Chapter 24 The Mirror’s Revenge
Kael’s face turned a terrifying shade of purple. The black silk around his throat hissed, tightening with every second. He kicked his legs, his hands clawing at the empty air, but the Shadow-Eara didn't flinch. She stood on the rooftop, my own face twisted into a mask of pure cruelty.
"Let him go!" I screamed. I felt a hot, stabbing pain in my own neck, as if the silk were choking me too.
"Why?" the Shadow-Eara asked. Her voice was like a knife scraping on stone. "He was going to kill you a moment ago. He called you a ghost. He called you a monster. Don't you want to see him break?"
"I am not you!" I roared.
I didn't have a weapon, but I had my hands. I reached out and grabbed the black thread connecting her fingers to Kael’s throat. The moment my skin touched the dark silk, it felt like sticking my hand into a hive of angry wasps. The darkness tried to crawl up my arms, to infect my heart all over again.
I won't let it in, I thought. I’ve spent a hundred years, or a minute, fighting this hunger. I’m the one who weaves the strings. I own them.
I didn't pull the thread. I wove it. I twisted my fingers and sent a pulse of silver light, the light from the scar on my chest, straight up the line.
The black silk exploded.
Kael fell from the air, crashing onto the stone street. He coughed, gasping for air, his hand going straight to the red marks on his neck. The Shadow-Eara shrieked, her hand smoking where my light had touched her.
"How?" Seraphine hissed, her red ghost-form flickering with rage. "That power belongs to the Void! You shouldn't be able to touch it without drowning!"
"I’ve already drowned, Seraphine," I said, stepping over Kael to protect him. "I’ve been to the bottom of the world and back. You can't scare me with a shadow."
The Shadow-Eara didn't wait. She dove from the roof, her black glass wings spreading wide. She looked like a fallen star made of ink. She slammed into me, and the force sent us both tumbling through a shop window. Glass shattered around us, but I didn't feel the cuts. I only felt the freezing cold of her skin.
We rolled across the floor, knocking over shelves of silk and wool. She pinned me down, her black claws digging into my shoulders. Her third eye was wide open now, staring into mine.
"Give up, Eara," she whispered. "Seraphine is right. The world is a mess. The Sun and Moon are a joke. If we merge, we can eat the stars; we can finally be at peace."
"Peace isn't a full stomach!" I spat.
I grabbed her wrists. "You’re just my leftovers. You’re the parts of me that were too scared to love Solis. You're the parts that wanted to run away when things got hard."
I felt her flinch. The shadow wasn't just my hate; it was my fear.
"I'm not running anymore," I said.
I focused all my energy on the silver scar on my chest. I didn't push her away. I pulled her in.
"What are you doing?" she screamed, her form beginning to blur. "You can't hold us both! You'll explode!"
"Then we'll go out together!"
The room filled with a blinding, swirling gray light. It wasn't black, and it wasn't white. It was the color of a storm. I felt her soul trying to tear mine apart, but I held on. I wrapped my own spirit around her like a cage.
With a final, deafening crack, the Shadow-Eara vanished.
I slumped against a wooden pillar, gasping. I was back in my body, but I felt heavy. My wings were gone, but the silver scar was now glowing with a faint, dark edge. I had taken the shadow back. It was resting inside me, a tiger in a paper cage.
I heard boots clicking on the floor. I looked up, expecting Kael.
It was Seraphine. She wasn't a ghost anymore. By absorbing the Shadow-Eara, I had accidentally given Seraphine enough energy to take a solid shape. She stood there in a gown of red silk, her eyes burning with triumph.
"Thank you, Eara," she smiled. "I needed a vessel to hold the hunger until the eclipse. Since you were so kind to pack it all into one neat little soul, I’ll just take yours."
She raised the shard of the Dragon’s Heart. But before she could strike, a silver harpoon tore through the air, grazing her cheek.
Kael stood in the doorway, his eyes wild. "Get away from her!"
Seraphine laughed. "The Hunter wants to play? Fine."
She snapped her fingers, and the floor of the shop turned into a bottomless pit of black liquid. I felt myself sliding in, the shadows pulling at my ankles. Kael lunged for me, catching my hand just as I went over the edge.
"I’ve got you!" he shouted.
But as he pulled me up, I saw the truth. Behind him, the statues of the cocooned people were waking up. But they weren't people anymore. Their skin was translucent, their eyes glowing red.
"Kael, look out!" I screamed.
One of the "perfected" people, a tall man with long silk threads coming out of his mouth, grabbed Kael by the hair and yanked him backward.
Kael let go of my hand. I fell into the black pit, the darkness swallowing my screams.
I hit the bottom, but it wasn't water. It was a cold, hard throne room.
And sitting on the throne was a man I hadn't seen in a century. He was old, his skin like parchment, but his eyes were the same molten gold.
"Welcome back, Eara," the old man said. "I’ve been waiting a hundred years for you to come and kill me."
It was Solis. The real Solis. But he was holding a knife to his own throat.
"Kill me now," he whispered, "or the dragon wakes up for real."