by Brea Viragh
She saw more than heard the scream of protest. Her brain refused to process what her eyes beheld. Her heart seized up.
Karsia, racing toward them. Karsia, holding her hands up in front of her as she barreled forward. Mouthing words of consent.
Karsia, stepping in front of them. Absorbing the blow.
CHAPTER 20
It is done.
“No!” Astix screeched. She reached out to catch Karsia a second before the girl’s body hit the ground.
Darkness laughed and disappeared into the prone body, leaving them in silence with the Telos Amyet standing sentinel.
“No, no, what have you done?” Astix stroked her younger sister’s hair and blew tendrils of smoke away from the body. “What have you done, you stupid girl?”
Aisanna fell to her knees. “I didn’t know she was awake. Come on, come on.” She tried to summon her magic and found it returning slowly. Healing light flowed from her fingertips into Karsia’s torso.
“Oh my God, there’s steam rising. There’s a hole in her chest!” The last few words ended in a hysterical screech.
“You have to do something.” Aisanna glanced away, gripping the hair at her temples to the point of pain. “This isn’t working. Why isn’t it working?” She tried to summon acorns, symbols of the gods she’d once used to bring Astix back from the edge. Magic came in fits and spurts, sputtering out before she had a chance to lasso her sister’s soul.
“I don’t know what to do.” Astix shook and she looked around. “I need to think. I-I-I’m not good with the healing stuff. I’ve never done it.”
“We don’t have time to think. My powers aren’t working and she’s out of time. She’s not waking up!”
“Fine, let me just—” Her breath exploded out and Astix did the only thing she knew: She conjured. Her senses flared and reached out, finding something to use. Some small thing to tether her sister to their plane of existence.
Her magic brightened and she drew the stones she needed to her.
Aisanna clutched Karsia against her, petals falling around them. “You can’t leave us,” she whispered. “You should have stayed home tonight. Why didn’t I make you stay home? Why would you do something like this?”
Aisanna kept a strong hold, pushing against the friction in her mind. She shook her head bitterly and steamrolled over the last wall. At last, she cracked through the blockage. She took hold of the magic there. A warm recognition of all she was. They’d need it if they wanted to cheat death a second time.
“Roll her over. She needs to face me.” Astix’s voice shook.
When Aisanna blinked, Astix held two small gems in her hand, both glowing from within. “What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. But I’m not letting her become the fucking veil. You have my word.”
“Try. Please. Just try.”
Astix took a deep breath, steeling herself, desperately keeping her mind away from what may happen if she failed. Instead, she spoke aloud, although they both knew it was little comfort. “Amber is a protector in general. Thought to ward off negativity and align the physical body with the aura.” She closed her eyes and the glow deepened within the gemstones. “Emerald keeps away evil spirits and voids the power of magicians. Together they should be enough. They have to be enough. Darkness is a physical manifestation of power beyond our control, so I don’t know if this will—”
“Do it,” Aisanna demanded.
Astix slammed her hands together in a shower of sparks. When she opened her palms, the two gemstones had fused together into an amorphous shape. Aisanna placed her palm over Astix’s and together the sisters plunged the makeshift heart through the hole in the younger woman’s chest.
Golden light grew around them. They combined their power, an energy harness to keep Karsia with them.
“You’ll live, damn you,” Aisanna ordered.
Astix gave a final push of the heart, light blinding and heat scorching. They waited for a breath, two, three.
And Karsia inhaled sharply.
Smoke continued to curl from the large crevice where the bolt hit her. Skin and sinew knit together before their eyes and the glow of the gemstones winked out of existence.
“Thank God.” Aisanna hugged Karsia close and felt the erratic beat of the other woman’s heart. “We thought we’d lost you.”
Astix sat back on her heels. “That was a horrible thing to do. A terrible, horrible thing. How could you?”
“I’m alive.” Karsia forced out the words, sounding like two boulders rubbing together. She coughed dryly. “I think.”
“You are alive.” Aisanna drew away to stare at her baby sister. She ran her hands along every piece of exposed skin, looking for wounds, ignoring the shooting pain in her own arm.
Karsia slapped her away. “You’re not helping.”
Astix stared awkwardly at the scene before patting Karsia on the shoulder. “Glad to see you’re back up and running.” She rubbed her nose on the sleeve of her jacket and sat back.
“What did you do to me?” Karsia patted the stones beneath the newly minted skin. She winced. “What did you do to me?”
“You jumped in front of a death sentence meant for Aisanna! We kept you on this plane of existence. A simple thank-you will do.”
“Yeah,” Karsia said slowly. “Thanks.” She sent them a curvy, sardonic smile. The moment hung heavy in the air.
“Hold on a minute. Look at me.” Aisanna grasped her sister’s shoulders.
“For what?”
“K, your eyes.”
The other girl scowled. “What about them?”
“They’re…they’re black.”
There was something strange about Karsia’s eyes, something too fluid. The color caught the light and swallowed it.
“Well, maybe that’s the price I paid for saving your life. You think about that?”
Aisanna removed her hands quickly, shivering. “I’m sorry.”
“Forget it.” Karsia turned away and struggled to her feet.
“Here, let me help.”
“I can do it myself. Thanks.” She walked over to stare at the Telos Amyet. “So, this is it, then? What the fuss has been about?”
“Physical proof of the world behind the veil.”
“I don’t need physical proof. I’ve got it right here. Where my heart used to be.” She thumped a fist on her chest and laughed under her breath. “You have no idea how it feels. Like electric eels swimming in my blood.” She let her gaze drift to the hole in the cavern ceiling and shivered. “This is power. Real power.”
“There’s nothing I can say to thank you for what you did.”
“A life for a life, Aisanna. There may be a time I need a favor from you. That’s when you’ll repay me.”
“If you say so.”
Karsia turned, her lips pulled back. “Oh, I do.” She walked toward the mouth of the cavern, stared down on black trunks and white snow, a monochromatic wasteland. Every color leached from the landscape. A minute earlier, she would have panicked and wondered if there was something wrong with her.
Now, when she closed her eyes, she drifted in and out. There was nothing there, no light, no dark, no pain or feeling. Her body had fallen away and left the rest of her insubstantial. She was the mist, floating along in an unseen wind. It tugged her wherever it wished, in any direction.
Once or twice she thought she heard the voices of her sisters. A weep, a moan, a sigh, and a person calling her name.
Power crept along in this world, two strings of it like separate lightning bolts. One bright and full of clout for good, the other dark and twisting. Both called to her while only one reached out. It clasped her heart, her soul, and pulled her down into a world of obscurity.
Karsia Cavaldi…
The voice was neither male nor female, loud and quiet at the same time. It knew her, knew every single detail good and bad.
You have been chosen.
She cried out from a throat she did not have, beg
ged it to stop though she felt nothing.
Prepare to take her place, forever a guardian.
Karsia didn’t feel her body crumple to the ground.
It seemed an eternity that she floated in nothingness. Or it might have been the blink of an eye. The goodness she’d embraced her whole life seemed another side of a coin. What was the point? There was nothing anyone could do to escape the chaos of the abyss. It came for everyone, and when death came, bodies returned to the discord. Why had she been fighting so hard to stop it? It was natural. As natural as breathing.
Distance grew between her and her human goodness. It fell out of reach. Part of her cried out at the loss while the blackness tainted her, claimed her. Then she rejoiced.
She was nearly consumed, nearly lost. Yet something stopped her. A single glowing point in an endless sea. It encapsulated her and staved off the onslaught.
She thought she sighed, or maybe not. Air flushed into her lungs and she sat up, eyes snapping open. The others gathered around her sobbing, hysterical. The walls of the cavern blurred together and her gaze fell on a stone spearing up to the heavens.
The Telos Amyet.
Half white, half black, it absorbed the light of the moon and swallowed it.
Karsia turned to her sisters, expecting a surge of relief at the sheer fact that she was still alive. Instead, she felt nothing when she saw their expressions drop. Nothing when she raised a hand to her chest and felt cold stone instead of a warm beating heart. Nothing when her sisters gasped.
Her vision blurred with fatigue and she forced her leaden limbs to move. The effort left her quivering when she finally hauled herself up to a standing position at the mouth of the cave.
“There are worse things than death,” Astix muttered, looping her arm around Karsia’s shoulders.
Karsia shrugged her away. She felt fine. Wonderful. Fan-fucking-tastic. She cricked her neck and listened to the snap of vertebrae echo off the cave walls.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Aisanna asked. “We were worried. You…you passed out and almost cracked your head open.”
“I’m fine,” Karsia insisted, her voice sharp. “Will you drop it? Now, let’s get out of this hellhole.”
She shivered, running her hands along her arms. The truth was she didn’t feel the cold. Her body seemed charged, like electric current coursed through her limbs. A murky fog crept over her mind and sank into her cells.
Aisanna and Astix shared a look between them. Karsia knew what their look meant. Something was wrong and they could feel it.
She gestured rudely. “Ladies?”
“You’re really—”
Karsia whipped around, the look on her face so malicious it stopped the others in their tracks. “You need to back off.” She dropped her tone threateningly, shoulders arching forward. “I mean it. Back off.”
Astix shoved Aisanna in the side. “Will you please be quiet?”
Karsia heard Aisanna whisper, “But her eyes are black. Don’t you care?”
She heard everything. Her body tuned itself in to the world around her. She sensed the water dripping down the limestone and slowly calcifying rock. Night creatures moved, bats rustling from their perches ready to fill themselves with a midnight meal. Somewhere in the distance rabbits stilled in their dens as they heard the swoosh of predatory wings.
And she knew, in the small town just over there, a married man lied once again to his wife when he told her she was the only one. A teenager, awake past curfew, chopped the tail off a lizard and laughed to himself at the rush he felt. A woman brought to the edge of despair stabbed a knife down on an unwitting stranger and felt justified as lifeblood left the victim’s body.
It was exhilaration. It was the natural order. All of this and more Karsia sensed, and she relished the sensations.
No, wait, that wasn’t her. Was it?
Behind her, her sisters quietly discussed the predicament in tones so low they assumed she would not hear. But she did. Something about her had changed on a fundamental level.
She’d realized deep down what would happen to her if she dove in front of the bolt meant for Aisanna. But she hadn’t realized the consequences until now.
Darkness, at last, had managed to find a replacement.
CHAPTER 21
It had taken a long time to wind their way out of the cavern and down the mountainside. They walked through the woods with eyes kept forward and unease tickling the backs of their necks. The two eldest sisters had no reckoning of where they were or where they were headed.
Karsia lifted her head and sniffed the air, tantalized by the underlying layer of rot beneath it all. The scents of darkness and decay were a feast for her senses.
Astix tripped over some underbrush and fell unceremoniously into Aisanna. The two stumbled and Aisanna went down on her knees in the dirt, crying out when her broken arm slammed into the ground. She’d used the last of her big magic to help her sister. With her batteries running on empty, and no food to help ground her, she didn’t have the capability to heal herself.
“Karsia, we’re lost,” Aisanna muttered through grinding teeth.
“We’re not lost. Trust me. When you two blathering hens are ready to shut up and follow me without the fucking chatter, then maybe we’ll get where we’re going. Otherwise, stay here for all I care.”
They trailed behind her without further complaint. Eventually they came to the edge of the forest and found themselves on a lonely country road.
“Now what?” Astix said.
“This way,” Karsia told the others and kept walking.
“How do you know?” Aisanna asked.
“Life, stupid. I can smell it. Blood and sweat and humanity.”
They ignored Karsia’s unconventional response and continued their trek, finding the going a little easier on the road, even in the near-darkness. Dense hardwood began to give way to sparser saplings, interspersed with bare fields they knew would be green with the coming of spring. Soon a distant glow of light promised civilization. Karsia marched ahead of them like a general ready for battle.
“How did you know this was the way to come?” Astix wanted to know. “We were in the middle of nowhere.”
“I just did. Now, are you going to stop complaining and get down there so we can find a ride? Or do I need to leave you in the woods for the animals to eat?”
Aisanna picked up the pace. “No, we’re coming.”
Eventually, they made it to the town, a place rife with life and energy during the day but sleepy and quiet now.
“Gladstone,” Aisanna read from a sign. “We’re in Gladstone. Where the hell is that?”
“Michigan,” Karsia told them tersely.
“Michigan! How do you know?”
“Same way I knew where the town was in the first place. Don’t ask questions if you’re not prepared for the answers.”
Aisanna must have sensed she wasn’t making headway. Good, Karsia thought. It gave her some relief from their pitiful emotions. To her, they were toddlers, paddling timidly across the kiddie pool. Never diving beneath the surface. Never taking risks.
It was pitiful.
They walked on the side of the road though only a car or two passed them. Given the late hour, it was surprising to see anyone out. Ahead, the small town gleamed under rows of street lamps, quaint buildings centered around a neat downtown square.
Karsia swiveled to the left, pointing ahead to a parking lot. “This way.”
Without anywhere better to go, they followed her. She stopped beside a beat-up Chevy pickup truck with mud-splattered tires and fenders, then let her fist spring back and release, easily punching a hole through the glass of the driver’s side window.
“What the hell are you doing?” Astix hissed over the sound of broken glass.
“We need to get home. We need a vehicle.” Karsia hoisted herself up and unlocked the door from the inside. The truck was old and worn down, no need for an alarm to blare and alert the police of their i
nvolvement. The owner probably thought just locking the doors was enough. Who would steal it? “This should be easy.”
Karsia yanked open the flooring near the floorboard to reveal a tangle of wires. Selecting two, she stripped them with her teeth and touched them together. The engine started immediately.
“So, are you two going to get in or not?” Karsia slid behind the wheel and closed the door, then she reached over and unlocked the passenger side door.
“You’re really stealing this truck?” Aisanna asked, shocked. “Seriously?”
Karsia shrugged. “Have it your way.” She shifted into reverse and began to back up.
Aisanna held her hands in front of her to stop the motion. “Stop! We’re coming.”
Astix gave her a look. “She was going to leave us here.”
“Did you think she wouldn’t? Surprised the hell out of me.”
They hurried around to the other side and opened the door. The interior was worn, with duct tape holding the seat together in several places. A limp air freshener hung from the rearview mirror, though its presence made no difference. The truck stank of spilled beer, mud, and stale cigarette smoke.
Aisanna scooted over to make room for Astix, and together they pulled away, dust and smoke from the tailpipe marking their escape.
Karsia stared into the distance as though she would rather be anywhere else. Occasionally, she lifted her face to the sky and scented the air like a predator.
“Oh, yes. This is it.” She hung her arm out the broken window and slouched. “This is the good stuff.”
“I can’t believe we stole a truck,” Astix moaned. “That’s like…what do they call it…grand theft auto?” She let her head drop back to the seat.
“It’s fine,” Karsia assured them. “And don’t mention it again. I have no qualms about pulling over and leaving you on the side of the road.”
“My lips are zipped.” Astix mimed turning a key in a lock and throwing it away.
