Shadow of Forever (Eaters of the Light Book 2)

by J. Edward Neill

  I knew what was happening.

  I couldn’t believe it.

  I watched despite my agony.

  The light made its own holes in the death-sphere substance. The walls cracked and burned, the lines of fire advancing as if everything were made of paper. Like leaves, the two Strigoi horrors curled on the floor and smoldered. The bones of those I’d killed caught fire a second time.

  Awakened, the new star knew no mercy.

  Its light carved a hard line though all things made of darkness.

  I’d always known the Strigoi to be slain by sunlight. But for the death-sphere to catch fire was beyond me. It made sense, I supposed. The sphere and the dark planet had only been separated by a few million kilometers. A star waking at such a small distance would’ve destroyed anything.

  And then I saw it. Through the sphere’s gaping wound, the newborn star gazed upon me. The walls melted, the Strigoi became ash, and the gravity holding me to the floor vanished. In a cloud of starlit dust, I felt myself rising.

  The death-sphere’s heart let out a last spasm.

  Hundreds of thousands of Strigoi perished all at once.

  My own heart stopped inside me, and yet I gazed out a while longer, dead but not blind. Where once was darkness, only light lived. Except for the ancient ships, whose hulls shined white and silver, and whose wings touched open space one final time, everything turned to ash.

  As I burned, I managed a smile. I’d spent my life searching for all the stars who’d died, all the darkness growing between them.

  To see a star awaken was all I’d ever wanted.

  It’s beautiful, I thought.

  Like Cal.

  * * *

  Callista

  I awoke from my life’s longest sleep.

  In my first moments, as I lay warming on a metal slab, I dreamed he was there with me. My vision, so blurry, tricked me into believing the shadows above me were him. Instead of needles whining and the hum of the Ring’s heating elements, I swore I heard his voice.

  And then I remembered.

  I lost him twenty-six years ago.

  Days later, as the Ring eased into Sumer’s orbit, I stood at the same window Joff had always used. He’d always been glued to his routines. Of all the many windows in all the Ring’s pods, he’d stood at the same one every time. I admired his choice. He’d planted himself front and center in the observation pod, no clutter, no sound, just a lone sheet of polymer glass between him and the universe.

  It’d been twenty-six years, and yet it felt like only hours ago he’d died. The Strigoi ships that hadn’t been destroyed by the new star’s birth had tracked me down. I’d escaped at quantum velocities mere seconds before they would’ve ended me.

  I hadn’t allowed myself to grieve.

  I’d slipped into the hypo-chamber minutes after escaping.

  And I’d consumed twenty-six years without dreaming.

  Or thinking.

  Or dulling the pain.

  In their final star-killing volley, the Strigoi hadn’t aimed at Sumer. Sumer’s stars, mighty blue Atreya and crimson Kokab, shined with as much fury as when we’d left.

  Lucky, I believed. All of us.

  I supposed I should’ve been happy.

  But I couldn’t make myself smile.

  I paced through the Ring. It hurt to linger in the places Joff had stood. I’d already cried out all my tears, and yet each time I walked by the table we’d eaten at, the chairs we’d sat in, and the bed we’d shared, I felt other emotions.

  New emotions.

  Loneliness.

  Regret.

  Anger.

  Outside of hypo-sleep, I’d only been alive in my human body for a few weeks total. I wasn’t sure I liked it anymore. Everything hurt harder than when I’d been Joff’s hologram girl. My anxiety destroyed my appetite. I woke in the middle of every sleep, shivering from what I’d seen through Joff’s visor. The only person I’d ever loved was dead.

  And the more I thought about it, the hotter my anger burned.

  * * *

  Sumer lay in darkness beneath me. Peering out the observation pod window, I saw a narrow band of lights winking in the otherwise perfect black. The city lights were a welcome sign. It meant the people hadn’t fully succumbed to the Strigoi virus. Whatever sickness Joff had caught in the dark sphere had been faster and far more lethal. The poison spreading across Sumer’s people was meant to corrupt life over several generations.

  Or so I hoped.

  I wondered if they’d spotted me yet. While Sumer’s original inhabitants had been among Earth’s finest scientists and engineers, they had yet to match the advancements of the planet they’d left behind. There simply weren’t enough people and developed resources. I knew they watched the sky, but I wasn’t sure how closely.

  I hated to return.

  If the city lights had been dark, I’d have retreated to the darkness between the stars.

  In the bedroom pod, I dressed in black. The sleek shirt and leggings fit loosely over my narrow shoulders, a reminder of my near-starvation since waking. I regarded myself in the Ring’s only mirror. My too-blue eyes and the dark circles beneath them made me look like a sad little child. I couldn’t believe Joff had ever loved such a creature.

  I slung his satchel over my arm and walked to the bedroom pod door. With a last glance at the rumpled sheets and blue-lit console, I dimmed the lights and left the pod behind. No matter what happened, I’d never see it again.

  Next I went to the kitchen pod, in which I plucked the Strigoi orb from a table and dropped it into my bag. Beside the table, the beast’s skull lay staring forever skyward.

  “Almost got me,” I said to the monstrous thing.

  “But Joff got you.”

  Before leaving the Ring, I needed one last item. After using it to carve up the men who’d attacked Joff outside his ruined house, I’d brought the weapon aboard. Fifty years ago, it’d been. The rifle lay hidden right where I’d left it – stuffed between two empty crates in a pod Joff had rarely visited.

  Holding the Strigoi weapon made my stomach turn. Sumer’s scientists had made it, but it hardly looked like a human thing. As tall as me, the slender black weapon resembled a Strigoi’s bony leg. Just touching it reminded me of Joff’s suffering at their hands.

  I’d have preferred to eject the thing from the Ring’s airlock.

  But as it turned out, I needed it.

  Shivering, I crawled into the Ring’s lone escape sphere. I squeezed into its chair, strapped myself in, and considered what would happen in the next few moments:

  They’ll be waiting for me. They’ll either lance me out of the sky or have soldiers sitting where I land.

  Or they’ll track me to Arcadia. They’ll have forgotten who I am and what I did. But they’ll be smart enough to kill me.

  Or…

  I didn’t want to think about succeeding. It would mean I’d have to do things I didn’t want to do. It’d mean the reversal of all I’d wanted.

  But it had to be done.

  Switch by switch, I triggered the Ring’s shutdown sequence. I heard the console’s voice utter each action she completed:

  Lights powered down.

  Warming system deactivated.

  Pressure systems disengaged.

  Life-support off.

  I knew there’d be no going back. The Sabre was destroyed and Sumer possessed no ships with the right configuration to dock with the Ring.

  This is it.

  Goodbye.

  I pulled the clamp between my legs. With a single thruster boost, my fall toward Sumer began. The escape sphere didn’t have its own gravity, and so my descent promised to be violent.

  I’d matched the planet’s rotation, ensuring I’d land somewhere in Arcadia’s vicinity.

  If Arcadia still existed.

  Who knows? I thought. Maybe I’ll land right on Tabir’s head.

  Nothing about my fall and landing felt good. Locked inside the chrome sphere, I saw
only fire as I descended. More than once, my eyes rolled into the back of their sockets, blacking me out. Every sensation was one I’d never felt before. I wanted to savor them as if they were my last.

  Because they probably are.

  Slowed by a silver parachute, the escape sphere plunged into Sumer’s night. I saw the clear, dark sky, and for the first time in ages I floated beneath the stars rather than among them. Joff would’ve hated it. He’d have preferred to be blown out an airlock than ever return to Sumer.

  The sphere crashed through the forest canopy. I couldn’t hear or see the limbs breaking, but I felt myself fall, stop, and fall again. The sphere hit the ground with a thunderous boom, cratering the wet earth. It hurt more than I expected.

  For a long while, I did nothing. The sphere had carved a hole through the leaves, while the branches had torn the parachute to tatters. I looked up through a little round window and saw the stars winking back.

  I left you out there, I thought of Joff.

  I sat in the Ring and did nothing.

  And now you’re gone.

  My shoulders and neck were bruised. My brain felt loose inside my skull. Hurting, I unsealed the hatch and crawled into the night. I’d forgotten how warm Sumer was. Even at night beneath the trees, the humid air warmed me. I took but five steps into the darkness, and already I began sweating.

  I knew where Arcadia lay.

  I’d seen it before I’d plummeted below the trees.

  There, I faced north. Across that marsh. Beyond those fields. Through ten-thousand more trees.

  I’m coming for you.

  You Forget Me?

  On a balmy eve, I waited.

  In the green space between two weathered mansions, I hunkered in the dirt.

  My belly was empty, my body weak and smothered in bruises.

  The Strigoi rifle lay in my trembling hands.

  I waded through the reeds and walked across a lawn. The smells of rain and wet grass followed my every step. I didn’t know what to expect when I reached the wooden decking behind the governor’s mansion. Arcadia had always been an exceedingly safe place to live, but a part of me assumed everything would be different.

  Surely some people resist.

  Surely the virus works slower in some than others.

  Which means surely he’ll have protection.

  I climbed onto the deck, whose planks creaked beneath me. No guards, security halos, or alarms awaited. When I halted at the glass doors at the mansion’s rear, I felt more fear than relief.

  The governor is alive. I saw his face in a holo-ad.

  If he doesn’t need guards, it means no one is resisting.

  It means they’re all the same.

  The glass doors were blacked out. Coated in a strange polymer and buried in dark curtains, they revealed nothing beyond. It was the same for every window I’d seen. Every hovercar, glass tower, and Arcadian house had its glass inked out.

  I had no idea what to expect.

  The governor’s house might’ve been empty.

  …or filled with sleeping Strigoi.

  I pushed the exterior curtains aside. I nudged the door; it was unlocked. Some things hadn’t changed on Sumer. No one was afraid of anything, not even the governor.

  Not good.

  I slid into the gloom. All was silent. A faint blue light clung to the floor. The light was ghoulish, swirling like hungry mist around my ankles. I waded through, rifle raised, quivering in my rotting shoes. With my wet blue hair, ragged clothes, and too-pale skin, I must’ve looked like a ghost.

  For certain, I felt like one.

  Room to room, I skulked. I remembered Joff telling me about his last meeting with Aly, his sister. She’d left him alone and traipsed off to be murdered. A tiny part of me hated them for what had happened. If she hadn’t been so foolish and he so reckless, everything might’ve been different.

  No. It had to be this way.

  Any slight change, and the Strigoi death-sphere would still be out there.

  Like a breeze, I moved through a half-dozen rooms. All were dark save for the shallow blue mist. The pale light resembled the evil glow I’d seen through Joff’s visor.

  Every room I came to was empty. The house’s smell grew stronger, an odor like old, old death. I crept down narrow halls, peered into empty rooms, and blinked back my exhaustion.

  I had a plan in my mind.

  But it wouldn’t mean a thing if the house was empty.

  If he’s not here, I’ll waste away in hiding.

  Or I’ll—

  I pushed a last door open with the rifle’s tip.

  Inside, sitting in a chair, Tabir Muhami awaited.

  Engrossed in a datapad, he didn’t see me until many breaths passed. I knew him well before we met eyes. More than fifty years had passed, but he’d hardly aged. Even so, he was paler than me. The dark spots beneath his eyes were deeper than mine. He’d preserved himself, though not without cost.

  “You look disgusting,” I said as we stared at each other.

  He knew me at once. My eyes and hair gave me away.

  “Are you a clone? A copy? Are you real?” he asked. He remembered my language. Either that, or he spoke Strigoi speech, which was made for every living creature to comprehend.

  “I’m me,” I said. “I’m Callista. And you killed my Joff.”

  He blinked and stood. I retreated into the doorway, rifle leveled at his head.

  “Another step and you’re dead.”

  He smiled. Standing there in his little office, he looked so smug. I hated him more than ever.

  “If you know me, and if you know what you’re up against, then you know I cannot die,” he said.

  “Oh, you can die plenty,” I spat. “We’ve killed millions of you already.”

  At that, he raised an eyebrow. His expression hardly looked human. He looked stiff, an animated corpse in a three-piece suit.

  “All these years…where have you been?” he asked.

  “Out there.” I glanced to the ceiling. “In the stars. Hunting your kind.”

  “Then you’re aware you cannot win,” he said.

  “I can.” I grimaced. “And I will.”

  He, or it, glared at me. Like parchment, his skin stuck to his bones. I swore I saw a light in his eyes. It was pale, and burned not unlike Earth’s moon the one time I had seen it.

  “Join us.” He bared his teeth at me. “In twenty more years, we will all be turned. In a hundred, we will cover this planet. In a thousand, we—”

  I shot him in his smiling face. The shadows swirling from the rifle melted everything above his collarbone. The wall behind him fumed with cold black smoke.

  Shivering, I walked into the night.

  And I waited for the sun to rise.

  Dark Tower

  On streets warm and shining, I marched into Arcadia’s heart.

  I had no fear anymore.

  If this works, I’ll save this world and everything in it.

  If not…

  At midday I arrived at the same building I’d visited for so many years – the Arcadian Science Institute. It wasn’t the place I remembered. They’d inked out the ASI’s glass windows and draped a dark brocade over its towering top. Hovercars with black windshields lined the lots surrounding it, but all were empty. The Arcadian people no longer worked beneath the suns, but instead by night in the shadows.

  Which meant I had eight hours to do the thing I dreaded most.

  Dressed all in black, I climbed the stairs. I’d left my satchel of food behind, knowing I wouldn’t need it again. In my hands, the Strigoi rifle bobbed. I hated the weapon, hated myself for using it on Tabir. I wanted to be anywhere in the universe but standing on the ASI’s glass stairway.

  Yet there I was.

  I trudged to the giant glass doors. I tried to tug them open, but they wouldn’t move. I supposed it made sense. If the ASI’s new purpose was to research machines for the Strigoi revolution, its doors were the only ones on Sumer that neede
d to be locked.

  I stepped away.

  I raised the rifle.

  And I blew the doors open with a stream of black energy.

  In the aftermath, I stood and waited. The explosion had been loud enough to wake half of Arcadia. If a Strigoi legion lurked inside the tower, it would be only seconds before they burned me off the face of Sumer.

  After ten breaths, I stepped into the gloom. The reception terminal lay in darkness, the hum of its three consoles the only sound. I stepped over a pool of melted glass and molten alloy, and I crossed the empty space beyond the doors.

  A long, dark hallway opened up before me, empty as a tomb yet to be filled.

  Barely breathing, I marched into the hall. I searched for switches meant to activate the ASI’s lights, but found none. Every sconce, lamp, and inlaid light-band had been removed. I realized they’d changed the building many years earlier. Its layout felt different, the walls, floors, and ceilings made of substances I hadn’t yet seen.

  I’m too late, I feared.

  The nano-transfer machines…they’ll be gone.

  I walked faster into the shadows. The sunlight leaking through the broken doors slid away behind me, losing me in the ASI’s convoluted halls. Nearly blind, I turned left, then right, then left again. I felt moments from losing myself in the cold chrome labyrinth.

  I worried they’d relocated the elevators.

  …or removed them completely.

  As I pressed deeper into the dark, someone, or something, opened a door behind me. I spun and aimed the rifle.

  “Who’s there?” I called out.

  Nothing. Or they don’t understand me.

  Whatever had opened the door emerged into the hallway. I saw a shadow, maybe three, take several steps toward me.

  “Stop,” I warned. “I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

  The shadows didn’t stop.

  I fired the rifle three times.

  With rivers of cold sweat beading my skin, I ran. I didn’t know what I’d killed, and I couldn’t face the possibility they’d only been scientists.