“Ember.” The voice that floats around me isn’t Asher, but my father.
“Dad.” My head whips from left to right. “Dad, where are you?”
“Don’t worry, honey, I’m everywhere.” His voice seems to be coming at me from every angle. “That’s probably the most important thing I can tell you right now. No matter what, I’ll always be with you.”
“Cameron … He’s trying to free your soul.”
“Ember,” he sighs, “you know as well as I do that, even if my soul is freed, I more than likely won’t make it out of this.”
“There’s still a chance.” Tears sting my eyes as I slow down and hover in the mist.
“Maybe,” he replies, only placating me. “Just know that I love you.”
“Dad, don’t go,” I whisper through my tears. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you.”
“What happened to me wasn’t your fault.”
“Yes, it was … I was warned about your death and didn’t stop it in time.”
“I could have never survived, Ember. It had to be you. It was always you that needed to do this. You are the strongest person I’ve known. Even through all the shit your mother and I put you through … even through your curse … you never gave up.” His voice is fading.
“Dad, don’t go!” I cry out, searching for him in an endless amount of fog.
“I have to.” He sounds so far away, a mere shadow of himself. “You need to get to Asher. Keep going, and you’ll find him.”
“I can’t leave you.” My wings flutter, holding me in place. “Dad? Dad?”
When he doesn’t answer, I know he’s gone. Every part of my soul aches, knowing I more than likely won’t ever see him again.
Of course, my mourning is short lived as the Reapers close in on me. I have no choice but to fly away.
Putting all my strength into flapping my wings, I glide through the Shadow Realm, desperately searching for a sign of Asher. It seems like hours go by, and I worry about what’s happening below—if the Angels have showed up and if Cameron has killed his father. Then again, if he kills him before I make the choice, does that end the curse, as well?
I move quicker with the sound of flapping cloaks on my heels. Right as I begin to grow hopeless, I finally spot Asher hovering lifelessly in the tunnel with mist enveloping him. I know I can’t stop and try to help him. I’m going to have to somehow grab him and get him out of the Shadow Realm before I try to save him; otherwise, the Reapers will catch up to me.
Sucking in a breath, I pick up the pace and stretch my arms out as I continue to fly my relentlessly. When I near him, I wrap my arms around his waist and tug him with me. The weight of him, though, sends me dropping toward the ground. Moments later, I tumble out of the Shadow Realm, falling toward the hills below me at a rapid rate.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, thousands of black-winged Angels descend from the clouds. The rain gusts from the flapping of their wings as they circle around me and toward the ground. For a flashing instant, I foolishly believe everything is going to be okay, but then comes the rush of the mists, thousands of streaks of grey and black moving through the rain and tainting the sky.
Angels and Reapers collide in a battle that could lead to blood.
And now I know my time is up.
Our time is up.
I grip on to Asher as I battle to make my wings move faster. I tip sideways but remain airborne just long enough to lower us toward a group of trees on the hill line. It’s not my most graceful landing ever, and I end up twisting my ankle as my feet hit the ground. I have zero time to register the pain, though.
I lay Asher down on the muddy ground and lean over him. Rain drips through the branches above him as I move my lips toward his. Right as our mouths touch, I hesitate, knowing that, when I bring him back to life, I’ll have to kill him shortly after.
I smooth my hand over his head and dry the beads off his skin. My heart cracks and ruptures, knowing I’m only saving him to kill him.
“I’m so sorry,” I whisper then mold my lips to his.
Exhaling, I breathe my life into him, letting everything I’m feeling flow through my lips, hoping he understands how much he means to me. As oxygen and life fill Asher’s lungs, my skin pales, and my heart slows.
I collapse to the ground, my body sinking into the mud. I silently beg the ground to open up and swallow me whole; instead, Asher grabs me and pulls me against his chest.
“Wake up,” he pleads, rocking me back and forth in his arms. “Ember, please wake up. We’re running out of time.”
My eyelashes blink fiercely against the rain, and I open my eyes to face the inevitable. The first time my gaze met his strikingly beautiful slate grey eyes, I remember how awestruck I was, how gorgeous I thought he was. I was so lonely back then, until Asher came along and showed me what it was like to be touched without being strangled by death. He showed me how to live, showed me how to love, showed me a lot of things that will be gone the moment I stab the knife into him.
He tangles his fingers through my damp hair while rain falls down on us. For a faltering moment, the entire world stills, as if he and I are the only two people who exist.
“I love you,” I say, weakly lifting my hand to touch his face.
“I love you, too,” he says. Then, with a solemn look, he places the cold handle of the knife in my hand.
Tears spill from eyes and pour down my cheeks. “I don’t think I can.” My teeth start to chatter from the cold and the rain, though mostly from my nerves.
He blows out a breath and turns my head, forcing me to look at the hills that are now covered with Angels and Reapers battling each other. Humans stand in the midst of them, completely out of it, unable to run, unable to fight, and some have been killed in the madness. If it continues, the hills will end up stained with blood, exactly like in Asher’s memory.
What hurts more than anything is that two people I care for are out there, fighting for the wrong side. I can see Raven’s bubble gum pink hair all the way from here, and standing beside her is a guy with brown hair who’s more than likely my older brother Ian, my only remaining family member.
“Ember, it’s okay,” Asher reassures me, folding his fingers around mine so we’re both gripping the knife. “I told you I’m okay with dying.”
I shake my head as a heart-wrenching sob rips from my chest. “I don’t think I can.”
“Yes, you can.” He points the tip of the knife at his chest and inches it toward him. “Michael and Altarius are here. It’s time to end this before more pain is spread across the world.”
Tears fill my eyes and spill down my checks as I grip the handle of the knife so forcefully the metal cuts at my skin. I start to inch it toward him while he moves his hand with me. We move together, holding on until the very end when the knife pierces into his chest. I’m not even sure who actually stabs him—if it’s me, him, or both of us.
I gasp as the light in his eyes flickers and burns out. Then he crumples to the ground beside me.
I roll over and watch him as he takes his final breath, refusing to allow my lungs any oxygen. I trap the air inside, holding my breath and telling myself to die. Right there. Wither away into the mud and dirt alongside him.
In the end, I suck in a huge breath before passing out, wishing I never had to open my eyes again.
Chapter 18
Ember
Two hearts beat together,
Side by side,
A line of life and death between them
As they fly.
Crossing the line means sacrificing either death
Or life.
What path is the right one?
Which heart can survive?
The answer is there,
In the midst of the fire.
In death, the heart beats still.
In life, it pounds like the rain.
Together, the two hearts collide
And demolish all the pain.
But life and death were never
supposed to be
Anything more
Than crackling embers,
Cinders at the bottom of a fire.
Once they get their spark,
Soon after, they expire.
Every single part of my body aches, and my skull feels like it’s cracked open. I don’t want to move ever again and tell myself to lie still until I die. Eventually, I have to open my eyes and face reality, though.
Reality turns out to be very surprising. Instead of waking up on the hill, I open my eyes to a stream of clouds floating around me. My wings are still out, broken and bent below me, and my heart aches like a deep wound.
“Where am I?” My voice echoes as I turn my head from side to side.
Clouds, clouds, and more clouds—that’s all I can see. I have to wonder…
“Am I dead?” I ask myself, pushing up from the cloud I’m lying on.
“No, you’re not dead,” Asher says from beside me.
My head snaps to the right, and my pulse springs to life. “You’re here.”
His black hair hangs in his grey eyes, his angelic face is still ornamented with silver piercings, and he’s sporting his classic black jeans and T-shirt. He looks the same, which has to mean he’s alive. We have somehow flown up into the clouds and away from life.
He softly smiles as he sits on a cloud, staring at me. “For a few minutes, yes.”
I sit all the way up and kneel in front of him. “For a few minutes? No … I need more time.”
He leans forward and takes my hand. His skin feels so cold against mine, like the winter air in Hollows Grove. “A few minutes is all I can have to say goodbye.” He grazes a finger along the inside of my wrist, causing me to shiver. “And for you to say goodbye to your mom and dad.”
“My mom and dad?” I ask, keeping my eyes on him, afraid if I blink, he’ll vanish.
He nods his head. “I was given one reward for selflessly sacrificing myself. I chose for you to see your mother and father before their souls join the Angels.”
“Asher.” I choke up, at a loss for words. Even after death, he’s trying to make me happy.
I open my mouth to tell him thank you, but the words get stuck in my throat as my mother and father appear behind him. I jump to my feet and walk around to stand in front of him. I’ve never been extremely close with them, although I got along with my father more than I did with my mother. We didn’t hug ever, but it seems important to do so now.
“I’m so sorry this happened to you.” I wrap my arms around my dad. “I know you said it wasn’t my fault, but it feels like it. I don’t know if I can stand all the guilt.”
His arms fold around me, and he pats my back. “It’s going to be okay, Ember. I know it feels like the world is crushing down on you, but eventually, that will fade.”
“What if I don’t want to go back?” I whisper. “What if I want to stay here?”
“It would hurt me if you did,” he says. “And your mother, too. You deserve to live, and besides, Ian and Raven need you.”
“Does that mean the souls were freed?” Did Cameron actually come through?
“It does,” he says. “And everything will be okay.”
I grip him tighter, knowing that isn’t the case. When I go back, it will be to fragments of a life with tons of pieces missing.
When I pull away, I move in front of my mother and wrap my arms around her. Hugging her feels foreign, but I force myself to make it through, put all the stuff we went through aside and get through my goodbye.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t a better mother for you.” She embraces me tightly, her voice cracking with emotion. “If I could do it all over again, I would.”
I nod, sucking back the tears as I step away. “What’s going to happen to you?”
She simply smiles then takes my father’s hand. It’s the first time they’ve held hands since they divorced years ago. As much as I always wanted them to get back together, I didn’t expect it to be in this situation.
“Goodbye,” my mother says with a smile.
“And remember,” my father adds, “I’ll always be everywhere.”
Leave it to my father to give his final words in the form of a riddle.
When I blink, they’re gone, disappearing into the clouds. I force myself to turn around and say the hardest goodbye.
Knowing words won’t be able to express how I feel, I run to Asher and jump into his arms. I hug him with all my might, expressing my emotions through my strength.
“I love you,” I whisper. “I always will.”
“I love you, too.” He kisses my cheek, and my eyelids lower as he dips his lips toward my ear. Then he whispers his final words that will forever remain branded in my mind. “No regrets, okay? Make your sacrifice worth it.”
My eyes snap open as I fall from his arms and through the clouds.
Down, down, down to life.
Chapter 19
Cameron
I knew there was going to be a price for killing Altarius, for draining his soul for the power to free the souls of the humans the Anamotti possessed. What I didn’t expect is for the consequence to be so … well, disgusting.
After I sucked the soul from Altarius’s body, I removed the vial of blood I had stolen from him. Getting the vial of blood wasn’t easy, and I had to do something I despise. I possessed one of Altarius’s closest human companions, a girl with pink hair who hung out with Ember until her soul was stolen by my kind.
Possessing her wasn’t easy, and I messed up worse than I hoped. In the end, I may have gotten the blood, but Altarius managed to steal part of my soul. Then, as everyone around me started to die, I somehow lost more of myself.
Nearly empty inside, I stand on the hills where the first battle took place and stare at the humans lying on the ground, some dead, some thriving. The Reapers have already ascended into the Shadow Realm, and Michael and his followers launch into the sky.
I feel so strange inside, alone with no place to go. My chest burns with a need I don’t quite understand. Not the need to taste souls … the need to…
“I can’t believe you did it.” My uncle Morgan appears beside me. His skin is pallid, his hand is bandaged up, and his clothes are torn. “I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“What? A soul?” I question flatly.
He shakes his head, gazing out at the sun peeking through the clouds. “No, enough emotion inside you to go through with freeing the souls.”
I eye him over and decide I’m annoyed by his presence. “Why are you even here? I thought you were trapped back at Toxic Soul or something.”
His gaze slides to me. “I was freed and summoned here.”
“Freed how?”
“By you.”
“I almost forgot you were possessed.” The tail of my cloak flairs out in the wind. “Why were you summoned here?”
“Because of the battle that almost happened, but now that it’s over”—he looks around at the ground and the sky—“I guess I’ll go home.”
“By all means, please go.” I gesture at the houses in the distance.
He stuffs his hands into his pockets as he starts downhill. “Good luck,” he calls over his shoulder. “I hope you’ll do a better job reining than Altarius did.”
For a flickering instant, I feel an overpowering compulsion to chase him down and snap his neck.
Controlling my rage, I ask, “What do you mean a better job?”
“Didn’t you know?” His brows furrow as I shake my head. “The one who kills the leader of the Reapers becomes the leader himself.”
As realization sweeps through me, I’m jerked back into a sea of fog. A cold draft fills my body as cloaked figures surround me, bowing their heads as if they respect me. But I can feel how much they want to kill me, a vile sensation that floods the air.
Welcome to your own personal hell, a voice fills my head, one that sounds an awful lot like my father’s.
Epilogue
Ember