by Matt King
He tried again with both hands, letting go with bolts that streamed from his open palms. The planet barely registered a pock hole where he’d aimed.
No. This can’t be happening. THINK!
He flew closer to the surface. He pulled together his strength, remembering his time with Paralos, the anger he felt when the old man taunted him and the power that filled him when he lashed out to kill the god. He found that anger again and focused it, harnessing the energy until he could feel it tugging at him. He let it go in a thick red streak and held it, screaming, until he saw the icy skin of Velawrath start to crack. He stopped and stared at the rift he’d opened in the ice. His attack left behind a gaping, circular wound.
I can hurt him.
He looked over his shoulder at Earth through the synapse, then back at Velawrath. He had a minute at most—maybe less—before he lost his chance to show Amara, Paralos—all of them—that he was the most powerful, the most deadly. I’ll show them that they’re no better than me. I’ll show them that no one is.
He rocketed toward the hole in the ice. The closer he got to Velawrath’s surface, the faster he flew. He let the energy build to a fever inside him. As soon as he broke through the opening of the wound, he let loose with a powerful blast in front of him that acted like a drill, cutting through ice and stone. He pushed himself faster until the walls of the cave he created were nothing more than a black and orange blur racing past, first through rock, then through black liquid, then again through a writhing sea of lava and stone.
Eventually, he felt the resistance end. His blasts cut through the last layer of crust and streaked forward unobstructed. He stopped and hovered, turning in a circle to take in the sight of the planet’s core.
He’d arrived at something that looked like a network of connected red spores, joined by highways of single milky white threads. The spores were each the size of a moon, all except the one in the center. It was too large for him to see the edges. A coating of thin blue haze surrounded it, sending out tendrils of light that moved slowly along the interconnecting highways until they fizzled out before ever getting to the next node. There was a sense of weakness to it all, like he was staring at a machine that no longer worked.
Michael felt something at the edge of his consciousness. It pressed against his thoughts. He fought hard to keep it away, but just like Amara’s intrusions, he couldn’t stop the advance for long. The invading presence slipped through his defenses and grabbed hold. At once, it felt like he had fallen into a stream.
Who are you? a deep voice rumbled through his head.
Michael fought back against the pressure. The cracks of his skin glowed red. He focused on it, summoning his power like a hurricane gathering strength. If he let go—like he did the last time, like he did when he faced his father—he could do it. He could kill what they said couldn’t be killed and claim what was his—Power.
Who are you? Velawrath asked again.
Michael spoke into the void. “Death.”
Death, the champion sighed. He spoke like a man satisfied after a lifetime of longing. Death, at last.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
With his arm looped over her shoulder, Aeris guided August up the stairs past walls that were cracking and close to collapse. Higher, she thought. I have to get us higher or this place will bury us.
Behind her, Shadow watched their ascent with fiery eyes. She gave off scents of anger and fear, both connected to August. She kept looking back down the stairwell and above it, scanning for danger like she expected it at any moment.
His attackers are gone, Aeris wanted to tell her. Everyone else has escaped.
As they reached the top of the stairs, she glanced at the sky through a window. The sight forced her to a halt, frozen in place by the wave of red shooting toward them from the other side of the synapse.
No. We were so close.
As soon as the red wave hit the portal’s face, it sent a shockwave through that tossed her violently into the castle walls. A sound like a thousand raging storms filled her head. She lost all sense of awareness. She’d somehow managed to hold onto August, and she gripped him tight as they went tumbling through the air. Pain rocked her back. Something punctured her armor. She continued to hold her grip even as the strength drained from her muscles.
The storm wave receded, leaving a vacuum of silence as though it was never there. Aeris and August landed hard in a pile of rubble, with dust and stone falling around them. She blinked through the stinging debris in her eyes and tested her grip on August to make sure he was still there. The fact that they were alive meant Velawrath hadn’t made it through the portal. If that was true, then something had killed him. “What was that?”
“Gemini,” August said.
She looked around for Shadow and found her off to the right, crawling from beneath the remains of the castle walls. Half of what had been the upper floors was gone, revealing the face of the synapse above. A ship fell through the air with a trail of fire streaking behind it. Her heart sank. I shouldn’t lose hope yet. There may be more.
Her eyes caught movement on the other side of the synapse. A dark shape, ringed in a molten glow, slowly pierced the portal’s wall over the eastern horizon. It was immense, a jagged slice of Velawrath that caught fire as soon as it touched the planet’s air. It sailed through the synapse and continued its path toward the edge of the sky. She lost sight of it as it slipped over the horizon. It left behind an orange glow like a setting sun. In a flash, the orange tones transformed into a searing white that forced her to turn away.
The remnants of Velawrath painted the sky with streaking trails of fire, but her eyes were fixed on the horizon. After a lengthy pause, the ground lurched beneath her feet. At once, the eastern sky lit orange, spreading like wildfire. The intensity of the light built steadily, creeping closer with each passing second.
The world had been set on fire, and it was coming for them.
“Where…is…he?” a gravelly voice spoke from behind her.
She spun around. A hazy figure stood in the darkness of the castle’s remains. White eyes pierced through the fog of dust. The figure stepped closer, revealing a monster whose size filled the width of the path. He looked like he was born of mountains, with stony skin coated in a colorful sheen dulled only by the murky light. His unblinking eyes found her and then looked behind her to August.
“Dillon,” he said with a rumbling growl.
His footsteps shook the floor. Aeris quickly lit the fire in her hands as he closed in, moving to step in front of the prone August. The monster took out his sword as he ran and jumped toward her with his weapon primed to slice her in two.
Shadow streaked in from the side. She grabbed the monster around the waist before he could land, and with an angry roar, threw him backward, sending him crashing through a pair of walls.
Aeris and Shadow traded a look after she glanced down at August. The wounds on her chest leaked blood in thick streaks down her scales. Reaching to the floor, she picked up a slab of stone and slammed it across the length of the battered hallway, creating a wall between her and Aeris. She snarled and let out a roar before turning her back to them. Across from her, the monster gathered himself while the coming fires painted the sky orange behind him.
“What’s she doing?” August asked.
Aeris took his arm and lifted him to standing. “We have to go.”
“Wait,” he said, turning his head back. “You can’t let her fight Talus alone!”
She fought against his attempts to turn away from her and dragged him down the hall. The air was thick with dust. She coughed as she breathed it in. The heat was already starting to build.
“We have to go back!” August yelled.
“We may find another ship if we move higher,” she replied. “Have to…get to the top.” Her muscles quivered from the strain of keeping him moving.
Behind her, the two monsters clashed in a wild fight, sounding as though they were tearing down what was left of t
he castle. She didn’t dare look back. Instead, she found a broken set of stairs leading higher. She navigated the narrow, splintered steps, catching August when the treacherous footing nearly sent him tumbling into a fissure.
At last, she heard the rumblings of another ship. When she reached a patch of solid ground, she looked for it and found it circling the upper spire of the castle. It’s come for the monster, she thought. No matter the reason, it was their only chance of survival. She dragged August higher.
They eventually emerged onto a landing that led to a large, ornate room with a fire pit in the center. The remains of its roof littered the floor.
“Help Shadow,” August said. His voice was broken and weak. “Don’t let her die for me, please.”
She looked east. The fire in the sky sped closer. Part of her wanted to quit, to let him down and hold him as the world died and took them with it. Still, she couldn’t fully banish her hope as long as the ship still floated above them. Surely she could hold out for as long as it existed.
A warm wind swept through her hair. It grew hotter with each passing second, stinging with each breath she took. Her eyes flitted to the pit.
She took August and raced toward the center of the room. The coals burning inside the pit singed her skin as she scooped them up and tossed them onto the floor. “Here. Climb in here,” she ordered.
August felt for the edge with his hands. She looked up to see a rolling cloud of fire sweeping toward the mountains. Wisps of flame traveled on the breeze.
“Now!” she yelled as she threw August into the pit.
She leapt on top of him to shield him with her body. A rush of fire roared overhead, blisteringly hot, with a force that pushed her against the floor of the pit. Her skin blistered beneath her armor. She screamed until her throat was torn apart inside, unable to stop herself. Her hands clung to August, holding him close as the fire raged above her.
As quickly as it came, the fiery wind dissipated, leaving behind a crackling rumble in its wake. She let her body heal as best it could. Beneath her, August mumbled Shadow’s name. She glanced toward the sky. Paralos’s synapse was gone. In its wake, a blanket of roiling fire rained down molten raindrops.
Rising slowly, she eased herself over the side of the blackened pit, guiding August out with her. She searched the sky, hoping against all odds that the last ship had somehow survived. Everywhere she looked, there was nothing but torched landscape. Then, her eyes found the silver hull of the vessel wedged in the crag of a mountain. Tears ringed the bottom of her eyes.
It is over. There is nothing more to save us.
She squeezed her eyes shut to stave off the tears, but they came anyway. August’s head canted toward her. She looked at him and saw her reflection in his mask. She quickly turned away.
When she looked back at the horizon, through the gaps between Amara’s mountains, she saw a blindingly intense line of red and orange light growing taller on the edge of the sky. A molten wave rushed toward them.
She felt a stillness as she watched its advance. In a way, there was some freedom in the sight of it, even amidst the swells of fear and sadness. She grabbed hold of August again and guided him toward the edge of the spire’s floor. She sat him down beside a broken wall and then lowered herself until she was by his side. The mountains blocked her view of the coming wave, the only hint of its existence an intensifying halo of orange building over the top of the peaks.
Movement in the castle below startled her. She sparked the fire in her hands. If they were going to die, it wouldn’t be by Talus’s sword. She wouldn’t allow it.
A bloodied and burned Shadow stumbled into the remains of the room. Most of the hair on her back was gone, seared to nothing. Her orange eyes were hidden by sagging eyelids. She held onto the wall with a hand covering her chest wounds. They were fully open now, streaming blood. Drops fell to the floor between her claws. Her head turned from side to side as she peered into the room. There was no sign of Talus behind her.
“Over here,” Aeris said.
Shadow turned toward her. When she looked down at August by her side, she stumbled closer. She lowered her nose and sniffed his mask.
August raised his hand until it found her head. He patted the side of it. “You made it,” he said with a weak laugh.
Shadow snorted. She backed away and half fell, half lowered herself to the wall beside them. Her eyes were heavy. She closed them and let out a slow, bubbling breath.
Aeris smiled despite the sight of the sky turning a bright shade of red. At least we are together, she thought. We have that.
“We don’t have much time, do we?” August asked.
“No,” she answered.
Across from him, she could barely feel signs of life coming off Shadow. Her breaths were shallow, and too far between. She decided to keep the news from August. There was no need to burden him with guilt in his last moments.
He reached for her, feeling the air with his hand until he found hers. She looped her fingers around his.
“I want you to know that I thought a lot about what you did,” he said.
She nodded. “I never should have kept it from you. Paralos told me he would kill every Vontani who survived the war if I did. I was scared, but that shouldn’t have stopped me. We could have found a way.”
He waved his other hand. “We all have something to be sorry for. But in the end, it’s those people who are to blame,” he said, pointing to the sky. “You were right. We were pawns.”
She squeezed his hand.
“I wanted to ask you something.”
She turned to him. “What is it?”
“If we’d made it much longer, do you think we could have had something?”
She answered without the fear of showing her feelings. What was the use of denying them now? “Yes,” she said. “I think we could have.”
He nodded and leaned his head back against the stone.
She could hear the end coming. Her skin felt the rush of heat ahead of the wave. It grew closer, a rumbling constant hidden by the mountains.
“Are you scared?” August asked.
“Yes,” she said. “Are you?”
“I can’t see a thing,” he said. “For all I know, it’s a nice sunny day outside.”
She laughed and pulled his hand close to her. She didn’t want to look at the mountains anymore. Instead she focused on him.
“I’ll tell you what I wish,” he said. “I wish I could see the Cape on a summer morning. I wish I could feel the kind of shock you get when you get in the water for the first time and you realize just how god damned cold it is even though the beach was warm, and then the feeling of relief once you let yourself get used to it.” He paused. “I’d give anything to be there right now.”
“I did love the ocean,” she said. “Can you picture it in your thoughts?”
“Yes.”
“Then go there now.”
He nodded. His voice trembled as his fingers tightened around hers. “I wish you could come with me.”
She smiled. “I know.”
The rumbling grew louder. Dust turned to embers. Don’t look, she told herself. Close your eyes and let it take you.
She let her eyelids fall for the last time and recited the names of her fallen as her ears filled with the din of fire.
Aposthe. I’lanyo. Severine. Ollayne.
Cestia, the mother she had never known.
Eldoran, the father she had avenged.
Dondannarin, she thought last.
A loud crack made her jump. The molten wave lapped against the mountains, but there was something else—the high whine of something mechanical.
She opened her eyes again and looked up. The hull of a golden ship lowered toward the spire, its engines a brilliant blue cast against the fiery sky.
“What is it?” August asked.
“Rescue.”
She stood and looked back at the mountains as the ship lowered. The lava crested the peaks and poured through the gaps
into the valley below. The pool of fire rose quickly, gaining height as it ate through the rock blocking its path.
“Come on,” she said as she took August by the arm to help him up.
“We can’t leave Shadow,” he said over the roar of the ship’s engines.
“We won’t. I promise.” Even if the creature was already dead, she wouldn’t let her body be taken by the sea of Velawrath.
The hull to the ship opened. Her breath stilled when she saw the size of the man walking down the ramp toward her. He was as big as Talus, and his eyes glowed orange on a mask that was black as night.
“Figured you could use a ride,” he said.
Beside her, August laughed. “Jesus Christ, Bear. I never thought I’d be so happy to hear that country voice ever again.”
She flinched as the ship’s cannons fired into the sky. Galan’s fleet had returned.
“Come on,” Bear said, cutting his eyes to the rushing wave. “We have to go.”
She helped August up onto the walkway. The ship wavered as its cannons fired again. She held onto his waist to steady him.
Halfway up the ramp, the floor disappeared from under her as an explosion rocked the side of the ship. Her fingers slipped away from August. She came crashing down to the ramp without him. She turned over and saw nothing. He was gone.
“August!” she screamed.
The ship pulled to one side, carrying them away from the castle.
“You have to go back!” she yelled into the hull. “He fell off! We have to go back!”
She tried to keep her balance on her way back down the ramp, finally falling to her stomach at the end so she could grab hold of the sides. The ship settled once more, leaning back toward the castle despite the flurry of Galan’s ships peppering it with gunfire.
She looked down and saw August laying on the edge of the spire.
“There!” she yelled. “He’s right there!”
The ship steadily tilted closer. She waited on the floor of the ramp, afraid to stand again and lose her chance to grab him. When they were close enough to where she could see the glint of light in his mask, she reached for him, but couldn’t stretch far enough. Red lava crept up the side of the castle.
