Page 79 of Stitches
“Levi!” Ashmedai screamed, seeking him blindly until the stars finally left his eyes.
The crystal was dimming back to black, and the monstrous version of Braxton was gone. The frailer, human Braxton lay on the floor in front of the crystal, unmoving, and Levi lay on the floor beside him.
“No, no, no.” Ashmedai dove forward and laid a hand on each of them.
Braxton wasn’t breathing. No pulse. Nothing.
And Levi….
A gasp came from Levi as his eyes sprang open and he sucked in a sharp breath.
Ashmedai focused on him, gathering him close and likely squeezingtoo hard as he fought for breath too. “Thank the skies and all the gemstones combined. Are you all right?”
Still gulping down air, Levi nodded but clung to Ashmedai weakly in return.
“You fool,” Ashmedai said, looking at Braxton. “You were my friend. How could you do this?” He buried any remaining questions in the press of his face against Levi’s hair.
It took some time for their panting and pattering pulses to quiet, but once they had, Ashmedai helped Levi sit up.
“A-Ash,” Levi stuttered, swallowing and taking a breath to start over, as if still finding his voice. “W-what about the other crystals? The smaller black ones? Were they activated? They were everywhere, all throughout town….” He trailed off at the horror that might mean if Braxton was lying or if his intentions had been twisted, and Ashmedai understood.
He spared only a brief mourning glance at Braxton, and then dove with Levi into the shadows at the base of the Onyx.
They arrived at the edge of the wood, between the tower and the town, but to their collective relief, nothing seemed to be amiss. They could see the jubilant people in the distance and hear the same faint music and celebration.
“Nothing’s happened,” Ashmedai said with a sigh.
“Something must have,” Levi countered. “I can feel it. Can’t you?”
Ashmedai didn’t know what Levi meant, but then Levi had been created with a deeper connection to the crystals.
“The smaller crystals, powered by souls, were meant as conduits,” Levi continued. “Even if no one noticed or felt anything, maybe that’s all they did—spread the pulse throughout the land.”
“To accomplish what?”
“What Braxton promised—to allow us to cross the barrier and become who we were.”
They stared at each other, their eyes widening, before they turned toward the wood and began hurrying into the trees. They weren’t near the carriage path this time, but Levi seemed to have a goal in mind, leading them swiftly.
He stumbled a few times in his haste, clearly still shaky from the blast, but each time Ashmedai helped him steady his feet, he pushed onward.
“Levi, wait!” Ashmedai called when Levi got too far ahead. “Even once we reach the barrier, how do we test this theory? If we’re wrong, I can’t cross it, and even if you could before, what if something different happened and you’re no longer safe?”
The questions had the desired effect of slowing Levi’s steps. They came to a stop side by side in the thick of trees, with Levi worrying his lip.
Rustling made Ashmedai grab Levi’s arm and tug him closer. He wasn’t letting anything happen to Levi again.
The rustling continued, and they both looked skyward. A glider monkey soared from branch to branch, heading deeper past them through the trees. They were close to where Grillo had his accident. Ashmedai could see the copse of felled trees a few yards from them, which meant the glider monkey was headed for the barrier’s edge.
Ashmedai was going to call out, because usually the animals knew better, and the fresh crystals from the rebuilt perimeter still glowed, but Levi slapped a palm over Ashmedai’s mouth and shook his head, pointing for Ashmedai to watch.
The glider monkey was leaping faster and faster, like it knew there was something to explore it hadn’t seen before. After one final dive to reach a new branch, a ripple spread through the air, for the tree it had landed on was not shimmering black.
The glider monkey realized it too, but that wasn’t the only new thing for the creature to discover. Its form was fading, but not like the horror of disintegration, just changing, becoming a simple gray squirrel.
The animal was certainly startled, but then it saw the snow at the base of the tree and scurried down the trunk to inspect the strange substance. A squirrel wasn’t as dexterous as a glider monkey, but the creature was still able to dig into the snow, and then bundle up a bunch of it into a ball that it threw upward, clearly not thinking, since the snowball immediately came back down on top of its head.
Ashmedai and Levi laughed, drawing the squirrel’s attention, which made it skitter back inside the barrier. It remained a squirrel—until it looked at itself and suddenly turned back into a glider monkey.
