Page 143 of Her Soul for a Crown
Sharp nails dug into Reeri’s throat.
Two twisting horns glowed blue, as Wessamony’s other hand tore past flesh and met bone.
Reeri gritted his teeth. His declaration lost on his lips as bloody sores pulsed up his back and along his arms. Pure destruction once more festering, taking hold, claiming the body that held him. Yet Reeri did not cry out, did not back down. This was freedom for all, chosen together. For as Kama had once said, he burned with a power mightier than any sword. He burned for love.
Taking a deep breath, Reeri gathered the might of Darubhatika and his shadow, then thrust his right hand through Wessamony’s claws, ripping sinew and vein. A roar, feral as a lion and fierce as an elephant, rang out. Yet it was not his alone. A hand curled over his shattered skin. Anula gave him a nod, ferocity shining, and together they plunged Fate’s Bone Blade into Wessamony’s chest.
Fissures splintered across his form, heavenslight erupting from within. Heavensong crooned, reverberating in crescendo, shakingloose the walls, the stairs, the ceiling, until a seam ripped open the air and a dark hole swirled above them.
A cry broke Wessamony apart. His horns untwisted, his claws cracked in two, and as his grip fell loose, so too did Reeri’s fetter. A weight lifted from his shoulders. A load liberated from his mind. An easy breath filled his lungs, and he heard his brethren sigh.
Thiswas freedom.
Lovelier than they had dreamed.
Yet short-lived. For the tether yanked taut. It pulled and pushed and flayed apart, as if a rug undone, thread by thread. Reeri bent; a scream bubbled on his lips. Dread coiled around his throat as he saw Anula bend, too, retching. Red mehendhi ripped away and melted into the stone floor.
Mighty Heavens. She could not face final death, too. “Anula!”
Heavensong keening, Reeri stumbled.
Sohon fell, disappearing into a puddle of blood and bone.
Kama next.
Then Calu.
The world tilted and spun. Reeri collapsed to his knees, a name trapped on his lips and tangled in his heart. Skin slunk off, dripped and poured. Until four shadows wrenched into the air and followed their light-splintered Lord through the dark seam, careening into the cosmos.
***
The cosmos was rent asunder.
Stars flared and burst.
Aether stretched and shrank.
Red, yellow, green, blue light flashed and swirled.
There must always be balance.
Had that not been the one rule of the cosmos? The onewarning, the one constant? Had Reeri not been told what it meant?
True balance is an unending connection. A circle with no beginning and no end. All exists together, at the same time. For if one hole punctures a water tank, will not the entire thing drain?
Reeri had not merely punctured a hole. He had ripped a side off entirely.
The darkness swallowed Wessamony’s screams. Spat them out and mimicked them. As they careened over stars and earth and court, things seen and things not, things that existed beyond, his body tore apart. Piece by piece. Until not even dust remained.
The cosmos spun and swirled and cast his soul into the sun, where it sizzled as if a leaf to fire. Yet still, the Yakkas flew on.
***
The Heavens lay split in two. A quake rumbled beneath them. A crack spread and quickly climbed the pearl-encrusted gates. Gilt stairs crumbled. The lake boiled, and waves crashed over domes and turrets, towers and spires. For the cosmos was roaring, and out of its mouth spewed a fount, disintegrating all. Divinities dropped from their sphere, twisted and torn apart.
One. Two. Three hundred.
The gates fell and fragmented. The court collapsed and cratered.
