Darkness Savage (The Dark Cycle Book 3)

by Rachel A. Marks

Oh, God, I’m so sorry. My heart’s stopped beating.

  Her brow pinches as my fire touches her skin at the back of her head. It hurts, Aidan.

  I know.

  Her eyes glaze over, closing. I want to go home now.

  I ache. I shatter. And I let go of my sister. I let my power take her. I watch it crawl over her shoulders, her chest, I watch it fill her. And I feel it pull the Darkness loose. It tugs all impurities free and captures her spirit, weaving it back into the right shape, even as the light threads gather into a ball of energy, as I say good-bye.

  Her body stays whole, and my fire slips away, sinking back inside of me. I hold her, and my mind drifts as I rock, whispering a prayer for the dead as I shake, as I go numb, my tears falling on her upturned face.

  My whole world becomes this moment. And I plead for my life to end, just so it won’t be true. I’m so lost I don’t hear the cracking until the wall in front of me is caving in.

  I look up through the haze of my misery and watch the gateway begin to grow fissures, up and up from a spot on the floor.

  I shift my foot and realize Ava’s blood spilled into the sand and touched the doorway.

  As the first shard of stone sucks into the vast expanse behind it, Rebecca yells my name.

  The wind comes like a scream, whistling through the breach, swallowing her voice as she tries to tell me to move. She’s tugging on my shoulder, trying to force me.

  But I’m stone, holding my sister. Watching the world end again.

  I smell Rebecca’s energy before I see the green light come at me, pushing me sideways away from Ava’s body. I grip the edge of the altar and try to decide if I should get up or just stay here on the floor of my mother’s secret cave forever. The sorrow in me is a weight in my bones, dragging me down to the bottom of the ocean. And I just want to let it drown me.

  “Aidan!” Rebecca’s in my face now, shaking me. “Snap out of it, please! This is bad, very bad. I can feel it. You have to get up!”

  I reach out to her, running a bloody finger over her cheek. “I’m sorry.”

  “Come back to me, Aidan. I need you. You can’t leave me here alone.”

  I sense her desperation. Her determination. She’s so strong. She’s like a rock in the storm. I decide to hold on to her.

  She helps me to my feet, and the scream of the wind shifts. A loud groan emerges from the walls, like a protest of what’s about to happen. The fissures widen and indent with a thud. And the moaning surrounding us turns to a rolling thunder.

  Until the wall releases. And we’re standing by the altar, staring eternity in the face.

  The wind whips at our hair, our clothes, as the expanse pulls at us.

  “Oh my God,” Rebecca whispers.

  I feel her heartbeat in my skin, echoing mine. Her energy mingles with the ground and shattered walls surrounding us. Some of the broken roots on the floor begin sprouting new life as her green mist pushes out at every surface.

  “It’s her blood,” I say. “We need to use it as the key to close this thing.”

  “What is it?” She presses her back into my chest.

  “It’s everything. And nothingness.”

  “You killed her,” comes a growl behind us, over the din. “You killed my queen.”

  I turn and stumble back, having forgotten about Ava’s human who was held to the ground by the tree roots. He . . . he killed Eric. And I want to rip him apart. He stands on the other side of the altar, a mass of muscle and rage.

  “Now you die,” he says, focused on me like a weapon ready to fire.

  I grip my dagger as I move to the side, pulling Rebecca behind me.

  This isn’t a demon, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a beast.

  Victor makes his way to the other side of the altar, never taking his eyes off us. He pauses when he reaches Ava’s body and looks down on her, his features twisting in outrage. “You won’t have her,” he says. “And you won’t have your key to save yourselves from what’s about to come.” He crouches down then, and shoves Ava through the open doorway, into the expanse.

  My body jerks, wanting to rush after her, but Rebecca holds me tight.

  I watch my sister’s body get sucked into the void, the storm taking hold of her and swallowing her up. It’s not her. It’s not her. It’s just a shell.

  Victor stands and faces us. “Now I peel the skin from your bones,” he says, stepping closer.

  I nudge Rebecca around the side of the altar next to the cave entrance. “Run,” I say, hoping she’ll listen. She could get away if she goes fast enough. The angel killer just wants me.

  She pushes back against my hands. “I’m not leaving you with him, Aidan.”

  “Your soul mate’s kinda stubborn,” Victor says.

  I could teleport us out of here, but I need to find a remnant of Ava’s blood and close that doorway before something horrifying climbs through. From where I stand, I can’t tell if there’s any still there, where her body was.

  I step forward, moving to the left. Rebecca stays behind me as I place myself between Victor and the gateway. His large figure is framed by the storm, fists clenched at his side. I need to keep my eye on those fists. Getting hit by one could end this quick.

  Rebecca tries to pull me back, toward the exit, but I don’t let her. I have to get Victor out of the way. And . . . I want to kill him. I don’t care if he’s human. He needs to die.

  I rush forward, keeping my dagger low.

  Victor swings and I swerve, slicing the dagger across his side. He barely flinches. His forearm comes down on my shoulder blade.

  My lungs clench and I stumble. I use my fire-filled elbow to jab his kidney as I fall in front of him, onto my knees. He grunts and swings, knuckles slamming into my cheek.

  Splotches cloud my vision and I slash wildly with the blade, trying to keep him away. I hear Rebecca yelling something at me, but it doesn’t register. I need to get my dagger through this man’s gut—no, I have to focus, I need to get to the blood. I move my other hand through the sand, searching for something damp.

  A boot meets my ribs, kicking me over.

  The thud of pain rings in my head as I land. The storm of the gateway roars at my back now. It whips at my skin as I swipe forward with my blade again, this time hitting flesh.

  Victor growls. He grabs my dagger arm and slams my wrist into the stone altar.

  The bones shatter. I grapple with my other hand, trying to escape his iron grip. I kick with my power behind it, shoving him back hard, but he doesn’t let go of me. I fly with him as he hits the wall beside the doorway.

  “Enough!” he grinds through his teeth, getting his face close to mine. “We both go down, Chosen One.”

  Before I can get free of him, he wrenches me sideways, tossing us both toward the swirling darkness.

  I twist, making him fall in first as I’m pulled, my fingers just barely grabbing hold of the archway as we plunge. I hold on to earth as Victor dangles from my broken arm.

  The wind hits me hard. It rips at me, stinging, burning, my skin tearing from the force of it. I cry out and hold the wall, willing my body not to give up as I kick him, trying to free my other arm from his insistent grasp. The gravity is too strong. It’s yanking Victor, yanking me, screaming, filling my head with its sharp whispers, like talons in the flesh, ripping me away from everything. It wants. It wants me.

  My fingers bleed, my arms pull. I’m being torn apart, but I can’t let go of the doorway. I can’t . . . I can’t hold on.

  Something wraps around my earthbound hand, and I’m suddenly being pulled in two directions. I look up and see a root gripping my wrist. Rebecca’s at the edge, the storm whipping her hair into a frenzy. Her mouth is moving, but I can’t hear her words. It’s all sinking away, my will, my life, the wind is cutting it from me with each desperate tug. And Victor still holds fast, helping it take me.

  Rebecca kneels down, her hand entering the chaos. Her fingers splay over my arm. Her skin warms mine. And her ene
rgy reaches out for me, letting me feel her. The part of her inside of me that was passed on in the bonding spell.

  The green light brightens and trails past my head, followed by another root. It slides over my shoulders, down my other arm, to the man trying to kill me. The green light gathers where Victor grips. It slips down along his arm to his shoulder, the root reaching.

  The tendril pauses. Sharpens to a point.

  And then impales Victor in the eye, breaking out the back of the skull.

  The dead man jerks, then releases my arm as Rebecca’s power yanks me free of the storm, tossing me back into the cave.

  I reorient myself as quick as I can, trying to sit up. I gasp and hold my chest, the burning from my torn skin almost unbearable now that I’m not in the torrent. Rebecca staggers to me and collapses at my side, still staring at the storm.

  “Have to . . . close it,” I manage to say. “Demons. Hell.”

  “What do I do?” she asks, frantic.

  “Blood . . . Ava.” God, I hope it’s still there.

  She scrambles up and searches the ground. “The sand all blew away. I don’t see any blood!”

  No.

  I try to get to my knees and crawl over. “We only need a little.”

  “Aidan, this isn’t going to work. We need—oh, shit! Something’s coming!” She stumbles back, tripping over me as she tries to get away from the opening.

  I’ll just kill it, I think as I search the ground for any sign of my sister’s blood, trying not to analyze what I’m doing. It won’t just be one demon coming through this thing. Any minute we’ll have hordes pouring out in a river.

  And I see nothing, no blood. I turn to Rebecca. “You need to run!”

  “No!” Fear fills her eyes but she’s still got that set to her jaw. She won’t listen to me. And she’ll get herself killed.

  “Please, Rebecca! I can fight them, but you can’t.”

  “Did you not see what I did to your sister? And Hunger!”

  I shake my head, knowing she’s not prepared for what might be coming. I’d love to keep arguing, but we don’t have time. I can’t think. I don’t know what to do. Even as the first claw grabs hold of the archway. Huge. The fingers as thick as a child’s arm.

  I move back and we both watch as the massive creature pulls its way into the cave, its head like a bull, its hairy shoulders as wide as a truck. It growls and yellow saliva flies at us. I’m going to have to move toward it, but my feet are stuck.

  Holy shit, it’s huge.

  It hoists up a leg, shaking the ground. Then the second leg, and it rises, hunching so its horns don’t hit the ceiling. Its black eyes stare at us like it’s not sure what we are.

  “Aidan,” Rebecca whispers. “Kill it now, please.”

  Another smaller demon that looks like a tiny troll scrambles up the big one’s leg, as if it hitched a ride. It spots us and grins wide. Then leaps.

  FIFTY-SIX

  Rebecca

  The demon’s body hits Aidan’s raised arm, his fire slicing it in half right before it bursts into flames.

  The huge bull creature grunts and moves to the side, then starts walking out of the cave, like it’s trying to avoid us. But Aidan scrambles up and grips its tree trunk leg.

  His power sizzles over the thing’s skin, and the beast roars loud enough to shake what’s left of the walls, as the flames move, slow at first, like there’s too much of a meal, until they’re rushing up to the thigh. The demon stumbles, falling over the altar, breaking it in half.

  Still Aidan hangs on, skidding across the sandy floor.

  Another creature emerges from the wall and my magic instantly sends a root at it when my nerves spark. The branch pierces the demon through the mouth and the back of the head. It just blinks and looks confused, but it doesn’t die.

  “Aidan!” I yell, feeling useless. “The doorway!”

  “I know,” he grunts. The bull demon is half-consumed, so he lets go. He spins, scrambles to pick up his dagger from the ground, then shoves it into the demon I pinned, disintegrating it.

  He studies the doorway, his face panicked.

  The bull demon growls and tries to roll over, still not dead, its head and upper torso untouched.

  “What if we break it?” I yell over the mess of sound and storm. “Can we just bring the cave down?” I’ve already got it started.

  “Break it?” he repeats, but I can tell something’s dawning on him. The realization in his eyes sparks hope in my gut. Until he says, “You have to leave. You can’t be here when I try this.”

  I shake my head. “Just tell me what you’re going to do.”

  He moves close and takes me by the upper arms. “This isn’t something you can help with, Rebecca. Please. Run up the beach to the house. The ladies will let you in if you tell them you know me.”

  “Aidan . . .” I can’t leave him. I just can’t.

  He growls in frustration, and I’m suddenly being pulled through time again, stretched out and twisted. Then I land in a huff of air, my sore feet screaming in pain as I collapse. My head clears just in time to see Aidan let go of me and pop from existence, leaving me on the bluff, near a pink house.

  I gasp and try to not let my stomach empty itself from the instant travel this time.

  “Dammit!” I should have known he was going to do that. If I wasn’t so terrified for him, I’d kill him.

  FIFTY-SEVEN

  Aidan

  As soon as I return to the cave, I stab the huge demon blocking the entrance and watch it quickly dissolve. Then I drag the still comatose Jaasi’el to the gateway and push it in. Another demon is climbing out as I shove the massive angel over the edge. This new one is tall and thin. I jab my blade in its claw, casting it into ash, then rise and grip the archway, and get ready to tear down some walls.

  I know my power packs a punch, I just hope it’s enough. Rebecca’s roots have done half the work already.

  Part of me knows that shutting the gateway won’t be as simple as collapsing the cave, but my gut is telling me that if I can just get my power to link with the energy in the opening, I’ll be able to destroy the porthole altogether. It’s a crazy idea, but it’s the only one I’ve got.

  I take a deep breath in and pull at my power, willing it to fill my muscles, my bones. But I don’t let it out. Not yet. I hold it, allowing it to grow. And grow. I clench my fingers tighter against the white stone as the sting in my skin builds. I keep the fire captive, setting it like a spring. I grip, grip tight, to the wall, the power, my sanity. To everything. Even as I hear wings rustle, sense creatures below, growling beasts coming closer, ready to come through the gateway. Even when I feel like my skin is about to be flayed from my bones to get the power out. I count my slowing heartbeat.

  One . . . two . . . three.

  And then I let it go. Pushing the force out with everything left in me. Into the stone around me, and through the gateway.

  A clap of thunder crashes, shattering the walls. Rock and dirt spray in, shards fly in a mass of chaos, from the sides, from above and below, as the world explodes around me with a crack of air—

  And then freezes. Becoming stillness. The moment of destruction paused midriot. And I know my power’s linked in, weaving through whatever it is that created the doorway, freezing time somehow. Sound sucks away in a low buzz. Electricity prickles my skin. Air stops moving in my lungs.

  I’m stuck in the time lapse, unable to move, an observer noticing the droplets of blood spraying out of my arm where I’m cut . . . the levitating pieces of the altar . . . the shard of rock heading for my eye.

  It all hovers around me for a blink. As my power tugs and tugs, harder and harder, at a piece of the air, as if pulling a thread. Pulling, pulling, ready to unravel it all. The air tightens around me. Pressing in.

  Then I hear something, sound returning quickly in a vibrating hum. And I feel time returning in my core. I know my power’s done it, it’s destroyed the doorway. And I also know if I don’t get my
body out of this moment—this position—before everything resumes, I’ll be dead. For good.

  The hum grows, and my lungs begin to move again, my limbs able to break from the pause just a little as the prickles of electricity sting my skin.

  And then time hits. The air cracks with thunder once more. My brain tells my body to spring sideways, but my muscles are half a second too slow. A huge rock slams into my stomach, shoving me toward the cave entrance. I hit hard on unsteady ground. The earth fractures and pushes up around me as I cough and try to orient myself again, try to scramble to my feet. I see the opening, daylight. I focus on it, trying to push myself up to move.

  I can make it to the entrance, almost free—

  The ground disappears underneath me and I fall. I go blind, dirt and stone wreckage pelting my face. I hit earth and slide, scrape over stone for what feels like years. Until I’m punched by a wall of water, the ocean finding me. I’m shoved back, thrashed by it, my body spinning as I curl in a ball to protect myself. And then the tide turns and I’m pulled. I’m sucked through, tugged mercilessly, farther and farther, over jagged edges, salt and brine filling my mouth, my nose.

  And then it slows, the deep waters accepting me as I’m embraced by the open sea.

  I let the water take me. It’s almost a dance as I join the rhythm of back and forth. My body sinking, deeper and deeper. Into stillness and nothing. I breathe in the water, my lungs not even fighting as they fill with lead. I feel my shattered bones, the torn muscles in my broken body. And I revel in it. As long as I feel pain, I’m alive.

  I’m alive.

  I open my eyes and watch the dusk of the deep. Shadows shape the distant expanse of ocean around me. Shards of sunlight break the surface high above. But I sink deeper and keep to the cold darkness as the truth falls over me.

  It’s over. It’s all over.

  THREE MONTHS LATER

  Rebecca

  “He’s not going to give up, is he?” my dad says, watching Connor haggle with the woman selling necklaces a few yards down the beach.

  I smile at Connor’s sun-soaked figure in silent satisfaction, thinking how lovely he looks framed by the blue Mexican sky. The ocean crashes behind him, foamy crystals that wrap around his ankles and sink him into the white sand with each turn. But he’s determined. He’s trying to ask a local woman to make a green necklace for me, but his Spanish is horrid. His hands wave at the palm trees in desperation, and the woman just keeps shaking her head.