And so comes the last time
You’ll ever hurt me
Elodie opened her eyes, and the first things she saw was swaying grass, the three carved stones, and above them, a red-black sky. It couldn’t be. Was the forest on fire? Was the sky on fire? Was she in hell?
And then Nicholas’ thoughts resounded in her mind, and she realised that the melting mass blackening the sky was the King of Shadows rising from the depths. In front of him was the slight figure of Sarah Midnight, silhouetted black against the sea of embers. Elodie watched in awe and terror as the writhing mass turned into a knot of Surari’s limbs and head, and then condensed into a creature that looked like a jigsaw of animals. She saw Sarah throwing herself against the King of Shadows and sticking her sgian-dubh between his eyes, like Nicholas had told her to do.
Elodie’s heart tightened. She knew what was going to happen next. She knew what was in store for Sarah. She shook herself. This was it. This was where she’d help Nicholas take his plan to fruition. She felt Nicholas’ voice in her mind, and saw that he was standing behind Sarah, waiting.
Elodie ran on, her lips black, watching as the King of Shadows’ spirit left his body and entered Sarah’s. She saw Sarah fall backwards, her eyes open towards the sky, her skin as white as the dead. That was their moment, when the King of Shadows’ consciousness took hold of Sarah’s body, but hadn’t fully poured his power into her. The moment when the King of Shadows resided inside a fragile, vulnerable human body. She ran as Nicholas jumped on top of Sarah and landed on her, crushing her. A memory crossed Elodie’s mind – the vision she’d seen reflected in the plane window on her way from Italy to Scotland. Sarah’s death at the hands of a stranger. She hadn’t seen Sarah’s killer’s face. Now she knew who it was.
Elodie struggled onto her feet, her body shivering with adrenaline and excitement. Reaching Nicholas and Sarah, she threw herself on the ground beside them.
“Time to die, Father,” she heard Nicholas saying.
“I . . . I am Sarah Midnight,” Sarah whispered slowly, as if trying to cling onto a memory from long ago. “Please, Nicholas. Don’t let him do this to me. Don’t let him take me. Kill me.”
Nicholas nodded. His hands were raised already to twist her neck, when she laughed. The laughter stopped him in his tracks, and made Elodie’s skin pucker up into goosebumps. At once, they knew that Sarah was gone, and the King of Shadows had taken over.
“Kill me,” she laughed again. “Go ahead, kill me!” But it wasn’t Sarah’s voice.
Nicholas bore down on Sarah’s body, feeling her ribs under his knees, so weak, so tender. If he leaned a bit harder, her ribs would crack and would puncture her lungs, and that would be the end of the King of Shadows. Not even a spirit as powerful as his could survive if its host body was killed. But something in his father’s laughter made Nicholas stop. Something that spoke of deceit.
“If you kill me,” Sarah warned, “there is no King of Shadows. No King of Shadows, no barrier between the worlds. The Shadow World and the human world fuse together and your precious humanity is gone.”
Elodie saw Nicholas’ features freeze. It was as if he’d been struck by a bolt of blue lightning. A knot of terror settled in her throat as her mind ran through the consequences of what Nicholas’ father had just said.
“You are lying,” Nicholas whispered.
To see the Surari speak with Sarah’s lips, to hear his voice come out of Sarah’s throat, was horrifying. Elodie wanted everything to be over. She leaned down to administer her deadly kiss, but before she could, the King of Shadows spoke again.
“Kiss me, Elodie, and I’ll be gone. Or you, Nicholas, break my bones. I’ll be out of the way, and your precious Dreamer will be dead. Sorry, not much I can do about that. But you know what will happen if I’m gone. Chaos will ravage this place. They will come for you, Nicholas. All of the demons. You can try to hold the portal, but you can’t hold them off for long. A million Surari against you. The human world will be invaded, too fast for anyone to do anything about it. Unless . . .”
With sheer hatred in his eyes, Nicholas looked at the girl who his father had possessed. “Unless?”
“Unless you claim this land as your own. Become the King of Shadows, Nicholas. You take a wife and have a son or a daughter, like I did. If you do that, you can kill me, and have it all. Your precious human world will be intact, and I’ll be dead. Except for one detail: you’ll be me.”
Nicholas crumbled inside. He was unable to speak, buried under his father’s revelation.
“So if you kill me now, you must become the King of Shadows. But I don’t think you want that, do you? You want to continue pretending you’re a real human with feelings.” Sarah screamed with laughter. “The shadows aren’t where you want to be. You’d rather live in light, with the people you’ve tried so hard to protect.” Sarah’s eyes crawled over Elodie and she smirked. Elodie shivered.
“I’m the only one who can be the King of Shadows until I’m ready,” said Sarah with that terrible voice. “Until I decide. You can’t kill me. I just got here. I want to see what the Dreamer can do, how much panic this little girl can wreak on the humans she wanted to protect. You can’t stop me.”
A moment of silence, and then, “You knew all along, didn’t you?” Nicholas murmured finally. “You knew that I hadn’t really come back to you, that I wasn’t really going along with your plan to bring you Sarah.”
“Of course I did,” said his father, and Elodie spotted a hint of burning red, like embers, deep inside Sarah’s green eyes. “But it wasn’t important. Your betrayal means nothing because, you see, you never had any choice, not really. You planned to bring Sarah to me, let me possess her, and kill her and me with her before her body was transformed. And then you’d all be free.” Sarah laughed a cruel laugh. Nicholas’ hands tightened around her white, slender neck. One quick move and it would break.
“So, what do you choose?” the King of Shadows said finally, and jumped up with unexpected, violent strength. Sarah stood with her head thrown back, her hair blowing in a sudden, unnatural wind. Blue lightning shone all around them, casting strange shadows over Sarah’s face. “Oh, this is a good, strong body. I can go back into the world now! The humans won’t suspect a thing.” He laughed and wailed in joy and Sarah’s hands flew out, Blackwater flooding from them in black gushes. The body was transforming. Soon the choice would be made for them.
Elodie watched, frozen, unsure of what to do.
Nicholas’ heart was bleeding. If he took his father’s place, he could stop the culling. He could stop the Surari from seeping through. He couldn’t save Sarah, but the world would be safe once more. And his father, the object of all his fury and hatred and revulsion, would finally be dead. But he couldn’t, he couldn’t. It was too cruel. He couldn’t step into the abyss, the chasm that separated the shadows from the Shadow World. He couldn’t kill Sarah. He’d thought he would be free in death, and now he was being offered a life that was a thousand times worse than the one he had had before, and more permanent than death. His mother had begged him not to take his father’s place – and he’d tried to do as she’d asked. He’d tried so hard . . . But the King of Shadows knew all along that there would be no escape for him, not ever. That was why he hadn’t destroyed Nicholas with the brain fury. He’d had something even worse in store for him.
Nicholas met Elodie’s eyes. Tears were flowing down her cheeks.
It must be done.
I know.
It must be done, he repeated, but he was scared. He was so scared. Please, don’t let me go.
I’m sorry, said Elodie, a soft sob escaping her lips.
Nicholas bowed his head.
With his eyes fixed on Nicholas, the King of Shadows didn’t see it coming. Elodie leapt up and kissed Sarah’s lips, throwing her on the ground. For a moment, Sarah was overwhelmed, her eyes and consciousness rising to the surface again, but just as quickly as she’d reappeared, the King of Shadows’ power took over once more, and it was Elodie’s turn to be on the ground, screaming in pain, filled with the brain fury.
Sarah Midnight. This is who you are. Remember! It was Lucrezia’s voice again, breaking through the King of Shadows’ consciousness and reaching Sarah.
With a huge effort, overcoming the demon’s will, Sarah bent over Elodie and kissed her. Sarah’s consciousness and the King of Shadows’ battled for a few long moments, one wanting to continue the kiss, the other struggling to be set free. Sarah’s heart and skin and veins and brain and muscles were still human, and vulnerable to the Brun poison. It was already beginning to act on her, slowly turning her face blue.
Don’t let go, Sarah. Remember who you are, remember! Lucrezia’s voice kept saying from somewhere far away, keeping Sarah tethered to her own identity.
A scream of rage thundered over the land, from the hills to the caves in the forest. Blue lightning rose from the ground to meet the bolts falling from the sky. The Shadow World shuddered and trembled, but Sarah forced her body to cover Elodie’s, their lips joined, as the poison filled her. With a cry of pain, she fell to the ground and was finally still.
Elodie gazed at Sarah’s face. There was a purple contusion on her forehead, her lips cut where Elodie had bitten her to try to make the process quicker. Her silky black hair was matted with blood and soil. Was the King of Shadows really gone? Nicholas, too, stared at Sarah’s lifeless body, as if in wait.
Finally, a reddish smoke rose out of Sarah’s mouth and danced in front of their eyes, frantically, in fury and disbelief. The mist changed shape from bull to wolf to bear to burning blue flames, until it fell on the grass with a hideous thump of shattered bones and squashed tissue.