Page 89 of Devoted
“When you were young, I understood. Such power was nothing a child should be responsible for, but now… now you are ready.” He gripped my arms, forcing me to look at him, his expression fiercely proud. “Embrace what you are and become everything you are afraid of. That’s the only way this works. Fear is all that holds you back, so don’t give in to it.”
Dear gods, I was going to destroy us all.
“You and Emberline should team up.” I shook my head, just imagining that absolute disaster. “Bad plans and fancy speeches and all of that. The two of you would be insufferable.”
“More like unstoppable.” He winked. “Now, get in there and show us what you can do. Make me proud.”
Make you dead is more like it.
“You’re sure this ward will contain anything I unleash? It looks pretty flimsy.”
Severin’s head swiveled to scan our surroundings. “Dear gods, don’t say that too loud. Emilia wove this spell herself. Took her hours. She’s confident it will stand against the magic trapped inside of you. I trust her.” His dark eyes gleamed. “You should trust her, too.”
Emilia’s containment spell had never failed me here on earth. For decades, her magic sealed eons of darkness inside me, a tight, churning knot of cold that waited quietly, like a secret about to be dragged out into the light.
I just didn’t know what that secret was capable of.
In the other realm, I only knew the feel of my other form, the shape my body took when I transformed. But here, in the mortal world, with its different laws and rules, I might become anything.
A raging thunderstorm. The Grim Reaper.
A fucking nightmare.
And that would be the last thing my friends would see as they died, the last thing they would know. Once I stepped through and embraced the Emissary, who was to say any of me would remain?
I eyed the wards, that paper-thin barrier that was supposed to keep the power of the cosmos contained. Already, shadows poured off me in waves, twining around my legs, spinning out across the grass behind me.
As if urging me to turn around.
Of course, Emberline noticed, her gaze flicking from that swirling darkness to my face, then back to the shadows, lips pinched together in worry.
“Only once have I ever fully let the Emissary out, Severin,” I warned softly, my skin crawling at the memory. “Never in this world… but in the Underworld. And I didn’t even understand what was happening. All I remembered was…”
Cold.
Consuming me whole.
Bones cracking and skin ripping as I expanded far past anything my physical form could contain.
The next time I opened my eyes, I stood before a stone gate, framed by a fragile, blowing veil, the delicate fabric luminescent. Then quiet, dark words echoed inside my head, “You may walk through my gate, or you may serve me.”
How quickly I’d accepted that devil’s deal. A twelve-year-old youngling, full of rage and the thirst for revenge, I’d grasped her offer with both hands and devoured every word, giving Death back what she asked for.
“Yes. I will gladly serve.”
Shadows, cold and consuming black shadows, burst out of me—eyes and mouth, fingers, toes and heart. My form had expanded painfully, tearing me apart as I rose and rose and rose to an impossible height. Darkness seeped from every pore like poison, slowly, painfully, then all at once, a gushing fountain that drowned me, choked me, swallowed me whole.
In that moment, the moment of my rebirth, I created something.
A place I kept returning to.
Far worse, a place Emberline kept returning to.
“I don’t know how, but I tore a hole in the side of the Underworld. Shredded through the veil that forms the barrier between life and death. A hole that still exists. If I could damage a realm where nothing is alive…”
“Well, you see my dilemma.”
Severin swallowed hard, eyeing me, then the fragile wards. “You have to try, Nico. You can’t keep something this powerful locked away forever. I spoke to Dante at length.” His steely gaze lifted over my shoulder. “He explained about his fire demon. He can help you master your own demons. You just have to trust him.”
