16. Tate
16
TATE
One second Ivy is there, the next she’s gone. She was ripped away by Life’s power so fast that even my magick couldn’t reach her in time. The clearing erupts into chaos. The souls she commanded scatter like smoke in the wind, some disappearing entirely, others turning on us with violence that I know they were just waiting to unleash.
“Where is she?” Bram demands, magick crackling around him as he advances on Life. “What did you do?”
Life—wearing Lila’s face again, like an ill-fitting mask—just smiles. “I put her where she belongs. In the void with all her subjects.”
“Bring her back,” I snarl, my ancestral magick arcing from my fingertips.
“Or what?” Life asks, examining her nails with casual disinterest. “You’ll try to smite me? Please.”
Morrigan moves to stand beside Life, and suddenly, their alliance is crystal clear. “Now then,” the war goddess says, her eyes fixed on Bram. “Shall we discuss terms?”
“Terms?” Torin spits. “You just sent Ivy to her death!”
“Death can’t die,” Life corrects him. “But she can suffer. She can learn her place in the natural order, and you all can help ensure she stays exactly where I put her.”
The remaining souls swirl around us, their loyalty clearly shifted. Whatever control Ivy had over them is gone.
“Never,” Bram growls, but I can see the conflict in his eyes. Morrigan’s power inside him is responding to her proximity, but it’s recoiling, and not trying to return, as Bram said.
I process all this information in rapid succession. I need to think faster. We’re outnumbered and outgunned, and our strongest player just got kicked off the board. But there has to be a way…
“What exactly do you want?” I ask, buying time. “Besides Bram’s power?”
Life’s smile widens. “Want to negotiate, warlock? How pragmatic of you.” Her smile makes my skin crawl. Everything about her is wrong - the way she moves, the ancient power radiating off her in waves that set my warlock senses screaming.
“I’m listening,” I say carefully, positioning myself between her and Bram. Not that my magick would do much good if she really wanted to get to him.
“It’s quite simple, really,” Life says. “Bram returns Morrigan’s power willingly, and I’ll consider letting your precious Ivy out of the void. Eventually.”
“And if he doesn’t?” Torin asks, his vampire speed making him a dark blur as he moves to flank me in front of Bram.
“Then she stays there. Forever. Being hunted by every dark soul she so arrogantly thought she could control.” Life shrugs. “Either way, I win. The only question is how many of you I have to destroy in the process.”
The remaining spirits circle us like sharks, their forms flickering in and out of existence. That has to mean something, but what? Are they unable to exist for longer than a few minutes? Or has Life’s presence disrupted their energy?
“You’re lying,” I say, my senses picking up something off about her aura. “You need something else. This isn’t just about Morrigan’s power.”
Her expression tightens almost imperceptibly. Got you.
“Careful, warlock,” Morrigan warns. “You’re in no position to make accusations.”
But I press on, drawing on years of magickal knowledge. “You said you’ve been planning this for a long time. Why? What changed?”
The flash of fear in her eyes is fleeting, and I could have imagined it, but I don’t think I did.
“When Ivy changed time, she changed something else, too. Something that affects you.”
Life’s power crackles through the clearing, making the spirits scatter. “Enough talking! Choose now. Give up Morrigan’s power, or Ivy stays in the void.”
My ancestral magick pulses as understanding floods through me.
“The void,” I say slowly. “It’s not just a prison for souls anymore, is it? It’s become something else. Something that even you’re afraid of.”
Life’s form flickers, just for a moment, but it’s enough to confirm my suspicion. The spirits around us shift uneasily, as if they can sense the truth in my words.
“The time change didn’t just affect the physical world,” I continue, piecing it together. “It changed the fundamental nature of death itself, and by extension, the void.”
“You’re just guessing,” Life sneers, but there’s an edge of panic in her voice.
“Am I?” I take a careful step forward, my magick ready. “Then why are the spirits flickering? They should be stable in your presence. After all, you’re Life itself. Unless...”
“Unless what?” Torin asks, his vampire senses clearly picking up on the same disturbance to the energy around us that I am.
“Unless the void isn’t just Death’s domain anymore,” Bram murmurs. “It’s become something new. Something neither Life nor Death fully controls.”
Morrigan shifts uncomfortably. “We should end this now,” she tells Life.
“No,” Life snaps. “Let them talk. Let them theorise. It changes nothing.”
But I can see it now. The way her borrowed form ripples, like reality is having trouble holding her together. The spirits aren’t flickering because they’re unstable. They’re flickering because reality is becoming unstable around Life.
“That’s why you need Morrigan’s power,” I say. “Not to fight Death, but to stabilise yourself. To stop whatever’s happening to you. You’re…” I let out a snort of pure amusement. “… dying!”
Life’s attack comes without warning - a blast of pure energy that would have obliterated me if I hadn’t already been coiling a shield spell. I fling it up, but even so, the force of it drives me to my knees.
Life’s power crackles around me like lightning, but there’s something off about it, something fractured. The knowledge that she’s dying changes everything but also raises a thousand new questions. Questions we don’t have time for as another blast of energy tears through my shield.
“You dare mock me?” Life’s voice distorts, Lila’s features twisting into Life’s true form. “I am eternal! I am?—”
“Desperate,” I cut in, throwing up another shield as spirits dive-bomb us from above. “And getting more desperate by the second.”
Torin blurs into action, his vampire speed mixed with his mage magick, letting him despatch three spirits before they can reach Bram. But there are too many, and they’re getting stronger as Life’s control weakens.
“We need to retreat,” Bram says, his magick creating shadows that confuse and disperse the spirits around us. “Now that we know?—”
“You know nothing!” Life’s scream tears reality itself, making my ears bleed. The clearing warps around us, trees bending like they’re made of rubber. “And you’ll never find out more. Kill them all!”
The spirits surge forward en masse. I throw everything I have into a barrier spell, but I can feel it cracking under their assault. Torin grabs my arm, ready to vampire-speed us out of there, but Morrigan steps forward.
“Enough of this childish behaviour!” The war goddess’s half-power explodes outward but still freezes everything in place. I dread to think what she could do with her full magick. “This isn’t the plan, Life. We need them alive.”
Life’s form flickers violently. “Plans change.”
“Not this one.” Morrigan’s voice is cold, sharp. “Not when we’re so close.”
For a moment, I think Life will ignore her.
“You have three days,” Life says, her voice eerily calm again. “Bring me what I want, or Ivy suffers eternally. Trust me when I say she will be suffering in there. The void is far worse than any of you can imagine.”
She vanishes between one breath and the next, taking the spirits with her. Morrigan lingers just long enough to give us a look that could mean anything, and then she, too, disappears.
I let my barrier drop, stumbling as exhaustion hits me. “Well,” I manage, “that was informative.”
“Informative?” Torin catches me before I fall. “Life is dying. Ivy’s trapped in some nightmare void, and we have three days to figure out what the hell is really going on. How is that informative?”
“Because now we know Life’s weakness,” I say quietly. “She’s running out of time, which means we are all running out of time. Life dies. We all die. That gives Ivy more power than anyone. She will be the only one left standing. It makes her a god.”
“So Life wants Ivy’s essence? The essence of Death? But the thing I can’t wrap my head around is how is Life dying?” Torin asks a damn good question.
I nod, already thinking ahead. “Exactly. It means we need to find out exactly what Ivy or the other Deaths, maybe, did to cause this. And more importantly?—”
“How to use it against her and save Ivy,” Torin finishes.
“Or the other way around,” I mutter. We may have three days to save Ivy, but something tells me we will be too late if we wait that long. She has already suffered too much with the fracturing of her soul. We can’t keep her in there for any longer than a few hours, at best.
“We need help,” I state.
“From who? Who can we even trust anymore?”
“Vex,” I spit out grimly. “Fucking Vex. Let’s go.” I wave my hand and transport us to the north of England, where Vex will be waiting with that smug grin of his.
Fucking dick.