Page 70

It ’s All Crumbling

“You.” I choke on the word and the knowledge of exactly which ghost of Eidolon this is.

He came to me in the desert. Told me exactly what was in my amulet. But like the advice he also gave me in the burning lands, it wasn’t everything. A lure to direct my actions, to lead me down the paths he wanted me to follow.

“So you do remember me,” Eidolon’s ghost says in a voice rife with satisfaction.

“Fuck you,” I say, my voice so tight it hurts to speak.

He chuckles. “Eidolon swallowed me while Reven was still inside the king so that I could attach to your boyfriend. I’ve been hiding nice and deep so Reven wouldn’t sense me, waiting for Eidolon’s call.”

My breath catches. That isn’t…

This entire time?

No. He couldn’t have been. Because that would mean—

I feel the blood drain from my face. Was it him when we…

Horror burns so hard, my skin crawls with it. I think I’m going to be sick.

His lips brush my ear. “Watch this.”

He waves his fingers in front of my face and, out of nowhere, inky figures appear on the field right in the midst of four armies.

“The army of shadow souls from the Shadowood,” I whisper to myself. “Eidolon took them—”

Reven waves again, and it’s like he’s unleashed the hells. The shadow soldiers attack, plowing through our allies mercilessly. They use weapons made of darkness that act like solid things, stabbing and skewering through solid flesh and bone. It’s like watching a nightmare without being able to wake up or scream or run. Those things aren’t bound by the laws of the physical world. And they can’t be killed.

A Shadow inside me presses out. “You’re so screwed.”

Think Meren, think.

“You control the shadow army while Eidolon stops Tabra from releasing any goddesses except his mother. Is that the plan?”

“Exactly.”

Which means I played right into his hands. Shit. “Then why did you let us put up the dome of shadow? That doesn’t help him.”

I feel the ghost stiffen against me, glance up, and then grunt, a sound that is usually a swear word for Reven.

“You didn’t know?” Is it possible he isn’t aware of everything that happened when Reven was in control?

“I told you—I was waiting for Eidolon’s call.”

Relief is instant but I stuff it down, not wanting to show him any weakness. The cold I felt—was that the call?

“So what happens now?”

The blade of the knife digs into my side, and I feel the sting followed by a trickle of blood dribbling down to my hip, sticking to my clothes. “Now you lift the barrier and destroy your wall.”

My brows slam down. The hells I will.

This time, I welcome the burn of anger—the same anger that hit me in Mt. Ynferno. I may have done horrible things to the Devourers that day, and consigned Bene to death, but I got the job done. I’m more than happy to do it again.

A dangerous smile stretches across my face. “I should warn you, killing me is the wrong way to go. If Eidolon wants his mother released, he needs both me and Tabra to do it. It took twins wielding sand and soul to trap them. It takes the same to free them.”

“ Lies ,” he snarls. The knife digs deeper, slipping into my flesh.

I wince but hold my ground. “Eidolon couldn’t make it work with just my sister last time,” I point out. “There was a reason.”

He hesitates, then, “Seven hells.” Recognition that I’m telling the truth fills those two little words.

Good. Choke on that, asshole.

“Fine. I’ll bring it all down myself.”

Shadows bind my body, the same way they contained me in Tropikis, and he steps back, dropping the knife he took from my sheath and aiming his hands where shadow meets my sand wall in front of us.

My first instinct is to tap into Eidolon’s power. But what if it calls the king to me? What if he takes me over and makes me help the thing inside Reven? Or what if I get into a shadow-pissing match with this guy?

The only thing I can think to do is put him in glass so he can’t get out. I turn my palm against my thigh, hiding the light, and start drawing sand to the base of the tower.

A sliver of unfiltered sunlight shoots through the crack he makes between the dome and the wall, and he widens it, focus fully diverted and his power concentrated on what he’s doing.

My strike comes from the gut. A blast of power.

Only, sand isn’t the only thing that hits Reven’s body—it’s ice. Vos’s ice.

I startle enough to lose my grip on my power. The sand falls to the floor with a hiss of sound, but the ice keeps coming. Too fast for the ghost controlling Reven to stop it.

He tries.

Shadow shoots out from him, but I risk it and knock it back, Eidolon’s power a spike of cold through me that is only his power. I use it long enough to give Vos time to cover Reven in ice and to release the bonds around me, then shut it off and run to the edge of the tower.

Vos stands on the ground below. The instant he sees my face, he blows out a relieved breath. “Thank Allusian!”

I look back at the ice block. “You didn’t kill him?”

Vos shakes his head. “I left air to breathe. Not sure how long it’ll hold him, though. What happened?”

“Ghost of Eidolon.”

Vos’s face creases in frustration. “Can you get it out of him?”

I can’t even get the non-ghost shards of Eidolon out of myself . Not to mention calling the king down on me without even trying.

He’s been busy shadowing armies from Tyndra, but he’s got to be done with that now, right? So where is he?

Vos jerks his gaze above my head and recoils just as a flicker of movement catches my eye. I spin around to see the dome crawling with shadow souls like maggots on a carcass. One slips through. Another one drops down farther into the city. And then another. They’re not breaking our protective barrier, though. They figured out how to get past it, melting into it, forming a dark puddle, then falling out of the bottom like rain.

Can Reven’s parasite control them from inside the ice?

A boom followed by a series of screams has me spinning back to the battle. Below, Vos swears and takes off into the fray. I track the direction he’s headed. Hakan’s lightning flashes, over and over, right in the middle of a mass of shadow soldiers.

A quick scan of the entire battlefield shows me we’re losing. I can see it in the desperation of the fight. Because shadow soldiers don’t die. They disappear only to reappear somewhere else.

We need help.

“Scoria!” I yell. We haven’t heard from her since the Shadowood. I don’t even know if she can hear me, let alone get here. “Basalt!”

Nothing.

“Scoria! The souls are here. Missing souls. Come get them!”

Still nothing, and more shadows are getting into the city. Tabra’s there. She’s got fighters around her, but Eidolon will be looking for her.

I have to get to her. Reven can’t take me. I look at the distance from the top of the tower where I stand to the ground. A jump from here is doable but could go wrong. I don’t need more going wrong.

“Cain!” Pella screams.

I whip around, my gaze flitting around the battlefield until I find him through all the chaos. He’s fighting five shadow soldiers alone, but he doesn’t see the Tyndran running at him from behind, sword raised.

In an instant, I know we’ll never get to him in time. Pella and I both shout a warning, but Tziah is suddenly there.

She shoves Cain out of the way and opens her mouth. Too late.

The Tyndran skewers her through with his sword, lifting her off her feet.