by Trisha Wolfe
Without warning, the sound of battle hits my ears. I’m unprepared for it. The Nactue tense, falling into position and unsheathing their weapons. My stomach knots, and suddenly, there’s no more time to debate my choice.
Smoke plumes from the rocky buildings I now only see in my nightmares. Amber and blue flames dance along their rooftops, lick the ground and walls. The clang of weapons and guttural shouts rends the air. Explosions boom and quake the ground. No one is holding back in this fight; weapons of destruction have been called in. The battle won’t last long.
“Through, now!” I command.
As we take off running, I feel a strong sense of familiarity. Violent images of the Cage fights flash before my vision. Then the actual Cage itself. It rises up before me, all steel bars and imposing. A tremor travels my limbs. But I push on, trying not to see the many faces of the destroyed contenders.
Smoke curls into my eyes. I hear muffled coughs as the others trail my lead around the carnage—dead bodies that have been trampled. Bones of mutilated animals. Remains of machines.
Bypassing the waste of the massacre, I come up behind the battle. And I stop.
A shriek cuts through the clash of battle sounds, raising the hairs on my body. I feel Lena press close to me as she says, “I still have nightmares about the Grimmal.”
I can only nod. I do also…and the sight amid the battle will only add to them. The Grimmal—a mutated beast engineered by the Otherworlders; half snake, half spider—whips its scaly tail down on a unit of protectors. I see another creature in the distance, being attacked by the Perinyian army.
“We have to keep moving,” I say. Then swing my head to stare into her violet eyes that are still locked on the monsters. “I feel I don’t have to—”
“No, you don’t,” Lena says, turning her gaze on me. “I promise. I won’t hurt her. I love Lilly.”
I nod, accepting her vow for what it’s worth.
She raises her pale eyebrows as the others catch up. “Come on!” She waves her hand. “Into the madness, Nactue!”
We’ve got to move around, or else we’ll be sucked into the fray. I can’t chance losing any one of them. As we skirt the battle perimeter, I summon the strength and power I despise.
Knowing it’s Bale’s power that courses through me, her silvery tentacles of mercury lashing at my insides, I’m more than reluctant to depend on it. But I won’t allow my pride or fear to doom us.
The surge or power springs forth like quicksilver shooting through water. The force of it parts a path for us around the side of the main battle. Otherworlders and units effected by an unseen energy move aside, and we dart along the sideline, heading toward the place calling me with blistering fury.
Caben is there. I can sense not his presence, but Bale’s. The same way I felt her during the Cage fights—she’s close to ascending. She’s restricted by Caben’s limitations, but that doesn’t stop her from making contact.
With a slash of my sword, I trim the way for us through the clearing battle. The fight hasn’t made it past the tightly-woven city area. We still have time. We just have to stage this perfectly. Not too soon. Not too late.
Glancing up at the black ceiling, I almost pray for an opening to appear. I want to see the new moon for myself. It won’t be like anything we’ve witnessed before. I know this, because during the Reckoning, the eclipsed moon was Bale’s. This will be hers, too.
“Go on!”
I glance behind me at the sound of Lena’s voice. She shouts at Lilly as she slings her sword at an Otherworlder. Trying to go back for her, Lilly blocks a blow from an advancing Otherworlder to her right, getting them both trapped between the enclosing battle.
Shit. Looking ahead to gauge the distance we still have to go, I notice a swell of dark smoke forming over the temple’s tower. It’s starting.
Conflicted, I motion to Kaide. “Get them out!” Then I order the rest of our group to move forward. I have to trust that Kaide, Lilly, and Lena will follow behind us. Because there is no time left.
If I do survive, this may be one of the hard choices I come to regret.
As we reach the rickety bridge leading to the temple, I look back. A unit of protectors is pushing their way through the battle toward us.
“We can’t fight them all,” Bax shouts. And I agree. I glance at the bridge, thinking of a way to destroy it once we’re across—but Lilly…she hasn’t made it yet…
“Go now,” Bax says, nodding toward the temple. “We’ll hold them off for as long as we can. Just do not falter, Protector.”
A hard lump forms in my throat. I open my mouth to tell him…something. Some semblance of goodbye, but my heart won’t allow the words to come. I look over the battle to where I last saw Lilly. That moment has passed, too. But what could I have told any of them? I didn’t want this to be our end. I refused to accept it until the last moment. Anger and frustration and shame tear through me.
But as I’m trying to accept this as our only goodbye, I see wisps of her red hair through the fray. A heavy breath whooshes from my mouth. I was forced to watch Willa being taken from us. I’m at least grateful to the universe for sparing me that horror with Lilly.
“Go. Now!” Bax yells in my ear as the battle heightens into a cacophony of clangs and blasts.
Before I turn to race over the bridge, I glimpse both Lena and Lilly, and then Kaide, fighting their way toward the line that Bax, Whip, and Kai have formed before the stream of mercury. Meeting Lilly’s resolute gaze, I nod once, then I latch on to Aurelia’s arm.
She’s coming with me.
The temple door is open. I only see darkness within the foyer as I lead Aurelia over the bridge, our feet swallowing plank after plank.
A thunderous boom sounds from all around. As if thunderclouds crashed simultaneously from every corner of the realm. The bridge rocks and sways. I fasten one hand to a keystone in the center of the bridge. Aurelia grips my other hand, trying to stay steady while she releases sobs. I can just hear her over the rumbling aftershock rolling through the Otherworld.
Then, as the bridge rights and I’m regaining balance, my gaze is drawn to the sky. A swell of fast-moving clouds gather in a vortex over the temple’s tower. Each skeletal finger of the claw-shaped tower is lit and blinking like a signal to the smoke rings above….because it has to be smoke. There’s no sky…no clouds.
My mind quits its debate when in the midst of the gathering storm a dim light begins to pulse, becoming brighter with each beat. From there, a beam strikes down, illuminating the whole realm. It travels from the sky to the tower in a contrasting brilliance—the celestial white of the moon. Almost as if the moon itself is funneling its luminance into one, singular channel.
The rock ceiling begins to crumble.
I wrap my arms around Aurelia, stifling her whimpers as I attempt to protect her from the raining debris. Mercury splashes up on us as large stones hit the stream. I’m pelted with jagged edged rocks like hail. Shading my eyes with my forearm, I look up.
The beam tears a seam into the ceiling to reveal the true sky. Not a projection like in the Cage for the Reckoning. I regret my wish to see the moon. The edges continue to concave as the hole spreads. The beam demolishes the tower, the claw’s crooked fingers breaking off one-by-one to reveal…
Moonstone.
Beneath the stone, a sheen of iridescent white and blue refracts the light. The whole temple is made of the moon goddess’s summoner.
My one thought: Caben.
Blocking us from the shower of stone and dirt and mercury, I rush Aurelia toward the temple.
♦ 29 ♦
Caben
ONCE THE GROUND STOPS quaking and what’s left of the temple no longer trembles, a bright cylinder of light blasts down from the sky and surrounds the marble dais.
I’m thrust backward. Scrambling, I try to move farther out of its way. Only I’m shoved toward the dais and the light. Hands force me forward. The light hums. Signaling me to step inside.
No shit.
But I keep what little thoughts are still mine to myself. It’s almost done. All I have to do is walk into the light, which looks damn close to the spires lining the gold and silver leafed walls, and this will all be through.
Lord Arnik, the pale hunchback who first selected me for the Cage fights, raises his pasty hand toward me. His sharp, boney jaw works, like it’s nearly ready to fall off from age and decay, as he chants louder. Then he produces a small silver bottle. Holding it above his head covered with white stringy hair, he begins to fling droplets at me.
I flinch and look down at my robe they dressed me in. Mercury. The goddesses’ conduit. I doubt I really need any more help here. Bale is coming whether I want her to or not. It’s all moot now. And I thought I’d be completely gone—my mental state fully diminished—by this point. But for some cruel reason, I’m more myself and more aware than ever.
“The Goddess Bale is separating herself from your being, My Liege,” says Arnik, as if in response to my unspoken thoughts. I guess my face is pretty transparent. Not as transparent or translucent as his, all thin skin about to melt off by the sheer force of that light. But there’s no hiding my fear.
“Enough. Stop that,” I tell him, snatching the bottle from his hand. I chuck it at the platinum moon hanging above the dais. “Let’s get this over with.”
I step toward the spire of light, sucking in a deep breath like I’m about to submerge myself in water. Just going for a swim, I talk myself into it. What choice do I have? It’s gone too far. All of it. There’s no backpedaling. No apologies I could offer Kal. Or my kingdom, my people.
I’m a destroyed man.
As long as Kal stays far away, she’ll remain safe. That’s my one consolation.
My foot inches closer to the ring of light, my booted toes just penetrating it, when a shout sends a million shivers prickling down my spine. And then,
“Caben!”
My head jerks up. Kal bounds over a crack in the marble floor, sprints past the priests clawing for her, her elbow nailing one in his feeble head. In tow is my mother, Kal only releasing her to punch another priest in his face.
No. No! She’s can’t be here. Dammit! Why can’t she ever just stop. Being. Stubborn? But I don’t have any time to be angry, or scared, or even elated to see her and my mother…it all happens too quickly.
As Kal takes out each of the four priests easily—she doesn’t even need to rely on her subhuman strength for those old crusty fools—my mother stands against the wall, covering her ears against the cries and rising sounds of battle. I’m only able to think of Kal’s beauty, seeing her for the first time with clear vision, a clear mind—before the thought is ripped from my head.
Lord Arnik is next to me in a beat—how did he move that fast?
Kal stops suddenly in the center of the sanctuary. Her chest rises and falls, her green eyes solely on me, and Arnik’s hand. The one holding a dagger to my throat.
“I will kill him, Protector,” Arnik wheezes. “It makes no difference to me who the vessel is. But someone in this temple will bring our goddess forth tonight.”
I watch as Kal swallows. “I’m going to kill you, painfully, before you even have a chance to inch that blade one fraction across his neck.” She clutches her hand around an object and brings it to her chest—a syringe?—then she leaps forward and is running.
“Kal—No!” It’s the last words I’m able to force out before I’m swallowed by the light.
One hard push from Arnik, and I tumble. Sucked in and paralyzed.
A deafening silence whirrs in my ears. A warmth envelopes me, stemming from my chest and spreading outward. It wraps every bone, muscle, molecule of my body in a silky balminess that slides through me like I’m made of some weightless, watery matter. It’s euphoric.
My gaze travels slowly, almost like time has stopped. But I find Kal on the other side. Through the light, I see her hair whip wildly around her face. Her mouth presses into a determined line as her hands shove Arnik’s attempted attack away. She knocks his dagger from his hand, then anchors hers to his head. With one swift move, she snaps his neck.
As he falls to his knees and then splays out on the floor, her chest heaves. Then, slowly, her eyes lift and her gaze captures mine. I try to reach out to her, but my limbs are numb. I can no longer feel them or my body.
Tears fall from her eyes as she turns, still moving too slowly, toward me. I want nothing more than to touch her. Wipe away the tracks of tears staining her cheeks. Tell her that I love her and this was meant to be. Even though I know how ridiculously cliché that sounds…I just want her to know I’m all right. I’m not afraid. There’s no fear here, and I’m ready to let go.
I just wish I could feel her one last time.
She reaches the light and is jolted backward. She advances on the spire again. Like hitting a stone wall, she slams her fists against the beam enclosing me over and over. Her skin ignites in swirls of glowing silver. It radiates from her face and hands like she’s filled with the light of the spire. Only she’s brighter.
And as she mouths something to me, her lips forming the same words repeatedly, her fists beating the wall of light, I’m finally able to do one final act. I reach out and palm the light, cool as glass in winter. It should be warm, I think, but I meet her there.
Her shoulders and lips tremble as she stops her attack. She splays her fingers against mine, palm to palm. And it’s all I want. Just feeling the warmth of her body heat on the other side—one last connection.
Then, my chest explodes with a fiery burst of pain. A scream rips from my mouth, and I’m on my knees, praying for Bale to kill me quickly.
And she does.
♦ 30 ♦
Kaliope
“NO!”
My mind whirls, unable to hold on to a coherent thought, as Caben lies in the center of the light. Unable to accept that this is it; he’s gone—I continue to pound against the solid force field…whatever the goddess is separating me from him.
He’s not breathing. Not moving. My hands ache, but I can’t stop their abuse. All this strength for nothing. “Alyah!” I shout. “I swear, I will hunt every last goddess in the heavens if you don’t bring—”
Before my threat is fully voiced, the spire splinters, sending shards of fractured light through the room. One blinding flare, and I cover my eyes. Peeking through the slats of my fingers, I watch as Caben’s body is lifted into the air. My breath ceases. Then I’m back on my feet and punching the wall of light.
“Don’t you take him, you fucking beast!” I kick at it now, jab my fingers against it, trying to find a crack in its armor. But Bale’s moonlit casing holds strong.
I faintly register footsteps in the room over the roaring in my ears. The static in my head. Someone says my name, but my sole attention remains on Caben as he’s elevated higher…and then he stops.
Suspended in the air.
I wipe at my face, trying to clear the tears so I can see. A black mist emits from first his ears, then his eyes. His nostrils and then his mouth leak the dark substance. It quickly fills the light, bleeding mist-like tendrils into the air. I shake my head. No. “No—” I don’t know who I tell this to, but damn it all, someone is listening.
“Kal!” Lilly is yelling close to my ear. “We have to go. Move!”
But nothing and no one is removing me from this temple. I will be damned if I’m going to let that devil goddess have his body, too. Caben leaves with us.
Even as I’m reconciling his loss, trying to accept his death, my soul won’t believe it. I cannot accept that he’s gone.
“She’s here.”
I whip my head arou
nd to see Bax staring ahead, his lens-covered eyes set aglow by the ultraviolet light consuming the sanctuary. Then following his gaze, I look back at the spire. A solid form is arising from the black mist. Taking shape. Becoming corporeal.
I don’t know what I was expecting—I never allowed myself to think further than this moment. But the woman gathering the tendrils of mist into herself to form a solid, living being, is not what I imagined.
An ugly, ghastly, demonic creature with horns and scales—this is what I envisioned. Not the beautiful woman that appears suddenly amid the smoke. Her skin is pale, the color of cream, or rather, the moon. It’s the first shape to appear. Coloring in, and then dark blue swirls veining over the canvas. This should look hideous, deformed. Only it’s striking. They branch out like thin bare limbs of a tree in winter. And that’s the best my mind can comprehend.
Bale is a beautiful, ethereal winter creature bathed in moonlight.
She steps forth, and her legs are suddenly covered in black and silver boots reaching to her thighs. A dress begins there, its train extending to the ground in the back. Her shoulders and arms are bare, revealing the faint blue rivers of veins swirling her body. As she lifts her delicate chin, a headdress forms atop her head. A crown. A mixture of black and blue, silver and crimson feathers.
And her eyes…glowing silver rays that stare right through me.
Getting to my feet, I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I’m not leaving here without Caben. I reach for my sword, but my wrist is clasped and my movement halted.
“Don’t,” Bax says, his tone severe. In my peripheral, I see him standing beside me, his gaze trained on the goddess in the center of the room. “We’re leaving. Now.”
“I’m not leaving him.” I jerk my arm from his grasp. “Get the others out while you can.” Bale is becoming corporal, but she’s taking her time doing so. Studying her arms, hands, fingers. She’s like a newborn, transfixed and curious, only entering this world the wrong way.
