“In the space beyond death, there is no more pain. There is no more suffering. There is no more loss. May all the ugliness in this life follow you no more. May you know peace and grace. And may we find you there, in the light, at the end of all things.”
Liren steps forward and kneels next to Atlas, and together, they push Sorcha gently over the edge into the Elysian Depths. Her body vanishes, that darkness below eating her up.
Just like it did to Halle.
“Val…”
I glance up as Orion steps close to me. His voice is soft with understanding, gentle in that particular way he often has, and I know he can see that something inside me is shattering.
I look away, my throat aching with the grief back-building like a firestorm. “Everything hurts.”
He takes my hand and cradles it in both of his like it is a delicate thing instead of a deadly weapon. “I know.”
I don’t know why that makes the tears finally come, pouring from the corners of my eyes, down my cheeks, dripping off my jaw. Maybe because he didn’t say he was sorry or that it would be okay or any other bullshit sentiment. Just simply:I know.
Kelda wraps her arms tight around me, her head on my chest, her ear pressed right over the spot where my heart beats.
Where it still beats even though it shouldn’t anymore. How could something so broken still work?
“It’s okay,” she whispers to me. “I got you.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
“SOMETIMES THESE DAYS IT IS DIFFICULT TO REMEMBER MY BROTHER. HIS FACE, HIS SMILE, HIS VOICE WILL COME TO ME IN FITS AND STARTS. BUT STRANGELY, I CAN ALWAYS PERFECTLY RECALL THE SONG HE USED TO HUM, CONSTANTLY, FROM THE MOMENT HE DISCOVERED HIS VOICE. AND OFTEN AS HE DID SO, I FOUND HIM TURNING AND STARING OFF TO THE NORTH.”
—FROM THE WRITINGS OF ELSJE AALDENBERG (YEAR 1000)
I sleep.
I don’t plan on it, but I feel so exhausted and wrung out by the time we get back to the row house that I collapse on the bed upstairs and instantly slip into unconsciousness.
Mama sings.
I stand with her in the chapel in Covenant. She sings Trinity’s song and it rises to greet her, growing louder and louder until it vibrates painfully in my ears and shakes the ground beneath us. The statues of the Twelve Heraldstremble, cracks spiderwebbing across their surface, and then suddenly they crumble and flake away into piles of rust. The base of their dais splits wide, blue-white light pouring from it.
I bend low over the light, peering down inside the split dais. There’s a swath of green—pure, rich green—and little stalks of purple flowers. The creature from the Aaldenberg knot sits among them, a bushy tail curled around its body, big triangular ears swiveling as it looks up at me with amber-colored eyes.
A huge hand lands on my shoulder. Gasping, I spin around.
Herald Covenant looms over me, twice as tall as anyone I’ve ever met. His mouth doesn’t move, but his voice echoes around me.
Proof of life.
I start awake, cracking my skull against the headboard of the bed as I jerk upward. With a grunt, I sit up, rubbing at the sore spot on the side of my head as I look around for Halle and Kelda. The other side of the bed is empty and so is the chair, so maybe they—
My sleep-starved brain catches up to the rest of me, and reality sweeps through me like a vicious wind.
There is nothey. Because Halle is gone.
Outside, Concord’s chapel bells start to ring, pealing through the sunlit air, and for one heart-seizing minute, they sound like other bells. Urgent bells that herald the arrival of Archangels.
But no. No, these are just the usual tones calling residents to late-morning service. There’s no threat descending from the turquoise sky. No sharp metal wings blotting out the sun, coming to take the little I have left.
Not yet, anyway. Judging by the light, it’s been almost a full day since the first Archangel landed. It won’t be long before it’smissed, before it’s traced back to Concord. We’re going to need to get out of here, today. I just need to figure out a direction to go in.
Still half bleary with sleep, I stumble downstairs. The living room is empty, remnants of the Archangel’s frame still scattered about, but I hear Kelda’s voice and follow the sound to the parlor. She and Dani sit cross-legged on the floor across from each other, that small bushy creature from the Aaldenberg knot padding about on oversize paws.
I freeze in shock, staring at it. I knew it would rewrite something in me to see it awake, and even so I’m still not prepared. The only organic living creatures on Trinity are humans, and this obviously isn’t like us. I don’t have a word for it.Creaturefeels close, but not quite right. It seems like I should know it, like I’d dreamed it once, but I can’t quite catch the shape of it.
