Page 101 of Darkness and Deceit
Tony stumbles toward me, blood dripping from his nose, magic fraying. His hands tremble. His mouth opens like he’s trying to say something—but no sound comes out.
And then?—
He shoves me behind him.
His hands are shaking. His knees are barely holding him up. But he plants himself between me and the dark, like a goddamn wall. Like he thinks he can hold it back with nothing but his body and the last flicker of his light.
“Tony—no!”
His head turns enough for our eyes to meet. And there’s so much there. Not fear. Not panic. Just… resolve. Like he always knew this moment might come. Like he’d do it again.
My friend.
My first real friend here.
A flicker of a smile twitches on his face.
The shadow strikes again.
It hits him like a freight train. No time to scream. No time to move.
One second he’s there?—
And the next, he’s gone.
The black tide slams into me before I can even process it. I scream, hurling every last drop of power I have, violet flaring like wildfire through my limbs, ripping at the dark with all the fury I can summon.
But it isn’t enough.
It crashes over me, into me,throughme.
The cold is instantaneous and infinite. Like drowning in ink. Like being pulled out of time. Like every memory I’ve ever had is unraveling from the inside out.
I feel my magic fracture.
And then the darkness takes me, too.
Thirty-Three
VAUGHN
Screamingerupts like a warning bell through the academy.
One second Bennett is droning on, the next… chaos. It happens instantly, like a fist punching through the walls of reality, leaving an open wound in its wake.
I leap from my seat and dash for the door, my heart pounding in my chest.
Kai is ahead of me, as always. He moves like he’s been waiting for this exact disaster, hand curled white-knuckled around the door’s brass handle. He wrenches it open so hard the entire frame shudders, and the hollow bang as the door slams back against the wall echoes down the hallway.
Simon is two steps behind him, muttering curses that have less to do with magic and more to do with how the universe has once again decided to fuck us over. Between the three of us, there’s an instinctive pull to move, to act, to find her. Because if I know anything by now, it’s that when shit goes down, it probably has something to do with Lilith.
But when the door opens, the hallway is gone.
Not empty—gone.
In its place is something darker than dark. A living void. A tide of black that pulses as if infused with a heartbeat of its own.
This darkness doesn’t swirl or billow like smoke caught in a gentle breeze. It doesn’t drift lazily or dissipate. Instead, it flows with purpose. It’s thick like ink pouring from a shattered bottle, swallowing everything in its path.
