Page 159 of Architecti
I’m going to die here.
And that’s when I realise that is the point.If Thalia is part of the Societas, then she wants me dead.Did she trap me here to somehow resurrect Architecti?
Sweat beads on my brow and spills down my temples.Then something moves in my periphery.
Fuck.
I attempt to call my magic.Even though every cell in my body is screaming at me not to, I close my eyes and reach for it.But there’s nothing there.I can’t feel Finis.
Despite the heat, the hair on my arms rises: danger.
I open my eyes.
A group of wraiths stalks towards me.Shit.My body turns icy.
Is this how I die?Demons are immortal if we stay healthy and safe, but just like vampires, there are ways to kill us.
They advance on me, step by step, their sinewy, leathery bodies skulking and sinister.Their mouths drop open, ringing my sentence out in shrieks and gnashing teeth.I stagger back, desperately searching for a weapon, a rock, anything I can use to defend myself.
There’s nothing.
I am alone.
This is where it ends.The Societas has won.
Ten feet.
Five.
Three.
One long skeleton arm sweeps out towards me.
I shut my eyes, resigned.
But the impact never comes.
I open them, confused.Gossamer wings made of starlight and sky fill my vision, surrounding me, separating me from the wraiths.
They twist and twirl and reform the Veil until I am standing somewhere not quite there, and not quite anywhere.
An in-between.
The wings shiver and shrink and flutter before me until they belong to the most beautiful moth I’ve ever seen.I try and capture it, but my vision clears, and a translucent form of Finis Tower surrounds me, as if I am inside the ghost of it.I walk forward, attempting to return to campus, but I stumble into an invisible wall.
Like a window.
Wait.Not a window.
A prison.
Oh, gods.“Architecti?”I whisper.My heart climbs into my throat, my entire body trembles as I realise I’ve found my way into the prison my father created to trap an angel.
“Hello, Lucy.”
“Please don’t hurt me,” I plead.“I’m not my father.”The starlit moth flutters to Architecti and sits atop her shoulder, nestling into her neck as she steps into view.
She’s the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen.White wings hover at her back and stretch high above her.Her bronze skin is smooth and ageless, her eyes are bright and smiling.So strange that such a beautiful entity can be so awful.
