The flames licked up her arms, wrapping her body in heat and hunger. She strained against the unseen bonds, every muscle tearing.
“Bring it on!” she snarled.
And then—
Listen.
The whisper slid along her cheek.
Her lungs sputtered. Tears burned anew. “Josh?”
Did you think I would leave you untethered?
“You did leave!” Her cry cracked the sky. “You let them kill you! And I nearly erased the entire fucking city!”
Grief crashed over her, swallowing rage whole.
But you didn’t.
“The night’s still young.” A broken laugh tore loose.
And you won’t.
She could almost see him. His smile. The touch of his lips against her brow, the ghost of fingertips tracing the curve of her neck.
Just listen, he said again.You are so much more than you know.
Then—gone. His presence ripped away like air stolen from her lungs.
“Josh!” She fought against the invisible chains, tearing free with a snarl, spinning wildly to search empty shadows. “Please!”
YOUR PENANCE BEGINS TODAY, EARTH WARDER.
The voice wasn’t Joshua’s. It boomed through her skull, rattling her bones as it drove her to her knees in the sand.
“What—?” Her nails scraped against her scalp as if she could dig the truth out with her bare fingers. “Josh! What’s happening!?”
YOU ARE READY TO TAKE THE MANTLE. READY TO FULFILL YOUR DUTIES.
“Duties?” The word tasted foul on her tongue, and she whirled again, searching for the source of the voice.
Wind gathered around her, soft at first, then sharper, pulling at hair and flesh.
YOU WILL ONLY REMEMBER YOUR MISSION. EVERYTHING ELSE WILL FADE.
The wind hardened, slicing through the desert in ragged, violent spirals. Sand lifted in sheets, biting at her skin, filling her mouth with grit as the ground beneath hershuddered.
“Ohhhh fuuuuck.” She made the mistake of looking up.
Night stretched wide, splitting open above her in a jagged wound through the clear sky. And at its center, darkness churned, pulling, ripping, tearing at the edges of reality with talons she couldn’t see. A cyclone thickened around her, funneling black and red in screeching wind, spiraling faster, tighter, crushing the air from her lungs.
She was trying to find Empty Night through the storm when her body lifted an inch from the ground.
“No—” Her squawk shredded to nothing as the wind stole the word before it could even form.
The sky tore itself inside out. Stars bled beneath her feet, spinning faster, faster, until space itself gnawed at her skin. Yawning wide, the portal swallowed light and shadow with raw, soundless power. It sucked at her soul, at the marrow of her being, peeling pieces of her away one atom at a time.
She felt herself unraveling. Skin. Muscle. Thought. Her cries went nowhere as her body came apart, pulled into the howling dark.
