But it’s too late. Calista stalks toward me, drawing symbols in the air. My whisper’s arms snap to her sides. Her legs glue themselves together. She can’t move.
Centuries of knowledge, of pain, of regret slam into me. I understand now. Those voices in the void…they’re all the Whisper Keepers who came before. They’ve been with me the whole time, but I was too afraid to listen.
They didn’t need to die.
Idon’t need to die.
I refuse to move, and Calista snaps the first of my ribs. I don’t even have the energy to scream.
Another, and my vision turns cloudy. This is my last chance.
“Trust me,” I say softly. “I know what to do.”
She sobs silently, terrified, so weak. But she nods.
“Please,”I beg all the Whisper Keepers who have gone before me.“Give me your strength.”
With my free hand, I grasp the chain wrapped around my neck. My magic flares to life inside me, vibrating through the links until the agony is too much for me to bear. At the same time, I reach for my whisper’s consciousness. All those times I thought she stole my consciousness from my body? I was wrong. She didn’t do a thing.Idid.
The sudden sensation of nothingness as we’re ripped from our physical existence leaves me disoriented. Dizzy. My thoughts fracture. Only a single shred of awareness remains.
A long, narrow tunnel pierces the darkness. I see through my whisper’s eyes. She’s straddling both worlds—the physical, where my body is, and the void.
But with my consciousness here, I collapse, and Calista has no reason to keep my whisper spelled. Not with vampires, angels, and a warlock to battle.
I let my consciousness float in the pitch black, searching. Suddenly, all the ones who came before surround me. They’re afraid. Begging me not to fail. It’s too much. So many voices, I can’t make out the words.
“Everyone shut the fuck up!”At my outburst, they fall silent.”One at a time. Tell me what I need to do.”
“Love and hate, light and darkness, life and death. Pairings as old as time itself. Love, light, and life created the Blade. Hate, darkness, and death came after. The circle begins where the circle ends.”
The words are familiar. The grimoire. I read them at the beginning. It feels like a lifetime ago.
“The Blade was created by love,”a single, scratchy voice says.“Love can set the magic free.”
“I can’t set the magic free. I’m blood bound. Hannah won’t let me destroy the Blade any more than she’ll let me destroy myself.”
“You listen but you do not hear.. Love cannot be destroyed. Love exists, always. Accept it, cherish it, share it, and love will make you whole.”
Share it?
Gabriel and Hannah continue to battle in the air. A blast of Killian’s magic pins Calista to the wall. Kàra and Ewan reach Sin as Maddox snaps the demon’s dislocated shoulder back into place.
Shots ring out. Isaac collapses, blood pouring from his gut. Mist finishes him off by snapping his neck.
I focus on my whisper—on our fragile connection. It was always mine to control.
Ideas start to filter through my weary mind.
“Wait. Can I use…all of you?”
The voices fade away for the infinite time that is each second in the void. Until they rise up, louder than ever.
“Refuse the call and your life ends here. Give in and your soul will sheer. Threads from the past can bind or break. The future is only what you make. When all is lost will come a choice. Love is yours to give a voice.”
The words from the final page in the grimoire. The last line I didn’t know until just now.
Hannah’s strength comes from hate, darkness, and death. They’re her weapons. Along with fear and pain.
