Slip Song (Devany Miller Series) (44 page)

There was the sound of shattering magic behind me. I whirled, too late. Ellison had Jasper in his grip, sword at Jasper’s neck. Jasper’s face was calm, Ellison’s the mask of anguish. “Please don’t do this, Ellison.” I looked back at Tytan. His entire lower body was now obscured by a darkness so complete it was sucking in the light from the area around it, smearing the lines of reality.

“
Why not? Why not?” His voice held an hysterical edge. He jerked and the blade cut into Jasper’s neck.

“
Because Jasper is an amazing man. He’s kind and honorable and he saved my life.”

“
This is a construct. He is my soul in a vessel. This physical shell is not my soul.” The sword bit deeper. My stomach lurched. I would lose Jasper too. I would lose Jasper and Ty and Cyres and then myself. Because I saw my death spilling out before me.

“
Don’t, Ellison.”

“
My brother is almost dead. He will become Originator and take Ravana’s place.” His words flattened, taking on the cadence of a person in a deep trance.

“
You mean my place.”

His dead eyes fell on me. “Ravana’s legacy.” We both looked at Ty. The blackness had consumed his midsection and was gobbling its way up his chest. His expression didn’t hold horror anymore but a strange sort of excitement, an emotionless curiosity that you might find in a serial killer as he watched his victims die.

“Please. Let him go.” My last words were strangled in tears and pain. I saw his decision and thrust power at him, too late.

“
I can’t.” Ellison drew the sword across Jasper’s neck. His flesh unzipped. I screamed. I think I screamed. I may have just opened my mouth without remembering what was the appropriate reaction to watching yet another human being I loved die in front of me.

Ellison did not let Jasper’s body drop. He swung the body around once, twice, then flung him hard at Tytan.

The darkness swallowed my friend.

Then Tytan began to beat at himself as if the blackness had become flames in truth. A golden glow spread around his body, driving back the black. Tytan opened his mouth and tendrils of golden light entered him, threaded into his nose and ears, soaking into his skin.

Jasper.

Ellison dropped to his knees as he watched the better half of him enter Tytan’s body.

The second the glow vanished, the blackness exploded outward. Shadows thickened and shivered all around us as the ick fled. It blew away the last protections Amara had placed around the outer rim of the blast circle but no one made a move to get closer to those of us in the center.

Tytan stood still. Ellison wept. Tears were running down my face too. Tytan lifted his hands and stared at them, turning them over and back again. Then his gaze hit Cyres’ broken form in the wreckage and he howled his anguish.

“Why?” I asked Ellison, feeling shredded inside.

“
He’s whole now.”

Tytan picked up her body, her nearly severed head hanging by the skin on her neck. He brought her close and lowered his head.

“What does that mean? And what about you?”

Pain flashed across his face. “Tytan is the vessel for my soul now. As for him.” He shook his head. “I don’t know. No Skriven has ever reunited with his soul.”

What would it feel like, I wondered, to live life without consequences only to have a conscience, shiny and new, dumped inside you?

If it didn’t rip you apart, it might end up making you a better person.

Was he a person, though? Or a different type of monster?

In my mind’s eye, Ellison killed Cyres all over again. My mind kept replaying that part of it, the part where the sword had bit deep into her neck.

I was aware of people now, walking toward us, talking in low voices as they ventured closer. Kroshtuka put a big hand on my shoulder but didn’t pull me close to him for comfort, didn’t presume at that moment to know what I needed.

Oh god, what did I need?

Did they have Skriven jail? Skriven shrinks? Surely both would be needed on a regular basis, though what Skrivens would get put in jail for in the Slip I wasn’t sure.

Tytan stepped out of the rubble.

“Where are you going?”

“
To bury her.” He walked through the staring, silent crowd and no one stopped him. Maybe no one wanted to or they were afraid of what he might do. When he drew close, his eyes flicked to mine and my breath caught in my throat. His eyes weren’t Tytan’s familiar reddish brown but Jasper’s grey. Time stretched between us, a length of space wherein I could have made everything right if only I’d known what to do. But I couldn’t speak to him because I’d watched his soul die and I still didn’t know how he could have survived something so terrible.

So I let him walk away without saying anything and had no idea why I felt so damn guilty. Maybe I could go back again. I could visit Amara in the Rend and go back, fix things. Hook Cyres to safety before Ellison could see her, keep Jasper safe. Save everyone. Yet even as I thought it, I realized I didn’t want to try again. What if the next time around Amara killed my kids? Or Ellison did? Or maybe next time around Queen Anyang would kill me.

I couldn’t risk it. But oh how I wanted to.

Looking around at the destruction and the shocked faces that were slowly morphing toward anger and a need to blame, Kroshtuka said, “Perhaps we should leave this place.”

I nodded. I knew I never wanted to come back. But I hadn’t stopped the Theleoni taking humans from Earth and murdering them so I knew I would have to return here and places like it to avenge those deaths. “I want to go home.” But I couldn’t do that, either. I had to find out if Amara would come after me and stop her. Her plan had failed; perhaps she would leave me be.

Ellison hadn’t left yet and when I turned on him, he bowed his head. “Now you will end me.”

Anger warred with pity. I wanted to hate him but that emotion seemed too good for him. He didn’t deserve that much energy. “Go away.”

His eyes turned up to me. “I didn’t kill him. I wanted to but I didn’t. I saved him.”

A hand on my arm. Kroshtuka beside me, lending me strength. He helped me to my feet. I wanted to sag into him but knew I had to deal with Ellison. “You did, at that.”

He stared at me, uncertainty painting his face in shadows and creases. “I am ready to die.”

“That’s too bad because you don’t get that kind of relief. I condemn you to live a long life here on Midia without any power.”

“
No. Please! Just kill me. Kill me.”

His voice broke but I hardened my heart against him. Hadn’t Vasili and Tytan both taught me that the worst thing to happen to a Skriven was the loss of their power? “Maybe in a thousand years we’ll see about your redemption. Until then, suffer.”

I turned my back on him and walked away.

I sat in the shade of a tree that dropped tiny white blossoms all over me as Kroshtuka tended to his people. I could have left already, but didn’t feel up to it quite yet. I felt stained, destroyed by the events of the day and didn’t want to return to my children with the dust of it on my skin.

Some of the Meat Clan planned to stay in Galleia, to work on destroying the slave trade. Krosh gave them his blessing and they promised to report to him in a moon’s cycle. I wondered how successful they’d be when they weren’t even allowed past the city gates, then decided they would have the most success blocking traders from even getting to the city.

When his people were either on their way back to Odd Silver or off to save the world, Krosh came to me and pulled me into his arms. Blossoms fell into his dark hair and where ever they touched him, they glowed.

I held him tight, knowing this might be the last time I saw him for a while.

“I will Dream of you, Devany.”

I shut my eyes and breathed in the earthy smell of him. “I hope so. It might be a while before I’m able to return.”

“When you do, we’ll have our hunt.”

A reluctant smile lifted my lips. “I’ll win.”

His chuckle warmed me and lifted some of the gloom. When we separated, he held me by the shoulders for a moment before dropping his hands. “You will return.”

“
I will. Please stay safe.”

He pulled a thick, wooden ring from his finger and held it out to me. “Heartwood. It will help you find me in the Dreamlands. Wear it at night and we will meet again.”

I put it on, curling my fingers around it so I wouldn’t lose it until I found a chain for it. “Goodbye. And thank you.” I hadn’t realized how hard it would be to leave and I had to walk away before he saw my tears. I made a hook and stepped through to the shed in my backyard. The air held that early morning crispness to it. I wondered what day it was this time and hoped I hadn’t missed Christmas.

I got the spare key buried in the frozen dirt of a flowerpot and let myself in. The tree was up and there were presents under it. The house was decorated with what looked like every ornament, garland, and knick-knack we owned, plus some. I saw Ann’s touch in the pagan creche on the front table and the holly wreaths with ankhs and pentagrams dangling from the green boughs. There were a few symbols I didn’t recognize and wondered if Arsinua had participated with her own traditions and what holiday they were for in Midia.

I went to the kitchen and looked at the digital clock for the date. Christmas Day.

A perfect end to a nightmare.

-THIRTY-TWO-

Christmas was amazing. After I’d taken a quick shower to wash the dust and blood from my body, and put on clean clothes, I’d gone back down to wait until morning. Seeing the looks on the kids’ faces when they saw me very nearly caused me to sob but I managed not to blubber all over them and ruin everything. We shared presents and reveled in being together. Arsinua told the story of the Creation of Midia, which was the one main holiday the witches celebrated in her corner of the world. She made sure the kids knew it was just a story, albeit a strange one they’d never heard before.

After the presents, Ann, Travis, and Arsinua disappeared into the kitchen to get Christmas lunch started, insisting I stay with the kids. Liam sat behind me on the couch, playing his new game while Bethy oohed and ahhed over her iPod. I sat with them, happy that they were all right and that I’d gotten home for Christmas.

I thought of Tom and wished with a melancholy fierceness that he could have been here. His kids would grow up without him and that didn’t seem right.

“You okay, Mom?” Bethy laid her hand over mine and squeezed. “I’m thinking about Dad too.”

“
He would’ve hogged the game. And the stuffing,” I said.

“
Dad loved stuffing,” Liam agreed. “And the turkey skin. Hey, maybe this year the rest of us will get some.”

“
Maybe. If I don’t eat it all.” I shrieked when Liam rubbed his knuckles on my head. 

“
Ann didn’t want to cook a turkey or a ham. She wanted to do some sort of fake meat thing. Her and Travis got into a fight.” Bethy slid her finger across the screen but her eyes were distant and she didn’t seem to see the player at all. “Do you think Dad is still around? You know, like a ghost or something?”

Since I couldn’t say no without feeling like a liar, I asked, “Why?”

She pursed her lips. “Well, sometimes I think I see him. Hanging around. Looking after me. And Liam. And sometimes I smell his aftershave.”

“
Me too.”

I craned a look at my son, who was still pushing buttons on his controller. “You do?”

“Yeah.”

“
Well, maybe he is around, watching over you guys to make sure you brush your teeth and take care of each other.” As if in answer, Tom’s soul inside me swooped and shivered, making me feel all weak inside. “And if he is, then that would be okay, wouldn’t it?”

Bethy pursed her lips. “I guess. Do you think we could get on one of those ghost shows?”

Liam snorted. “They don’t want nice ghosts, duh. They want scary.”

I held up my hands. “Before this devolves into an argument I just want you both to know I love you. Very much. And if your Dad is hanging around, it would be because he loves you too.”

“We know, Mom.”

“
That’s right. I forgot I had know-it-all kids in my house.” I got hugs from both of them and held them a little longer than they wanted me to. Kroshtuka had been right. They survived without me. As a parent, those moments when I realized my kids wouldn’t be with me forever, that they’d grow up and have lives without me, were painful and strange.

I went upstairs and took another, longer shower, missing the bubbly hot springs water of Odd Springs but not the no-privacy part. Or the no-shampoo part. After I was clean, my hair wrapped in a towel, I was brushing my teeth when I spotted a familiar face in my mirror.