Thus her ache shall find no ease, so shall the daughter of The World surrender to the emptiness, to the void within and without. By her own hand, of her own volition, The Star shall fall, and take her eternal breath in utter darkness…
Lala warned me we would suffer great losses, and we have.
She warned me the unbearable pain would drive this prophecy to completion, and it will.
She said my mother foresaw my death, and I swore to myself it was impossible.
And on that note,Iwas right. My mother’s prophecy? It wasn’t a prediction of doom.
It was a clue.
She didn’t see me jumping to my death. She saw me jumping into a new beginning—the Fool’s Journey. A reckoning that would end one phase and begin another.
She saw me jumping for life.
For love.
Leap, and the net will appear.
All the sadness and grief and fear leaves me in an instant, washed away by a deep sense of peace and a knowing so clear, it shines through the blackness in my heart.
The Magician can’t have me. I refuse to give him what he wants.
Taking a deep breath, I peer fully into the Void.
It’s terrifying and beautiful, like nothing I’ve ever seen.
The call is impossible to ignore. I’ve never wanted anything as much as I want to jump.
I kick off my shoes and stand on the very edge, wrapping my toes around it. Cool mud squishes between them.
Starla Eve…the mist whispers, wrapping me up in its sweet invitation.
“Don’t you dare!” comes a warning through the mist. I look over my shoulder to find The Dark Magician charging toward me, arms waving, eyes wild. “Foolish girl, what are you doing?”
“Being my own fucking light, asshole.”
I spread my arms, and Jareth’s energy bursts from inside me, a light so bright it knocks the Magician flat on his back. My body is on fire with magick, the black satin gown melting away, the braids loosening to unleash my crazy curls, my arms turning to wings that stretch across the mists.
I let out a primal scream, and the whole world trembles in fear.
Then I gaze back down into the Void, take one last breath, and answer its call with a spectacular leap into the unknown.
Twenty-Four
CASSIUS
They say in the final moments before a man’s death, his life flashes before his eyes.
The best parts.
The worst parts.
All the tiny slivers of hope and love and betrayal and kindness and pain and elation and fear and ecstasy, all condensed into a milliseconds-long film.
I wouldn’t have known it for sure. My life was spared, along with Casey and her partner. Baz and Kirin are still breathing as well. As is Ani, returned to us with his soul intact, healed by the love of the woman whose torment we’re now being forced to watch.
Taken prisoner and bound by dark magick, forced onto our knees just outside the caves, my brothers and I have front-row seats to the Dark Arcana’s cruelest games.
