“I told you I don’t have it!”
Outside, they found Altemus standing over two necromancer bodies he had destroyed. In his hand was an elaborately carved wooden scepter, mounted with a jeweled green orb that glowed faintly in the fog.
Altemus had the skull in his other hand, and he slid it on top of the scepter. The skull’s eyes lit up and the mouth moved as if it were trying to speak.
“It cannot be!” the Lich King cried.
Altemus wielded the scepter and raised it into the air. A green beam shot out and struck the Lich King, encircling him like chains.
“You are now mine to command,” Altemus said, grinning. He turned to Rohan. “And you.”
The Lich King and the rest of the necromancers gathered in front of Rohan.
“Never!” Rohan screamed.
The wall behind him crumbled, and more necromancers shambled out. Magic glowed from their fingertips.
“I’m not your enemy!” Rohan yelled.
Another strike of lightning exploded from the sky, and a blast of dark power hit Rohan in the back, slamming him into the ground.
“Lich King!” Rohan shouted. “End this! That scepter doesn’t belong to him!”
“They are no longer mine to command,” the Lich King said. “I have been dethroned.” He soared into the air, his hands glowing with fire.
Altemus held the scepter high. “I am the king of the dead now. And my army will rise to the world above. No one will ever stand in my way!”
The ground shook, and a river of blackness cascaded through the room, taking the necromancers with it and swirling around in a circular motion. The necromancers howled as it tumbled them up and around.
The river slammed into Rohan, and soon he was lost in the blackness, too. Time seemed to slow down as the river dismantled the building. He was awash in, stone and necromancers. The deafening roar made him want to cover his ears, but he was too busy fighting for his life, trying to stay afloat in the powerful surge.
Finally, the darkness covered everything.
All he knew was an instinctual desire for survival, and so he continued to struggle against the power that held him, but could see nothing.
And then the deafening roar burned away, replaced only by stillness, and he was floating, weightless.
He blinked at the lights that had started to flicker on the surface of the river. that was carrying him…
Spirits. Wispy, whirling patterns with opened mouths, screaming and wailing, rising from the water and reaching up into the air, only to be smacked down onto the surface of the river.
Then the river was flowing upward, toward a single pinpoint of light.
A craggy surface appeared alongside the river. Altemus was standing on it, glowing black and red. Rohan could see Anne sparkling inside him, and the old man’s face was filled with hatred, sadness, and joy.
“Your power will never be strong enough, Rohan,” Altemus said.
Rohan bobbed up and down on the surface of the water.
“Maybe for now, old man, but I’ll find a way to beat you.”
In a flash, Altemus had jumped into the river with the scepter in hand. He floated on the surface of the water, untouched by the darkness, and pressed the scepter to Rohan’s forehead.
“Try and stop this,” he said, grinning evilly.
Green energy flowed from the scepter, and Rohan screamed as the force of a thousand hands pulled at his body, like hands pulling tough, old cloth.
They were tearing at his soul. Pulling it away from his body.
He screamed again and focused all of his energy into strengthening himself. No matter what happened next, he couldn’t lose his spirit—he refused.
But the force of the hands was too strong. The scepter glowed brighter and brighter, and Rohan knew that he could not win this battle.
“Goodbye, Rohan.”
Rohan gave up, his body going limp.
“You can’t stop me,” Altemus said. “Nothing can.”
Anne flickered out and appeared alongside Altemus, giving Rohan a cold, disdainful look. She took Altemus by the hand.
“My love….”
Altemus gave her a loving look, and then turned back to Rohan with spite. “Enjoy watching the world burn.”
Rohan’s body was broken. The fabric of his soul wasn’t yet torn, but he knew it was coming any moment. He relaxed, gave in to it.
Altemus raised his scepter into the sky. Two clouds formed and became dark hands that reached down to carry away Anne and Altemus. Thunderclouds rolled in, covering the space behind them, and they were gone.
The river expanded into a swirling ocean under a gray, stormy sky. Rohan beheld the entire afterlife ahead of him, in multiple layers of consciousness—too bright, too beautiful, and too complex to understand. The river absorbed the afterlife and carried it in its fearsome wrath.
Rohan knew that it was carrying him up to the world above.
Above… would he be dead when he reached the surface? What would it feel like, to be parted from his soul?
The pinpoint of light stretched, and he saw a flash.
It was Corinne. First he saw her face, then her hands, reaching down for him.
“Corinne?”
Her arms embraced him just as spirits of light rocketed out of the water, free from its deadly embrace. They swirled around each other and entered the pinpoint, like balls being sucked through a plastic tube.
But Corinne dragged him down, out and away from the river, onto a hard, rocky surface.
“Rohan… Rohan….”
He blinked rapidly.
“Remember, love is stronger than death.”
Death sounded great right now. He wanted it to end. He knew, in this moment, what agony the undead must have felt, their spirits broken, with nothing to live for.
His heartbeat slowed.
“Rohan… Rohan….”
He blinked again, and saw nothing but the river ascending.
“Never forget that love is stronger than death,” she said again, and then he sensed her being pulled away, fast, by a force greater than any he had felt before. He tried to fight it, to pull her back, but darkness took over.
And then a bright flash of light.
He was floating among a field of flowers. Now he was walking through it, hand-in-hand with Senna. She was laughing.
He kissed her on the forehead, ran his fingers through her hair. They stared into each other’s eyes. The sunlight cast a warmth upon her face, and she had never been more beautiful.
He dropped down to one knee.
A box was in his pocket. The engagement ring. He pulled it out and slid it onto her finger.
A tear rolled down her cheek, and instead of hitting the ground, it hit dark water.
He felt as if his entire body were plunged into water again as he absorbed the wetness of the tear.
He opened his eyes.
It was not an illusion. He was on the rocks next to the rushing water, and he was in Senna’s arms.
She looked like she had been plucked out of his memories, before her illness. Her dark skin shone against the blackness of the river. The stud in her nose glinted. It was a miracle that her petite frame could hold him. She smiled wide and brightly, brighter than he thought anyone could ever smile, and she ran her fingers across his cheek. He hadn’t realized how cold he was, and as her fingers brushed across his skin, his body tingled with warmth.
“Senna?” he asked quietly. “Why are you here?”
“It isn’t your time.”
Rohan wrapped his arms around her and cried. “I told you we’d never be separated. I kept my promise.”
“I know. I know.”
“Let’s get out of here.”
Senna shook her head and tilted his chin up. “I’m past life, my love. But you aren’t. You have to return.”
“Life without you is no life at all.”
Senna smiled. “I was up there not too long ago, you know. Each time you came and visite
d me in the hospital, even if it seemed like I was gone, I was there, calling out for you. Loving you. Missing you.”
Rohan pulled her close.
“But Rohan,” Senna said, her face hardening, “you have to let me go.”
Her body began to fade, and a look of worry filled her eyes.
“What is it?” Rohan asked.
“I don’t….” She let go of him and floated upward. “This isn’t me. What’s happening? Rohan, help!”
She screamed as a hand pulled her into the dark waters that swirled above.
Rohan dove into the water. “Senna!” He couldn’t see a thing in the black depths.
He rose to the surface and spluttered. “Senna!”
Just ahead, he saw Senna’s face on the surface of the water. He reached for her, but the river pulled her further along.
“I can’t resist it,” Senna said. “I feel his call.”
Rohan reached out again and took her hand. In a flash, everything around them vanished. They were swirling in the river still, but they were alone. They held each other as the river carried them closer to the pinpoint of light.
An immense heat surrounded them as the river propelled them into the world above. From the rush of air around him, the way his body reacted to its new surroundings, there was no mistaking it—he was back in the world of the living.
A sea of raised headstones glowed under a clouded moon. He’d seen these types of graves before in pictures of New Orleans. Long, narrow rows of white mausoleums with doors a foot off the ground. Yes, they could be nowhere else, he was sure of it.
He clutched dirt and saw Senna’s soul lying next to him. She no longer had a physical form, but glowed, translucent as Corinne had been.
He stood, trying to get his bearings.
“Corinne?” Rohan called out into the night.
“Who?” Senna asked, floating up beside him.
“A spirit, maybe our only hope.”
A silvery wisp flew past, and then another. Soon, more and more were rising out of the ground, flying toward what Rohan now saw to be flashes of light ahead. He and Senna started toward it, but as they did, he noticed the graves were open. And then he realized that what he had thought to be people up ahead were actually corpses, walking in the night.
“Stay strong,” Senna said.
He nodded and pushed on.
That’s when he saw Altemus standing ahead of him, surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of corpses, all shambling around him as spirits formed a great ball of energy overhead.
The old man grinned. “I’ll never be rid of you, will I?”
Corinne floated next to him, glowing faintly. Her eyes gazed downward as if she didn’t recognize Rohan.
“Corinne!” he cried. “Stop him!”
“She’s mine, now, Rohan.”
Then Rohan saw the spiritual link between Altemus’s body and Corinne. She was tethered to him by a long, silver, glowing line.
“No….”
“And it seems you’ve brought me yet another gift,” Altemus said.
Altemus held out his hand, causing Senna’s body to drift over to him. She screamed for help, reaching back toward Rohan.
“I’ve missed you, Senna,” Altemus said.
“Don’t touch her!” Rohan cried.
“Oh, I don’t need to.”
Altemus made a fist, causing Senna to recoil in pain.
Rohan closed his eyes and tried to create energy to fight with, but nothing happened.
“You’re too weak now, Rohan,” Altemus said. He hit Rohan with a fireball, knocking him onto his back.
Another fireball knocked him further across the dirt. Then another.
“I’m not like you,” Rohan said, closing his eyes. He saw Altemus leap over, then felt a kick in his stomach.
“You could never be anything like me,” Altemus said, kicking him again. “You’re pitiful. All over the earth, as we speak, my armies rise. My necromancers will lead me to victory while you lie powerless. The love of your life sits here, and you do nothing!”
Altemus put his boot on Rohan’s neck. Corinne floated nearby, close enough to touch. Her eyes were glassed over and she hovered in place like a fish.
“You’re a fool,” Rohan said to the old man.
“Maybe, but—”
Moving quickly, Rohan reached out and grabbed Corinne. A flash of light flared, and Rohan snatched the silver cord that connected Corinne and Altemus. With all his focus and strength, he broke it.
He smiled, glad to see recognition in Corinne’s eyes, and then pulled her into his body to shoot flames from his hands at the old man.
“No!” Altemus said, caught off guard by the rapid change.
The force of the blasts knocked Altemus back.
Rohan’s fists glowed with light and he descended onto Altemus, punching him in the face.
“Today, you die,” Altemus said, catching his second punch.
A blast knocked Rohan and Corinne back, and Altemus jumped to his feet. He revealed the Scepter of O’lin and held it high, prepared to attack.
“My love, use me too,” Senna said. “NOW!”
Rohan held out his hands, and Senna merged with him and Corinne. Energy flowed through him. He gathered strength and speed as Altemus held out the scepter, laughing, never believing that Rohan posed any sort of real threat.
Rohan pulled with all of the energy he could muster, and then he was flying forward, Corinne and Senna joining him, becoming one with him. They slammed into Altemus with an explosion of light, and then they were attacking him together, connecting in bright explosions that filled the night sky.
Altemus shouted, screaming for his spirits and walking corpses to help him, but none of them came. He held up his hands to block, but the magical blows kept coming, and he could do nothing but curl up into a ball and take them.
When the look of death entered his eyes, Corinne and Senna separated from Rohan.
A cackle sounded in the wind, and a shriek of agony—Anne’s spirit was there, staring down at her dead husband in terror. Rohan prepared himself for an attack, but instead she dove at her husband’s dead body, pulling out a silvery -wisp that slightly resembled the man Altemus had been. His soul.
“You will not take him,” Anne said.
“It’s over,” Rohan said, pitying the woman. “ You’re finished.”
Anne laughed as she held Altemus’s soul in her arms.
Altemus, looking around and realizing that he was merely a spirit now, let out a pained cry.
“This wasn’t in the plan!” he wailed. Then his face settled on Rohan and it hardened. “But Rohan, we’re just getting started.”
He and Anne circled each other, filling the area with silvery light so bright that Rohan was forced to shield his eyes. When the light faded, they were far away, flying into the night.
“No!” Rohan said, standing with a hand outstretched.
“You should not have let them escape,” the Lich King said, coming to rest nearby. He had been among the spirits Altemus controlled with the scepter, but Rohan hadn’t noticed him.
“We have to stop them,” Rohan said.
“And so, we shall,” the Lich King said. “But they are out of our grasp, and you have other matters to attend to.”
He gestured to Corinne, and then nodded.
“Thank you,” Corinne said as she floated into the sky. Her face lit up as forms appeared around her—a boy and a man, spirits of her family that took her in an embrace. They all smiled down at Rohan as they faded away.
“Goodbye, Corinne,” Rohan said. “Thank you.”
“Farewell,” she replied, her voice carrying like a distant echo.
Rohan shared a smile with Senna, then looked to the scepter on the ground, where it had rolled from Altemus’s grip. He picked it up.
The scepter looked heavy, but in his hands it was even heavier. An intense surge of power flowed through Rohan’s body. He caught glimpses of the afterlife in his mind’s e
ye, ready to do anything he wanted at his command. He sensed the billions of souls, knew everything about them—their pasts, presents, and futures. The whole place felt like clay to him, ready to be molded and shaped into anything that he pleased. The afterlife churned and flowed and surged in his hands, eager to be commanded.
The scepter burned, and he knew this was too much power for a mortal man to control.
He handed the scepter back to the Lich King. “It’s yours.”
“I owe you a great debt,” the Lich King said, holding the scepter high above his head. “If you should ever find yourself in need of my services, I will do what I can.”
“We won,” Rohan said, taking Senna in his arms, a smile wide across his face.
“Have we?” she asked, a hesitant look to the Lich King.
“As long as the spirits of those two are not in our control, we cannot rest in peace,” the Lich King said. “But for now, enjoy each other’s company. I can give you a few minutes at most, but that’s all my powers will allow.”
“A few minutes?” Rohan was stunned.
The Lich King answered with a wave of his scepter, and then the scenery changed as he first began to fade, and then sank into the ground. All around them, the graves and lifeless corpses vanished, and in their place were rolling green hills, waterfalls, and a blue sky where birds chirped as they flew by.
Rohan held Senna close, staring around in awe. “What is this place?”
“The path ahead,” she said. “But only for me.”
The answer was gut wrenching. He couldn’t accept it. “From now on, there’s no you or me, there’s only us. I won’t be without you. I can’t do it.”
“We discussed this. You can, and you must.”
She took his face in her hands, and their eyes met. What beautiful, chestnut-brown eyes she had. He’d almost forgotten, and he hated himself for it. He closed his eyes, enjoying her touch, letting it wash over him and through him so he’d never forget the sensation.
Her lips pressed against his, soft, firm. A kiss of passion, yet gentle in a way that spoke of a love that would never die.
“I’ll be waiting here for you, always,” she said. He opened his eyes to see hers were moist. “You will return to me, and for me, it will be like no time passed at all.”
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