Page 33 of Wild Ivy
“No,” Life snaps. “Let them talk. Let them theorise. It changes nothing.”
But I can see it now. The way her borrowed form ripples, like reality is having trouble holding her together. The spirits aren’t flickering because they’re unstable. They’re flickering because reality is becoming unstable around Life.
“That’s why you need Morrigan’s power,” I say. “Not to fight Death, but to stabilise yourself. To stop whatever’s happening to you. You’re…” I let out a snort of pure amusement. “… dying!”
Life’s attack comes without warning - a blast of pure energy that would have obliterated me if I hadn’t already been coiling a shield spell. I fling it up, but even so, the force of it drives me to my knees.
Life’s power crackles around me like lightning, but there’s something off about it, something fractured. The knowledge that she’s dying changes everything but also raises a thousand new questions. Questions we don’t have time for as another blast of energy tears through my shield.
“You dare mock me?” Life’s voice distorts, Lila’s features twisting into Life’s true form. “I am eternal! I am?—”
“Desperate,” I cut in, throwing up another shield as spirits dive-bomb us from above. “And getting more desperate by the second.”
Torin blurs into action, his vampire speed mixed with his mage magick, letting him despatch three spirits before they can reach Bram. But there are too many, and they’re getting stronger as Life’s control weakens.
“We need to retreat,” Bram says, his magick creating shadows that confuse and disperse the spirits around us. “Now that we know?—”
“You know nothing!” Life’s scream tears reality itself, making my ears bleed. The clearing warps around us, trees bending like they’re made of rubber. “And you’ll never find out more. Kill them all!”
The spirits surge forward en masse. I throw everything I have into a barrier spell, but I can feel it cracking under their assault. Torin grabs my arm, ready to vampire-speed us out of there, but Morrigan steps forward.
“Enough of this childish behaviour!” The war goddess’s half-power explodes outward but still freezes everything in place. I dread to think what she could do with her full magick. “This isn’t the plan, Life. We need them alive.”
Life’s form flickers violently. “Plans change.”
“Not this one.” Morrigan’s voice is cold, sharp. “Not when we’re so close.”
For a moment, I think Life will ignore her.
“You have three days,” Life says, her voice eerily calm again. “Bring me what I want, or Ivy suffers eternally. Trust me when I say shewillbe suffering in there. The void is far worse than any of you can imagine.”
She vanishes between one breath and the next, taking the spirits with her. Morrigan lingers just long enough to give us a look that could mean anything, and then she, too, disappears.
I let my barrier drop, stumbling as exhaustion hits me. “Well,” I manage, “that was informative.”
“Informative?” Torin catches me before I fall. “Life is dying. Ivy’s trapped in some nightmare void, and we have three days to figure out what the hell is really going on. How is that informative?”
“Because now we know Life’s weakness,” I say quietly. “She’s running out of time, which means we areallrunning out of time. Life dies. We all die. That gives Ivy more power than anyone. She will be the only one left standing. It makes her a god.”
“So Life wants Ivy’s essence? The essence of Death? But the thing I can’t wrap my head around ishowis Life dying?” Torin asks a damn good question.
I nod, already thinking ahead. “Exactly. It means we need to find out exactly what Ivy or the other Deaths, maybe, did to cause this. And more importantly?—”
“How to use it against her and save Ivy,” Torin finishes.
“Or the other way around,” I mutter. We may have three days to save Ivy, but something tells me we will be too late if we wait that long. She has already suffered too much with the fracturing of her soul. We can’t keep her in there for any longer than a few hours, at best.
“We need help,” I state.
“From who? Who can we even trust anymore?”
“Vex,” I spit out grimly. “Fucking Vex. Let’s go.” I wave my hand and transport us to the north of England, where Vex will be waiting with that smug grin of his.
Fucking dick.
17
IVY
