“Oh, seriously.” Hyperventilating, Rane took over the wheel, sliding her iron body into the driver’s seat. Her monotone voice took on an uncharacteristic edge of panic. “Hurry!”
Climbing over into the back seat, Dru grabbed the metal box of biotite. Fingers shaking, she pulled the lid open and yanked out the angular dark crystal from its nest of foam rubber. She cradled the biotite in her hands, willing it to charge up.
But there was only the merest flicker of light in its murky brown depths. Without Greyson’s aid, her energy wasn’t nearly as powerful. She didn’t know for sure how much energy the biotite needed, but she clearly didn’t have enough.
The black Horseman’s bunched fist smashed through the rear window, sending broken glass flying everywhere. A tornado of breath-stealing wind blasted through the shattered window, forced in by the turbulence of their extreme speed. The wind tugged at Dru’s hair, grasped at her clothes.
Rane ducked low in the seat. “Take the wheel back! Take it! Let me at him!”
Dru almost did, but that would mean giving up on the biotite. And the crystal was the only chance they had left.
Hellbringer’s window tried to reform itself, glass growing inward from the edges of the frame like spreading ice crystals, sealing the black Horseman in place. With a sinister roar, he forced his way through, smashing the glass away faster than it could form.
Dru’s every instinct told her to scramble back away from the Horseman, jump over the seat, and squeeze into the front corner by the dashboard. But she stayed put. If there was any trace of Greyson left in him, she needed his power. Now, desperately.
As he fought his way into the back seat, claws digging deep into the upholstery, she realized he was at a disadvantage. The cramped quarters limited the strength he could bring to bear. And she had a fleeting chance to use that against him.
Instead of backing away, she came straight at him. The Horseman thrust out one clawed hand to grab her, and she caught his fingers in hers.
Instantly, she connected with him, as she had with Greyson. Even though the demon had taken over Greyson’s body, his soul was still linked to hers.
He was still an arcana rasa, and she was still a sorceress.
Without hesitation, she reached out with her feelings and unlocked the vast reservoir of magic within him, letting it flow into her. She deliberately dropped her defenses, drawing in the Horseman’s power. It burned, dark and foul, and every fiber of her being wanted to reject it.
But she needed that energy, as much as she despised it. She needed it desperately for the crystal. She soaked it up, every bit she could, and channeled it into the biotite.
Caught by their connection, the Horseman’s strength wavered. Beneath his long horns, his furrowed face twisted in rage, then confusion. He slumped, as if tranquilized, and slid down into the back seat.
Dru shifted aside and let him settle into Hellbringer’s wide black seat, his clawed fingers still intertwined with hers.
Dru focused all her attention on extracting the seemingly limitless flow of dark magic from him. Its intensity scorched through her, burning like acid as she poured it into the biotite crystal in her other hand.
At first, nothing happened.
But as she held the connection, pinning the Horseman against the seat with her knees, she willed more and more of the infernal energy into the crystal. It began to glow from within. A coarse, primal light, like lava under a bloody sunset sky.
His howl of rage became a strangled gasp. He sagged and collapsed into Hellbringer’s back seat, and still she held on.
“Dru!” Rane shouted over the still-roaring engine. “We’re running out of bridge!”
Through the windshield, Dru could see the cliff growing closer, like a black wall of stone rushing at them.
Behind, the white Bronco closed in fast, its grill flashing in the chaotic light. The red Mustang swung around to the side, and the reptilian Horseman leaned out the window, raising his flaming sword high.
But the biotite crystal wasn’t yet charged. Dru kept pulling the dark energy from the Horseman, letting it sear its way through her soul and sizzle into the ever-brightening biotite. At this point, it didn’t matter what scars the energy left within her. She had nothing left to lose.
The intensity of the crystal’s glow went from hot coals to bare light bulb, then quickly became too bright to look at. Like holding a fragment of the sun in her hand.
A smoky smell filled the air, the foul stench of burning rock. Teeth gritted, she ignored the scorching pain in her hand.
She charged it further than she had ever charged any crystal. Further than she expected this crystal could take. Any moment, she expected to overload it to the point of fracture.
If that happened, it could release all of its energy in an uncontrolled firestorm, killing everyone inside Hellbringer but leaving the causeway untouched.
They had only one shot. She had to make it count.
The red Horseman’s fiery sword came down, carving a red-hot path through Hellbringer’s roof. Molten metal dripped from the edge of the blade, burning into the seat next to her, setting fire to the upholstery.
The next instant, the white Horseman rammed them from behind. The impact sent Hellbringer skidding. The sudden movement wrenched the flaming sword free, and it spun away to disappear over the edge of the causeway, lighting the mist as it fell.
It left behind a gaping hole in the roof, revealing a wedge of chaotic sky filled with rippling light.
Rane let out a wordless yell of fear, trying to steer the car back into control. For a terrifying moment, Dru thought they would go over the edge and plunge into the endless abyss below.
Then Hellbringer straightened out on its own, sending them hurtling directly toward the black rock island ahead.
Pinned beneath Dru’s knees, the black Horseman let out a final gasp and slumped in the seat, spent. The energy flow stopped. There was nothing left to charge the crystal.
Dru held the biotite for a moment in her hands, so bright it drew streams of tears from her eyes.
This was it. This was all she had. There was nothing more.
She had to make sure it hit the causeway behind them. If it missed, they were doomed.
With a ragged breath, she cocked back her arm and hurled the crystal up through the already-closing gash in the roof. The moment it left her fingers, she felt the energy ripped away from her, as if there was nothing left within her.
The crystal sailed up into the sky, blinding bright, until it came down behind them in a lazy arc, like a new sun setting on the horizon.
“Dru?” Greyson’s gravelly voice was unmistakable.
He stared up at her. Though every inch of him still had the demonic appearance of the Horseman, the white-hot glow of his eyes had faded to nearly human. Slowly, his fangs began to recede, his horns shrank, and his face started to look like his own again.
Her heart leaped in her chest. She could see the recognition in his eyes. It really was Greyson. He was back.
By drawing the dark energy out of him, she realized, she had drawn out the black Horseman as well. Pulled him right out of Greyson and trapped the evil essence within the glowing inferno of the biotite crystal.
At last, in this darkest hour, she’d managed to achieve what she had wanted all along. She had saved Greyson. Despite the tears that stung her eyes, she smiled.
“What happened?” he asked. “Are you okay?”
She cradled his face in her hands, trying to ease his confusion. “Shh.”
“Don’t cry,” he said, raising one hand toward her cheek. But before he could touch her, a flash of light erupted behind them, so bright and hot she could feel it on her skin as much as see it.
It was too late.
She couldn’t help but look back through Hellbringer’s rear window, squinting into the glare as the causeway whited out in a blaze of light.
The black polygonal stones some nameless sorcerer of ancient times had used to bui
ld the causeway flew apart as the biotite reversed the enchantment holding the stones together. Epic bolts of unbound magic flared in all directions, like lightning, in colors Dru had never seen before.
For a moment, the eerie beauty of the energy blossoming behind them almost made her forget its deadliness. But as the white-hot wall of the shock wave raced toward them, obliterating the causeway as it came, she held on tight to Greyson’s hand.
He knew something was coming. She could see it in his eyes.
“Dru,” he whispered, “I—”
She opened her lips to say, Don’t let go.
But she didn’t get the chance.
That instant, the blast overtook them, flinging stones and cars like dry leaves swept before a storm wind.
The last thing she saw in the searing light was the twisted wreck of the red Mustang flipping end over end. Below it, the other two cars trailed fire as they burned through the mist and tumbled into the endless abyss below, vanishing forever.
43
FOREVER REMAINS
Nothing remained of the causeway. Its destruction had ripped a hole in the edge of the cliff, leaving nothing but a smoking depression in the black rock. Dark stone blocks, the size of coffins, lay scattered across the rocky ground of the island. The long troughs and craters from their impact bore mute witness to the all-devouring power that had flung them there.
The aftermath of the explosion had reached high into the heavens and swept away the shimmering spiderwebs of fiery color from the netherworld sky, leaving only cold, naked stars staring down from above, punctuated by the bright slashes of meteors streaking toward the horizon.
Under the chill of the starlight, a lone figure moved across the barren landscape, staggering away from the wrecked black car.
Rane trudged a short distance and laid Dru’s limp form down across a flat rock, then gripped her wrist to check her pulse. Leaning close, she bent until her ear nearly brushed Dru’s lips, listening to the soft rhythm of her breathing.
Satisfied, she patted Dru lightly on the cheek. “Hey. D. Wake up.”
By the time Dru came around, Rane was peeling up her eyelids and staring into them with wide-eyed intensity. “Helloooo? Anybody in there?”
Dru jerked away, blinking dry eyes. “Ugh.” She swatted ineffectually at Rane’s large hands. “Leave me ’lone.”
“Love to, but I can’t. Got your bell rung pretty good. Could be worse, though. I got you out of the car in one piece. Come on, easy does it.” Rane helped her sit up and handed over her glasses.
“Where’s Greyson?” Dru slipped the glasses on and looked around at the scattered black stones. They stood out starkly beneath the cold starlight, like the crooked teeth of some long-vanished giant.
Rane’s face was smeared with soot. Her blonde hair had come undone from its ponytail, sticking out in random directions. Her red-rimmed eyes looked back at Dru, wide and wild. “Dude. We survived. That’s what counts.”
“What?” Dru nodded slightly. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“You guess so? Don’t you get it?” Rane insisted, her voice high and tight. “We stopped the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. We saved the world. We are officially the most badass sorceresses. Ever.” She let out a trickle of a laugh, but there was a high-pitched brittleness to it, as if it could crack and shatter. She held up her hand for a high-five.
Dru hurt too much to respond. She placed her palms flat on the cold, gritty ground and pushed herself up. A splitting pain shot across the back of her skull and down her neck. Wincing, she reached up to probe her tender scalp.
Rane caught her hand. “Don’t touch. You should get that looked at. We’ll go out through the old mine shaft, get back to town, get you checked out. Sound like a plan?”
With a pained grunt, Dru sat down again and blinked up at the sky full of unfamiliar stars, bisected across the middle by a shimmering ribbon of hazy light, then another. Gradually, the netherworld sky began to come alive again. “Is that the Milky Way up there?”
“Nuh-uh.” Rane shook her head no. “I don’t know where this netherworld is, exactly, in the grand scheme of things. All I know is it freaks me out.”
Out past the edge of the cliff, nothing was left of the causeway or the sea of clouds. Just an infinite blackness that stretched out as far as she could see.
A rustle of chilly wind blew out of the empty darkness and across her skin, raising goose bumps. The air smelled sooty and electric, like the aftermath of a thunderstorm mixed with smoldering ashes.
The only other sound was a pinging of cooling metal. Nearby, Hellbringer lay on its side, the car’s long body warped and crumpled. Every part of it was smashed, as if it had tumbled end over end before finally coming to rest. Its windshield and windows gaped, empty. Broken glass lay scattered across the ground, sparkling like gems in the starlight.
Dru stared at the wreckage, aware that there was something inherently wrong about it but still too fuzzy to think about it clearly.
“Good thing I was still in iron form,” Rane said. “Held onto you tight the whole time. We came cartwheeling off that bridge, hit the island, and rolled maybe three, four more times. Never been in a crash like that. Never want to do that again, either. Damn.”
“It’s not fixing itself,” Dru realized out loud.
“What’s not what?”
“Hellbringer. Look. Why is it still smashed? We’ve always seen it pull itself back together.” Dru painfully pushed herself upright and limped toward the car, a hard lump rising in her throat. She felt responsible for Hellbringer’s well-being, as if the car were a stray animal she’d adopted.
Rane followed close behind. “Forget it. There’s nothing left in there. I checked. Did find your purse, though. Amazed it didn’t go down into the clouds.”
But she didn’t care about her purse. With every step, the pain in Dru’s ankle jabbed up her leg and met with the pain that shot down her neck, slowing her down. Deep inside, she felt a desperate need to get back to the car. To check on it. Make sure it was okay.
But she was too late.
As Dru reached the lifeless wreckage, tears welled up in her eyes. After a moment of hesitation, she reached out and touched the crumpled metal. Where the paint was broken, it crumbled and fell away, revealing naked steel beneath. The bare metal shone in the starlight.
But the steel itself felt cold and dead to the touch.
She leaned close until she rested her cheek against the metal. She had sworn to the speed demon that she would save it, if it helped them. She’d sworn to set it free.
Hellbringer had carried them through to the end. And now it was gone.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered to the wreckage. “I’m so sorry.”
“Come on,” Rane said gently. “Let’s go.”
Dru swallowed. “Where’s Greyson?”
Rane’s eyes turned haunted. “I tried, D. I tried to grab him in the crash. But . . .”
“What?”
“I grabbed you, but then we were rolling. It happened so fast.”
Dru shook her head, not understanding. “What do you mean? Where’s Greyson?”
“I’m so sorry.” Rane reached for her, long arms starting to circle around her.
Dru pulled away and limped to the edge of the cliff, cupping her hands around her mouth. “Greyson!” she shouted. Ignoring the stabbing pain in her back, she clambered over the scattered black stone blocks, searching. “Where is he?”
In the darkness of every shadow, she searched for him. Wide-eyed, she scanned every inch of the tortured ledge. But he wasn’t there. “Greyson!”
“I looked everywhere already. He was thrown out in the crash. I don’t know where he ended up.” Rane followed her, looking as if she wanted to grab her. “D! Come down. You don’t need to do this right now.”
She stood at the shattered footings of the causeway, peering down at the bottomless cliff of black rock. He wasn’t there.
“Greyson!” Dru screamed his name, over
and over, into the black depths of the abyss. Screamed until her voice became cracked and hoarse. Screamed out the pain and the loss of knowing that he was gone forever.
She sank to her knees at the lip of the cliff, sobbing tears into the endless darkness below. She swayed on the edge of the abyss, bereft of words or thought, feeling the incredible lightness inside her that came from having nothing left.
The crushing grief threatened to destroy her. Steal her away into the endless nothing. Forever. Like Greyson.
Before she could fall, Rane’s strong arms wrapped around her. With uncharacteristic gentleness, those arms pulled her back from the edge. They held her, unwavering, steady, the only safety and stability left in this world.
“I’m sorry,” Rane whispered, rocking her slowly side to side as Dru cried. “It’s okay.”
Dru wanted to answer, wanted to deny that it would ever be okay. Because it wouldn’t. But she didn’t have the strength left to speak.
They sat together on the cold, rocky cliff, under the light of the netherworld’s dying stars, silent except for Dru’s ragged sobs.
44
THE SILENCE WHEN YOU’RE GONE
Dru sat alone on the floor in the boarded-up wreckage of her shop, trying to blot out the rest of the world. With most of the overhead light fixtures destroyed in the fight with the Horsemen, the only light came from the single bulb of a battered table lamp with a dented shade.
Her phone rang. Nate again. He’d been calling ever since she’d made it back.
She tossed the phone aside without answering it. Not trying to hurt Nate or shut him out. She just couldn’t deal with thinking about him now.
As the cracks of pale daylight around the plywood-boarded windows faded into darkness and became slivers of cold light from the street lamps, Dru occasionally thought about getting up off the floor. Maybe eating one of the crispy cinnamon Duffeyrolls that Opal had brought her.
But she didn’t. Hunger had become just another kind of pain to try to ignore.
She felt as if she was drowning in an endless emptiness of waiting. But she didn’t know what she was waiting for.
It Happened One Doomsday Page 26
