Acacius shifted toward the direction of the bluff that loomed over the forest.
“Come back to me!” Her cry shook the terrain, reverberating like thunder in his bones.
He crouched and gathered snow between his fingers. It was not cold to the touch.
Then he saw it: an explosive surge of fury and ruin manifesting from his grief, pouring out of his chest and erupting in the space around him; the gates to Tavora, the breaches of Chaos entering the snowscape surrounding him.
He recoiled and stumbled back on his feet.
No.
He looked out through the clearing.
Swirling, black fog blanketed over the snow. Its misty haze covered his ankles, sticking to his legs. It dissolved through the material and into his skin.
He jolted as her power collided with his own. He recognized its feel from the many times she had impaled him with it, or when his own reached out to her during their moments of pleasure.
He slapped a hand over his chest, sucking in a breath.
She was here, alive, reaching out for him.
“Marina!” He took off toward the gathering shadow. It bled across the land.
The night was a beacon, his way to claw out of this nightmare of his own creation.
His sight went black. Her power sparked in his blood like tiny currents slowly reviving him back to life. He stood in its storm, breathing heavily, letting her devour him.
Gravity warped and forced him to his knees. A scalding pain seared through his skull, and he screamed out, clutching the sides of his head. It felt as if his brain had turned ichorous and flowed out of his ears, down his jaws and over his neck.
The darkness around him was swept away by a harsh gust, and the opaque gray clouds gave way to glowing white rays cascading out like melted silver.
The light glowed brighter, the wail of his realm beginning to pierce through the reverie.
And then, it burst.
“Come back to me,Acacius, so we can feel it all together.”
The world around him came into view.
Marina’s arms were braided around his chest with her body snug against his backside. Hot, sticky liquid seeped from the wound in his chest. In front of him, the apparition of her Night dissolved into dusty wisps.
He choked on the copper in the back of his throat as the hole in his chest slowly mended.
What have I done?
He gaped out at the wreckage before him. The snapped trees and demolished forest, the craters in the terrain and chunks missing from the cliffsides.
His Olethros, their sleeping frames, dissipated into cobalt curls, returning to their home. The unsewn cavities hemorrhaging destruction above him fully sealed, stowing away the wind and clumps of hurtling land.
The magical globe containing it all cracked, its structure shattering down like the bouncing pieces of a glass chandelier.
Acacius’s breath quickened, remorse filling his insides.
“I am with you now, Acacius.” Marina hugged his frame tighter, wafts of her amber, vanilla fragrance catching in the breeze.
This wasreal.
Shewas real.
