Chapter 55
Amaya grabbed Will’s arm, a smile breaking across her face.
“We did it,” she gasped, looking back and forth between him and the disappearing storm. Graven was gone. The storm was dissolving.
“We did it!” Amaya said again, throwing her arms around Will. He held her tight, his lips finding her ear beneath her mass of curls.
“You did it, Bluebird.”
Amaya squeezed her eyes shut, her fingers curling into Will’s hair. Tension fled her body like a receding tide.
But at the same time, Will’s body tensed against hers. His shoulders rose and his hands tightened, gripping her with fervor.
She lifted her head to see him staring past her, disbelief written across his face.
“Will?”
“Amaya, the rift.”
Amaya looked over her shoulder, expecting to find the rift collapsing—and it was. But that wasn’t all it was doing. The shattering rift was pulsing, thumping like a heartbeat.
Or . . . like someone pounding against a locked door.
Amaya realized the cause too late—not that she could have done anything to stop it.
Graven burst through the doorway, shoving through the broken pieces. He looked terrible, long lacerations crisscrossing his body where the divisions in the rift had been, but he should have been ripped to shreds like Corsair.
“How . . . ?” Amaya couldn’t believe what she was seeing. And she didn’t want to.
“Genesis,” Will breathed.
Graven’s theatrical, nonchalant composure had dissolved into pure, unfiltered rage. He was the face of nightmares, a manifestation of malice. And he was coming straight for her, Stormfist outstretched.
“You little . . .”
Sixth Sense jerked Amaya’s body out of the way as Will slid in front of her, meeting Graven with Hellsgate.
When they collided in a cloud of black smoke and purple lightning, the entire mountain trembled. But it wasn’t just the Sky Lords causing it; the rift was equally responsible. It had been crumbling before, but thanks to Graven’s resurgence, it was now flying apart.
The frame shook as the rift fought to escape its confines. Cracks snaked across the floor beneath Amaya’s hands, the stone vibrating.
She stood and found Sebastian in the frantic crowd of pirates.
“It’s coming down!” she said. “We need to get everyone out!”
Everyone pushed toward the door, loyalties rendered meaningless now that death was coming for them all. Every windskiff was fair game.
Sebastian met Amaya in the frenzy and grabbed her arm, dragging her to the door. Serena, Mouse, Edmund, Grace, and Malcolm made it out, along with Ford and Crowe. Sebastian picked Amaya up by her waist and set her atop one of the last ones, swinging astride in front of her and taking off.
“Wait—Will!” Amaya said.
“We aren’t leaving him. Just getting out of the way.”
Amaya looked back to see what he meant and saw Will and Graven still fighting, the mountain crumbling around them. Will wasn’t backing down, powered by unnatural strength and speed. Graven, while he had survived what should have killed him, was weak in comparison.
But he wasn’t worth it anymore.
“Will, come on!” Amaya screamed. “Leave him!” Her and Sebastian’s windskiff hovered a short distance from the cliff—an easy jump with Ultima.
Will didn’t seem to hear her.
The mountain collapsed from within, the arch crumbling and the fragmented rift shooting out energy like daggers, piercing the stone walls. Will and Graven’s confrontation was driven to the precipice out of necessity as the vault, and everything in it, gave out.
“Will!” Amaya shouted again.
Sebastian echoed her. “Will, jump on!”
Graven would fall with the rest of the vault. With the rift destroyed, their fight was over whether he died or not. But Will was too damn stubborn.
“I’m . . . not . . . running!” he grunted out. Amaya groaned. It was that stupid thought Nightmare had put in his head. It had been tormenting him for days.
“Will! You have nothing to prove, just come on!” she called.
Graven stumbled on the edge of the crumbling cliff and Will took the opening, plunging his bare hand into Graven’s chest. His fingers gripped Genesis with disturbing strength as he tore it out.
Halfway out.
Before he could finish the job, the stone beneath the two Sky Lords’ feet disintegrated, sending them into freefall.
“Will!” Sebastian kicked the windskiff’s engine into high gear, shifting into a nosedive.
Amaya clung to him with every ounce of her remaining strength, wind and debris and streaks of dissipating Aether rushing past her. Her stomach swooped at the downturn, her racing heart beating in time with Sebastian’s.
Will did his part to slow his fall, tossing Hellsgate up and then disappearing into a puff of smoke, reappearing at the sword’s slightly higher position.
It was, in theory, something he could keep up for quite some time until they caught up.
And it was working. With each release of Hellsgate, Amaya and Sebastian inched a little bit closer.
Without a similar tool, Graven rapidly fell beneath the thinning Aether clouds and out of sight. Surely a miles-long fall without Genesis’s full strength would kill him . . . but it would kill Will, too.
“Amaya!” Sebastian shouted over the wind. “You’ll have to grab him, okay?”
Amaya nodded, her cheek rubbing against his back.
She prepared herself to reach, securing her right arm around Sebastian’s torso and scrunching his shirt into her hand, holding steady there until she felt secure enough to let go with her left hand.
She tightened her core, centering herself on the leather seat and squeezing her thighs to hold herself in place. Her eyes didn’t leave Will’s face once.
They were catching up, but the pressure on the windskiff’s small engine was immense, and the nosedive was unsustainable. The skiff rattled, the engine sputtering as if gasping for air. It wobbled, shaking in a way that made Amaya’s entire body vibrate.
“Sebastian!” Amaya said, her voice mimicking the tremors. “What’s that?”
Red lights blinked on the dashboard. Sebastian spat out a string of vehement curses, adjusting the controls to no avail.
“The compressor is stalling!” he said, leaning over to pinpoint Will among the clouds. “The engine can’t sustain this!”
Will’s eyes flashed in grim understanding as he caught Hellsgate, flinging it high above him to regain more altitude. He was so close, just inches below them.
“Amaya, now!”
Amaya leaned over at Sebastian’s behest, extending her hand to Will and clinging to the first mate for dear life. She couldn’t reach. Desperate, Amaya slid over in her seat until she was about to fall off the skiff herself.
“Grab my hand!”
Will used Hellsgate once more to buy them a few more inches. It was just enough. His hand clasped Amaya’s, his grip strong and sure despite how sweaty hers was. She nearly wept with relief, squeezing his hand tighter than she’d held anything in her life. They were going to make it.
“Come on,” she said through gritted teeth. She pulled back, her muscles screaming as she tried to haul Will onto the skiff. “Come on.”
The extra weight proved too much for the struggling windskiff. As Sebastian pulled back to level out, the sputtering engine suddenly fell silent, its rumble replaced by the hollow whistle of wind and dead, empty air. For a split second, they hovered motionless in midair. Then they were falling.
“No!” Amaya grunted as she tried to pull Will up.
He held onto her with both hands now, and the uneven weight distribution pulled the dead skiff to its side.
It tilted, gravity nearly pulling Amaya off.
She squeezed her thighs tighter and continued clinging to Sebastian with her other hand, determined to hold her seat as they plummeted.
“Sebastian!” Will called to his friend, and Sebastian paused his frantic tinkering to look down. Amaya glanced between them fearfully, sensing another one of their unspoken conversations.
Judging by the way Sebastian choked up, she was right.
“No,” he said. “No! Throw Hellsgate again. Get above us and we’ll catch you!”
“There’s too much weight.”
“No!” Sebastian’s hands flew over the controls, trying to reignite the engine, and Amaya realized with a jolt of horror what Will was going to do.
“Will, don’t,” she said, burning him with her stare. “Don’t you dare.”
She tried again to heave him over the side, but her grip strength was on the verge of giving out and he wasn’t helping. Hot, angry, despondent tears rolled down her cheeks, only to be instantly dried by the howling wind. “You can’t.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m so sorry, Bluebird.”
Amaya recognized the apology for what it was: a goodbye. A goodbye just like Camden’s.
A sob clawed its way up her throat as she shook her head. No. She wasn’t losing him—not like this. Not ever. Why did he sound so calm?
“Then don’t let go, dammit!” A panicked gasp shook her body as her muscles strained, crying out for oxygen. “Please. Don’t—”
“I’m going to let go.”
“I won’t let you—”
“Amaya.”
“Stop it! Bas, help me!”
He was still trying to reignite the engine. Pulling Will up meant nothing if they couldn’t fly.
“Amaya, I love you,” Will said. “I need you to know that. I never thought I—” His voice finally caught.
“No. You tell me that on the ship. Don’t let—”
He let go.
“Will!” Amaya and Sebastian shouted his name in unison. He slipped out of Amaya’s reach, and this time, he wasn’t using Hellsgate to climb the empty air.
“Sebastian, we have to—”
“I’m trying!”
The loss of Will’s weight gave the skiff the levity it needed. When Sebastian attempted to ignite the engine again, it roared back to life. Heat licked at the exhaust, the aircraft combating its own momentum. Amaya’s stomach jumped to her throat at the whiplash as their freefall halted.
When Sebastian didn’t instantly start diving for Will again, she smacked his shoulder.
“What are you doing? Go!” she cried. Only then did she realize his shoulders were shaking, silent sobs tearing through his body. The truth hit Amaya with devastating force.
They couldn’t save him.
Grief wrapped itself around her like an old friend as they hovered, both in shock, watching the red of Will’s coat pass through a cloud and disappear. They didn’t move—couldn’t.
When Amaya’s tears came, they were ugly and visceral, soaking into the back of Sebastian’s shirt. Her body was hollow, her core collapsing like a dying star.
William Lexington was gone.