I let my fingers, tingling and stark white with spread scars, entangle with Vale's as we both gazed at the heavens.
"Oh my god, Skye," the hollow beside me whispered. "It's beautiful."
I tore my gaze away from the sky and met her eyes, and saw the stars reflected in their watering depths. I smiled, about to lean into her.
"Yer alive!" came the voice of Orville. Not a second later, both Vale and I were lifted in his arms as the man hugged us tight. Aluki shrieked with delight and chased after the crows that alighted around us. The hollows of After hesitantly came out of hiding. But eventually, a cheering crowd gathered around.
But our laughter was short-lived. A piece of our family was missing. In solemn silence, we all watched ashes rise into the air. Vale lifted her mask from her belt and traced the stitched scowl. Her mask missed its smiling counterpart.
"Webb should be here," she said. "Couldn't have done all this without him."
Grief welled in my throat. I leaned into her, both of us staring at her mask.
"Sorry, didn't catch that," someone called out from the crowd. My heart skipped a beat, and Vale and I spun around to see Webb shove his way to us, grinning weakly. "Missed you, dumbasses."
A relieved breath left my body. A grin spread across my face. I threw myself at the exhausted hollow who, despite being nearly cut apart, hugged me back.
"Webby!" Vale cried as our trio reunited. "You're okay! You found us!"
"Yeah, I do that."
Webb and Vale nuzzled into each other. "You guys really did it, huh? Look at that," said Webb as he marveled at the whole sun. The sunlight made his face rosier than usual.
A slender figure stepped before us. Reynard stared down solemnly at the three of us. "You..." he uttered, pointing a shaking finger right at me. "All of After owes the three of you a debt."
The former right hand of the king clasped a hand over his heart and bowed low to us.
The shrouded acolights made their way to the forefront of the cheering ghosts. Their white-haired leader bowed at my feet while I held onto Crow's spear. "The Prince's champion has saved us all," she said. "We are freed from the darkness." The rest of the acolights joined Reynard and dipped their heads in respect.
I tightened my hold on Crow's spear with my scarred hand. White Light still flared in their pupils. The ghosts that haunted After's underground weren't free. They were still forever anchored-doomed to eventually fade. Red luxlight coiled beneath my skin, and I glanced at the sun. As if he knew my intentions, Albrecht sent a chain of lightning across the sky. I stepped after the acolights. "Wait. Come here. All of you."
"What are you doing?" Vale asked. A slowly healing Webb clung to her.
"I want to try something." I nodded to the sun above. He'd given me strange lux-powers that I had yet to understand. I could wake the sleeping dead. What else could I do? "Give me your hand," I said to the acolight leader.
The old woman raised a wispy brow at me, but she obliged, and I held onto her shaking, gnarled hand. Then I took a deep breath. When I was ready, I exhaled. Fire flooded my veins. The woman's eyes widened as my luxlight spread down my arms and into her hand. And in those wide eyes, I saw the Light recede from her pupils. Veins glowed white hot beneath her skin as I absorbed her Light into myself. The other anchored souls of After let out a collective gasp. They all laid their hands upon their leader's shoulders, and I took their afflictions from them in branching, webbing veins of Light, too.
I parted from them, carrying their Light in my hands in a glowing, humming orb.
The acolight leader fell to her knees before me and raised her open palms to the twilight sky. "We...we are free!" A wave of rejoicing spread across the whole crowd.
I laughed, too, and joined in the celebration, but I froze when the orb escaped my grasp. Everyone yelped and ducked out of the way while the orb shot upward into the sky, high above the city. "Shit! Sorry! Still kinda new at this!"
The sun spat another chain of lightning, but this time, unlike all the other flashes, a roar of thunder had everyone ducking and covering their ears. The lightning struck the orb, making it pop like a firework.
Where the Light had exploded, a white portal suspended in the air spiraled below the sun. Inside its swirling black hole of a maw, stars swam around and around and around before finally disappearing into its vortex.
"Um. Skye," Vale said. "What is that thing?"
We exchanged dumb-founded expressions.
"Let's go find out," I said.
She and I left the hollows behind and climbed up a crooked metal tower-all that remained of our old pylon. The portal hummed just above it, within reach, and it was like I had an entire galaxy at my fingertips. I touched the portal and my fingers slipped inside. Stars swam through my fingers. Then my fingers began to vanish. I wasn't fading, I was...disappearing.
The surface of the portal rippled. Beside me, Vale had also reached out to touch the stars. But unlike me, she was unable to reach inside the portal, like there was an invisible barrier.
The rim of the portal glowed white-steady and strong. Like a halo. Like my halo.
"This is the answer to my question," I murmured to my companion. "Long ago, I'd asked you what's next for all of us. And this is it. Albrecht made this."
"Albrecht? Blackburne's son?"
"Right, right. Remind me to fill you in about the nebula later." I beamed at Albrecht's creation. "This is our way out of this place. We just need to be whole again to go through it."
Was it scary?
Yes. Absolutely.
But taking that first step into the unknown was meant to be frightening. That was how you knew you were on the right path.
Everyone in After now had a choice.
Vale pulled my hand from the stars, her grasp steady and strong. Her skin...soft and warm. "So. How does it feel being whole?" she asked, turning over my intact hand in her palms.
My eyelids fluttered. A warm breeze kissed my skin. The mingling scents of ashes and dust and sunlight filled my soul with every breath. I laughed. And seeing Vale's startled, beautiful face filled me with as many stars as the sky above. I pressed my palm against hers and our fingers wove together. "Why don't you find out?" I told her with a smile.
The tides had changed in After. Finally, whole, I grinned at the hollows and shadows watching us from below. "Everyone," I said. "Time to find your other half."
"Well, that was a rush!" exclaimed a newly haloed Webb. Then he doubled over in agony. "Oh god. Everything hurts now. I regret this immediately. What is this? Am I bleeding now? That's new."
Vale and I wrapped him up in an embrace, ignoring the ice-cold black blood that seeped from his nearly-healed wounds. "Webb," I said. "I'm so glad you're okay."
Vale nuzzled into him as well. "So nice to have my other idiot back, Webby."
Shadows tamed by the sun's light lay in wait, sheltered by overhanging rubble. The crowd that had been gathered was now halved as hollows and shadows joined each other. Numerous halos lit up the city. I laughed as the bubbling joy inside me grew at the sight.
Then my face fell.
Vale slunk away from the two of us, still searching the last of the shadows. Most of them were gone, but she remained without a halo.
There'd been that one shadow before, during the breach, that had cornered Vale. Both her and the shadow had been inexplicably entranced, until Blackburne slayed the beast. Had that been Vale's?
My lurching heart told me all I needed to know when I looked at Vale's hollow expression.
Vale could never be whole.
I thought back to all the shadows slain by hollows over the decades-all the shadows that I had killed. Some hollows would now forever be without their shadows, and some shadows without their hollows.
I grabbed her wrist and spun her to look her in the eyes. She offered me a weak smile. "It's okay, Skye," she assured me. "I don't need a halo. I've been without emotions and pain and everything for so long. This is just how I am now."
The both of us glanced up at the humming portal.
"I don't want to go through the portal, anyway. I'm okay here in After," Vale continued. She rested a hand on my cheek, and I leaned into it, my eyes tearing. She pressed her forehead to mine, whispering, "But you go. Found out what's on the other side for me, okay? I know you don't want to be trapped here forever."
Tears welled in my eyes and spilled down my face. Shaking my head, I took her hand in mine and held it to my lips. "I don't want to go through the portal and move on. I don't want to go anywhere," I said, sobs choking my words. "Not if it means leaving you behind."
I'd like to think that each of us found a reason to keep on clinging to eternal existence. I found mine in Vale, the hollow who'd fought by my side and made me feel alive when I wasn't-the one who'd saved me from the Dark. No way was I ever going to let her feel alone again.
So I shut my eyes. That same spark that always traveled down my spine whenever we touched returned, this time with greater power. I let it swell and consume me. The entirety of my formerly hollow body felt as if it was aflame, and that sensation grew until it halved and spilled from my hand and found Vale's.
I heard Vale exclaim, "Your halo's gone!"
A sudden wave of exhaustion made me slump into her, but she was right. No longer did a brilliant halo orbit around my head.
Vale laid her hands on either side of my face. Desperation showed in the glistening whites of her eyes. She, too, was crying. "What did you do, you idiot?"
I smiled up at her. My emotions and feelings were diluted again. They weren't quite as insubstantial as they were before I'd joined with my shadow. But I definitely felt changed. I knew Vale felt exactly the same way as I.
I'd split my shadow in half and shared it with the other hollow. What was mine was now also hers. "It's okay. I don't need a stupid halo. And I don't need to go through the portal." My arms wrapped around her neck. "Because with you, I'm whole."
Through tears, she cracked a smile. I reached up and brushed her tears away, and her arms found my waist, holding me close. I felt so safe in her embrace, so protected. Then, standing up on the tips of my toes, I kissed her.
And when our lips met, a single halo appeared above the two of us.
A crow landed on my shoulder and yanked at my hair. Our shared halo disappeared when Vale and I separated.
"Nannāru? What is it?" I asked the poofed-up bird.
She cawed up to the sky where chains of haloed black birds flew off, all heading in the same direction-toward the heart of the city. Nannāru continued to cackle excitedly, her own little halo glowing in full force. She gave my hair another tug, then flapped after her flock.
"Crow?" I whispered. Vale and I exchanged glances. "Could he...?"
"Let's go after them!" Webb shouted. Orville and Aluki were beside him, looking antsy.
I grabbed my spear, and, together, our family followed the crows.
I want to have the same last dream again
The one where I wake up and I'm alive
Just as the four walls closed me within
My eyes are opened up with pure sunlight
I'm the first to know, my dearest friends
Even if your hope has burned with time
Anything that's dead shall be regrown
And your vicious pain, your warning sign
You will be fine