Chapter 18

Fear in the Air

Alexia’s eyes kept shifting to her mother. She couldn’t believe it. Her mother was alive! She was filthy and dressed in rags and looked far older than Alexia remembered, but it was her. She hung facedown, parallel to the ground, with cords wrapped around each limb. She was unconscious, and there was a pale, almost silvery sheen to her skin, but she was breathing.

“You’re doing great!” Alexia called to Juno. Her friend had climbed up the distorted statue of the Assassin and was slowly traversing the ceiling.

“Please don’t fall, please don’t fall, please don’t fall,” Juno whispered as she moved from one spike to the next. Alexia had wanted to rescue her mother, but even with the help of her Soulprint, it would have been impossible to cross the floor. So it had fallen to Juno or Josiah. Josiah had grudgingly agreed that Juno was the better climber, so off she’d gone.

“Whatever you do, be careful of the—” Alexia’s breath caught as Juno slid down a particularly long skewer. She neared the razor-tipped bottom and placed her feet against it, then leaped away and grabbed hold of Alexia’s dangling mother. Both women swung back and forth as Juno pulled herself up so she was sitting on Madeleine Dreager’s back.

“You did brilliantly,” Alexia called. “I don’t think I could have done better.”

“My Soulprint may not be as strong as yours, but my balance is better than most,” Juno said as she climbed up the ropes connected to the ceiling. She reached the top and began unspooling the excess rope. In a matter of seconds, she’d lowered the rope so it was hanging just out of Alexia’s reach.

“I don’t mean to be the bearer of bad news,” Josiah called from his perch on the statue’s hand, “but the Assassin is approaching the palace! I think he must have dealt with the Myzer-whatevers already.”

Alexia wanted to kick something. They were cutting it close. “We need to do this now,” she called up to Juno. “It won’t take him long to get here.”

“I’m going as fast as I can,” Juno called. She’d looped the dangling rope around her leg, then slid back down to Alexia’s mother. Juno swung the rope over to Alexia so she could grab hold of it.

“Got it!” Alexia called.

Juno unsheathed a knife from inside her boot. She pulled Madeleine Dreager close and then sliced the ropes binding her to the ceiling.

Alexia’s mother dropped into Juno’s arms. Juno ever so slowly began to slide down her rope until she hovered just above Alexia.

“Are you ready?” Juno grunted.

“Ready!” Alexia said through clenched teeth.

Juno thrust Madeleine Dreager toward the throne. Alexia let go of the rope and caught her mother as Juno swung outward. Alexia quickly laid her mother on the throne, then turned to reach out a hand. Juno was swinging back toward the throne. Alexia grabbed her hand and pulled her to safety.

“Thank you,” Alexia gasped into Juno’s ear as she wrapped her in a hug. “Thank you for risking your life to save my mother.”

“I’m glad we found her,” Juno said. “Far too many of us have lost our mothers.”

“I don’t mean to interrupt,” Josiah called again, “but won’t the Assassin be here any minute? Mightn’t it be best if we save the hugging for later?”

Alexia quickly tied two loops in the bottom of the rope, where she and Juno could place their feet. She then lifted her mother so she was carrying her like a sack of potatoes.

Alexia’s hands shook as both girls placed a foot inside the loops. “Are you ready?” she asked.

“Ready,” Juno said.

“One …” Alexia gripped the rope with one hand and her mother with the other. “Two …” She took a deep breath. “Three!” The girls stepped from the throne and swung out over the barbs.

They soared past the grotesque statue of the Assassin toward the opening to the balcony. Both girls pushed with their feet to gain momentum. Back past Josiah and the statue of the Assassin and over the throne, then back to the balcony again, each swing going just a little higher and farther. The thin rope creaked and groaned.

Josiah watched the girls swing past again and again. “Are you sure it will hold?” he called.

“We’re out of options,” Alexia shouted as they swung high above the throne. “This is it. You need to jump!” They swung back past the statue of the Assassin. “Now!”

“Do it!” Juno yelled at the same time.

Josiah leaped from his perch and landed on Juno’s back. The rope swung toward the balcony, and all three children screamed as they passed above the gleaming razors and dry bones. As they neared the top of the arc, Juno cut the rope to send them tumbling to the balcony below.

Alexia groaned as she landed flat on her stomach with her mother on her back.

“No!” a voice roared from somewhere inside the throne room.

Alexia froze. The Assassin had come.

“Impossible!” he screamed.

Alexia peeked through a small crack in the balcony. She shuddered at the sight of the Assassin standing at the far end of the chamber. He was hunched over with one hand pressed against the fresh wound in his side. His fiery eyes were fixed on the ceiling, where Madeleine Dreager had been prisoner only minutes earlier. Alexia held her breath as the Assassin scanned the throne room.

Belial had changed in the hours since she’d last seen him. His skin hung limp, and dark sweat poured from him, puddling at his feet. But mostly it was the darkness—waves of doom pulsed from him. The shadowed gloom pulled at her vision, threatening to steal all light from the world. She turned away and leaned against the balcony. She was too afraid to look on the creature any longer.

“I will find you!” The Assassin’s voice resounded above them. “I will destroy everything you love. Then I will feast on your souls.”

She would have shrieked if she hadn’t been too afraid to open her mouth. Impossibly, the Assassin was leaning against the balcony. All he needed to do was look down, and he would see Alexia and her friends. Yet his attention was given to the horizon.

“The end has come, and the prophecy demands it. The Children of Prophecy will die at my hands. And as their light fades, this world will be reformed into my image!”

Alexia didn’t move, not even to breathe.

“It is time for the world to see who they truly serve,” the Assassin rasped. Then the demon let out a beastly roar as the sound of something ripping filled Alexia’s ears. She cracked an eye to see a dark cloud explode from the throne room. It was blacker than any pitch, and as it rocketed across the sky, it swallowed the light of the world. The moon and stars disappeared, and still the darkness spread, ripping across the horizon. The only light to break through the darkness came from Alexia’s and Jack’s stars.

“The end has come. My final victory is here!”

Alexia trembled at the wheezing voice. It was as if the words came from a mouth unaccustomed to speech. The demon let out a gurgling roar and leaped from the throne room, quickly disappearing into the darkened sky. It was too dark to see clearly, but whatever was flying away was far from human.

From horizon to horizon, the sky was cloaked in shadowed gloom, and Alexia knew it was still spreading. She remembered Elion’s words. “It is the Assassin’s Shadow. It is his essence. It is fear and hatred, pride and jealousy. And those who bathe in its darkness must fight to stay pure.”

For a long moment, no one said a word.

“We need to get out of here,” Juno whispered. “I don’t know what just happened, but I’ve never been so afraid in my life.”

Alexia nodded. She felt it too. The sky radiated fear. Each time she inhaled, she felt dread growing in her chest. “I don’t think we have any choice but to climb down,” she said. “We’ll never be able to cross the throne room.”

Josiah crawled to the edge of the balcony and peered over. “Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse,” he muttered.

Alexia tied her mother to her back and was first over the ledge. She wanted to show Josiah and Juno where to place their hands and feet. As she began the climb down, Alexia couldn’t help smiling. She didn’t know what came next. She didn’t even know if they’d make it safely out of the city, but at the moment, she didn’t care. The Last Battle had begun, and the end of the world might come. But her mother was alive.