Chapter 64 Bridge of Fate
Lyra's POV
The thing that comes through the gate isn't angel or demon or darkness.
It's light. Pure, burning, absolute light that swallows everything.
"RUN!" Dad screams, grabbing my arm.
The light explodes outward, consuming the stone circle, the forest, everything. I hear the First screaming—actually screaming in terror—as the light touches him.
Kaelen grabs Stella. Aurora breaks free from her chains. We run blindly through trees that are burning with white fire that doesn't destroy, just transforms.
We run until the light fades behind us, until we can breathe again.
Finally, we stumble to a stop at a river.
It's wide and fast-flowing, the water dark and angry. An ancient stone bridge crosses it, but even from here I can see it's crumbling, unstable.
"We have to cross," Dad says, looking back at the white fire spreading through the forest. "That light will consume everything within miles. We need to get to the other side where the old wards still hold."
"Is the bridge safe?" I stare at the broken stones, the gaps where pieces have fallen into the rushing water below.
Kaelen tests the first stone carefully. His vampire strength makes him lighter than he should be, more balanced. "Barely. But it's our only option."
He crosses slowly, testing each stone before putting his full weight on it. Some shift. Some crack. But he makes it to the other side.
"Stella, you're next," he calls back. "Lyra, follow behind her."
Stella looks at the bridge, then at me. Her new vampire eyes are wide with fear. "What if I fall?"
"You won't." I squeeze her hand. "You're vampire-strong now. You can do this."
"But what if—"
"No what-ifs. Just trust yourself." I kiss her forehead. "Go. I'm right behind you."
Stella takes a breath and steps onto the bridge.
One stone. Two. Three.
She's doing it. Moving carefully but steadily.
Halfway across, a stone shifts under her foot.
She loses balance, arms windmilling.
"Stella!" I scream.
Kaelen reaches out, but he's too far away.
Stella falls—
And catches herself on the edge of the bridge, her new vampire strength gripping the crumbling stone.
"Hold on!" Kaelen shouts.
But the stone she's holding cracks, starting to break free.
I don't think. Just run onto the bridge, moving as fast as I dare.
"Lyra, stop!" Dad yells. "The bridge can't hold both of you!"
He's right. I can feel the stones shifting under my feet, starting to give way.
But Stella is dangling over rushing water that would kill her even with vampire strength. The current is too strong, too violent.
I reach her just as the stone breaks.
My hand closes around her wrist.
For one second, we're both falling.
Then something grabs my ankle.
Aurora. She crossed behind me, moving with inhuman speed.
"Pull!" she commands.
Together, we haul Stella back up onto the bridge.
We're halfway across. Stones crumbling around us. The bridge groaning like it's about to collapse completely.
"Move!" Kaelen shouts. "Now! All of you!"
We run.
Stones fall away behind us, splashing into the river. The bridge is disintegrating as we cross it.
We leap the last few feet just as the entire structure collapses into the water with a crash like thunder.
We made it.
Barely.
I pull Stella into my arms, holding her tight. "Don't ever scare me like that again."
"Sorry," she mumbles against my shoulder. "Being vampire doesn't make me less clumsy."
Despite everything, I almost laugh.
Then Dad crosses the river.
Not on the bridge. Just walks across the surface of the water like it's solid ground.
"What are you?" I breathe.
"Later." He looks back at the white fire still spreading. "We need to reach the sanctuary. It's the only place the convergence light can't touch."
"What was that light?" Kaelen asks.
"The gate opened wrong," Aurora explains. "Stella triggered it early, without the First's control. So instead of releasing darkness, it released the opposite. Pure creation energy. It will remake everything it touches."
"Remake how?" I ask.
"We don't know. That's never happened before." She looks worried. "But we need to not be here when it arrives."
We start walking along the riverbank, following Dad through dense forest.
The white fire is getting closer. I can feel it behind us, warm and terrible and wrong.
"How much farther?" I gasp.
"Two miles," Dad answers. "We'll make it."
But then we hear it.
Howling. Behind us and ahead of us. Surrounding us.
Hellhounds. Dozens of them.
"They followed us across," Kaelen curses.
"No." Dad's face goes pale. "They were waiting. The First knew we'd come this way."
The hellhounds emerge from the trees, circling us. Cutting off all escape.
Behind us, white fire. Ahead, hellhounds. To the sides, river on one side and sheer cliff on the other.
We're trapped.
Then something worse appears.
The First himself, walking through the hellhounds like they're pets.
But he's changed. Half his body is consumed by the white light, transforming him into something that's neither vampire nor angel nor demon.
"You think you won?" His voice echoes with pain and rage. "You think opening the gate wrong stopped me?"
He points at Stella.
"The fourth bridge activated the convergence. But it's not complete. It needs one more sacrifice to stabilize."
He smiles with half a mouth, the other half pure light.
"Give me Lyra, or I'll kill everyone. Right now. Starting with your father."
His hand closes around Dad's throat.
Dad doesn't fight. Just looks at me with sad, knowing eyes.
"I'm sorry, sweetheart. This was always how it had to end."
He speaks one word in that ancient language.
And his body explodes with light that matches the convergence fire.
"NO!" I scream.
But it's too late.
Dad is gone.
Consumed by light.
And in his place stands something impossible.
The original being. The one who created the First three thousand years ago.
The one who started everything.
He looks at me with eyes that hold eternity.
"Hello, daughter. Ready to learn why you were really born?"