Emmeline, the girl in the storm

A universe without magic

Emmeline opened her eyes as the knife came down and watched it halt over her heart. The full moon had reached its zenith in the sky, and Melekh stopped to watch as the storm on the stone table exploded, upward and out. The universe tore open and the gap between worlds was revealed, a split of both darkness and light, of nothing and everything all at once.

He smiled with wild delight and exultation as he threw Emmeline down onto the stone table.
"You want to know why you were protected for so long, child?" he asked as he gloated over her, holding the knife up to her throat. He did not wait for her to answer, "Erebus knew that the gate was one-way, but he never told his son why. When Charon's soul ferries me back across the river between your world and mine, he will cease to exist."

"You said you killed him," Emmeline said, between her teeth.

Melekh smiled, "I ripped out his eyes. I never said I killed him."

His words brought a shock of life back to her heart. The shock went out from her, and the force of it hit him hard enough that he took a step back.

"Hope," he muttered with disgust, "will not save you."

Thinking of teddy bears and exploding crows, Emmeline pushed against Melekh's power again.
Again it took him by surprise, and he stepped back once more. Emmeline could not see it as she advanced on him, but behind her the tear between the worlds had begun to grow.

What she did see, was someone else entering the circle of standing stones behind Melekh. It was the same drunkard she and Thomas had avoided in the dark on their way up the hill. But now as he stumbled and crawled forward, bereft of magic and the power of his own soul, Emmeline knew who it was.

"Charon!" she screamed, and he began to stumble toward her voice.

Melekh turned to see. His grey lips widened into a hideous smile as he paced back around the stone table toward Charon. Utilising her father's distraction, Emmeline jumped off the table and let out another rush of power. This time she forced it straight at him.

This time also, he fought back. Emmeline was knocked off her feet. He turned an fell upon her in an instant with his knife held high. She was small and weak beneath him but she fought with everything in her, struggling to keep the knife at bay. The entire force and weight of his power was crushing her soul and her will to fight. He had power over anything he touched. She knew she had to get away.

She turned her head so not to be sickened by the smile in his eyes, and in the grass she saw Thomas stir.

He was alive.

With an angry cry, she push the knife away and flattened her body against the ground. When he came to strike her again, she threw the force within her up towards him, fighting his power like she had fought with the Eater. He was flung off her, but she wasn't strong enough to hurt him.
She ran back to the stone table just as Charon reached it. Without hesitating, she pulled the hood from his head so she could see him. Where his eyes had been there was a strip of his shirt wrapped around his head to cover the bloodied wound.

"Why did you do it? Why!" Emmeline shouted at him, angry and heart-broken all at once. She placed her hands carefully on either side of his head and held him, but he did not respond. Instead, he pushed her away and began to crawl across the stone toward the tear in the world. "Charon? Charon!" she cried to him, but he did not listen.

In one last desperate attempt that he would know her, she pulled him back into her arms. Taking his face in her hands again, she kissed him.

His lips were cold and dead against hers. He would never know her kiss.

He was gone.

She stood up and stepped backward from the stone in shock.

Blinding pain hit her body, radiating from her left shoulder as Melekh's knife pierced her from behind and ran clean through. She looked down in surprise at the tip of the blade. The pain was excruciating and sudden.