment together, even if it was their last.
Osiris was suddenly blocking my path to Nile. He lifted Nile by the neck and plunged his hand into his son’s chest. Light exploded, washing what I could see of the world away and silencing the madness.
For the smallest of moments there was nothing.
No pain.
No time.
No beginning.
No end.
Nothing. Just eternal, endless silence. A timeless prison made of Light. Forever.
Osiris’s trap snapped shut.
Chapter 13
The final lie had been spun, the illusion revealed.
I watched from the elevator hut as the Light swept in and collapsed, swallowing the storm of souls, the gods, the Recka, everything with it, including parts of me. Thunderous noise threatened to pull me apart, but I clung on to everything that made me Ace Dante. I’d created him before, and I wasn’t letting him go. And slowly, so slowly, the lie became the truth. I rebuilt the boy who broke all the rules, who fought against the odds for innocent souls, who defied all that was wrong in the worlds. And then, when I wasn’t sure I could hold on to the memory any longer, it was done.
The clouds fizzled apart, revealing a wash of autumnal blue. Sunlight poured over the rooftop, stirring Cat, Nile, and Chuck awake where they had fallen.
Ashes dallied in the air, ridiculously soft and quiet.
I reached out a hand and caught some. Inside, my thoughts were still. I waited for the madness, for the temptation to claw at my skin and demand more, but it didn’t come. There was no rage, no madness, no internal battle. Just calm. My skin no longer itched with power, and the souls no longer screamed inside my head.
Apophis was gone.
I was just me… Just Ace.
The ashes in my hand disintegrated as though they had never existed. The markings on the roof had burned themselves out and, along with Osiris’s enormous statue, turned to dust. I looked for signs that Osiris would come striding toward us, or Anubis would have his jackals attack, but the quiet stretched into the building and cleansed the air. They weren’t here.
Chuck reached for Nile and helped him up.
“It’s so bright…” Nile gasped. “I can… I can see…” They threw their arms around each other. Cat approached them, her smile genuine. She scanned the rooftop, looking for me. I blinked back at her, afraid that if I moved, the illusion would shatter. Was this world the illusion? Had I been trapped with the others and this was a product of my mind reaching for hope?
No, the Apophis reaching for Isis, the Apophis reaching for Nile, he had been the illusion.
I rocked back on my heels and brushed a hand down my face, sweeping off ash.
Ace Dante. That was my name. And for the first time it fit.
Cat stepped forward.
“Wait… I…” I wasn’t sure. How could I be sure Apophis was gone? I hadn’t known I’d had him inside me for five centuries. What if it went wrong? What if he was somehow still inside?
“Ace?” Cat came closer still, ignoring the shake of my head. “Is it you?”
Chuck lifted an unusual sword from out of the fading ashes. Shorter and thinner than Alysdair, it looked right at home in her hands. She puzzled over the strange markings on the blade, and then she turned on the spot, pausing only to watch fragments of armor or splashes of blood dissolve. “Bastet. Osiris. They’re all gone…”
Shukra shoved through the stairwell door and strode into the sunlight. She shielded her eyes and scanned us. Satisfied by what she saw, she crossed the rooftop and offered me her hand. “Welcome back, Acehole.”
I closed my fingers around hers and let her haul me to my feet.
Squinting, she remarked, “Still ugly.”
“It worked?” I asked.
“Of course it worked. All the gods are gone. You’re not a god. Somebody forgot to give Osiris the memo. It’s so damn hard being this awesome. You should try it sometime.”
I hadn’t been sure I’d still be here. Using my real name of Apophis to trap that part of me the same way the god’s memories had once been trapped in a box
had been a long shot at best. But all the power was in the name, all but Ace Dante. That name had been worthless. And yet here I stood. Alive. Free. Me.
Cat attacked. I hadn’t seen it coming and tensed to retaliate, but then she threw her arms around me and rubbed her chin against my cheek. I knew I was me when the feel of her softened the brittle fear caked around my heart. A fear that this couldn’t possibly be real. A purr rumbled through her.
Cat pulled back, out of my arms. She swallowed and tried to pack all her emotions back inside the cool, professional Cat, and failed.
Chuck glared through her lashes and jerked her chin. I offered her my fist to bump. She glowered at it, and then reluctantly bumped her fist with mine. “You are like the worst dad in the history of bad dads ever.”
“That’s probably true.”
“This doesn’t mean I like you.” She sniffed and held out the sword. “I think this might be yours.”
I reached for the sword. Power tingled unpleasantly against my fingertips, and I pulled my hand back. “Actually, I think it’s yours now. I’ll teach you how to use it.”
A smile wormed its way through all of Chuck’s attitude and stuck for a few seconds. “Yeah?”
“On the condition you don’t kill me. I have a feeling if you do, it might stick.”
Her soul-eater eyes gleamed at the prospect. There was still a long way to go, but it would start here, on a rooftop in an abandoned city.
We slowly made our way back through the building, watching hieroglyphs crumble to dust as we passed.
A day later, a soft, warm breeze filtered through the empty street outside the make-do camp building. The air smelled like diesel smoke and post-rain dust. Soon, the roads would once again fill with cars and the buildings would be brimming with people. Any physical evidence of the gods and their sundering would soon fade. In a month, people would question what they had seen. In a year or more, the sundering would fade into history. Memories would turn the truth to myth, given time.
Edge of Forever (The Soul Eater Book 6) Page 12