“You’re a treat, as always,” I muttered, looking around again. This time, the darkness I’d welcomed as a painkiller against the ghoulish curse was an obstacle. This space was my enemy, and I needed to find my way out, fast.
If Death was right—though I did wonder how she’d reached her conclusion regarding my assistance—then Unending was in serious trouble, and I needed to get to her. The Soul Crusher was a master of his craft, however, and since he knew I’d broken out of two rune collars already, he would’ve taken extra precautions with my interdimensional pocket.
Still, I had to find a way. It had to be done in steps.
“Step one, let the hunger take over,” I whispered, already dreading the storm brewing inside me. With my resolve in place and the hope that Death might fix me later if I did my part right, I let out a deep breath and relaxed, allowing Corbin’s annoyingly persistent curse to climb back up to the surface.
The heat spread through me, my muscles tightening, and I knew…
I’d be unstoppable.
Tristan
The winter storm intensified after the second seal was broken, and the icy wind pummeled me, forcing its way into my lungs and biting at my skin. Although I had a naturally lower temperature as a vampire, this place was uncomfortable even for me. Thayen was trembling, and his teeth chattered from the cold, but nothing could wipe the smile off his face. We’d done it. We’d gone through two steps of three, and Unending’s freedom was so close I could practically feel it myself—like joy flowing through my veins, despite the freezing temperatures.
Unending took a moment to look around one last time, knowing what would come next. She stood before me, her lips quivering, as our eyes met. There was love in her gaze. The kind of affection I would never get enough of. And there was sadness because she was about to shed her Aeternae form. The task fell to me, and I hated having to do it. Nevertheless, there was no other choice. She deserved to be released more than anything.
“Are you ready?” she asked, and I shook my head slowly. The sky above had ruptured, sending trillions of snowflakes to ride on the rabid winds, turning them into tiny razors when they struck my skin. Heavy gray clouds lingered over the ridge, the sun nowhere in sight for miles around the mountain. My boots sank into the snow as I took a step forward to caress Unending’s face.
“I will never be ready for what I’m about to do,” I said.
Thayen sighed but didn’t intervene. He kept to the side, hands in his pockets. Unending offered me a faint smile. “I’ll see you in just a bit, darling,” she replied. “Remember, it’s only the body that dies. Not me.”
“Valaine’s body.”
“But not Valaine,” she insisted. “I know it’s hard, my love. This is the only version of me you’ve ever known, and maybe there’s a part of you that’s worried about never seeing me again at all. My entire existence has always been so complicated—it’s difficult to fathom, I understand—but we have to do this, Tristan.”
I was well aware of that. My body just didn’t want to cooperate. My heart ached with such severity that I pressed a hand against my chest, as if to make it hurt less. My stomach was in knots. I’d fallen in love with her beautiful face. I’d fallen in love with her brilliance and poise. Yes, I’d seen the real version of Unending deep inside her subconscious, but this woman here… she’d been the one to bind my soul to hers, long before I’d even met the Reaper. Yes, it was hard. It was nearly impossible.
“Time isn’t on our side,” Unending said. I knew that, too. Damn it, if only I could get myself moving. Her scythe was already in my grip. All I had to do was… cut her head off. Good grief, the thought alone was enough to send nauseating convulsions through me. “Please, my love.”
“I can do this,” I insisted, more to myself than anyone else. “I can. I can do this.”
I tried to hype myself up, to feed on the adrenaline that had begun flowing through me like liquid fire. My muscles were jolted into motion as I straightened my back, preparing myself for the kill. It had to be done quickly. I didn’t want her to suffer.
“It’s going to be okay,” Unending whispered, not taking her eyes off me. I wanted to cry. “It’s going to be—” She froze and sucked in a breath, her eyes suddenly wide and blacker than ever. Stars twinkled inside, a galaxy flaring somewhere far away. For a second, I wasn’t sure what happened, until I saw a blade protruding from her chest.
“No…” I managed as I realized what was happening.
“Tristan…” she murmured.
“Tristan!” Thayen screamed, jumping back and suddenly pale. A figure appeared right behind Unending. His face was all too familiar, and his sneer made me shiver, whirlwinds of hot and cold rumbling through me.
The Spirit Bender.
“No!” I shouted, the horror finally sinking in as Spirit withdrew his scythe from Unending’s back. She fell into my arms, struggling to breathe. Blood flowed freely from her wound, dripping onto the snow and causing crimson peonies to blossom across the pure whiteness.
“I told you I’d win,” Spirit said, dipping his scythe into the snow to clean the blade. “I’ll be honest. I’ve been here for the better part of a minute, hiding, waiting for the perfect moment. You needed this more than anyone.”
“What?” I croaked, my knees giving out.
“I told you there was nothing you could do to stop me. That one way or another, I would break you. That I would break all of you!” Spirit snarled, his own self-satisfaction swelling, mixed with anger and pride. “I never lose, Tristan. I always find a way.”
Unending’s ragged breath prompted me to look at her. She was still alive, but the blood loss was already taking its toll. Her lips moved, but she couldn’t get the words out. Thayen was devastated. “You’re a monster!” he said. “You’re a monster!”
“Meh. I’ve been called worse,” Spirit muttered, then cast a stunning spell at the boy. Thayen fell into the snow, his whole body stiff under the power of death magic. “You stay there, kiddo. I’ll be with you in a second. I need to enjoy this.”
He turned his sights on us again, and I didn’t know what to do anymore. Killing Valaine would’ve freed Unending. If only I hadn’t hesitated. If only I’d showed more determination in killing the woman I loved. But now we were here, and I only had myself to blame.
“You did this,” I mumbled, tears stinging my eyes as I looked at him. “You destroyed your own sister.”
“Well, not really my sister, since we’re not related, technically speaking,” Spirit replied dryly. “Also, she’s not destroyed. She just won’t get her Reaper form back ever again. Unending will be doomed to wander the worlds without a body, without her scythe, and without any means of using her powers. I reckon that will eventually lead to insanity. The solitude, ugh…” He shuddered. “I can only imagine.”
“What will happen to the Aeternae?” I asked.
“Tristan,” Unending whispered.
Spirit shrugged, still grinning as he watched us. “I guess they’ll stay the way they are. I’m not sure how the Black Fever will work out. My guess is it’ll either continue until it wipes them all out, or it will dissolve into the nothingness that is Unending’s existence. After all, without a physical form and no way of ever binding herself to one, she has nothing left. Not even the Black Fever. I’m merely guessing at this point. Only time will tell.”
“Tristan.” Unending said my name again. I was dumbfounded. Unable to react. Barely understanding everything that had just happened. Everything unraveled around me—my resolve, my hope of a future with her, the promise of freedom and justice. It had all gone to hell in a matter of seconds.
“I’m so sorry,” I told her, my voice broken and trembling.
“Finish me off,” she whispered.
“Wha… what?”
Spirit didn’t seem to hear her. He was so absorbed in his moment, so dazzled by this victory, that the smaller details escaped him. That was the downside of hubris. It would eventually lead to his do
wnfall, because I soon realized what Unending wanted me to do.
She was still alive. Dying, but not yet gone. We still had a chance if I did what we’d come here to do in the first place.
“Kill me,” she said, her voice barely audible.
“Come on, die already,” Spirit muttered. “I don’t have all day.”
I couldn’t help but glare at him while I discreetly reached for Unending’s scythe, which was stuck in the snow beneath her. “I’m going to make this right,” I said to her, then raised the blade and cut her head clean off. Something broke inside me. Something big and important yet hidden so deep within the fabric of my being that I hadn’t realized it was there.
“What the…” Spirit’s voice trailed off, his jaw dropping. He would kick himself for this. But hubris… oh, the hubris. It was our worst enemy. It was the tomb in which we’d all end up if we allowed it to take over like Spirit had just done.
In a split second, he pushed me away from Unending, but it was too late. Her body sank into the snow, the air thickening around us. There was an electricity in the atmosphere unlike anything I’d experienced before. It was as if the whole of Visio had just been plugged in. Flakes of snow shimmered and rose like short hairs on the back of the mountain’s ridge. The blizzard came to a sudden halt, the skies darkening to a shade of charcoal that pressed down on my shoulders.
Spirit just stared at Unending’s still form. Thayen was unable to move, but the brightness in his eyes proved that he understood what we’d done, despite Spirit’s cruelty. Valaine’s body was lifeless, her blood soaking into the snow. My heart was shattered, but I’d succeeded. I’d liberated her.
And the snap I’d felt in my heart had been the death of immortality within. I could feel the vigor and the energy leaving me, like a lightbulb slowly fading.
“You bastard,” Spirit mumbled, now on the receiving end of the shock and horror he’d inflicted on me earlier.
“You should’ve finished the job.” I shot him a cold grin. My teeth hurt. My fangs were withdrawing, never to be seen again. My fingers throbbed as the claws retracted forever. Yes, I felt it. My mortal nature coming back, rendering me all the more vulnerable before our worst enemy.
Everything was changing. My senses. The world around me. Certain subtler scents began to fade. My heart rate quickened as the danger of my situation finally hit me. But none of it mattered. My soul was full and bursting with joy, the likes of which I had never experienced before.
“You… you…” Spirit was at a loss for words. “Stunned” didn’t even begin to describe his current state of mind. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Frankly, neither could I, but this new reality was undeniable. Unable to stop myself from grinning, I felt a hearty laugh coming over me, as well. Thayen moaned softly, even though he still couldn’t move. We were all reeling from this moment.
“She’s free,” I said. Then I noticed her scythe was gone. I hadn’t realized I wasn’t holding it anymore. Unending must’ve swiped it from me at some point. She hadn’t wanted me to see her as she focused on getting away from the Spirit Bender. I understood why she’d done it. I could only hope I’d live to see her again, because the longer I sat here—my legs still soft like boiled spaghetti and the snow sending chills up my spine—the closer I was to my own demise.
Once the aftershock of what had just occurred wore off, Spirit would be out for blood. Before I even finished that thought, he appeared mere inches from my face, roaring with pure rage. He kicked me in the head, and I fell over, my ears ringing as a veil of white settled over my eyes. Pain shot through my ear and all the way down into the pit of my stomach.
“Leave… him… alone!” Thayen screamed, suddenly wrestling against his magical restraints. I wasn’t sure how that was even possible, considering the spell he was under.
Spirit grinned. “My soul shard is remarkable.”
That had to be why the kid was able to at least try and fight the paralysis magic. There wasn’t anything Thayen could do, even if he did manage to free himself. I needed to hold on for just a little while longer and make sure Spirit didn’t kill him. As much as I wanted to see Unending again, I knew I might not make it. But Thayen had to live. He was a child. He deserved more than to have his heart torn out and his body left to freeze on this mountainous ridge.
“You! You ruined it!” Spirit hissed as he grabbed me by the collar and pulled me up. He didn’t use his scythe on me. Not yet, anyway. “You ruined it!”
“At a loss for words, huh?” I replied, trying to ignore the pain shooting through my head like lightning in a bottle.
Spirit punched me so hard I felt a couple of teeth dislodge. He continued to hit me over and over, each blow making my skin burn. My flesh was tender. My bones ached. This human condition made every hit excruciating, but I’d done it. I’d freed Unending. She was probably already on her way to release Death from her Thousand Seals. Shooting through the cosmos like a star, headed straight for Aledras.
Everything the Spirit Bender had worked so hard to build here would finally be torn down, brick by brick, once Death was released. Regardless of what his maker had done wrong in the past, there was one thing that could not be doubted: once the Thousand Seals were off, Death would come to Visio and undo everything Spirit had done. Including Spirit himself.
This unavoidable outcome was the source of his rage. He’d managed to save a copy of himself, and he’d been rejoicing in the idea of a do-over, probably thinking he’d proceed with more caution this time. He’d had plans, and I’d crushed them all.
“Stop!” Taeral’s voice boomed across the mountain, bringing everything to a halt.
It was as though the wind itself had stopped blowing in his presence. Spirit released me. I was pretty sure I was bleeding internally—there was no other way to explain the constant and mind-numbing pain or the heavy feeling persisting in my chest, as if my heart were drowning in blood. My face hurt, though parts of it were numb and swollen. I could barely see through one eye, and every move I made sent electric volts of shattering pain through my body. But I could see Taeral standing mere feet from Thayen, Thieron in his hand.
“You’ve done enough,” the Fire Star prince added. “And you lost.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Spirit said, turning to face him. “I’ll kill you all before she gets to me. I’ll destroy everything and everyone before Death even leaves Aledras. If you think this is the end for me, you’re wrong. I have contingencies in place. I have places to go where she’ll never find me.”
“Just stop.” Taeral sighed, sounding bored and certainly not impressed. “You really need to just… stop.”
I wasn’t sure what Taeral could do in these circumstances, but I had to put my hope in him. I was human again, and my body had already suffered plenty. Thayen was mortal now, too, and no longer able to do much, especially under the paralyzing spell. Unending had bolted off Visio to release Death, and the only person who could still stand up to an increasingly furious and spiteful Spirit Bender was Taeral.
If I had any shot at surviving the next few minutes, it would be through him.
And then the most terrifying thought of all occurred to me. I wasn’t the only one stripped of his immortality. Every vampire and every Aeternae out there had been reduced to a similar form. What would that mean as far as the war was concerned? How would this end?
Esme
A Darkling’s claws missed my throat by a millimeter. I’d almost felt the scratch across my skin. The battle had been raging on, and I hadn’t had a single moment to catch my breath. Everyone was fighting. Ridan kept pushing the Aeternae back by burning the first line of attack to a crisp, but that just made the others angrier. They’d quickly realized that even the dragon had his limitations. How many more people could he torch before his fire ran out? He’d never been tested to this extent before.
The GASP ships were coming in. They were barely a mile away. But there were tens of thousands of Aeternae still swarming into Roano, with ple
nty more on the way. The entire population of Visio had been summoned, convinced that by killing us they might retain their immortality. It pained me to have to do this, but I forged ahead, cutting down every Aeternae who stood in my way.
The civilians were still safe in the middle of our base, but that wouldn’t last much longer either. The Orvisians who’d stood up to fight were mostly dead, leaving countless widows and children to huddle together and cry. Half of the Seniors in the outer circle had perished. It was getting harder to hold the line, as more hostiles kept coming through.
I wasn’t sure if there were any Knight Ghouls or other Darklings left. I hadn’t seen a hint of the former for the past ten minutes at least. I’d only heard ours growling as they chewed their way through the crowd. We hadn’t seen the ghouls we’d sent to break sigils, either, and that worried me. The Reapers still had some limits on their powers.
“We won’t last much longer,” Amal said, gasping after taking down an Aeternae soldier. She moved back and slipped closer to my side as more came through.
“Yeah, even the Reapers are overwhelmed,” I replied, fear gripping me by the throat.
Derek and Sofia continued to lead the defense, cutting down anyone who got close. Ridan had resorted to clawing at the swelling crowd, while Amane threw the last of the smoke bombs in her possession. Puffs of dirty gray and black erupted at ground level as the Reapers took advantage of the Aeternae’s momentary confusion.
I glanced back at Kalon just to make sure he was okay. Trev and Ansel were doing a good job of keeping any rogue fiends at bay, but more were slipping through the Seniors’ circle due to the casualties we’d incurred so far. I wasn’t sure how much fight we had left in us, but I was nowhere near the point of surrender. The will to live was strong, and it pushed me beyond my limits.
Every muscle in my body was sore from all the close combat, and I’d run out of pulverizer pellets, too. Near the southern gates, the GASP shuttles began their descent. The dragons that had parted from the ships earlier had shifted their focus to the outer crowd, burning streaks of amber and blue fire across the land. The screams echoed into the sky, making me quiver. The horrors of war would never be erased from my mind. Even if we survived this somehow, what had happened here today would forever be etched into my memory.
A Shade of Vampire 86: A Break of Seals Page 13