Page 38 of Wild Ivy
Not the endless darkness I remember, not the swirling chaos of lost souls. It’s become something else entirely. Something that pulses with a strange, familiar energy that calls to my very essence.
Time doesn’t exist here as I run faster than I ever thought possible. Or maybe it exists all at once. I can feel every death that ever was or will be, every soul that’s passed through this place. They whisper to me, not in fear or anger like before, but with an almost reverent curiosity.
Life thinks she’s imprisoned me. She doesn’t understand what she’s done.
“You feel it too,” a voice says behind me, drawing me to a halt. It’s familiar, but I can’t place where I know it from. I turn to find another Death watching me with eyes that mirror mine. One of my predecessors, though, which one, I’m not sure. “The change.”
“Everything’s different,” I agree, watching as reality ripples around us like dark water. “The void is responding to me.”
“To us,” another Death appears, this one older, wearing a form from centuries past. “We’ve all felt it. The shift in power.”
“Mazzarat?” I murmur, but I need no response. I know I’m talking to the first-ever Death.
More of them emerge from the darkness - Deaths from throughout history, each one distinct yet somehow part of me. Part of what I am.
“Life made a mistake,” the Mazzarat says, moving closer. “She thought trapping you here would weaken you.”
“Instead, she’s given me direct access to the source of our power. To all of it.”
The souls that Life turned against me swirl nearby, no longer hostile but waiting. Watching. They know something’s coming. Something big.
“But why now?” I ask the assembled Deaths. “Why is everything changing?”
“Because Life has weakened herself,” the Mazzarat says, his form flickering like smoke. “By staying in a mortal vessel for so long, she corrupted her own essence.”
I frown. “Mortal vessel?” The penny hits the deck with a loud thud. “Lila?”
“Indeed. And now?—”
“Now she’s dying,” I interrupt as this knowledge floods my brain. “But that’s impossible. Life can’t die.”
“Can’t she?” Another Death—this one appearing as a young woman with silver hair—moves through the shifting darkness. “She chose to experience mortality, to live as one of them, and mortality, once tasted, changes everything.”
“What is Lila?” I don’t know why I need to ask this, I just do.
“She is a shifter, much like you once were. Not immortal in the everlasting sense.”
“So, was she always Life, or did I know the real Lila?” This is important to me. I need to know.
“You knew the real girl for a while. That is who you became friends with. Life took advantage of that.”
The void pulses around us, and I feel something stirring deep within its fabric. The souls draw closer, their whispers growing urgent.
“She stayed in Lila’s form for years. Playing at being my friend, manipulating everything from the inside. All that time... Kai…” I choke back the sob. I’m not upset over him exactly, although that betrayal stung. It upsets me that I thought Lila could be so cruel. I should’ve known something wasn’t right. I could’ve helped her. “Is Lila okay?”
“She is with those who can help her recover as much as possible. It is not clear what her outlook is.”
“Fuck,” I growl. “I’m going to kill that bitch!”
“Focus,” Mazzarat snaps his fingers under my nose as my rage gets the better of me. “All that time, she was poisoning herself, and now she thinks Morrigan’s wild magick can save her. Can purge the mortality from her essence.”
“But she’s wrong. That’s not how it works. That’s not howdeathworks.”
The Deaths around me nod, their forms becoming more solid as power continues to build around us.
“The natural order requires balance,” Mazzarat says. “Life and Death, two sides of the same coin. But Life...” He shakes his head. “Life forgot that. She tried to control both sides.”
“And now everything’s at risk,” the silver-haired Death adds. “If Life dies, the void collapses. Reality collapses. Everything ends except...”
