Beautifully Dark Places
Final Chapter
Cross Your Heart

"The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: a boy that loves you."

— Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

It all happened very fast.

One moment, I was ungracefully clomping down the stairs that led to the kitchen where the others were with Nolan following behind me much more quietly, and the next I was staring at the last thing I was prepared for. Before we started down the stairs, there had been laughter and sounds of merriment, but the scene before me couldn't have told a much different story if it tried to. The smile on my face slide off as if it had turned into the chocolate bar I left in my Mom's backseat last June.

Boris's hands were bound behind his back and a cloth had been tied around his head in such a fashion that he couldn't talk; he shook his head frantically at me. At his feet, blood had pooled around the broken remains of his staff from the small red stream that came from Malorn's chair a few feet away. The Necromancer's head was bowed, as if he might have been praying instead of unconscious, and his hands were lax at his sides. There was blood on the wall a few feet above him, leading me to believe he must have hit his head… hopefully.

Ryan was the only one still conscious, though she was in the corner and staring at me with wide eyes as she spoke something I couldn't hear. She must have been behind some sort of invisible barrier; I didn't really have time to check.

"Kym—" Nolan's voice died away in his throat as he reached the last step and squeezed beside me. He'd barely had time to come to a complete stop before a hand reached out and seized him by the front of his robes. My reaction time wasn't the best, and I wasn't fast enough to even grab his arm before he was yanked forward. It me a moment to catch up with the movement; it was all a blur to my watery eyes.

There stood a woman—tall, thin, and subtly curvy—in front of Nolan. She had him by the throat now, though I missed how she had managed that, and dangled him off the ground with much more ease than should have been possible. Nolan wasn't exactly a bodybuilder, but he wasn't a skinny little shrimp, either. The way her back painted lips pulled up at one side reminded me of Genevieve; plus, she did favor the Pyromancer. Her hair was dark, stopped just past her shoulders, and she dressed in morbidly dark colors.

I took a step toward them, arm outstretched. Ice collected in my veins and weighted me down. I didn't know if it was a manifestation of my powers or the unbearable dread I felt. A gurgling sound came from the left of the room, and I glanced over quickly, afraid to take my eyes off Nolan for too long as he kicked the woman. Galerind was crumpled on the ground, clutching his stomach as red seeped through the creases of his fingers. He was dying, I realized with a sudden start. The one person in the Spiral who could teach me how to use my powers was lying in his home, bleeding out before I had even gotten the chance to speak to him.

I almost laughed at the irony of it.

Here I was, the last known Wizard of Earth with absolutely no training and no particular skills, facing a woman who had singlehandedly killed a several hundred year old wizard, neutralized two well-trained and powerful wizards, and was currently attempting to strangle another.

I was so in over my head.

The realization came with a sense of acceptance. This was how things were. I could not change that Malorn was bleeding or that Boris was unconscious any faster than I could pick up a mountain and whack the lady in the head with it. I could, however, change the fact that she had Nolan by the throat. I needed that calm, just for a moment. I needed to breathe, and the universe granted that wish as if to make up for throwing me into said situation.

There was a sudden rush of energy, like something you would feel in a crowd before a disaster struck or the feeling you would get when you were on the ground floor of a concert, and the ice in my veins seemed to melt. There was a screech and the sound of something heavy hitting the floor. I opened my eyes quickly, not fully realizing that I had closed them. The woman turned back to me, an angry red mark on her cheek, and snarled.

Nolan picked himself up off the ground, still gasping for breath as he nodded to me quickly. "Really, please, take your time." He mumbled sarcastically between deep inhalations and drew something from his pocket. It looked like a knife, but I couldn't be sure.

"A simple 'thank you' would have been nice." I smiled. There was a tsk tsk sound from where the woman had retreated to. She stood tall again, hands on her hips as she shook her head slowly.

"How cliché," the woman smirked as she inspected a stain of blood on her elbow-length glove, "you've fallen in love with him, haven't you?"

I went pink. "Wha… What does that have to do with anything?"

"Nothing, really. You'll both die either way; it'll just be more fun to watch you watch each other die." She looked up, innocence lining her features as tapped her chin. "Which one should go first, hmm?"

Nolan inched closer to me, shaking his head ever so slightly. "You… You're Morganthe, aren't you?"

She clapped at him in mock humor and laughed. "I wasn't aware that I was famous." Morganthe frowned as she cocked her head at Nolan. "I hope you weren't planning on stabbing me with that. You'll be very disappointed if you do."

"If you're hoping that I have some deluded obsession with you or something, then you're the one who'll be disappointed." Nolan held the knife up so that he could look at it closer, though I could tell he was watching her out of the corner of his eye. I didn't blame him; she was crazy.

Boris mumbled something groggily from the chair he was in across the room. I looked over to him quickly, without thinking about what I was doing. Nolan must have done the same, because suddenly he was snatched up again.

"I think it'll be easier to make him watch you die." Morganthe grinned, tossing him against the wall and tapping her staff against the ground. Some strange substance that resembled spider webs wound its way around Nolan and tied him to the coffee-brown painted wall. A glimmer of silver caught my eye, and I snatched the dagger he had dropped off the ground and pointed it in her direction.

"Let him go." My voice was shaky.

"Why would I? You don't even know how to use that."

"The concept's pretty simple."

"I like you," Morganthe crossed her arms and poked out her bottom lip. "Why are you making me kill you? You could be such a powerful ally. They say you'll be the most powerful Ice wizard we've ever seen."

"My mother told me not to hang out with the wrong crowd." I shrugged simply. "You're the definition of the 'wrong crowd'."

"Kymma—" Nolan was cut off as the spider web wound around his mouth. Morganthe shot him a withering look and turned back to me with a smile.

"You could have everything you ever wanted, Kymma. All you have to do is put the athame down." I paused. What did I even want? Fame, fortune, and happiness? No, that was the road my sister had taken. All I had ever wanted was… friends.

And I had that.

"Actually," I let my hand drop down to my side. She grinned and extended a hand. Slowly, I let ice cover the blade and prayed this wouldn't fail miserably. "I have everything I ever wanted." I jerked my hand back up and brought the blade down at her before she even had a chance to wipe the smile off her face.

Time seemed to slow down. The dagger was getting increasingly close to striking her in the chest, where her heart should have been though I doubted she had one, and she'd barely managed to raise a hand to defend herself. I watched the tip of the silvery blade as it grew closer, closer, closer…

Then I was ripped apart.

I would never get used to it, I was sure of that much. Teleporting was nothing like people talked about it. It was, in reality, being torn down atom by atom and thrown through space at the speed of light. It was painful. Tearing a house down brick by brick would be the only thing similar to the experience and even that wouldn't do the pain of it justice. Nolan had once told me that they were trained to ignore the pain, and I made a mental note to take whatever class that was until I realize most of the curriculum was porting over and over until you were used to it.

The atoms that made up who I was were put back together in a clearing in a forest that I didn't recognize. I found myself lying in the unmanicured grass, holding my head as if it might split open. Morganthe was on the opposite end of the clearing, bent over and gasping orders at hunched over man. I sat up slowly, still holding my head with one hand. The hunched over man came toward me in his scurrying way and held up something shiny.

All the pain in me lifted as I scrabbled to my feet and backed away from him. He said something that sounded like an apology as he swung the sword at me. I jumped back, feet twisting over the roots of an old oak that had grown too large, and fell back to the ground. The man raised the sword once more, chanting something that sounded like a prayer. I kicked out at him, landing a blow in his stomach that sent him back a few feet.

"What the hell?" I asked him in annoyance. "Do you just do whatever she tells you to?"

He bowed his head, clutching the sword to him in the same way a toddler might clutch their favorite blanket. "I do what my master asks of me,"

"Well, quit!"

"I cannot." He looked at me sadly. "I am bound to my master through blood. I cannot quit. I am sorry, Ms. Kymma."

How do you know my name? "Don't you realize this is crazy? She's crazy!" Nolan? Where are you?

The man stiffened. "Master is notcrazy. She is very smart."

"She's a psycho!"

"S-she's innovative!"

"She's making you kill people!"

The man's shoulder sagged more than they normally did. He shook his head slowly. "I do this to make my master happy. She makes me do nothing."

"Y-you're crazy." I scrambled back a few feet, until my back hit the bark of the old oak tree and my lip trembled. The man took a few steps closer and raised his sword. I closed my eyes and looked away from him. A small sob escaped my throat. So this is how I would die? In the middle of a forest, where no one knew where I was, without having said goodbye to anyone?

I waited for the blow to land, for my brain to cease its meaningless thoughts of running away. But, it never came.

I opened one eye slightly to see Malorn, dried-blood staining his hair darker than I thought possible, standing between me and the man, sword raised against the other man's. Boris had the man by the arm and Nolan had his arm around the poor guy's throat like he meant to choke him to death. It seemed a bit overboard for three wizards with magical capabilities but I wasn't about to argue with it.

I realized suddenly that I didn't know where Morganthe was, though I couldn't see around the boys. "You might want to look away." Malorn's voice was calm and collected as it always was. I started to take the advice, but it seemed unfair for me to spare myself the guilt of watching someone die while the others would have to live with it. Instead, I kept my eyes trained on them.

Boris reached over to secure the arm that wielded the sword, and Malorn repositioned his own weapon so that it was pointing at his neck threateningly. Nolan glanced between the two of them as they nodded slowly. He drew a wand out of his belt—something I had never seen him do. Wands didn't seem like his taste—and drew something in the arm with his free hand. The symbol dissipated and the man howled before he went limp in their grasps.

I shuttered, wrapping my arms around myself as I glanced around. I noticed then that Stephen had come with them, but hung back to keep an eye on Morganthe. He casted a few spells here and there, mostly to keep her positioned in the center of the clearing.

We'll have to kill her. I thought numbly. Life didn't seem to have much meaning when there were people walking around with control over life and death. How messed up was that?

"You alright?" It was Nolan's voice, and a phrase I had grown accustomed to hearing. He sounded gruffer, though, as if he'd been yelling or crying but I wasn't sure which. Knowing him, it was probably both.

"I was afraid you wouldn't make it."

"We almost didn't." He paused, holding out a hand to help me up. Malorn and Boris had gone to join Stephen. "Luckily, he showed up."

"In a few minutes? That's insane luck." I let him help me up, but didn't wait around for a response. I wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.

"Earth time is different, remember? You were gone for thirty minutes."

"Oh." I whispered as we reached the others. Stephen nodded to me quietly. I didn't understand how easily they had accepted killing people. I knew they had to keep population control on the monsters in Wizard City, but I'd never heard of them killing people. I shook my head at my own thoughts.

"You fools think you can defeat me? You're just kids! I should have killed you when I had the chance!" Stephen's last spell had worn off, and Morganthe was walking toward us with a fire in her eyes that terrified me. I wondered for a moment if she might be able to just melt me with her gaze. That death sounded a lot less painful than the one I had been promised.

"It must be humiliating to know you'll die by the hands of children then." Boris shrugged in response, raising a weapon I hadn't seen before that must have served as a replacement for his staff.

Morganthe stopped in her steps, eyes falling over each of us in turn. "Let's do this the old fashion way, then, hmm? No violence, strictly magic. If you beat me, then I'll give you the key."

"We don't want the key. We want you neutralized." Malorn shot back, crossing his arms over his chest.

Morganthe smirked. "Take the key and you keep me from my forces. I can't be much of a threat on my own right?" Yeah, sure. It's not like you just killed the only trained Earth wizard.

"It's up to you guys." Malorn glanced between the four of us. Boris nodded. Stephen shrugged. Nolan looked at me with all the gentleness that the human face had the capability of expressing and shook his head. I furrowed my eyebrows in response.

"You have to sit this one out, Kym."

"What?" I nearly yelled at him, eyebrows shooting up in surprise. "What do you mean? I spent weeks trying to help you guys with this and you're telling me I can't help fight her?"

"You… You don't have control over your power yet. You'll just get yourself hurt." Nolan frowned, then shook his head again. Malorn nodded in agreement, and the four started toward Morganthe. They took up the normal fighting positions before I chance to throw myself in the middle of it. Annoyed, I sat down in the grass and watched them.

I didn't really understand how this worked. They each took turns in casting spells and seemed to be bound by some unwritten code of honor when it came to cheating. I wasn't sure I had the patience or the self-control to not attack her over and over without waiting my turn. It was probably better that I sat out anyway, considering that. Still, they had been at this for hours and I was getting tired of plucking pieces of grass out of the ground and tying them together.

I didn't look back up at them until Morganthe casted a spell that went incredibly wrong. There was a collective gasp from everyone—aside from Morganthe, who was cackling—as a portal-like void opened up in the center of their make-shift circle. I stood instantly as the boys dropped to their knees in effort to keep from being sucked into the void. Boris dug his staff into the ground, jaw set as Morganthe continued her laughter. Malorn did something similar with his sword, but Nolan, who was weaponless aside from the wand he wielded, did nothing but did his fingers in the ground and bow his head.

"Do you boys know what happens when you get transported to Earth without the proper training?" The woman laughed. "There's no transportation centers there! Spiral keys don't do you any good! You're stuck unless you know how to get back!"

Oh no. My mind was screaming. The necklace that Alhazred had given to Boris that allowed us access in and out of Earth without the Spiral Key was laying on my dresser, back at Susan's house. We weren't supposed to need it today. It was just a trip to see an old guy.

"One of you has to go! It won't close until you do!" Morganthe was practically mocking them now.

"I'll go." Stephen called to them, shaking his head. "It can't be that hard to get back, right?"

"What about your sister?" Boris asked quickly, holding his hand up at him. Stephen seemed to sink back down at the question but said nothing more.

"Remember that victory belongs to those who seize it." Galerind's voice echoed in my head. I jerked my chin up in determination. They had to finish this battle, that wasn't an option. She said the portal would close when someone went through it… so wouldn't that include me? I stood, hands clenched into fists at my sides. A few weeks ago, I would have thrown everything away to have some friends; now, it only seemed fitting to throw everything away for my friends.

I wasn't sure how I managed it. When I placed my hand on the barrier between me and the boys in the circle, it felt as though I was leaning on glass. But, as I concentrated on being light and fluid, I slowly slipped past the barrier. Suddenly, it felt like I had thrown myself in the middle of a hurricane. My feet lifted and I fell backwards, body skidding as I was pulled toward the middle. I was only stopped as Nolan grabbed onto my arms.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" His voice was sour and harsh, but I could hear the hurt in it.

I smiled sadly. "This is how it has to be. This isn't my world. This is your world. I don't belong in it."

"You belong in it a whole of a hell lot more than you believe!" He raised his voice over the wind. The portal was getting stronger, and it would keep getting stronger if he didn't let go of me. I had a feeling he couldn't let go of me.

"You'll be fine, Nolan."

"How do you know that? I might get hit by a drunk flyer tomorrow. You never know."

"Please," I laughed, it felt wrong to be laughing when I was fixing to be sucked away from the things I'd fallen in love with, "You'd make Susan resurrect you and then you'd chew them out."

He smiled faintly. "Promise me you'll come back."

"I…" I frowned. "I don't know that I can, Nolan."

"Cross your heart." His grip on one of my arms slipped, and I felt myself fall toward the void a few inches. His fingers tightened on my other arm as he tried to keep himself from being pulled in with me.

"When the time comes, remember what is important to you." I guess Galerind actually did manage to teach me something.

"I cross my heart." I made an X over my chest with my free hand, shaking my head sadly as I did so. His grip slipped a bit more, so that he was now holding onto my hand instead of my arm.

"I love you, Kym."

"I love you, too."

And he let go.

I bet all my treasure cards you cried. CAUSE I DID.

Officially, this is the last chapter in BDP. Buuuttttttt, since I hate ending things on a sad note (which, come on, the title should have prepared you for that!) I'll probably write a Epilogue. REVIEW PRETTY PRETTY PLEASE?!