by S. J. Wist
“Is that what you want?”
“Yes. I can’t stay here. I hate this place. I don’t belong here.”
Daath looked around, trying to pinpoint what caused her to hate the place so.
“There is nothing for me here. No wishes. Just regret.”
“Then this is my good-bye to you.”
“Where are you going?”
“This realm and Aster both give me heavy regret. So I will go to where it no longer exists. I will return to where she waits for me.” Daath turned his head around and flared his teeth, before biting into his thigh. It sent a couple of lines of blood streaming down his leg and into the water. What didn’t touch the water, began to flow up his back, until it grew like a tree on him. The skin of his wings and then his feathers from his ice-cold blood formed together. “There is a Heaven for each of us, and I will pray alongside Asteria that you find yours.”
Sybl looked at the dark pool of water, then watched as he sprung off it and into the air in a single ripple. Then in a prism of rays split and cast from his unholy wings against the sun, he was gone.
She waded into the dark water, terrified enough to shiver. If this Rift landed her on the bottom of the ocean of Aster, she would be dead from the pressure in moments. All she had to go on was a shaky trust from the Awl she just freed. One that wasn’t so much as a demon anymore to relate on any level of humanity, for there was nothing left of his soul that loved her. She didn’t know if she could find it in Aragmoth. She didn’t so much as know if she truly wanted to.
40: RIFT OF REGRET
“Do you know why your father was successful in bringing Alexia here?”
Cirrus didn’t answer Nyx.
“He was successful because it was a cloudy, rainy day the night that she fell from that rooftop.”
“What of it?” Cirrus replied, distrusting the mermaid more by the second.
“The Sentry cannot see at night. They are the opposite of dragons in many ways. While you excel at hunting in the dark, they excel at hunting in the brightest of light that would sooner blind us.”
“So to get Sybl back I need to have my luck with the weather of Earth?”
“No, not luck. Just myself and one other to raise up a storm to your advantage.”
Now Cirrus had lost the last of his trust for her, if he had any to begin with. But he didn’t have a choice. He followed Nyx into the loading dock, and looked to where the mer soldier he had killed remained as a corpse on the floor. “Do the mer no longer have any respect for their dead?”
“We are already dead.”
“You had me fooled.”
“Yes, because you would be a fool. The mer are not air-headed creatures of aeri energy. We are of estus and as such, we can only exist in the most concentrated places of it.”
“You surface, though.”
“Yes, at night. I doubt you ever saw a mer in the daytime. If you did, it was likely because they were surfacing to perish entirely.”
Cirrus didn’t say anything as she somned into her half-fish form, and her legs were replaced with a long, dark green tail. He followed her out of Mer City and towards where she led to a wild Rift. He swam closer to it, keeping careful balance against its whirlpool-like pull. If he landed in the direct sunlight of Earth, all the aeri Threads in his body would be burned to nothing. Are you coming through with me?
“No. I have a history that would not assist you on Earth with the Sentry. There is one waiting for you in the Keol who will help you, however.”
Cirrus didn’t get to argue, as the water turned on him and pushed him with massive force through the Rift and into the Keol. He pulled himself up on the other side and looked around the fiery desert for his assistant. Of everyone he might have guessed, the phelan kid stood nearby. “Not you.”
“Likewise. I am Kas, High Priest of the Sanctus and son of Kira.”
“If you think that I am bringing Sybl back to be had by you—”
“I am not her Bond.”
“And that Mei on your arm?” Cirrus asked as he brought his face closer to Kas. He was in the right mood to clench his teeth around the phelan somnus’ head.
“Once there were two Fay, and although I am only her shadow, I still retain the soul and memories of Erebus within me.”
Cirrus unsomned and couldn’t help but laugh. “You? Erebus? That would be impossible.”
“It is not a matter of what you think. We both want the same thing. If Sybl stays on Earth, it is only a matter of time before Vanir arranges the humans to kill her.”
“And as his son I should trust you because…?”
Kas stopped to think on it for a moment, before looking at the gold fairy that hung on his neck. “Did Serena ever tell you how she came about that necklace?”
“Yes.”
“Did she tell you where it was made?”
“It was bought.”
“No, it was not bought. It was given to her. You cannot trace its Threads to its maker, because its maker is an Iynx,” Kas said.
“The Iynx are all dead.”
“All but one. But we do not have time to discuss history. I need your trust, now if we are to reach her in time.”
“What in this Hell do you think I will trust you?”
“It is the only way to get Sybl back. I can also offer you and your friends refuge at the Sanctus. My mother’s home was Serena’s for a while.”
Cirrus was once again left without any options. “I don’t obey you.”
“I have my own army, White Death. I am simply asking for you to see that we are no longer on opposite sides. You want to avert a war, and I have been doing nothing short of such for every year of my life in this body.”
Cirrus could feel the estus pressure of the Keol burn away his sanity. “Fine. So how do we do this?”
“I can open you the Rift and keep it open for no more then thirty minutes.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s all the time we will have before the Sentry realize the storm Nyx is creating is not normal. It is also the amount of time that I can lose my blood before I become unconscious. There is a reason there is lightning in Earth’s storms, and I suggest you avoid it. Grab her so that she cannot argue and bring her back. You will not have time to debate with my soultwin,” Kas explained.
“Will I be able to fly?”
“I do not know. Your command over the air might make it possible. But lightning strikes what is highest, first.”
“Alright, stop talking then.”
Kas cut his hand, and pushed aside his aeri energies with his focus to keep the wound open. His Mei began to glow, and he traced its Threads to where Sybl was. The Rift began to expand, and Cirrus entered it once it was wide enough.
41: FALLING DEATH
Sybl could only think of Cirrus now. If she did go back, what would she tell him? She was supposed to be a miracle—a Prophecy come true, yet there was nothing she could do to restore Daath’s soul as she was now. There was nothing she could do to return his best friend to him.
But all of her doubts didn’t stop her. She had to enter this Rift and pray that the other side wouldn’t kill her. Before she could duck her head under the water, something cocked a gun. She didn’t have a moment to react before it fired and struck her in the shoulder.
She gasped as she fell back into the water. Sybl stayed under the surface as another shot fired off and whizzed past her head. The blood from her shoulder floated past her eyes, and she swam for the bottom of the pond.
A sign of hope appeared like a star in a moment of absolute darkness. She touched her neck to check for her pendant, and it was there. Daath had returned it to her. Which meant the one under her was Cirrus…
“I got you. So help me I’ll never let go of you again!”
The white claws appeared from the Rift and reached to pull her into their safety. Just before Cirrus had her, another shot fired.
BOOK TWO
His dreams fortify life.
His ni
ghtmares channel death.
His waking brings absolution.
He is the darkness from where all emerge.
He is the darkness from which only light can escape.
Fayless, he is the void of space that will reclaim it all.
—Texts of Gei
EARTH, 3 MONTHS AGO
“Sybl, wake up.”
Sybl looked up to find the narrow, red eyes of a familiar ghost looking down at her.
“You are going to be late for school.”
She blinked, as if uncertain she was awake and hearing him right. “You came from another world to tell me that?”
Kas took his hand off of the side of the bed and stood up straighter. “No, but I am concerned about the punishment that comes with disobeying these people.”
“They are my foster parents, Kas. Seriously, get a life already.”
Kas touched her shoulder, sending a freezing shiver through her entire body. But she only shuddered and refused to leave the comfort of her bed. “‘Foster parents’ are those who care for the well-being of the child. Yet all I have heard is the arguments over the money you are worth.”
Sybl sighed and buried her face back into her pillow.
“This is not your first ‘placement’?”
“No, it’s my third one to many more. It’s how the system works,” she mumbled back. “Toss the kids from one home to the next, before they can get too smart to figure a way out of it all.”
“You cannot leave here,” Kas insisted.
“Why not?”
“Because my spirit cannot travel any further from the Rift and my somn on Aster.”
“A somn being that freaky, giant wolf-cat form you can take?”
“I am a phelan somnus,” he replied, “not a ‘wolf’ or a ‘cat.’”
Sybl contemplated hurling the pillow at him, before remembering it would have no effect other than passing through her imaginary, alien friend turned-tormentor. “Why don’t you just take me back with you then?”
“Because the Gate at the Sanctus is still broken. My spirit can reach you to a limit, but not my physical self.”
“Then fix it and come back when you aren’t a ghost.” She peaked up at Kas then, as he looked at her with the expression he made when searching her thoughts. From the looks of it, she was getting better at blocking him out, even if it felt like her throbbing sinuses might let him win, yet. But all she wanted was some more sleep and for him to go and haunt someone else.
The sound of her foster mother’s footsteps came up the stairs, with her voice directed at her room. “Sybl, your worker is coming today, so you won’t be going to school.”
Sybl shot up to a sit so fast, she passed through Kas’ freezing spirit. Half her body felt as if a box of ice had been dropped over her head, but it didn’t douse her excitement of what she had wanted for so long. “Home!” she squealed.
Kas vanished for a moment when her comforter was thrown at him, as if by a magic trick. His spirit became visible again shortly after the blanket hit the floor. “You mean the one in the city?”
“It is almost two years, Kas. I either go home now or never.”
“To the mother who is not yours.” Kas dropped his head slightly, making his dark black bangs cover his red eyes.
Sybl gave him a tight-lipped scream, and then ran around her room looking for the right thing to wear. “Mom likes the color red. I need something red. Kas, help me!”
Kas only dropped his eyes in the direction of the floor. “I cannot see red.”
“Fine, be a useless jerk,” she retorted, then found a black skirt and a red blouse. It was more of a Christmas-suited outfit, but it would have to do. She ran off to take a fast shower, then came back some minutes later to snatch up her outfit off of her chair. Then she glared at Kas to look elsewhere.
He turned around and rubbed his eyes, as if blinded by the color red that she carried. “Please wear something else.”
“Please ghost away!” she shouted back, before rushing out of the room. Sybl would take her best shot at her last strand of hope, with what optimism she had left.
Sybl’s stomach rolled upside down after she finished breakfast, as her anxiety refused to channel her energy to digest anything. She had never been so scared in her life, well, almost, as she looked at Kas who sat in the chair across the table from her. Meeting him in the woods at the back of this foster home still made the top of her lifelong terrified-by list. Vampire, werewolf, or alien that he was, they were a hundred times more terrifying in real life. Particularly in his wolf-like form.
“What kind of ‘worker’ is this person?” Kas asked.
“Just be quiet so I’m not labelled even crazier for talking to myself, okay?” Sybl looked to the stairs as a car pulled up in the driveway and the doorbell followed shortly after. Her body froze.
“Please do not go back to the city.”
Shut up shut up shut— “Hello,” Sybl greeted the new worker warmly as she came into the kitchen with her foster mother. Then her foster mother turned and left them alone.
“You must be Sybl,” the worker said as she sat down in the chair the unseen Kas had vacated. “I am Mrs. Ceyer.”
It was the same game, only new rules as Sybl quickly sized up what to say to her advantage. This worker didn’t appear to be fresh on the job, and she was as fake sounding as she had seen them come so far. The older ones were always a trickier challenge to read.
“So how have things been going for you?”
“Oh just great, really. School leaves me little time for anything else.”
“Your marks are quite impressive. I’m glad to see you’re doing well.”
Sybl had finished her calculating of the woman, as her mind quickly reverted back in time to where Mrs. Ceyer had failed to introduce herself as her new worker. Oh crap.
Kas looked quickly at Sybl from where he stood behind the woman’s chair.
“I spoke with your mother yesterday, and we have all but finalized the last papers. All we need now is your signature.”
“She is trying to deceive you,” Kas said.
No shit, Sherlock. Sybl looked at the papers pushed before her, before stopping her eyes on two words. Crown Wardship. She gripped the side of the dark wood table, fearing that she would faint. “The other worker said that everything was looking good for my return home…”
“I’m afraid that’s not what your mother wishes. You are happy here, and your foster parents care about you. This is what’s best. They have graciously agreed to take care of you until you turn eighteen.”
Where I then end up on the streets, starving to death like everyone else who finally escapes the system. When the numbness that had overtaken her body faded, she stood up.
“Your Crown Wardship will pass the judge whether you sign it or not. But for the sake of making less of a hassle for both us and your mother, do consider signing this. I will leave these papers with your foster mother so you can have more time to think on it.”
“I have thought on it,” Sybl snapped back, bitterly. “For two years I’ve been doing nothing but thinking on it! I want to go home, and you are just another stranger who doesn’t give a damn getting in my way. I’m late for school.” She went downstairs and grabbed her knapsack, before leaving the house.
“Sybl, wait!” Kas ran after her as she started down the driveway. “It will take you all day to reach school without a vehicle.”
“Leave me alone!”
“Sybl!” Kas cried at her, before trying to catch her arm, only to pass through her. He tried harder, before resorting to sending her crumbling to her knees by making her legs and feet go completely numb.
Sybl held the rest of herself upright, as she pressed her scraped hands into the stone gravel of the dirt country road. “You got what you wanted, didn’t you? Now just go away!”
“I never wanted to see you hurt. Please go back to the house.”
Sybl could feel her legs after a few minutes, and got up to start
walking again. It took a while, but she finally reached the distance of where he couldn’t continue. She turned around to face him. It was as if he were cut off by an invisible wall or tied back by some unseen leash to his spirit. “Why do you care what happens to me? Do I really look like some goddess to you? Do I seriously look like anything other than some cursed, unwanted kid who is now a permanent and official burden to society?”
