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Standing back up to his full height, he looks deep into my eyes, and I into his. I do not need anything more than this. Just Riley. So, I’ll stay. I will stay, looking into his—everything but “just”—green eyes, forever. For the rest of my life and into the Divine end. I will stay here.

“Mika,” a voice whispers, trying to make me look away from Riley. No. I will look at nothing else.

“Mika,” the voice repeats. “You have to come back.”

Riley begins to fade, and I scream soundlessly. I scream for longer than I should be able to. He is slowly fading into nothing. His eyes are the last thing to vanish, and my scream is all that remains.

I am nothing. Falling to my knees, still screaming, I am in a black void. I lie down, hugging my knees, finally stopping the endless, soundless scream. I allow the tears to flow, hoping they will drown me.

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

“Mika,” says a woman’s voice I recognize.

I’m still in the black void, but something in the distance begins to illuminate and increases rapidly. Sitting up, I have to shield my eyes until a beautiful sunrise fills my vision.

The sunrise turns into a woman—turns into Lyss—as she kneels before me, taking my hands.

“Will you come with me?”

“No,” I say and lie back down. Down into an inky black puddle of my tears, slowly sinking into them. Perhaps these aren’t my tears, but the blackness of what’s left of my soul, leaking out of the cracks and broken parts of me.

A deafening screech reverberates around us as Lyss looks at me in alarm. “What is that?” she asks frantically, trying to pull me back up.

Large vibrations slam into the ground as the creature stalks toward us and screeches again, “My rage,” I answer and close my eyes.

“Mika!” Lyss wails. I open my eyes in time to see an enormous, hideous, black creature bat her away with its giant claws. She goes flying into the blackness, leaving a trail of sunshine. The creature takes flight, heavy wings flapping down and battering me with wind. The ground shudders violently as the creature slams down over the source of the sunshine, and I watch the beautiful light turn red, slowly dimming.

A red sunset. I love a red sunset.

“Stop!” I scream at the creature.

It whips its head toward me, studying me, sniffing as if tasting the air. I stand on wobbly legs, dragged down by the weight of my black river. The creature runs at me, picking up speed as its giant tail swishes violently behind it, the heavy thundering of feet on the non-existent ground beneath us. Lightning cracks loudly in the air. The creature dives into my chest, throwing me back in a heavy splash.

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Nothing. I am nothing.

No. Not entirely nothing. I can see tiny pieces of me drifting like dust in the wind. I follow the particles. My consciousness floats along with them.

The blackness around me starts to change. The particles form into dense forests. I’m walking now, wading through the endless green. Smelling freshness, I relish the touch of new leaves caressing my skin. The end of the forest opens to a small beach, waves lapping quietly on the black sand shore.

The sun is rising. I look back and see its broken sunbeams filtering through the trees. I watch as the sun rises before it bursts into the sky above me, warming me to the core. I didn’t realize I had gotten so cold.

It’s as if the day is passing faster and faster. Still, I watch, unable to take my eyes off the sun. With golden rays glowing across the water, the sun begins to set. Gold turns to red, slowly darkening the horizon. It’s leaving. Leaving me.

“Wait!” I call. Desperate.

I run into the water, chasing the red sunset. I run until I have to swim, and I swim until I no longer can.

“Wait…” I whisper with the last of my strength, before I slip under the surface.

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

“Mika?”

My eyes snap open, but a light blinds me, and I immediately close them again.

“Lyss?” I ask, my throat dry.