Whatever it was, I allowed my heart to make the choice for me. My turn was nearly instinctive. Samkiel looked at me, bewildered as I held his arms. Then his eyes went wide with terror and rage. He’d seen Nismera and the spear. The power emanating from it made the air waver, but she held it, controlled it, directed it. He looked into my eyes and knew what I was going to do, and he hated me for it.
He threw his hand out, not to block the stream of power coming from the spear, but to push me away. I watched it all in slow motion, knowing it was already too late.
The light grew brighter as it hit my body. His sword clattered to the floor. Heat pierced my back, and I saw his mouth shape a word. I thought it might have beenno. Fool. He was a fool to think I’d let something happen to him. Was it possible that he didn’t know how much I loved him? I was glad this was the way I left this world. It’s what I would have wanted. To die in my lover’s arms, knowing I had sacrificed my life for someone I couldn’t live without. I was able to memorize his eyes and his face, and know that the last thing I’d see would be him. He was so beautiful, and I was going to miss him so much.
I thought it would burn. That it would be agony when my body turned to ash and disappeared. But the truth was, I felt nothing, no spark, no ember, and no hint of pain. I was simply there, and then I was gone.
I sent him one final thought, hoping it would be enough to keep him from ending the world.
“Remember, I love you.”
And I hope he did.
90
KADEN
The wind tore at me, slicing through the mountains and ripping at the forest. Lightning pierced the ground over and over, and thunder growled continuously from overhead like a hungry beast. Godsdamned Samkiel, and they said I had anger issues.
Ittshare’s grin widened, and blood ran down his chin as my foot pressed down on his throat. My body jerked, and I stopped. My elbow remained cocked back and my fist raised, hanging in the air. I looked past the panicking crowd and spotted Isaiah. He was hunched over as if in pain. His eyes found mine, his brows scrunched, both of us feeling the absence of … something.
A caw sounded and pierced my ears through the chaos. Wings folded as a bird made of midnight landed on a hanging shopkeeper’s sign feet from Isaiah.
“No,” I whispered the word. Death had come, but come for whom?
Death’s hollow, opaque eyes looked at me, and the sorrow in his gaze turned my insides liquid with terror.
A crack sounded above us, followed by a deep, anguished howl. Everyone who was fighting or running stopped and glanced toward the sound. My heart thudded as day turned to night, the stars that stretched past the atmosphere blinking out as if even they sought to hide from what was coming. The dark clouds thickened and roiled, their color deepening to a violent purple.
Lightning flared inside of them, cracking against the air like whips set to skin. The wind roared and slammed us against the ground. I pushed myself up, fighting against the powerful gusts. Many of the people around me weren’t even trying to stand, but were attempting to crawl toward shelter. The clouds began to rotate, picking up speed until they shot toward the ground in a column of violence and devastation. As more and more of the death winds formed, the sky screamed as if it were in pain. They burst into existence, slapping to the ground and eating everything they touched. Nothing was spared, and nothing would be, because this storm was not just the manifestation of a god’s anger. These tornadoes were laced with the devastation that was Oblivion.
Chaos erupted.
Civilians and enemies alike, Oblivion ate it all, leaving nothing but the echoes of their screams. Their ashes joined the ravaging wind, a sacrifice to his wrath. Buildings were reduced to sand, the dark power lashing out without prejudice or reason, seeking to devour the very world. The ground shuddered and tore, the vicious tornadoes ripping at the planet. Those far too old to run held each other as Oblivion ate them. Others tried to run, holding the hands of those they cherished the most, but how could they outrun annihilation?
Was this the true power of a god? Or something far worse? I’d been wrong. Death hadn’t come for just one of us. He had come for us all.
My head whipped toward Isaiah, and I saw the reflection of my fear and anger in his eyes as we both understood what was happening.
Samkiel hadn’t just unleashed Oblivion, he’d unleashed himself. He was a violent, brutal storm. All his life, he had harbored destruction and death, somehow keeping it contained beneath his skin, but it had just been waiting for an opportunity, a moment when his control slipped. Only one thing could have caused this fracture.
“Dianna,” we said in unison, the sound lost in the wail of the wind.
Cameron landed next to us with a thud, his armor and the side of his face bloody. His eyes were wild with fear and despair, already knowing that only one thing would have prompted Samkiel to so violently unleash Oblivion on the world.
The death of Dianna.
Isaiah gave me a small, sad smile as the world descended into madness.
“I know,” I said as his skin cracked, the fractures burning brightly.
His form crumbled to ashes, and mine followed, the sensation now almost familiar.
91
SAMKIEL
There was an echo in my ears, my soul aching as if all the air in the world had been sucked out. Darkness grew, and noise battered me, but I could only hear and feel the absence of her. I wondered if that pain had ripped me open. Maybe it had flayed my skin and pierced my skull. It would explain the agony I was in. Another pulse of power tore from me, and it felt as if the weight of the world had finally been lifted from me. It was an exquisite release, a starved beast stretching free of its cage, and all it did was howl.
