Lucy
The hold the runes have on me relinquishes in a gasp of air and a rush of noise and colour.
“Where is she?” I say, grabbing the first person I see.
I release the person, realising it’s an unfamiliar face. “Er, sorry…”
“Red,” she reminds me. “And no worries, you were in a strange place for a while there.”
“Thanks for…” I start, but I’m not entirely sure I know what she did.
“No worries.” She waves me off like it was nothing.
Lex’s hand touches mine so suddenly it makes me jump. Her face is smeared with tears and snot, her eyes are bloodshot.
“Where is she, Lex?” I ask again, my voice deep and full of warning.
She can’t bring herself to look at me. She stares at the floor shaking her head, two round tears plopping on the church cobbles.
“Lex…?” I demand.
She flinches.
“I… I tried to stop her. It’s my fault, if I hadn’t read that stupid book and found that section on sacrifice—”
My heart plummets. I don’t wait for her to finish; I’m off the platform and running down to the dungeons.
My butterfly follows me. Its mismatching wings fluttering in a rapid beat to keep up.
It’s magic flows through me, with me. So strange to be connected to a being other than myself. This is nothing like demon magic.
I veer into the dungeon and by the time I reach Ignatius’s cell, I’m hysterical.
I drop to my knees, scooping Midnight into my arms and rocking her lifeless body.
“No, no, no… what did you do.”
The tears come thick and fast. I’m unable to stop them pouring down my face. I can’t breathe. My heart tears in two. Hot, sharp pains slice between my ribs.
My butterfly hovers around my head, fluttering in jerky, broken movements.
“Come back, come back…”
There’s a clank of metal. I freeze. My head snaps to the occupier of the cell and my blood runs not icy, but hard.
“You…” I snarl. “You did this.”
He shakes his head. “I could not.” He holds his hands up in a pathetic shrug as if that eradicates him of any blame.
My skin fizzes and burns as my angelic runes come to life, all of them fully under my control. I ignite, fury pooling in my core. When I hold my hand out, the bars of his prison bend and contort, making a godsawful screeching sound as they crack and snap under the pressure.
Ignatius backs up as far as he can until his chains flex to full extension and he can’t go any further.
“Daughter, please.”
“Don’t. You do not get to call me that. I am not your fucking daughter.”
“Of course you are. I raised you. I made you…”
“Just because you raised me doesn’t mean you’re my father. You’re a pathetic abuser and all you have ever done is seek to control me.”
He shakes his head, the first trembles of his hands giving away the fact he is not as confident as he appears.
“You’re free now… Midnight saw to that. You could leave now. If I mean so little to you, go. We can be done if that’s what you desire.”
The gall of this man. “You’re still making it about you. Still trying to control my actions. You can’t help yourself. But you’re right. I am free. And you will never control me or anyone else again.”
“Please,” he says, sinking to his knees. “Don’t kill me.”
I laugh. It’s a nasty sneer, all jagged around the edges. I almost sound like him. Perhaps I am his daughter after all.
“Kill you? Ignatius, please. I am not that benevolent. You have taken everything from me, controlled me, used me, abused me and now you have taken the love of my life. Death would be far too kind for you. No. I think there’s a punishment far more fitting.”
He hesitates, his brows cinching.
I hold my hand out to the butterfly; she dances through the air and lands on my hand.
“You remember, don’t you?” I say and brush my finger across her wing.
I extend my index finger and slice through the air, cutting the fabric of the Veil. Only this time, it’s not the underworld nor is it the Celestial Realm, but a prison, a purgatory of sorts.
“A prison of your own making…” I say, relishing the way he shakes and edges away from me.
“You can’t. I’ll go mad.”
“I do hope so. May you spend the rest of eternity, watching me live out my life free from your control. May you have to sit and stare as this city becomes mine. May you live the rest of your long life knowing you are nothing and no one anymore.”
“This city won’t forget me. It’s mine. They’ll come for me.”
“You are a fool if you think this city will remember you as anything other than the desperate demon who was never able to be anything other than second best.”
His skin flushes deep red. But I am done with him. I kick him square in the chest. His restraints snap and he flings backwards into the prison he made with his own hands.
My butterfly flutters down the seam, sealing him in forever.
I slide down the cell wall, exhausted, and stare at Midnight.
She’s unmoving, still. Midnight was never still.
The tears come quiet and steady. My heart breaking all over again. I can’t bring myself to move. I don’t want to touch her again. It will be too real.
Lex appears outside the cell, kneeling by Midnight’s body, brushing her hair away from her face. She clocks me sat in the gloom against the cell wall.
“Will you go after her?” she says.
I nod. “I have to.”
“But the underworld is enormous, you’ll never find her.” She continues stroking Midnight’s head as if it might bring her back.
I push myself up and make my way to Lex and Midnight. “She’s not in the underworld.”
Lex’s hand stops. “What do you mean?”
“She sacrificed herself, right?”
Lex nods, then her eyes widen. “The Celestial Realm?”
“I’m ninety percent certain, yes. It’s rare that people sacrifice themselves in such a pure way. And she had my crystalline heart. There’s a chance that reaping her soul will have transformed her.”
“So my sister…” she says, her eyes welling again.
“She’ll be in the Celestial Realm, too.”
“Oh gods.” Even though the tears spill over, she’s beaming at me. “All this time I thought she would be suffering.” A wide smile splits her face as a few more tears trickle over. Her shoulders sag with relief and I’m hit with a tingling warmth that radiates from her and settles in my gut.
Lex pauses for a moment, gathering herself, and then she looks over at me.
“The angels sealed themselves off from us. Getting into the Celestial Library is one thing; their library is campus based. How the hell are you going to actually get into their realm? Now Interitus has gone, the cuts through to the Celestial Realm have vanished.”
“I’m not.”
“Then…”
“The bridge.”
“But how…?”
“If I have to crawl up the cliffs from the underworld to reach her on broken fingernails, then I will do just that.”
I stand and sweep my hand through the air, ripping a cut into the underworld and step inside.