Page 141 of Hellbound

Marian spun around with a scream and hoisted the knife over her shoulder. The blade sparked and sizzled. Its strange ripples extended until it was no longer a knife, but something far bigger. A weapon she’d never seen before, with thin blades on either end of the curved handle. All of it black as midnight. She lunged forward, wind whipping her face as she hurled it like a javelin through the air.

It sailed true across the room and speared Verinne through the chest.

Marian didn’t linger to see if Vale’s theory proved correct. She turned around and threw her arms around Tori, spinning them both away.

The gun went off, and warm relief washed over Marian when she realized Tori was safely tucked against her and out of the guard’s trajectory.

Verinne stood rooted where Marian had skewered her, her flawless face frozen in shock. White lights burst under her skin like tiny fireworks. Shadows rose behind her, and Marian watched Vale’s blackened hand graze her neck. Verinne’s whole body quaked.

Memories flowed in a river of lost time from darkness into light.

“Va’hael,” Verinne gasped. “You lying—”

Marian’s weapon shattered into innumerable fragments inside the Argent. Bone cracked. Sinew tore. Blood splattered across the floor, then evaporated into a fine red mist. Smoke and shadow peeled back as her humanoid body folded in on itself. Shockwave after shockwave blasted out, nearly taking Marian and Tori to the ground.

Then there was only a single bead of light that blinked twice. Three times. Then vanished. The remaining Argent stood dumbfounded as one by one, the Remnant turned its captives on them.

Pain lanced through Marian. If Tori hadn’t thrown an arm around her, the sorrow would have brought her to her knees.

The Argent are still here. They’re alive.

Fuck. Failure hurt. Or perhaps it was the odd burning sensation in her wrist. A searing pain that was already turning to cool relief. Marian looked at the floor, puzzled by her shadow’s shadows. Long shapes fluttered behind her shoulders.

Like wings.

And ever so slowly, they vanished. She looked to see Vale rushing toward the Remnant’s center with Paul hot on his heels, gun raised.

Another shot rang out. The blond Argent Miles yelped in pain as the bullet struck his shoulder and exited out the back in a spray of blood. His flesh didn’t repair itself.

The Argent was wounded. Hope swelled in Marian’s chest.

The rest of the Argent fled as soon as Miles hit the ground. Marian expected Vale to pursue them, but he’d gone to face down the Remnant in the middle of the room. His fingers were longer than she’d ever seen them as he traced unreadable patterns in the air. A single black line tore through space itself and ripped wide open, pulling the Remnant inside. The thing screamed its terrible scream as it released its hosts and fell back through the veil.

Then the rift vanished, and all Marian could hear was someone screaming her name in her ear.

She rested her head on Tori’s shoulder as her muscles spasmed. Soothing relief soon gave way to a deep, persistent pain in her back. Marian looked down to find herself standing in a rapidly widening red puddle.

That wasn’t relief running down her legs.

Blood.

Her knees gave out, and she slumped into Tori without meaning to, her cheek pressed to the traveler’s chest as wiry arms coiled around her. Then they were both on the floor, Tori’s hold firm as Marian shook uncontrollably.

Darkness enveloped them all as Vale arrived and eased Marian out of Tori’s arms.

“Marian, that was so fucking stupid of you,” Tori’s voice came through high-pitched and trembling.

“S-sorry,” Marian wheezed. “The … Ar—”

Vale shushed her. “You made them mortal.”

Then she’d done it. She’d finished it. So why did Vale sound so upset?

Was it because she was going to die? She always thought she’d die alone. Now that she had company, she had no idea what to say to them. But she spoke anyway. The strangest words.

“Go back to school, Tori. Make Vale pay for it. Vale, be nicer to Paul. And tell him-m …” Marian swallowed around the rock lodged in her throat. “Tell him it was Bulbasaur.”

Something big and hard bubbled up in her chest and exploded out of her mouth in an ugly, wet cough. The copper tang of blood flooded her mouth. It was like drowning on dry land. She’d never died like this before, but a familiar sense of finality fell over her as Tori took her hand. But Marian couldn’t feel it.