“You can’t.I’ll go mad.”
“I do hope so.May you spend the rest of eternity, watching me live out my life free from your control.May you have to sit and stare as this city becomes mine.May you live the rest of your long life knowing you are nothing and no one anymore.”
“This city won’t forget me.It’s mine.They’ll come for me.”
“You are a fool if you think this city will remember you as anything other than the desperate demon who was never able to be anything other than second best.”
His skin flushes deep red.But I am done with him.I kick him square in the chest.His restraints snap and he flings backwards into the prison he made with his own hands.
My butterfly flutters down the seam, sealing him in forever.
I slide down the cell wall, exhausted, and stare at Midnight.
She’s unmoving, still.Midnight was never still.
The tears come quiet and steady.My heart breaking all over again.I can’t bring myself to move.I don’t want to touch her again.It will be too real.
Lex appears outside the cell, kneeling by Midnight’s body, brushing her hair away from her face.She clocks me sat in the gloom against the cell wall.
“Will you go after her?”she says.
I nod.“I have to.”
“But the underworld is enormous, you’ll never find her.”She continues stroking Midnight’s head as if it might bring her back.
I push myself up and make my way to Lex and Midnight.“She’s not in the underworld.”
Lex’s hand stops.“What do you mean?”
“She sacrificed herself, right?”
Lex nods, then her eyes widen.“The Celestial Realm?”
“I’m ninety percent certain, yes.It’s rare that people sacrifice themselves in such a pure way.And she had my crystalline heart.There’s a chance that reaping her soul will have transformed her.”
“So my sister…” she says, her eyes welling again.
“She’ll be in the Celestial Realm, too.”
“Oh gods.”Even though the tears spill over, she’s beaming at me.“All this time I thought she would be suffering.”A wide smile splits her face as a few more tears trickle over.Her shoulders sag with relief and I’m hit with a tingling warmth that radiates from her and settles in my gut.
Lex pauses for a moment, gathering herself, and then she looks over at me.“The angels sealed themselves off from us.Getting into the Celestial Library is one thing; their library is campus based.How the hell are you going to actually get into their realm?Now Interitus has gone, the cuts through to the Celestial Realm have vanished.”
“I’m not.”
“Then…”
“The bridge.”
“But how…?”
“If I have to crawl up the cliffs from the underworld to reach her on broken fingernails, then I will do just that.”
I stand and sweep my hand through the air, ripping a cut into the underworld and step inside.
44
Midnight
