Page 34

The scars prickled on my shoulder blades—perfect vertical slits, as if they were purposefully cut, too precise for a childhood accident.

Could that be where…

Could I have had…

Every muscle in me constricted.

I was going to be sick.

“We are Night Stalkers.” Leif sidestepped around me and into my peripheral.

“Born of shadow and darkness. We do not fear judgement for vengeance…”

Ryder’s muscles strained as he looked at me and also took in the words.

For a split second I thought he might drop the weapon, as it slipped down his clammy grip.

But something changed when he tightened his fingers.

Setting his jaw, he brought tension back to the bowstring, the arrow once again aimed with deadly power.

“For we have already fallen,” he finished.

“Wait!” I ventured a shaky step towards him.

“Ryder, please, you don’t have to do this.”

“Yes, he does, River. He’s committed by blood.” Finis’s croaky, tuneless croon was the melody of a nightmare’s lullaby.

“That’s a bond that can only be broken by completing the oath, or death. I don’t think he wants to die today.”

“Neither do I.” I spun just in time to see wispy shadows curling over her cadaver fingers.

Leif sneered as I recoiled.

My eyes darted between them.

“You don’t have to lie anymore. Not to us.” The translucent black tracers of energy thickened and spun around her hands.

“We both know this is what you’ve really wanted. To meet the empty, thoughtless void where you no longer feel. If anything, I’m relieving you of that task.”

The grief and guilt and mental isolation had sunk their claws deep into me.

So deep that at many points throughout my life I literally thought they might end me, those emotional scars just as tangible as the physical ones on my back.

What I’d slowly come to realize was that I was honored to wear them.

They were what made me…

me.

Chin high, I stated, “Maybe I changed my mind.”

“Too late now.” Caught on the final syllable, the demon’s pitch dropped to a growl and reverberated into the esplanade.

At first, I just thought it was me that was shaking.

But then the path folded and split, a crack growing between my feet, pulling my legs outwards into a standing split.

Before it could rip me in two, I sprung off one crumbling piece of cement and onto another, my knees once again breaking my fall.

Each beat of my heart hit my ribs like a mallet.

Light flickered in the corner of my eye.

As I turned to see what it was, the thousands of neon carnival bulbs blazed on and off, strobing so many colors it was impossible for my brain to process them all.

My hands shot to my brows—a temporary shield, because then the soda dispensers flooded the food huts with the force of a dam that had blown, and my fingers covered my ears—but not for long.

The ground beneath me shuddered and furled, gathering into a wave of cement, and my arms left my head, flailing about just to keep me from rolling over.

I knew what she was doing, exploiting my senses until it put them in overdrive, and I couldn’t do anything but cave to the episode.

Black spots crept into my vision as the sounds funneled into my nerves.

I gritted my teeth. I couldn’t let her win; I wouldn’t let her win.

My palms slapped the torn pavement.

Willing my lungs to work past the shock, I gulped down an inhale before the darkness stole my ability to breathe, Dr. Fairmore’s near-forgotten words coaxing me to focus on the expansion of my lungs.

Redirecting every ounce of myself remaining, I exhaled and let the chaotic Source around me become something else entirely—the lawless momentum of the ocean that I craved and harnessed—and let its power wash over me.

The world came into focus as the blurry specks that shaded my vision started to retreat.

Another wave of cement rolled beneath me.

I faltered but made it to standing.

An unmistakable energy eddied in my gut and pulsated in my fingertips as an idea grew and took root around me: this undulation of rebar and rock was identical to a pumping morning at my favorite surf spot.

It gathered for another set: taller and faster, the blocks of stone bending beneath me.

I whipped my head around, searching for something to use as an impromptu surfboard.

A jagged steel sheet that must’ve been part of the top of a concession stand drifted by me.

Holding on to the vision of the ocean I’d mustered, I sprung after it.

Using my core to steady me, I planted my feet between the corrugated grooves of metal and rode the fake swell like a sketchy reef break, headed straight for the demon.

Surfing the concrete, I whizzed past Leif.

He attempted to mimic my footwork—and fell right on his ass.

Even Ryder, someone so self-sufficient and strong, struggled to remain standing as a spray of rock fragments shattered atop his shoulders.

An unwelcome shock lacerated my heart as he yelped out in pain.

My arms hesitated over whether to stay put at my sides or follow that twinge of emotion and reach out to him.

But why would I try and save him after all he’d done to me?

After finding out what and who he was?

Knowing full well he was willing to let me drown in the rubble…

I still lurched forward and outstretched my hand as I rode the crest of the rocky wave past him.

If I could get him next to me, I could hold him steady.

Our fingertips brushed.

In that half a second of contact, his eyes grew wide, shattering the darkness that had eclipsed their light.

They flared a green so electric it stole my breath—I didn’t even have time to realize my hand had closed around the lapis pendant, not his calloused palm.

The second I touched it, it exploded in color, blooming with the hues of the open ocean.

The tiny specks of silver-white embedded into the stone glistened like bioluminescence under the starry night.

The last glimpse I got of Ryder before I spun to face forward was of concrete pellets raining onto his head.

I didn’t have time to consider why he’d given me my necklace—why he didn’t grab me when he had the chance—as the gray wave curled towards the demon.

There was no time to channel whatever Source was tied to the necklace.

I bent my knees, shifting my weight forward to gain some extra momentum, and dipped my shoulder, slamming it up as I hurtled into Finis.

A screech like a thousand hungry bats had taken flight penetrated the soundwaves.

The impact reverberated through my bones, into my clattering teeth.

I fell face-first into the trough of the wave, the metal slipping out beneath my feet as the broken cement crashed over me.

Chipped pieces of stone snuck into every crevice as it washed me almost fifty yards from where I’d made impact with Finis.

When the swell slowed to a ripple, I hopped up and took shelter within the Pirate Ship’s exit, choking on the chalky dust. I peered between the railing’s orange support poles into the heavy cloud of debris, crouching and shading my eyes.

Someone—something—lurked by the gates on the opposite side of the courtyard.

Finis, I surmised. Or maybe it was Leif and his perfectly coiffed man bun.

Or had Ryder come to grips with what he’d done and come to retrieve what I’d taken?

I braced myself, fingers tightening around the metal.

Except…none of the above was the perpetrator darting through the open square.

Their silhouette didn’t cast any evidence of extra limbs or pairs of horns.

I sized them up, their wavy hair bouncing as they…

tripped over their baggy cargo pants?

As they tossed back the hood of their…

Santa Cruz Skateboards sweatshirt?

This was no fiend at all.

“Psst! Javi!” I hissed from my hiding spot, flapping my hand to wave him over.

The moon cast a glow over his half-open mouth and raised brows as he stepped through the destruction and made his way to me.

“What are you doing here?”

“Heading to the coordinates you sent me.” He coughed on the ashy plumes that wafted in the air.

“What’s going on? Are you okay?”

Oh my God, he wasn’t supposed to actually come.

I was going to grab him, no, scream at him, no, knock every bit of sense into him.

“I’m fine.” I ignored his wide eyes that tracked the coating of dried dirt, blood, and dust caking my clothes and skin.

“But what are you doing here ?” I waved my hand and gestured to the Boardwalk, frantically scanning for the foes that seemed to have shrunk into the shadows.

It wouldn’t be long before they attacked again.

“I’m cutting through, so I don’t get in trouble for wandering the streets at midnight. Same as you’re doing, I think?” Javi’s gaze roved over me once more, and then at the uprooted walkway.

“It looks like a bomb went off in here. What happened? Where’s security?”

Pulling myself to standing, I jumped over the railing.

My knees locked, but Javi caught me by the waist before I could tumble to the ground.

Without hesitation I wrapped my arms around him and brought him so close there was no space between us.

The hug was brief, but so long overdue I almost didn’t let go, even if he didn’t squeeze back until the very last second.

Retreating to arm’s length, I gripped his elbows as I spoke.

“Listen to me, Jav. You need to get out of—” A tremor rumbled through the earth and stopped me short.

“What the deuce?!” Javi swiveled around.

“What was that?”

“I—” The words got cut off as an invisible force clamped my jaw shut.

My fingers shot to my mouth, nails scraping against my lips as I fought to pry them open.

My nostrils flared and my breathing grew more frantic as I tried to hum what was happening to me.

“River? Are you okay?” He searched my wild stare.

“What’s going on?”

A figure came into view across the ravaged concourse, smoky shadows trailing it like wings.

Finis stopped under a moonbeam and drew a finger so broken it bent the other way to her puckered lips.

Shhh .

With a frenzied shake of my head, I rose my hands to point and try to warn Javi, but that same force compelled them to my sides, as if they’d been tied with invisible string.

He pulled at me now, trying to untwist me, shouting for help I knew wouldn’t come.

The darkness that followed the demon broke off into tendrils that coasted over the ground like a fog.

Moving with unbelievable swiftness, they wrapped around my legs, my neck, my forehead…

Tears splashed my cheeks as my frustration built and shadowy bands of pressure cut off my thoughts.

Fresh laps of agony coursed through my body.

I couldn’t even open my mouth to cry.

I couldn’t hear past the brutal pounding in my ears, couldn’t see past the sharp ache in my temples.

I was lost to the pain.

I’d forgotten where and who I was—who was tugging at my hands, who was snapping their fingers, who was flapping their arms right in front me.

Their brown—or were they green?

—eyes looked so familiar, creases pulled down by the heavy weight of sadness.

They said something—what?

Intuition fluttered in my chest but…

the shackles of shadow tightened.

So, I didn’t know. The world wasn’t making sense, only the torment was.

I became the pain, and it became me.

Light flared so bright it was all I could see.

I squinched my eyes shut to escape it.

When the flash subsided, and the silhouettes stopped dancing behind my lids, I opened them and stared at the mess of the courtyard: the shattered glass, the flattened walls of a game stall, the mangled wood of a ride.

Someone lay atop the wreckage, their body limp, limbs splayed with an almost…

peaceful look on their face.

They could have been mistaken as dreaming.

The fog lifted from my brain, and I suddenly understood everything that had happened when I went blank.

Javi .

“No!” Every single ounce of oxygen inside me rushed out in a bawling gasp.

Whatever demonic spell bound my arms and legs released, and I dropped to the floor.

“That wasn’t very nice of you to take the necklace.” Finis’s shadow fell over me, and it felt like I’d been trapped beneath the ice of a frozen lake.

Goosebumps erupted and brought full-body shivers.

“Where is it? Give it back. Please. ”

Her guess was as good as mine.

It’d somehow left my hand, and my leggings didn’t have pockets, and my jacket felt far too light.

In fact, I was pretty sure my phone had dropped out at some point and was another casualty of the concrete wave she had summoned.

I covertly folded my hair behind my ears to scan the ground for either, but it revealed nothing.

Not wanting my unease to be obvious, I changed the subject.

“Where are Ryder and Leif?”

“By the sound of it…” A guttural yell pierced the night that made my heart skip a beat.

The demon cocked her head.

“Your boyfriend is getting quite the beating.” She sighed, sounding more annoyed than anything.

“That’s what he gets for not following orders. Which means I get you all to myself.” I ignored the flicker of hurt that sparked inside me.

“The necklace.” She stepped closer on exaggerated tiptoes, offering the semblance of a smile, sharp teeth bared to the cool night air.

“I asked nicely.”

Tuning out another scream and the zap of distress it ignited in my chest, I focused on what was in front me: Javi was out cold, and I really didn’t care how politely Finis asked—she wasn’t getting my fucking necklace.

“That’s the last thing I’ll do,” I ground out, rising to my feet.

It didn’t matter if I had it or not—she never would.

I’d make sure of it.

Another low rumble shot through the theme park.

Slobber dripped from her lips.

“These aren’t decisions your mother would be proud of.”

I shrugged.

“Yeah, well, you can’t please everyone.”

Her laugh screeched on the night, sharp enough to break glass.

My shoulders shot to my ears.

“At least we can agree on that.” Honing and nurturing that wispy shadow magic, she shaped it into a sphere with her cracked, pallid claws.

My breath caught at the black spit dripping off her elongated fangs, combusting when it hit the sphere of dark matter like tiny fireworks.

“Then at least do it for your friend?” She gestured to Javi.

“He’s not dead. Yet.”

We both shifted towards Javi lying silent, inert, bleeding, and—by a miracle—still alive.

My heart jumped into my throat with hope and then with fear.

I’d never forgive myself for this.

“Don’t drag him into this. He’s innocent. If you want the jewelry so bad, why not just kill me?”

“Trust me, I’ve had the impulse on more than one occasion, but alas, I’m to bring you to Chthonia.” The skin over her jaw started to deteriorate—her human disguise was slipping, revealing something avian and serpentine all at once.

Dread like I had never known before washed over me.

“W-why?”

“You mortals have this saying that everything happens for a reason, and you know…I think I’m beginning to believe it. If Mira hadn’t betrayed Empyrea and given birth to you, then Akosua, Daughter of Michael and Wielder of Fire, might never have joined Chthonia.” That name, smushed between the diabolic bullshit, perforated the thin layer of confidence I’d just rebuilt.

“And then we would never know how rich the Watchers’ Source is! Killing you is easier, but siphoning your powers is a far better strategy in the long run. Then not only can we infiltrate Mortal Earth—we can rule it.”

My head shook at the memory of Akosua standing beside my mom as they overlooked the Fall.

She’d been so adamant about the consequences for choosing love; it didn’t make sense that she’d commit such a blatant form of treason herself.

“Akosua swore to protect Earth. Not destroy it. Why would she be in on this? You’re lying.”

“You think your little meltdown at your Grad Night is what made the connection to the Watchers disappear?” Her lips curved into an evil smile.

“You can thank Akosua for severing it.”

I gasped for that impossible breath, sputtering for the oxygen that’d been ripped from my lungs.

“It’s interesting…” Finis studied me intently, as if seeing me for the very first time.

“You make it seem like Akosua is the problem, when your mother is the one who abandoned the Watchers and left Mortal Earth so vulnerable in the first place. Mira cared more about her own selfish needs than protecting humanity. I can see the family resemblance…”

Those words stilled the blood in my veins and lodged a ball of fear in my pipes.

There was truth to them, truth that’d been warring against the lies I told myself.

“Did you ever stop to think maybe Akosua is just cleaning up her mess? That without the burden of Mira, she’s able to see clearly now?”

Only because I wouldn’t let myself think it, but the reality was those thoughts had already lodged themselves in the back of my mind since Madame Myrian’s.

“And maybe Chthonia’s mission speaks to her?”

See, that was the part I couldn’t wrap my head around.

It just didn’t make sense.

Steeling myself, I asked, “What exactly is Chthonia’s mission?”

“We want to bridge the realms, so angel and demon and every species in between can be together,” she hissed, now more creature than human.

“You know what it’s like to walk alone—isn’t it cruel to keep us apart?” She cooed at the Source cradled in her arms like a newborn.

“To keep you and your mother apart?”

The pit in my stomach could have swallowed me whole.

“You want this too, River.”

I hated to admit it, I didn’t even want to acknowledge it, but part of me did.

What’d I’d do to see my mom again…

I shook my head and pushed that tiny sliver of curiosity deep down inside, swearing to never be tempted by it again.

“You’re telling me you just want everyone to live happily ever after?” I didn’t buy that—I couldn’t buy that.

This was a demon.

“Sometimes happiness must be sacrificed for the greater cause. You wouldn’t understand. Mira wasn’t the best example of that…” The demon’s shoulders jutted inward, a fresh batch of black feathers exploding from her back.

She grimaced in pain, then released a sigh that sounded far too pleasurable for the circumstances.

I felt myself moving backwards, but I was already up against the railing.

“We’ll need to rebuild, and not everyone will be happy about it. Those who join us will be offered positions within the Court of the Cursed. But those against us, those not…convinced of our cause, will be rounded up after we breach the wards.”

How could any Nephilim—how could Ryder, how could Akosua—be okay with this?

A flush of cool sweat coated the back of my neck.

“And taken where, exactly? I’m sure you won’t be escorting them to the nearest five star hotel.”

“That’s on a need-to-know basis, but I can assure you, the accommodations are more than appropriate for the circumstances.”

“What kind of cause do you expect humans to support when you’re unleashing demons and rounding up anyone who opposes you like cattle?”

“Humans,” Finis spat, droplets of black spit sizzling on the sand-grouted floor.

“They’re as many as deer yet they’re the chosen ones . The only thing they’re chosen for is reestablishing the glory Chthonia has always deserved.”

A tidal wave of guilt, of pain, of every emotion I liked to ignore swelled to life inside me.

I wanted to hide, to feel nothing, but instead of shutting down, I let the final scene of that cursed, forgotten memory from when I was eight rise from the depths.

I hadn’t been able take my eyes off the figure in the storm because it had been her—my mom.

Her brilliant pearly white wings, a blue-tinted aura haloing the crown of her head, the bead of light on the tip of her extended pointer finger shining like the beacon of a lighthouse.

By that time, her body had already been swallowed by the ocean and there was nothing I could do but watch as her soul drifted upwards, summoned by storms and shadows.

Lightning flashed, illuminating a being at the top of the tempest, their skeletal arms and charred black wings outstretched.

Watching. Waiting. Just as I had been then, I wasn’t sure now if it was a demon, an angel, or the Creator themselves.

Whatever it was, it took her, and as her screams blended with the bellows of the waves, so did the voices of three others: Swim.

Far away.

Taking a ragged inhale, I made myself a vow—in the presence of Finis, in the midst of this destruction—that this mental anguish would no longer control me.

I was more than my grief.

I was more than my trauma.

Most importantly, I was stronger for it.

Releasing the breath, I could practically hear the Source roaring within me.

It crawled beneath my skin, uncurled my fingers, and…

stung my toes? My eyeballs darted to my feet.

The tide had risen, abnormally high, the cold water lapping my thick white soles and seeping into my socks.

An icy shock of realization ran up my nerves and jolted my heart, and I knew, with or without the necklace, the element was waiting for me to summon it.

My gaze flicked back to the demonic woman before me, and I slowly raised my hands.

The ocean followed, churning and channeling around my feet into a small vortex, readying itself for my command.

“What are you doing?” Finis’s question came out muffled between her viper fangs that continued to lengthen and sharpen.

She coiled in on herself, and as her slithering body sprung forward, my outstretched arms shot out in front of me.

The water rushed forward, crashing into the demon moments before her teeth sank into my neck.

A deafening crack reverberated off the buildings as it smashed into her, solid as concrete.

Liquid flooded her slitted nostrils, her mouth, her ears, every orifice it could slip in.

A heaviness settled over my wrists as pure, unfiltered power shot through my hands.

But as long as the doctor still writhed, I wouldn’t stop, no matter if the pressure split my brain in two.

No matter if I could feel the Source weighing on my muscles, dragging down my elbows, and my body shuddered with the effort.

Clenching my jaw, I bit against enamel and skin.

The water sputtered just as surely as everything within me was tiring, flowing more like a kinked hose than a gushing river.

Fever seared my skin, but I didn’t dare relax long enough to draw a breath.

I released that final push of magic, my lips parting on a scream, and a wave barreled past. It curled and crested then broke over the demon, slamming her into the pavement, leaving the rest of the park untouched.

The effort knocked me back into the railing.

The pain of the metal digging into my spine didn’t even faze me; every speck of attention was on the saltwater wrapping around her limbs, squeezing her chest, stealing her air and her shrieks.

A shadowy phantom dislodged from her body, what I could only assume was her soul.

Plumes of darkness billowed out of its back as it hovered over what remained of her mortal vessel: a chimeric, flaccid, figure that spun around and around while the Source slurped her down like a drain.

When the last of her floppy limbs vanished, the ocean retreated, swirling past my calves and snaking through my fingers with a purr-like rumble, claiming me as its master.

Finis’s faceless soul turned to me, the air around it splitting into a depthless, dark rift.

A sulfuric smell stung my nostrils, and a draft of heat burned my skin.

Fear and sorrow pressed against my soul as Chthonia vacuumed up hers.

The demon let out a long, hopeless wail that shot past my ears and went straight to my nerves.

It could have splintered bones and ruptured blood vessels it was so awful and doomed .

But there was also something…

beautiful within the darkness.

Magnetic. Familiar. My hand drifted out, seeking the shelter of the pitch-black nothingness.

But as it suctioned her up, the dimensional rip sewed itself back together, and the aching desire to join the darkness left me.

I blinked, thinking my eyelids must be bruised because of how much the movement made me wince.

Nothing remained of the demon.

No feathers, no fleshy charred stain, no particles whatsoever.

It was just me, the moonlight, the wreckage, and…

Javi. I sprinted through the puddles, already sobbing before I reached him.

“Javi!” I dropped to his side, the debris harsh on my knees, checking for signs of life the way he did with me—squeezing his hand again and again.

I’d do it until my fingers fell off.

Throwing my upper body over his, I pressed my cheek to his temple, and then laid it on his chest. A faint thrum reverberated against the side of my face.

He lived.

Fresh tears erupted and I stroked his hair, matted with ash, dust, and blood.

“We’re getting the hell out of here,” I promised.

Sliding my palms beneath him, I grunted at the pain shooting up and down my arms. With muscles bound to collapse at any moment, I lifted my best friend and shakily rose to my feet, shards of glass and metal raining from his clothes.

Every step felt like it could kill me, but I carried him through the Boardwalk’s destruction towards the exit.