Page 91 of The Song of the Void

My hesitations were interrupted by the creature leaping on top of Reiven. He rolled out of the way of a stab from one of its tentacles, and a second missed him by a centimeter. He managed to slash at the Sirensteel monster's face but barely managed to scratch the metal through its fractured coral encasement.

Calinia and Shaddan threw everything they had into a distraction, but the arrows chipping away at its armor and the spear glancing off its steel back didn't even faze it.

Reiven cried out as a tentacle speared his stomach. He retaliated with a stab into the creature's mouth, but the world continued to mock us. The Sirensteel creation bit down on his weapon and shattered it into shards. Luckily Rei yanked his hand away before it broke that, too.

A metallic snarl echoed throughout the chamber as it drew closer for a final strike.

I flung open the Voidtome and flipped through it frantically. The cream-colored pages inside it may as well have sealed our fates quicker than the Water Spirit’s creature.

Blank. How could it be blank? Or was I just not able to read it? We really were going to die here, all of us. Reiven’s name tore from my throat.

He shoved his hand at the creature's face, making contact for just a moment with one of its eyes. Flickering orange light made the creature shriek and slither backwards until it slammed into the wall. It thrashed its head around, tentacles frantically swiping at its face as if to rid itself of a jellyfish’s burning sting.

I sprinted to Reiven’s side, ignoring his warning to stay back.

“I'm fine,” he panted. “It just barely pierced my armor.”

“Tell me there’s something useful in that book, Siren!” Shaddan shouted as he and Calinia positioned themselves between us and the creature, which still writhed and screamed in pain. A few droplets of melted Sirensteel trickled into its jaw, from where Reiven's sparks had found their mark.

My joints locked up, and I stared down at the Voidtome. “It’s…blank. The pages are blank.”

The Sirensteel creature screeched, but this time it sounded to be fury, not pain. It shot towards us with renewed energy.

Calinia stepped in front of Shaddan, clapping her palms together before her. She somehow maintained a flawless appearance, not a stray hair coming out of her braid as she snarled, “Let us see you fare against the power of the god of time, beast.” A silvery magic bubble surrounded the creature just before it reached her, and as usual, her manipulation of time dumbfounded me. She held it frozen in place, but she apparently wasn't done yet. “Stopping time isn't my only ability, you know.”

She directed her comment at Shaddan, who just gave a non-committal grunt of acknowledgement and swirled his spears in the air around him. A hundred threads of tiny golden sigils formed a magic circle shaped like a clock face in front of her. Calinia reached through it and twisted her wrist and hand.

Before our very eyes, greenish-black spots of tarnish crawled across the Sirensteel that formed the creature. Sirensteel wouldn't rust, not in thousands upon thousands of years, but tarnish wasn't out of the question. Calinia was aging it, forcing it to pass through millennia within seconds.

I helped Rei to his feet, and he flashed me a smile, nodding at the pool of water. “If this thing came from the Abyssal Deep, maybe its path will lead you home. Go, take the Voidtome. We’ll hold it off while you escape.” A puff of a breath left his lips, and it seemed to loosen the tightness in his shoulders. “Our time might be up, but you know where I’ll be for the rest of eternity. I hope you’ll also dream of me on occasion, Blue.”

He chuckled at himself. Weaponless. Powerless. Yet he was still fully prepared to die rather than kill me to regain his power and save himself. All I could do was stare up at him, a bit in awe that the man I once considered an enemy had come this far and still wanted to protect my life over his.

Calinia groaned and strained, then went limp, like her energy depleted. Shaddan caught her before she fell and jumped away as the Sirensteel creature was freed from her time magic, a bit worse for wear with the black and green tarnish marks. The rest of its coral armor withered away to dust. Shaddan lay Calinia on the ground out of the way, growling as he faced the creature again. Both of his spears flashed forward, stabbing for the creature's face, and while it kept it distracted, they still weren't doing any real damage.

I offered Reiven my knife, the only weapon we had left between us. One last hope. He took it with a grin, but his smile fell away when I pulled him closer so I could press a kiss to his cheek. I gripped his hand over the hilt and refused to let him back away.

I had already made my decision. I made peace with it, and even if he hated me for it, hesitation would cost everything.

“Reiven…Thank you for showing me how beautiful it is when you give in to trust and leap over the edge, regardless of what you may find in the void. What I found with you…was an expanse of obsidian, scattered with a wash of crimson stars that made me feel true warmth for the first time in my life. I love you.” His brow wrinkled in confusion, but that was for the best. “Finish what Ash started. For both of us.”

The realization dawned on him too late for him to stop me. His eyes widened, but my hold on his hand was too strong, and I plunged the knife he gripped into my chest too quickly. All he could do was roar my name as I forced him to stab me in the heart.

“No, no, no!”

His voice already sounded far away, like he was on the other side of an endless chasm in the Abyssal Deep. Pain shot through my aching chest with every labored breath I managed as he lowered me to the ground. Wet warmth spread across my chest and soaked my leathers.

“Slow your bleeding,” Reiven hissed. “Do it!”

My lips twitched. I wanted to smile, but I didn't have the energy, so I settled for blinking up at his blurry, distressed face.

He took my hand and rested it against my wound. “Try. Please, Zephra. I can't—I can't lose both of you!”

I did try. But using my fading energy to slow my own bleeding was like running barefoot on knives to escape a rolling boulder. I wouldn't be able to keep it up for long.

A commotion drew my languid eyes to watch Shaddan slam into the far wall, thrown like a child’s toy by the Sirensteel creature. Ribbons of blood painted his armor, but he tried to get up almost immediately. At least he was alive. And now that he was out of the way, nothing stopped the creature from springing towards Reiven with a ghastly screech.

He had to have seen the panic in my eyes. Fiery orange light emanated from his hands, erasing the markings that kept his power bound, but there was no relief in his expression, only more pain than I'd ever seen before. Rei shot to his feet, whirling to face the creature as the glow of flames intensified around his hands. He let out a scream of effort and anguish and shoved his palms towards it. A wall of pure flame that stretched as high as the ceiling manifested before him.