Page 147 of Hellbound

“The ixyura comes. Fight with us.”

But this wasn’t her fight. Marian shook her head as conviction hardened behind ribs. She glared at Hexceit. “No.”

Hot, fetid breath filled the air. Hexceit crouched low as it looked at her sidelong, its long, skeletal muzzle pointed toward the sound of the Remnant.

“Then you will become darkness. Pain.”

“My dad found a way out. So will I. Even if it destroys me.” She pointed the long, swirling black blade at the beast. “You created this hell. You need fix it.”

She screwed her eyes tight and embraced that conviction. It gave an answering pulse. When she opened her eyes, shadows flowed freely from her, reaching for Hexceit. She exhaled and envisioned separation as she offered her weapon up. A gift.

“No one is coming to save you, and it’s not my place to forgive you. But I can give you the power to end this.”

Black static exploded between her fingers and gathered in a ball at the center of the blade. It twisted and folded, becoming smoke once more as it flowed toward the monster.

“We cannot receive his shard. Not without forgiveness.”

“Then forgive yourselves.”

Hexceit emitted a low, rumbling growl. Its red eyes fell shut, and for one terrible moment, Marian feared she was wrong. But then her shadows swarmed the creature, swelling in size to engulf its gargantuan form. Static crackled black, then brilliant white, illuminating long white teeth and the silhouette of wings taking shape.

Then a roar like the shaking of worlds as far more than a dozen eyes opened. Each one shining brilliantly white.

“We will not fail again.”

Pain exploded in Marian’s wrist. She clutched her arm tight as smoke and shadow wrapped around her and dragged her from the oncoming tide. Fingers of cold metal materialized around her neck like a slow caress. Marian gasped at the feeling.

Then there was nothing.

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

Tori’s was the first face Marian saw when she woke up in a hospital bed feeling like she’d slept for a hundred years. Once the traveler’s shock passed, she burst into tears and threw her arms around Marian, tangling with the IV tubing. The tale poured out of her in a single breath.

Marian had been unconscious for three whole days. There was no exit wound; the bullet was gone, and her lung didn’t have a big hole in it as was typical of being shot in the back.

It wasn’t until all the doctors and nurses had gone that Marian could process how or why she was even alive, or how the medical staff all seemed to believe wholesale that she’d been the victim of a random act of violence.

The memories of her time in Hell weren’t as clear as they’d been before. The memories Vale had given her—both his and hers—remained intact. She remembered her father, her deeply unsettling discussion with Hexceit about the fate of all dead.

But not what happened after giving up her knife. There was pain, darkness, and a long silence. Then she opened her eyes to the life she thought she’d lost for good. Whatever was in her IV bag took the edge off what she was told was a very painful wound in her back.

“What happened?” Marian asked after a long companionable silence; speech was exhausting.

Tori looked up from the well-worn book in her lap. A little butterfly bandage held her split brow together.

“You died,” she replied softly. As if that fact hurt. “Bled out. Then suddenly, you were alive like it’d never happened. Vale …”

The traveler looked away and pursed her lips. After a terse pause, she continued. “He said the door is closed, that our dead won’t go to his world anymore. Or travelers. I don’t understand what he did or how, but whatever it was … whatever he did to you, to the veil? I think it took a toll.”

Marian tried and failed to hide her frown. It was good news, really.

Diminished by the discovery that the door didn’t just open one way. Did this mean her father’s spirit would no longer manifest in their world anymore? And what sort of price had Vale paid to bar the way? Hexceit had roared about a broken promise. What had it meant?

And why was Marian alive?

Tori must have seen the conflict in her eyes. “What’s wrong?”

But Marian wasn’t ready to explain. Someday, but not yet. Not when the thought lodged like a boulder in her throat.