Black Holes - The Mors Mortis Trilogy Book 3

Chapter Fifty

Leah's stomach warred between anger and a strange, uncomfortable, empathy.

"I know," she said. "That's not fair. But what you're doing isn't either. You're repeating the mistakes of the people who did this to you. You're taking away everyone else's choice, just like they took yours."

Tears were pouring down Arelie's face now, angry ones.

"I don't care!" she screamed. "I don't care anymore! For centuries, Maud wanted to do this and I stopped her. For centuries, I let myself be the martyr, but I can't anymore."

Her voice was becoming hysterical. Way too thick and loud and human, and Leah's eyes flicked to Jared house, scanning the windows for movement.

"Arelie—" she began, but Arelie started advancing on her, violence flashing through her eyes.

"You're not going to stop me," she said. "Maud will—"

Jared slid in front of Leah, letting his gun rest against Arelie's sternum.

"Maud won't do anything," he said. "She's going to wait this out in the live world. I doubt you'll ever see her again."

Arelie's eyes met Jared's, and Leah could suddenly see the centuries of pain in them. How had she never noticed that before? How had she thought of Arelie's anger as childish or shallow?

"Why do you want to stop this?" she asked him, her voice venomous. "You're just like me. This is the only way you'll die too."

"I can find another way," Jared said, more self-assured than Leah had ever heard him. "If you help us stop this, I'll find another way for you too."

"There is no other way. I've tried everything."

"Fine," Jared said, he choked the gun and rested it against her temple, the threat implicit. "Tell us how, then."

A hand slip into Leah's — Alice's — squeezing hard and trying to pull her back, but Leah couldn't move, couldn't even look, her eyes fixed on the stand off in front of her.

Arelie's lip curled up into a sneer. "You think you can threaten me? I've died a hundred times, been injured more than you could count. There's nothing you can scare me with."

"I think there is," Jared said.

Leah saw a flicker of movement in the corner of her eye, and Alice's tugging became more insistent. Finally, Leah tore her gaze from Jared and Arelie. The door to Jared's house was open, one of those creatures poking its head out, teeth barred.

Alice tugged Leah's arm harder, and this time, Leah let herself be pulled back, Jared's plan suddenly laid out clearly, the plan Alice had already picked up on.

"I think you and Maud know what will happen to the live and dead worlds when this all goes down," Jared said, still staring at Arelie, his gaze so focused it gave her no warning of what crept up behind her. "But no one knows what will happen to the in between, do they?"

His voice was loud, demanding the creature's attention, and it slunk further forward. Leah was frozen, half her attention on Jared and Arelie, and half on the creature.

"It's consuming the other worlds, so it's going to survive this."

Jared kinked his head to the side, regarding Arelie coolly, and Arelie's expression changed, humming with anxiety that only confirmed his words.

"I wonder what would happen to an immortal person stuck there when everything ends?" Jared continued. "Do you think they'd survive? I think so. I think they'd be trapped in that darkness for eternity."

He pushed Arelie back a step, her shoes skidding on the gravel, and suddenly the creature was right there, advancing on them, willing to brave the sun for noises that were so unapologetic, so human.

Arelie saw it and froze, realising what Jared was doing.

Jared was the one making the noise, but Arelie stood between him and the creature. If the creature launched for him, it'd hit her first.

Her mouth was shut firm, her face going purple with the fury she held in. But from the fear in her eyes, Leah knew Jared was right. Arelie and Maud had been doing everything in their power to stay out of the in between until all of this was done.

They thought it would survive. They thought whoever was there would survive too.

The creature was close enough now that Arelie wasn't daring to breath, but with absolute loathing in her eyes, she gave Jared one panicked nod.

Jared cocked his head to the side.

"You'll help us?" he asked.

The words made Arelie flinch, made her eyes dart behind her, wide with fear. She nodded again, more aggressively this time, but Jared just continued to stare at her.

"You don't really look like you mean it," he said.

"Jared," Leah murmured. She could see a dark ruthlessness rising in him. One she recognised from the Jared she'd met all those months ago in Roy's Arcade. One that had shadows of Brenton running right through him.

Jared ignored her, his eyes fixed on Arelie.

"Tell us how to fix it," he said, his voice unforgiving. "Now."

The creature was only metres from Arelie now, its claws scraping on the bitumen.

"You need Zarah," Arelie wheezed, the words coming fast and quiet. "You need a live person, a dead person, and a bridge. Zarah's the bridge."

And then the creature launched forward.

...

Next chapter out in two weeks!

Hope you're all enjoying the story 😁😁

- Skylar xx