I blinked my eyes to clear them of tears when I crashed against the window. The battleground that was the city of After teemed far, far below us. Somewhere down there, the sun still slept. I turned to Vale, whose tearing eyes met mine. I took her hand. Neither of us looked behind us at our advancing enemy.
"Remember, we're not going to die," I told her.
She squeezed my hand tighter. "Let's end this damned nightmare."
Together, we leaped from the tallest building in After. The enraged second-in-command of the city reached out to grab at us, but he was too late. Wind bit at my skin and tangled my hair. I shut my eyes.
There were so many ways to fall.
You could fall from grace like a once beloved king, or completely fall apart into thousands of tiny pieces. Or you could fall to your demise like that meek girl back in Tacoma.
The last time I had fallen, I'd risen from the sands here. I wondered where I'd end up when I landed, but all I was aware of was Vale in my arms as we fell together.
I was never falling when I was with Vale. I was always flying.
I pulled her closer.
We hit the ground.
And all was quiet.
If I'd kept my eyes closed, I probably could've fooled myself into thinking I'd died again. But the gentle rise and fall of Vale's chest beneath me made me stir. I sat up and brushed locks of my hair from my face. "You alright?" I asked her.
"Yeah," she said, wincing at the cold air that hugged After's ground level. "I think I'm okay."
The sound of hissing arose from the ruined city. In an instant, Vale and I scrambled to our feet as one, machete and spear brandished. "Maybe not as okay as I originally thought," the other hollow said. Shadows stepped forth from the rubble. Their movements were excruciatingly slow as they cornered us against the high-rise we'd escaped from.
I let out a long sigh and blew strands of hair from my face as we squared off against an army of twisted souls. Not once since I'd died had I been able to properly rest in peace. My gut ached at the sight of Vale's pylon lying in a twisted heap of bent metal at the foot of a building. My eyes caught the glow of something buried beneath the debris the shadows crept from. Just as the trauma of an earthquake or a flood could lift coffins up from beneath the dirt, the chaos that was the siege of After had raised the other half of the sun from its grave. I pointed my spear at the light beneath the pylon. "Vale," I whispered.
"Go!" Vale said, still pointing her blade at the famished shadows. "Wake it up like you did the last one! I'll keep these guys off you."
"Right!"
I left her side and stepped toward the buried live lux. Shadows hissed and braced themselves to pounce at me. Vale shoved herself between them and me, shouting, "Stay back! I don't want to hurt you!"
The hissing increased. It almost sounded like rain as I knelt in the rubble and shoved aside bits of metal and stone. A warmth caressed my skin. Pulsing, red light enveloped me. I blinked tears from my eyes, trying to stifle the sound of Webb's last scream echoed in my head. I ignored everything else except for the slumbering crystal I uncovered.
A halberd cut into the crystal just as I was about to touch it.
The king of After stood tall over me atop the crystal, pupils glowing like coals. "Back," was all he said. The faint red glow of the crystal gave him a demonic appearance and highlighted the many lacerations in his flesh and dents in his armor, marks from his battle with Crow. A mob of armed ghosts rose amongst the dust and rubble behind him.
An abrupt chorus of hissing made him halt in his tracks. I whipped my head around. The line of shadows that had cornered us remained—their ranks just barely holding—like a dam about to burst. Vale and I stood trapped in between two warring sides.
I glared at the king. "Step aside, your majesty. I destroyed the Darkness that you cursed us all with! I'm going to fix your mistake!"
The long-dead knight charged at me.
I raised my spear just in time to keep my head on my shoulders. Red sparks flew from the curved edge of my foe's weapon as it bit into the length of my spear. Luxlight flared from within the scarred hollow's pupils as he cast his fiery glare on me, his face a breath away from my own.
My back bent backward against him as we struggled together. My arms shook, weakening beneath him. "Stop this, Blackburne!" I begged. "What would Albrecht think of what you've done?"
His fiery black orbs flared even more.
Those loyal to the king surged, but Vale let the wall of shadows she guarded slip—warning them all to stay back.
I let out a scream of my own and forced myself against the king, swiping his weapon away with my own. A rain of red embers fell upon us both. Blackburne's hair clung to his face as he hissed at me in surprise. I jabbed my spear forward, aiming for his gut. The bastard ducked out of range and swept at my legs with his halberd. I, too, had to leap away and retreat a few paces.
"Skye! Behind you!"
I broke away from Blackburne and spun, catching the charging mace-wielding ghost in the face with my spear and knocking him into the slumbering crystal. Unlike Blackburne and me, the crystal instantly devoured the man's soul, reducing him to embers in a heartbeat.
His red mace crashed into the ground. All other ghosts gave the crystal a wide berth.
I raised my spear just in time to block another blow from the king. Hatred I had never, ever felt before consumed me as I stared dead ahead at the hollow ghost of a man. The crowd yelled when I rushed forward, twirling my spear. Blackburne met my challenge.
Crash. Sparks flew from where our blades clashed. My white arm never once stopped screaming at me. The white scars deforming Blackburne's face surely stung just as much. The sun above the two of us spat a bolt of lightning as our blades kissed again.
Crash. Bolts of lightning scorched the ground our feet danced upon. The shouts of the crowd—hollows and shadows alike—sang in my ears. I swung my blade again, catching him across the middle. He yelled and slashed with his halberd, cutting open my bicep.
I felt no pain—only unbridled, seething anger. Our dance quickened.
Crash.
Because of him, the people of Aḫ-ḫur perished, and Crow lost his mind.
Crash. More sparks flew.
Because of him, Webb died.
Blackburne swung for me. I dodged, and his ax caught in the black stone of a wall. He yanked on his weapon, but the stone wouldn't release it. I caught his eyes one last time. I rushed forward, the point of my spear sparkling as it reached for where his heart lay.
There came a screech of metal and a clatter of stone. Then ice filled my body when Blackburne freed his blade. I tried to protect myself with the pole of my spear.
But Blackburne cleaved my weapon in two.
His blade buried itself in my chest.
"No!" I heard Vale scream. "Skye!"
"You should have stayed in the Light," the king said to me as I fell before him.
Vale caught just before I hit the ground. Suddenly, I was so cold. My vision blurred, but I could still see the relish in Blackburne's face when he spied the vial rolling across the ground toward him.
Vale stroked my hair. "Just stay with me, okay?" she soothed. "Stay with me, Skye."
The ghosts of After all cheered, celebrating my defeat, while I shivered pitifully in Vale's arms. They hailed him as a hero, not knowing the monster that finally came together in front of them. Blackburne stepped on the vial, stopping it from rolling further. He lifted it in two clawed fingers and held it against the pale sunlight. He sighed, long and slow. "You have all grown disobedient," he mused, looking lost in his thoughts. "Has no one ever wondered why there aren't any gods in this realm?"
An uneasy silence fell over the hollows as they gave their king their full attention. A muscle in Blackburne's face twitched, and he traced a finger along his shimmering scar. "All of you are insects. You have no idea how far beneath me you are. I was chosen to surpass God the second I slayed him long ago."
A cluster of crows alighted around Vale and me. Someone slid to a stop beside Vale. "What has happened?" a freezing Crow asked us.
Shadows and hollows alike had gone deathly silent as Blackburne's emotionless voice echoed from every skeletal tower despite him barely speaking louder than a whisper. His eyes flicked to his injured enemy. "It seems Crow and I are intertwined; destined to collide again and again. And every time we do, a city falls." He tossed the vial, then caught it fully in his fist. "It's time to start again and rise from the ruins. This time..." He shot a red glare in our direction. "I will be the only god left standing."
Crow could control the winds and commune with his birds. Those were the powers given to him by the crystal. But Blackburne...I'd seen his eyes go red many times, but he'd never used any sort of power.
Because, until now, he didn't remember how to use it.
"Crow didn't summon the behemoth. Blackburne did," I breathed, staring at the sliver of flesh in the vial—the sliver of Blackburne's heart. "He's going to do it again."
Blackburne was going to kill us all.
"You misunderstand," Blackburne said. "I never summoned the behemoth." Then he did something that sent chills down my spine. Despite everything I had faced since my death, seeing Blackburne's smile filled me with fear. "I am the behemoth."
He crushed the vial in his fist. I watched in mute horror as he emptied its pulsating contents into his mouth and swallowed it all whole.
A shockwave erupted from him, sending buildings tumbling to their foundations. Black flesh oozed from every pore in his skin until an undulating mass of flesh swallowed him. The mass spread, growing like cancer. Hollows and shadows ran for cover as the flesh swelled, swallowing the entire block in a matter of seconds.
Crow gathered Vale and me in his arms and leaped away just as the behemoth exploded to its full size.
My shivering stopped. Slowly, my vision cleared. I touched my hands to my chest, finding that I'd mostly healed. I slumped against the crumbling wall our trio hid against in relief.
Vale held my face. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," I said. "Relatively."
"Monster..." hissed the prince. His eyes were red again.
Grunting, I hoisted myself up to peer over the wall. Before us, entire blocks had been obliterated and set aflame. The ground shook again. I struggled to remain on my feet. My heart hammered in my chest as I watched the debris shift and the smoke contort. Something in the smoke and the flames stirred. Something massive. I stared up into the smoke, and a towering amorphous silhouette within stared back with hundreds of black eyes.
A scream like tearing metal made us all cower and cover our ears tight.
The smoke cleared just enough for us to get a good look at our executioner. My eyes followed up the length of its deformed and twisting tentacles, all taller than the remaining skyscrapers caging it. A shapeless black mass of flesh writhed like it was full of wriggling worms listed back and forth, as if it was at the whim of the wind. Even more eyes burst through its skin like bubbles in tar. Red pupils glowed red hot against cold, black irises.
I swallowed. This must be what Albrecht saw from the bottom of his prison; a cold-hearted black-eyed monster glaring down at him.
And Blackburne locked every one of those eyes on me.
Blackburne:
Denn immer, wenn ich einsam bin
Zieht es mich zum Dunkel hin
Der Sonnentod ist mir Vergnügen
Immer, wenn es dunkel wird
Die Seele sich in Lust verirrt
Die kalte Nacht ist mir Vergnügen
Trink das Schwarz in tiefen Zügen
Trink