I was its rightful queen.
I was its fallen kingdom.
The moment the book was open, I was falling through darkness, a cold fierce wind rushing past my ears, death a certainty somewhere below me.
Then I was weightless, a feather on a breeze, no body, spinning towards the ground, nothing but a soaring of music and voices and pure utter release.
Inhuman sounds thundered through the air. I was motionless, a shimmer of light and atoms.
Hemlock’s image came into view, a flash of terror in his eyes, just before his form burst into slivers of sparkling black stones and bits of rock and dust.
I opened my mouth to scream, but before I could make a sound, giant clawed talons locked onto me and yanked me up. Wind and light swirled around me. Creatures of every part of my imagination appeared out of the mist, centaurs and unicorns, dragons and gods. A monster with beating wings swept me forward and up high into a twilight sky, where I never saw stars so bright. The impact of the wind made my nose tingle with frost and my cheeks like ice.
My breath stopped when I was suddenly let go, and I began freefalling to the faraway ground below.
A bright colorful creature swooped past me and instantly I stopped descending and my feet stumbled to the ground. I staggered around to find my footing and looked up. Above me, the skies were still full of things I had only read about. Creatures and beings that were known as myth and legend were alive and fierce and breathtaking.
“Your sacrifice will not go unnoticed,” a voice thundered out behind me.
I spun around, grasping my chest, breathing hard.
A man stood a few feet away from me, imposing and older, a mass of long curly hair and a full beard, half his body made of scales of silver and gold. He wore something that seemed made of air and light.
“What does that mean?” I whispered, stepping closer to the man.Was this some mythological Greek god?“What happened to Hemlock? Is he gone? Did I get everyone’s soul out? Did I help Ravenswood?”
The man blew out a long breath and cocked his head. “I’ve destroyed him. What do you wish?”
“Wish?”
“A wish to demonstrate my gratitude,” the being said.
“I don’t know…I wish—”What if I wished wrong? What if I asked for everything to go back to normal? And normal sucked?
The half-man half-creature drew closer, and I swallowed hard. Suddenly there were fangs where his teeth should be and his scales spread out across his skin and darkened.
“Please, I want to—” I didn’t know how to finish the sentence. I wanted so many things but knew deep in my heart it was impossible to get anything I could dream up. When I opened that book, everything around it was to be destroyed—that everything was Hemlock andme—I knew that. There were no wishes to be granted. I wasn’t ever getting my life back. I was never going to be able to do anything again—and this was just another trick and slight of words of gods.
And I just let them loose on the world, didn’t I?
He took another step closer and my words faltered. I looked up into his dark beady eyes and blackness poured out of them, dripping down in long strands of thick liquid.
I gasped, unable to move or scream. Fear gripped me, spreading heat out across my cheeks and chest. I wasn’t sure if what I had done in helping to destroy Hemlock was the right choice. What if this was all a really stupid mistake? What if I changed the course of everything in the world with my foolish good intentions?
“W-who are you?” My words stumbled over themselves and came out gargled and full of terror.
The inky blackness crawled over his skin and blocked out his face. Long blackened fingers trailed up to its face, elongated and knotted, tapering at the ends to sharp points. His body darkened and splintered off into millions of pieces which doubled and tripled in size, blocking out the skies and creatures above, then spreading out beneath our feet, devouring everything in shadows.
“I am Erebus.”
“Y-you’re the darkness of the underworld,” I stammered.
What have I done?
Images of my life flashed through my mind, my fingers on piano keys, Addy and me drinking wine, the smell of books, and way Mathias looked at me. I played the pictures over and over in my mind until the darkness stretched out around me and swallowed me whole.
I could not see or feel; the only thing was the sound—the sound of a small voice whispering through the darkness. “Many wars began because of the influence of gods on humans—the outcomes of those are what shaped the society you live in today, Rainey. We are entwined in your mortal history and its future. Both sides have suffered long without the other. Mankind needs us to lead them, and your sacrifice for both gods and mortals will be honored.
For you are part of us.
