Dark Harmony
Page 80

“I will reign again,” he continues. “Kingdom by kingdom, I will vanquish this world until nothing is left—no life, no afterlife. I will tear down the sun and consume the land.”
My very bones quake at the thought.
What he’s speaking of is annihilation.
“But don’t fear, mortal, I will stretch the end out, for once this world is gone, there will be nothing to entertain me again.”
We must end him. This is no longer about revenge. It’s about preservation.
“That first evening of Solstice,” Euribios says, “do you remember what Mara said?”
As he speaks, he continues to grow, his form expanding until his head touches the ceiling, his body becoming one with the darkness.
“‘Deep from the womb of the night we were born, and deep into the night do our spirits return when the body has died and the flesh has cooled.’”
With those words, the room goes dark.
Euribios and I and everything else in this underworld are swallowed up by the void he’s created.
“I am the beginning and the end,” he continues. “I am death and darkness, but I am infinitely more. I am what came before, and I am unending.”
I feel … I feel as though I’m losing myself. The shadows are swallowing everything up. My body, my mind, my bond.
Not losing that.
The impasse is over. My patience is spent.
I reach for the blade stashed in my thigh holster and another strapped to my calf, the ones the Thief was too cocky to remove.
I stride toward that terrible darkness, weapons raised, my wings unfurling behind me. I can’t see Euribios, but I sense him, his body the epicenter of his magic.
My wings beat, and with a leap, I rise into the air.
Blinded by the darkness, I use my other senses to close in on Euribios. Smell, sound, and my ability to sense magic.
I draw close to him, my blades poised.
In the instant before I strike, I feel my connection to Des stir, then … awaken.
Des.
It almost makes me pause. I want to believe that Des is responsible for the sensation, but it’s Euribios who’s the puppet master, Euribios who holds our bond hostage, Euribios who’s now taunting me with everything I have to lose.
And with this one act I might lose it all.
Don’t be frightened of yourself, cherub. You are exactly as you should be.
With a single powerful stroke, I sink the blades into that terrible darkness. They hit something; I can feel the resistance. It’s not flesh, but it’s not just air either.
I withdraw my weapons. Sink them into strange flesh again. My body glows the entire time, and I smile viciously, my siren filling me up.
My connection to Des still burns brightly, and I should be frightened by that. This is exactly what the Thief wants—to make me understand what I have so that later I will feel the ache of its loss. But the sensation gives me perverse strength.
We will defeat him.
Amongst the darkness, Euribios laughs. A moment later, I feel him grab my daggers by their blades.
“You still think you can kill me?” he asks, tilting his head. “I am a deity.”
He jerks the weapons from my grip and tosses them aside.
Heedless, I slash at him with my claws, my siren consuming me.
Euribios doesn’t have flesh like I do. I’m not even sure what I’m tearing into, only that even in that darkness, he still has substance.
The entire time, my bond pulses. I feel Des on the other end of my bond.
“Enough,” Euribios says.
The magic around me shifts, and I shift with it, fluidly evading the dark power.
I swoop in again and collide with magic and flesh. Immediately, I sink my claws into the substance—whatever it is. I can’t see anything, except for the galaxies twinkling deep within his form, but it’s enough.
Something like blood slips between my fingers as I tear into the Thief’s odd form.
Behind me, I sense his magic closing in on me again. At once I release my hold, dropping to the ground just as his power moves overhead, stirring my hair. I hear a crack as the Thief’s magic strikes magic.
“Gods could not destroy me.” His voice thunders in the darkness. “It’s foolish to think you can.”
I leap back up into the air, claws bared. I attack darkness once more.
Let’s see if this thing has a heart.
I can’t see his body, but there’s something left of him in the darkness. My fingers tear into his strange flesh, digging for that organ of his.
He hisses at the sensation.
We will find his heart—we will find it and rip it out.
I feel bone and blood—
Euribios’s magic slams into me. Or maybe it’s his hand; impossible to tell when the world is so dark and he’s morphed into something that’s half human, half shadow.
“Enough!”
He throws me onto the ground, my bones cracking at the impact.
I moan.
Things are … broken. Wing bones, ribs.
Didn’t kill him. Didn’t even come close.
I can feel Euribios’s form, his immense, dark form looming down on me, his power pinning me in place.
I begin to drag myself away. My magic moves through me, mending bones and tissue as it goes. Now that I’ve drank the lilac wine, my body can heal itself. Not that it’s pleasant.
I grit my teeth as bones snap back into place, my body throbbing at the speedy healing.
All the while, my connection pulses.
I feel a foot on my back. A second later it kicks my side, flipping me to my back. My wings vanish, the pain and pressure of them too great.
I’m blind, and yet I feel Euribios’s soulless, empty eyes staring down at me.
“I will never stop fighting you,” I say.
“I count on it, enchantress.”
Familiar magic—Des’s magic—reaches out through our bond and brushes against me. A choked cry nearly slips out at the sensation.
Des?
… Ssshhh … The shadows seem to whisper.
All at once, the darkness peels back. Its smoky, shadowy tendrils fold away from the edges of the room. I can smell old bones and rot, I can see the pale walls and the Thief’s stolen throne. I take in a shuddering breath. The quiet humming from the pool behind me drifts in again.
… A trick …
… A clever trick …
The whispers are coming from all around me, and I feel as though I might be going mad.
Slowly, the Thief’s form becomes visible. One by one the stars on his body wink out, and then the darkness settles back to pale flesh.
… He doesn’t know …
Euribios still looms over me, his foot resting on my chest. His own chest drips with inky black blood that evaporates into the air like curls of smoke. A few final claw marks heal over as I stare.
… Don’t tell him …
Tell him what?
But then, as quickly as the whispers come, they’re gone.
Euribios tilts his head. “How to punish you for your transgression?”
I steel myself, swallowing thickly. I don’t know what’s going on, but I do know that trying to carve out the Thief’s heart has probably earned my mate some form of punishment.
The shadows around us ripple, raising the hairs along my arms. Just when I expect to hear Des’s distant screams, there’s … nothing. No screams, no weakening of my bond.
The Thief sways, his foot leaving my chest. He glances away from me, at the doorway.
He turns back to face me, his furrowed eyebrows belying his confusion. “Hmmm … on second thought …”