Chapter 41
“If you’d taken my offer, none of this would be necessary,” Death said.
She stood on the other side of the altar wearing all white, as usual, but instead of a dress she wore pants, a shirt, a sleeveless tunic, and boots.
Her hair was plaited in a tight braid pinned up to form a crown instead of her gold circlet.
Aside from the color, it was all practical, perfect for the forthcoming battle.
Almost as if she’d been expecting to be transported here at this exact moment.
My eyes narrowed. I wondered if she’d taken to dressing like this as a precaution after the bridge broke.
“You can surrender and I will make sure the people you care about are taken care of,” she continued, her expression one of concern and reason, like I was a wayward child that needed disciplining.
I tried not to bristle. It was just an act. I knew what she really was. “Me serving as an anchor won’t fix things. There’s no way for you and Fen to share power.”
“Let the witnesses remember, I tried to resolve this peacefully,” she called, ignoring my logic. “I have no wish to fight. Maeve is the one insisting on this ridiculous confrontation.”
“Your benevolent act fools no one,” I said, unable to let her odd behavior slide any longer.
“So determined to think the worst of me.” She sighed. “It’s not an act. I only want what’s best for the realm.”
She meant the last part, I realized. It was why listening to her was so creepy. It was all based on a sincere desire and belief that the In Between needed her. “Was draining people and turning them into salamanders best for the realm?”
A startled expression flitted across her face before it rearranged into one of distress. “We all serve the realm in different ways. Some are destined to be Judges, some servants, and others…” She gave a delicate shrug that made me want to throttle her.
“After a hundred years of imbalance, you’d think you’d have gotten the message that the In Between doesn’t want you here.” I spoke through clenched teeth.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone running to the outside edge of the dome enclosing us, on the opposite side from where Fen and the others stood. Talia watched us with wide eyes, her chest heaving from running. She must have run for the portal as soon as Death disappeared.
Death’s eyes flicked in Talia’s direction before settling back on me with a vicious glare, finally dropping her facade of motherly concern.
She must have been waiting for her own witness to arrive.
Her lips curled into a threatening smile, and her eyes gleamed with gleeful anticipation. “I’m going to enjoy this immensely.”
Before I could reply, she thrust her hands in front of her, sending the stone altar flying towards me.
I ducked and rolled out of the way just in time for it to go soaring over my head. Except, instead of crashing to the ground, it stopped midair before reversing direction and zooming back towards me.
Throwing my hands up, light burst from my palms, colliding with the massive block of stone and breaking it into pieces.
Pieces that kept coming straight at me.
I barely threw up a shield in time to blunt the force of them.
Knocking me to the ground, they pressed me into the dirt, as if Death was pushing them down, trying to crush the life from me.
With a grunt, I sent out a pulse of light, pulverizing them, but instead of turning to dust and dispersing, they reformed, bearing down on me again.
Pushing back was getting me nowhere. Death was stronger than I was. I needed a different tactic, to transform the stone into something lighter perhaps. Something to throw her off so I could go on the attack.
Options flickered through my mind. Flowers. Leaves. Feathers. Perfect.
Sending out another pulse of light, I turned the stones around me into a cloud of feathers.
The pressure around me disappeared as Death either lost or loosened her grip.
Taking advantage of the momentary lapse, I transformed the feathers further into an army of small birds that swarmed Death in a flurry of wings.
Leaping to my feet, I watched them disintegrate before they could reach her.
My feet sank into the ground, and I realized I was no longer standing on sandy soil, but in thick, viscous mud.
Death’s smirk was razor sharp as light streamed from her fingers into the ground.
My mind spun, searching for a way out. Before I could formulate a coherent thought, vines erupted from the mud twining around my legs, climbing my body, pulling me down. I let light pool under my skin, burning through my bonds, but they reformed as quickly as I destroyed them.
Death walked towards me. If she managed to get her hands on me, it was over. I couldn’t let that happen. My bond with Fen lit up with an insistent nudge, urging me to move. To do something. Anything. With Death closing in fast, I stopped thinking and simply acted.
Stone formed beneath my feet, raising me out of the muck, and light poured out of me, preventing more vines from touching me. Then I ran.
The ground liquified beneath my feet, almost making me stumble, but I summoned stepping stones that appeared under me to keep me on stable ground as I raced forward.
Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Death’s eyes narrow.
I looked back ahead just in time to see a deep pit open in front of me.
Without missing a beat, my stepping stones rose into the air, forming a staircase that I mounted until I was over six feet off the ground.
My heart pounded in my chest. So far, I’d only taken one shot at Death. She had me so busy defending myself, I hadn’t been able to do anything else, even though I was using plenty of power. I needed to change the balance if I was going to have any chance of getting close enough to defeat her.
Turning so that I could keep Death in sight, I fell into darkness.
Everything was black, and my lungs stalled in my chest. There was no air, just pinpricks of light that sparkled, like I’d fallen into the void of the In Between.
A moment later, the light returned. I was back in the dome.
My arms windmilled as I stepped into empty air.
A stepping stone appeared under my foot, and I hop-skipped a few steps forward to regain my balance.
Dark spheres as tall as I was floated around me, buffeted by a light breeze that flowed from Death. I dodged one, only to be nearly engulfed by another. Forming a shield of air myself, I took off running again. It was time to attack.
Light burst from my palms and headed for the ground. Halfway there it expanded into a writhing mass. When it hit the dirt, it solidified into a giant salamander that leapt forward, heading straight for Death.
She destroyed it in a shower of sparks, only to find three more coming at her from different directions.
My lungs heaved, unused to so much running, and I allowed myself to slow now that she was on the defensive.
Except I was so busy creating salamanders to attack with, I lost track of the void pockets I’d been avoiding.
Four of them had converged on me. My shield repelled three of them, but they were surprisingly solid.
It was like bumping into a wall of people.
The force of the collision sent me careening back into the fourth.
This time when I fell into darkness, everything turned upside down.
The breath left my lungs in a desperate gasp.
I froze, feeling the blood rushing to my head.
There was no sense of movement. Last time my momentum had carried me through.
I waited for the moment when I’d be free, but it didn’t come.
There was only a feeling of utter panic filling my bond with Fen.
A few seconds later, my back hit something hard. The darkness dissipated, revealing the battle arena under the dome. I was lying on the ground, gasping for breath, my lungs refusing to expand.
“You can’t beat me, Maeve.” Death’s voice approached. “You’re not strong enough. You were never meant to take my place.”
A giant salamander loomed overhead, this one black instead of the gold ones I’d created. One of its forefeet stepped onto my chest, just as I managed to take a gasping inhale, pinning me to the ground.
Fen’s fear filled me, along with an urge to do something.
I coughed, trying to clear my head.
“You shouldn’t take it personally,” Death continued, walking towards me at a pace that signaled I wasn’t a threat. “No one is meant to take my place.”
“Then why am I here, in the In Between?” I ground out. There was only one move I could think of to make. An explosion of power great enough to not only free myself but knock her out. Except I’d need to delve deep into Fen’s power to use that much at once.
“Because I let you come,” she said.
I froze. “What?”
“Do you really think it’s the work of fate that you were the first Successor to arrive in the In Between in a hundred years?
” She sounded amused. “The realms seek balance because that is what they were formed to do. There were plenty of possible Successors born over the years. I made sure none of them arrived. Until you.”
Fen had suspected as much, but the confirmation made my stomach turn.
I felt so stupid for not seeing it sooner.
I’d applied for the Ritual six times before I’d been selected.
Every time, my name had been submitted with others to the In Between before the selection was made.
I would bet anything Death had had a hand in who came and who didn’t.
I stopped struggling as she knelt next to me, pretending to be defeated while I opened my connection with Fen as wide as it would go.
“This is for the best, Maeve,” she said, her face serene as she reached for me.
Power poured into me. I didn’t have to draw anything. Fen gave it. It was like the time I’d breached his walls to discover how vast the power he carried really was. It filled every part of me, and with it came a flood of his memories.
“Easy, there. The knife isn’t necessary. Why don’t you put it away?” Fen let the gift he’d kept tucked away for years bleed into his voice. Letting it expand and stretch was a revelation. He had to suppress a pleasurable shiver.
The eyes of the man holding the knife clouded in confusion. His hand lowered a couple of inches.
The man against the wall let out a whimper, nearly breaking the spell.
“That’s it. Good man. Put the knife away and go home. What you want can’t be found here.”
The man with the knife nodded, giving in fully to Fen’s persuasion. As he wandered out of the alley, a wave of triumph washed over Fen.
Power. That’s what his gift really was. Power to help people. He’d never lock it away again.
One memory bled into another.
Fen watched as Maeve made her way through the throng of people in the Great Hall, guilt and fear curdling in his stomach. Seeing her for the first time had turned everything upside down.
He’d had a plan: get her alone and figure out what she wanted; find leverage to convince her to work with him so they could restore the balance of the In Between.
She’d been taught he was wicked, like most people in the World of the Living, so he was expecting resistance.
Someday, he hoped they’d be able to work together as partners.
Platonic was fine, but now that he’d seen her, he wanted more than that. He wanted everything with her.
Terror rippled down his spine, making him shiver.
For the first time in decades, he wanted to be known.
For her to see the real him, not the Devil.
He was a monster, though not for the reason most people thought.
If she truly knew him, she’d hate him, but maybe he could give them both something real first. Something for them both to hold onto when things fell apart.
It wasn’t really for her—he couldn’t lie to himself—it was for him. It would be kinder to her to follow his original plan, but he was too selfish to not to try to make her love him.
Fen pushed more power into me, pressure building to an almost unbearable level.
I knew from the myriad of emotions swirling in our bond that he saw everything I did, but he didn’t flinch from the memories.
Underneath all of it was a steely determination to give me everything I needed, no matter the cost to him.
“Why won’t you let me in?” Esther asked. The desperation in her voice pierced him.
“I’ve told you, it’s for your own good.”
For the last three months, she’d tried to mend things between them, to cobble some semblance of a life together, even after the doctor told her she might never have a living child, but he couldn’t.
Not when it had taken her six months of being a ghost to recover.
As grateful as he was to have her back, he was terrified of something worse happening to her.
“How can an empty marriage be good for me?” She was close to tears. “I want my husband back.”
“I can’t give you that.” He needed to get away from her. He reached for his coat by the door.
“Then what do you suggest I do?”
“Maybe you should leave.” He didn’t look back as he hurried out the door.
When he returned, she was gone, along with all her clothes. He pressed his lips together to keep the tears in. He had no right to cry. She’d done what he’d told her to.
Emptiness, cold and bitter, filled him. He was better off alone. That way the only person he could hurt was himself.
In a blink, I was back in the In Between, Death still reaching for my face. Gritting my teeth, I expelled all the power in my body outwards. It left me in a rush that was painful in its intensity.
Death went flying back as the salamander next to me was incinerated by the pulse of blinding light I unleashed. The tree I’d created went up in flames, turning to ash, though the dome above us held.
I tried to push myself up, but the movement made my head spin. In the absence of the power I’d expelled, a soft darkness beckoned. The next time I closed my eyes to blink, it swallowed me whole.
* * *
When I came to, Death was nowhere to be seen. Neither was the dome that had enclosed us. Talia was on her knees, her head in her hands, while my friends celebrated.
“She’s gone.”
“Maeve did it.”
“She won.”