THIRTY-SEVEN

BLACK RAGE CONTORTED EURUSS features into a violent, animalistic mask. I laced my hands together to hide that I was shaking with a bone-deep terror. We stared at each other as the seconds crept by, the howl of the wind and my sharp breaths the only sounds.

I expected his voice to shake the cavern, but when he spoke, it was in a bloodcurdling whisper. “I could kill you, of course, but no.” His eyes glowed brighter green, a malicious smile crawling across his face. “You will spend your eternity here.”

Between one blink and the next, I found myself on a floor of uneven gray stones grimed with dirt. Dim light fell over a filthy bed of straw, a bucket, and metal bars stretching to the slime-coated ceiling. I inhaled. The smells of mold, sweat, fear, and waste made me gag. I suddenly knew exactly where I was.

My old cell in Blackcreek Prison.

“No!” I screamed, grasping the bars. They felt cold under my hand. They felt real. “No, no! Let me out!”

“Eternity is a very long time, Ruby,” Eurus said, his voice clear, though I couldn’t see him. “You should have thought of that before you defied me.”

“No! Let me out!” I couldn’t bear this, couldn’t keep myself together. Of all the outcomes I’d imagined, this hadn’t been one. “Please!”

His mocking laughter coiled through the prison, making the other inmates groan and shift restlessly in their cells.

“Eternity.” His whisper rolled like thunder before fading into silence.

I fell to my knees. All that despair in my heart. And now this. I sensed my mind fracturing, splitting apart, the threads of reason unraveling. I put my forehead to the bars, near defeat.

“Ruby.”

Disbelief froze my breath. Had I lost my mind already?

“It can’t be,” I whispered.

I turned slowly. A being made of light stood nearby in my cell. A golden spirit, just like the ones I’d released.

Only this was Arcus.

Tears rolled down my face, my breaths coming in gasps. He was wearing the same thing he’d been wearing when he died, though it looked transparent and golden now.

I sobbed out a breath and shoved to my feet, reached out, hesitated. He put a finger out to touch mine. There was a tiny spark, like the crackle of feeling that raises neck hairs during a lightning storm.

“How?” I asked brokenly.

“It took me a while to find you.” His familiar, crooked smile lit his eyes. His hair fell over his forehead as if he were solid, and I wanted so badly to brush it back.

“You were in the Obscurum. Because anyone who is near a Minax when…” My throat closed. I couldn’t say “when they die.” I just couldn’t.

His smile faded, his eyes solemn. “After Eurus…” He grimaced rather than completing the thought. “I found myself floating over my own body, but no one could see me. I watched as Lucina healed my wounds. I heard you crying.” His image dimmed, then flared, as if strong emotions rippled through him. “It tore me up that I couldn’t comfort you. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t return to my body.”

His pain was so clear, I hurt with him. “It’s all right,” I whispered, not wanting him to feel guilty for something he couldn’t help.

“As time passed, my consciousness fractured. It’s hard to describe. I was drawn to the sunlight, and yet I felt as if something anchored me. I have no clear memories until I had a strong feeling that you needed help. I entered the Obscurum through the rift, but I was lost in dark tunnels at first. When you summoned the spirits, I was drawn to you.”

“I’m glad you”—I had to stop and swallow past the thickness in my throat—“found me.”

“I’ll always answer your call, Ruby.”

I closed my eyes, overcome by the tenderness in his voice. “But… but you didn’t leave with the others.” I could hardly bear to say this, but I had to. “You should have gone. You should go now. Go through the Gate and to the afterworld.” I was having trouble speaking, my chest convulsing as I tried to stifle sobs. My voice faded to a whisper. “I’ll follow you when I can.”

If I ever could. Eternity is a long time.…

His lips curved up softly. “It’s not time for that, not for a long while yet. We have work to do.”

“What can I do?” I asked, wiping my cheeks. “Do you know a way out of here?”

“Close your eyes, Ruby. Take a breath.”

I did, though it took a couple of tries before I could inhale fully.

“Where are you right now?” he asked, shaking his head when my eyes popped open. “Keep them closed. What do your other senses tell you?”

I nodded, understanding. It reminded me a bit of the lessons Arcus had given me on sensing the cold of a nearby Frostblood—him—when he’d first trained me at the abbey.

The moans and mutterings of the other prisoners quieted into silence. The air smelled stale, tinged with a hint of torch smoke, but not foul. “Not… not Blackcreek Prison.”

I opened my eyes, but found myself once again in the cell. “No! I’m still here!”

“Ruby.” Arcus stepped closer. “He is the god of tricks and lies. Close your eyes again.”

When my eyes were closed, Arcus said, “See things as they are. See past the darkness.”

I opened my eyes again and saw the cell. I took a calming breath and stared at Arcus, letting my eyes lose focus, allowing his golden shimmer to fill my vision. The edges of the cell vanished.

We were back in the throne room. I sat on the night throne, and Arcus stood on the dais next to me. I exhaled in relief.

“Very good,” he said with a smile. “You’re seeing what’s real.”

“The illusions don’t work on you?” I looked at his hand, so near mine, and wished I could hold it.

“No. And I don’t think he can see or hear me.”

“How? How are you doing this?”

“Later. For now, you have to get away from here.”

I tried again to stand, muscles bunching, but was held back by invisible bands. “I can’t leave the throne.”

“Another one of his lies.”

I struggled, fought, pushed against the cold stone. “I can’t!”

Suddenly, Eurus appeared in front of the throne. “Out already? I thought it would take at least a century before you found your way out.” He regarded me with narrowed eyes. “Perhaps something a little more… immersive.”

I blinked and found myself in a snowy village under a dark sky. Buildings burned, sending up clouds of sparks and acrid smoke. Hoots and hollers echoed through the night as soldiers stamped through the snow.

“Oh no!” I shouted, closing my eyes. But the orange light of torches and burning buildings glowed behind my eyes. I couldn’t escape. “No!”

When I opened my eyes, my mother stood before me, her back to me, body trembling as she tried to protect me from the soldiers. The captain stepped forward, drew his sword.

“No! No!” I screamed, trying to rush forward, my body paralyzed by fear. “You’re dead!” I shouted at Captain Drake. “I killed you!”

The sandy-haired soldier smiled at me and raised his sword over my mother. Despair ate me from within, unraveling my thoughts, pulling me into pieces.

“Take me instead!” I cried.

“Ruby.” Arcus’s voice broke through the chaos. “Look at me.”

I turned to find him next to me.

“Look only at me,” he said.

“But Mother!”

“Is not real. This is not real. It happened long ago.”

The soldiers were closing in. I could smell the smoke, feel the snow against my calves above the too-short boots I’d worn that night. I reached out and touched Mother’s shoulder, tried desperately to pull her to me, to protect her.

“Oh gods, it’s real, it’s real, it’s real,” I chanted. “Mother! Mother!”

“Not. Real,” Arcus said firmly. “Look only at me.”

I forced my eyes to him. He was a haven of peace in the horror around me.

“Deep breaths. Look only at me.”

My vision narrowed to him, cutting out the flames, the shouts. The edges of the village started to dissolve. I took a deep breath. The smoke and fire vanished.

After another few seconds, I was back in the throne room, Arcus’s spirit at my side.

I sobbed into my hands, taking shuddering, wracking breaths. The memory made everything hurt, ripping open all the half-healed wounds, making me feel small and vulnerable and raw.

I was glad I hadn’t been alone when I had to relive that. And I wasn’t alone now. I felt a crackle of energy move over my hair, my shoulder, my fingers.

“It’s all right, love,” Arcus murmured, adding words of comfort that soothed. “Take your time.”

Finally, I scrubbed my face with my hands and sighed, straightening my shoulders with a nod.

“When you’re ready,” he said softly, “stand up.”

“Right.” I nodded. Tightening every muscle, I tried to surge to my feet. But the throne held me down, no matter how I pulled against it. After a minute of heaving and twitching, I smacked my palms against the seat, groaning in frustration.

Eurus appeared again. One moment he wasn’t there, the next he was, his head tilted to the side, eyes narrowed.

“Let me make this very clear to you, Ruby,” he said impatiently, his voice booming, rebounding from the stone walls. “I am a god. You are a mortal. Your job is to beseech and obey. My job is to deny and to punish. You outlived your usefulness when you released my Minax. You have no purpose now but in suffering, which pleases me, so you will stay in the place where I put you next, or you will die. The moment you leave, I’ll kill you. Is that clear enough?”

“Ruby, listen,” Arcus said, speaking rapidly. I was careful not to look at him. “The moment you shake free of whatever illusion you’re in, you have to stand up from the throne. You have to. You can do this. Believe it.”

“I don’t know,” I replied honestly, fear rising up to choke me.

“Be gone,” Eurus said with a flick of his hand.

In a blink, I stood with the Fireblood masters on the ramparts above the lava field on the Isle of Night, the battle spread out below. Prince Eiko’s body was crumpled in a heap on the rock some feet away, as if it had just been discarded, and one of the Frostblood generals below had drawn back his sword arm.

Preparing to commit murder.

Even though I knew that this was just a memory, it was as vivid as if it were happening. The scents, the sounds, the sick feeling in my gut. “No, no. I can’t see this again.”

“Watch,” Eurus’s voice commanded from somewhere unseen. “Watch or die.”

The general’s arm pushed forward, his sword stabbing Arcus in the stomach. I doubled over, my arms pressed to my midsection, the despair roiling up to engulf me.

“Look at me, Ruby!” Arcus ordered in a commanding tone. “Over here! Not down there. Here!”

I forced my chin up, made my gaze follow his voice. He stood next to me, his golden light brushing the rocky outcropping with gold.

He held out his hand. “When this illusion fades, you have to get up from the throne. You are not bound to it. It is not binding you. The bond itself is an illusion. You are free. You are like those spirits trying to escape, only trapped by the limitations of their beliefs. Reach for my hand.”

I stretched toward him. I wiggled my fingers, extended my arm as far as I could. He was just out of reach.

“That’s it,” he encouraged. “I’m so close. Just a little farther. Grab my hand.”

“I can’t reach.”

“Yes, you can. Fight! Fight with all the fire you’ve always had in your heart.”

I panted, frantic with the need to move. “I don’t have it anymore.”

“It’s still there, Ruby!” he shouted. “It’s you. You are not your fire. You are not your darkness or your light. You have an unconquerable spirit, determination, compassion. You bring people together. You are mine and I am yours, and it has nothing to do with fire or ice. Even death couldn’t change that.”

I sobbed, reaching harder.

“Reach!” he shouted as my muscles started to shake, strength waning. “Lunge for me. For Tempus’s sake, Ruby, don’t you dare give up!”

The hills began to shimmer. The image of the battle started to fade. When the illusion disappeared, Eurus would kill me.

My muscles strained as Eurus’s massive form materialized. The throne room came into view, the crystal in my fist still pulsing with light.

Eurus watched me stretching out, reaching desperately for… nothing that he could see. He laughed. “I told you, you cannot leave the throne, not until you die. And even then, your spirit will become the first in a new crop of Minax. A fitting fate considering what you’ve done.”

He smiled wider as I stared at him.

“Oh yes,” he said in a sweetly poisonous tone. “You will be the seed, and from you, I’ll make another, and another. You’ll be the start of my new breed, my new army. All your petty defiance was for nothing.”

He lifted his fist and held it above my head, his malevolent green eyes peering down at me, glowing like a cat’s in the dark. “You will never escape me.”

For a few seconds, I felt nothing but panic. The throne held me. I couldn’t move, couldn’t move, couldn’t move. The darkness would drag me down. I could never escape.

And then Arcus’s voice shouted, “Now!”

Eurus’s fist descended, the air rushing toward me, blowing my hair back with its force. There was no question it would be a death blow.

A tiny moment of choice.

So short, less than a heartbeat.

I could hold on to the darkness, or I could follow Arcus’s light.

I made the choice.