54. Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Three
Isoria
The shadows were ready the instant I came upon the first soldier gasping his dying breath.
I’d waited for the battle to begin in an alleyway, hiding as the city erupted in chaos and fear.
By the time the revenants began storming into Rainsong, their shadows enveloping everything in a deep, unnatural darkness, no one had the energy to notice or care if they recognized me.
Now, I raced to the dying male, too late to save him but hopeful to at least give him peace.
Leaping into action as naturally as my healing magic, the coldness of Mortius’ magic shot through my veins when I caught the male in my arms, his body limp and his gaze lifeless.
My throat burned with unshed tears, the sense of finality overwhelming me.
My phoenix nature longed to heal, but there was no balm for death.
Send him on, I thought, and immediately the death magic swirling inside me moved, becoming tangible things outside of me.
Unlike the revenants’ shadows, these were a soft, smoky grey and coalesced into a form that stood over the dead male, touching his shoulder like a gentle comforter.
As I watched, the male’s soul rose from him, as visible to my living eyes as his body.
Like a misty second version of himself, it stood beside his body opposite the shadow-figure, blinking half in confusion and half in sorrow.
Throat burning, I forced myself to speak the words, sensing I was the one who had to speak them. This was the burden Mortius had given me to carry. “I release your soul into the afterlife. Go to your eternal rest.”
His expression was bittersweet as it met mine, a flicker of remorse in his eyes before relief overwhelmed him. “Tell Jade that I love her.”
My stomach twisted with grief, but I wasn’t able to ask him more about who Jade was or how to find her before he was gone.
Something slammed into my shoulder, sending me sprawling face-first in the dirt.
I rolled in time to see a screeching revenant charging for me, eyes bloodshot and sagging, decaying skin betraying that it had been gone for longer than the duration of this battle.
Knees shaking, I pushed into a sitting position and called on the shadows once more.
This time, when the revenant drew closer, its magic apparently spent, I slammed my palm against where its heart would have once been before it could clamp its teeth into me.
It froze, body seizing as I called to the soul trapped within it.
“I release you into the afterlife,” I breathed. “Be free.”
For a moment, I saw the soul of a female who’d once been lovely and vibrant standing before me, the look of ecstasy on her face making it clear how much the revenants were suffering as they tore apart our kingdom.
I shuddered to imagine the agony of being trapped in their own bodies, unable to move on, unable to rest or find peace, operating like Vithenna’s puppets.
Time ebbed away as I continued this way, my strength slowly fading as I poured every ounce of my energy into wielding Mortius’ power to send on both revenants and newly passed soldiers.
My emotions wore thin, a strange mixture of grief and peace filling me as I tended to these souls in the only way I could, giving them the only option of comfort that was left to them.
But the revenants continued to push back our forces.
I found myself retreating with them, trying to follow the line of fighting so I could be near the soldiers and my friends.
I lost sight of Archer in the chaos, and eventually I lost Lily and Owen too.
I prayed they were safe as I followed the cries of the wounded and dying.
Shadows overtook everything, blotting out the sun and growing so thick that soon, I could barely see more than a few feet ahead.
It was difficult to tell the revenants from the living until I was almost upon them.
Sweat beaded on my forehead. My muscles screamed. The shadows Mortius had gifted me continued to swirl through my veins, but they were harder to call upon the more exhausted I became.
Desperation clung to my every movement. I couldn’t reach the dying fast enough.
Their cries began to blend together, ringing in my ears, making my heart pound painfully against my chest. I choked on every breath, the air cloying with the sickly-sweet scent of death and heavy with revenant magic.
The pain of the shadows grew more intense, perhaps because of my weakness.
They rippled like living creatures along my skin, sending spasms through my aching muscles and bone-chilling agony through my entire body.
With a ragged cry, I staggered and collapsed, my knees slamming into cobblestones. I blinked blearily, realizing I was on a street in the city, tucked away somewhere among shops with their windows barred. Screams and weeping pierced the air, but they were muffled, distant.
Desperation clawed at me. I could light up the darkness and find a way to reach the wounded faster. I could fend off the pain weighing me down.
In the chaos of battle, would I be caught? Would the dying care if I could reach them and tend to them?
Before I could draw on my magic, approaching footsteps made me freeze. I forced myself to my feet, searching the darkness warily. And then I caught sight of it—a figure that was strangely familiar and foreign all at once.
My heart flipped, plummeting into my stomach.
“Mama?”