Sebastian’s mouth opened and closed. His gaze darted between his chest, Andrian, and Mariah. His shoulders sagged, entire body drooping. “I don’t know,” he said quietly. Defeatedly.
Andrian was too manic to care.
He turned, padding back to Mariah. “Bury your brother.” He seated himself again in the chair beside Mariah’s head. “Do whatever you must. But you’re not touching her. No one touches her but me.”
Sebastian sighed. He leaned heavily on the shovel, using it almost like a cane.
“I have food,” Anniliese said quietly. “And water. I…” She paused, words catching on a sob. “This place was provisioned. Prepared. I know where they kept supplies.”
Sebastian nodded. “Thank you.” He rubbed at his face before glancing at his brother, grief etching grooves into his eyes. “I can wait until morning. Food and water for now is probably for the best.”
Anniliese disappeared into the back, reemerging a few moments later with salted meats, dried fruits, and a few skins of water. Sebastian sat again beside his brother, his stare glazed and unseeing.
Anniliese offered Andrian food and water. He refused.
He wasn’t hungry. He wasn’t thirsty.
He just needed to think.
Andrian settled into his vigil, searching desperately for a sign that his world wasn’t as over as it looked.
Chapter 97
Mariah opened her eyes to blinding light.
She blinked, squinting. Her body tingled, energy thrumming in and all around her. She laid on something soft and springy, her fingers sinking into it as she sat up.
When her eyes finally adjusted to the brilliance of the light, she stilled.
She knew this place.
She’d been here before. It had looked different then—more ethereal and effervescent, like it was all made of clouds and dust and magic.
It was more solid now. More real. With a terrifying rush of memory, she knew why.
This was the gods’ plane.
And she was dead.
What she’d once thought were swaying stalks of light had solidified into statuesque vines. Their thin leaves mirrored the Marks on her hands?—
But, of course, her hands in this place were bare.
The endless field stretched on and on, depthless as it raced toward the horizon. There was no sun or moon above, notwinkling stars, yet everything was bright and lit by a pulsing, cloudless haze.
She didn’t know how long she laid there, waiting, breathing, staring. Contemplating the reality of her existence, whatever future might be before her.
Most of all, she wonderedwhyshe was here. Maybe this is what it was like for everyone at the end. Just endless solitude and light andnothing.
Dread and sorrow had morphed into unending emptiness. Her last moments played through her mind on a repetitive loop, taunting and harrowing.
Matheo’s heart being pierced by a demon’s claw, his bond snuffing out, taking away his bright, happy future.
The terrible, sickening realization as she’d sank her dagger into Kol’s chest and known it hadn’t worked.
Andrian’s empty, raw, desperate pleas for her to stay. She’d wanted to listen. She’d wanted to give him whatever he needed, just so he could know he was deserving of whatever light was left in the world.
Ciana’s broken cries, back in the arms of her tormenters, headed toward a fate worse than death. The final embodiment of everything Mariah had failed to do, everything Kol had succeeded in taking from her.
