Hecate’s energy wove through our soul bonds, strengthening and building until the clearing turned into a solid block of white light. The air grew thick, oppressive, the pressure against my chest becoming an unbearable weight that threatened to collapse my lungs.
My legs trembled, and my pulse sprinted, the thrumming in my ears drowning out the sounds of the gale.
“Do not let go.” Hecate’s voice boomed inside my mind, sounding like a thousand bells ringing at once. “My magic is amplifying yours. Use it and focus on your soul bonds. Your connections to each other are the looms you need to reweave the threads of reality.”
The blinding white light plunged into darkness, and for a moment, I felt weightless. Then, the crushing weight of our dying worlds pressed onto my shoulders, and the fraying threads of the universe came into clear focus. Had I attempted this feat alone, it would have crumbled me instantly. Instead, I focused on my soul bond with Cinder, drawing from her light and countering her with my dark, equalizing the pressure engulfing us.
We fought to maintain our balance, straining to keep the surging energy flowing evenly between us as we wove the fabric of reality. Every heartbeat became a test of will, each soul bond a lifeline anchoring us as the power seethed and swelled. The ground beneath our feet seemed to vibrate in harmony with the mounting force, our collective focus the only thread preventing pandemonium from tearing us apart.
Hecate’s light coursed through our bonds, magnifying the strain until even our united forces felt small beneath its weight. My soul screamed for release, yet I clung to Cinder and Ember, drawing from their essences as we struggled not to be swept away by the torrent.
Still, the goddess did not relent. Her magic continued to build, pressing in from all sides, until it felt like my very soul would fracture under the pressure.
The power reached critical mass. Our soul bonds stretched to the breaking point, the frequency of the magic becoming so intense that I felt my very atoms begin to scatter.
Then, a flash of absolute white.
A massive explosion threw us in different directions. My connection to Cinder snapped, the sudden void in my soul more painful than the impact of the shockwave.
I hit the ground hard, my lungs seizing. I tried to draw a breath, but I only managed a pained wheeze. I was blind, my vision replaced by a searing, blank brightness that refused to relent. A high-pitched ringing reverberated in my ears, louder than any sound I’d ever heard, drowning out the world.
A wave of nausea rolled through me as intense, humid heat engulfed me. The air tasted of sulfur and ash—the unmistakable flavor of home.
I failed, I thought, my stomach turning as the heat intensified. The explosion sent me back. I’ve returned to Hell, and I’ve lost her forever.
Despair gripped my chest with an iron fist as the emptiness left by Cinder's absence swallowed me whole. The severed bond echoed in my soul like a fresh wound, raw and unhealable, and I couldn’t imagine a world where I would ever feel whole again. The agony of separation overshadowed the scorching pain and blinding light, and my heart ached with the certainty that I would never see her smile or feel her warmth again.
What was the point of my existence if Cinder couldn’t stand by my side? I’d have preferred the entire universe collapse on itself than the agony I would now endure for the rest of my devil-forsaken life.
I rolled onto my back and blinked, willing the Underworld into focus and hoping Hell’s basalt and obsidian landscape would provide a sense of closure. A futile exercise, I knew. I could never close the gaping hole in my soul that Cinder left behind. Not even if I tried.
I continued blinking, and shapes slowly formed at the edge of the searing void behind my eyelids. Shadows danced in the glare—phantoms or memories, I couldn’t tell—but then, through the ringing, I heard Cinder’s voice. Distant, muffled, but real.
I clawed toward it, desperate for any anchor in the madness. Had she joined me in Hell? Or had I remained in the earthly realm? The world—if it was still the same world—flickered into focus by painful degrees. Movement echoed around me, shuffling, frantic voices, but it sounded as though I were under water, everyone else above the surface.
Through the haze, I reached out, searching for any trace of the soul bond that had connected us moments before. The link was faint, nearly imperceptible through my agony, but glimmers of warmth…familiar, fragile, and fiercely stubborn…flickered along the edges of my consciousness. Gathering what little strength remained, I forced myself to sit up, blinking away tears as I sought my reason for living in the smoldering aftermath.
20
CINDER
The persistent, high-pitched, screeching ring felt like someone was jabbing icepicks into my eardrums and twisting them back and forth. Like a primitive lobotomy, but through the wrong orifice. Ouch.
My vision had shrunk to pinpricks surrounded by flickering white and blue light, each pulse of the tunneling vignette sending an electric shock through my brain. My mouth felt like baked clay, and as I pried my cracked lips apart to suck in a breath, I swear half the skin of the top one peeled off, stuck to the bottom one.
My back ached and my lungs burned, but I forced in another breath, my mind scrambling to catch up with my racing thoughts.
Had we done it? Had we mended the veil? Or had the explosion of energy, ozone…the universe…killed us all?
I remembered holding hands, the circle of six. The intensity of the ritual. Hecate blasting us with enough goddess magic to melt our bones. We’d used our soul bonds as the loom to weave the fabric of reality.
Our soul bonds…
“Discord!” I rasped, scrambling to my hands and knees. My stomach heaved, every muscle in my body screaming in agony as I stared at the scorched earth beneath my hands, my hair a curtain of knotted pink strands cascading around my shoulders.
I blinked, and the tunnel in my vision began to recede. I dragged in another breath, the burning in my lungs fading as my muscles slowly released their ache. Deep cuts marred my bloody hands, no doubt from being blasted across half of Salem, but as I stretched my fingers, the wounds closed, weaving themselves back together like we had just done with the veil.
“What the actual eff?” I scrambled to my feet and held out my arms. Every cut, bruise, and scrape disappeared before my eyes. My mind cleared, and a surge of energy and vim washed through me, erasing every pain and discomfort I felt.
