Chapter 26

As the Greek fires washed over me, I was glad that my last act had been to kiss the girl I loved.

Sure, I was disappointed that I was dying and all. And yes, I was ashamed that I'd failed to save her. Ashamed that my failure would doom her to an eternal life of slavery to the Lich.

But all things considered, getting one last chance to express your love for someone isn't the worst way to go, even if its midst a fiery pyre.

Only, you know. I didn't die.

I kissed her for all it was worth, knowing the fires would burn my nerve endings in moments. I wanted the last thing I felt to be her lips.

The strange thing was, as the fires spread across me, they didn't burn.

In fact, they did the exact opposite.

I gasped as I broke our kiss. Fire still rippled across my skin from the torch pressed between us. But like it had once before, Violet's power worked at healing the burns her torch had inflicted. I could feel the ruined skin across my neck and face mend as her will demanded it to, undoing what she had wrought.

My eyes found hers as, with her last act, she made me whole.

And then the spark in her eyes went out, and she collapsed into my arms.

"Violet!" I screamed, shaking her. She didn't respond, and I grew desperate as I fear the worst. "VIOLET!"

Take me up, the torch said in my mind.

"Shut up!" I shouted at it as tears broke out from my eyes. "Violet!"

She lives, fool, the torch insisted.

I gasped again, this time looking for any sign of life in her. The torch was right. After a moment, I saw the gentle rise and fall of her chest.

She was alive.

But not for long. You must take me up.

"But what will happen to her?" I asked, scared and confused. I recalled the last time she'd lost her torch. She'd grown old and withered without it. And if I took it from her now, could she survive?

Yes, the torch said. But only if you Act. Quickly.

I nodded, catching my breath as I held Violet up. I would do whatever was needed to save her. Even if it meant taking up the power of the madness inducing torch.

Flexing my fingers, I reached for it. Forcing myself not to hesitate, I grasped it firmly. As I did, my eyes snapped open, and a surprised gasp slipped through my gaping mouth as power surged into me, as light poured into every cell of my body…

I inhaled, drawing one last breath—

— And exhaled my first breath as a god.

No, a voice sounded in my head. Still mortal. Still human.

…for now.

Which was a silly thing to say. Of course I was a god. A demi-god at the least, with the power I felt coursing through me. It made the power of the apple-seed pale in comparison.

Apple-seed? the voice questioned. What apple-seed?

Never-mind that, I thought as I looked at the world with amethyst eyes.

It looked much the same now that I was a god — Not a god! — save for the odd hues. Everything was lavender and lilac, mauve and mulberry, periwinkle and plum. Everything, from the darkest shadows to the brightest lights, were all just shades of purple and violet.

I looked to Violet, and felt a pang at the sight of her. She looked exhausted and emaciated; even more so after relinquishing the torch to me. She was limp in my arms, although perhaps she looked more restful now. Here eyes had fluttered as I took the torch, and a spark of amaranthine had flashed again.

Perhaps there had been a trace of emerald remaining within them, but it was so hard to tell when you saw the world in such a narrow spectrum of the rainbow.

Concentrate, the voice sounded. Shepherd the soul.

Of course, I thought. Because I knew how to do that. It was second nature to me, seeing as I was now a —

— not!

Oh, alright, I thought with a frown as I dipped the torch toward Violet. I held her with one arm as the amethyst flames rippled toward her, through her, as I held the lantern close. The girl I loved spasmed, and I saw her eyes open wide as a dark light cut through her. No, not light. It was the opposite of light. If darkness could shine, that was what I saw.

It held no hue other than black. I could feel it as the torchlight wrapped tenderly around it, embracing the darkness within her. Once the fire had taken hold of that darkness, I pulled the torch back, and the flames with it. The darkness disappeared into the blaze atop the bone-white torch, and Violet went limp in my arms.

I laid her gently down upon the roof of the building, although it didn't seem like it would be standing for much longer. The ancients had made their structure to last, but not even modern engineering could resist the destructive power of wizards. I wondered if maybe I should try to move Violet away. Could I do things like that, now that I was a god? Could I whisk her away to the Never-never, take her to the Ways? Could I travel the ways? Would it make commuting easier?

Such a simple mind.

Bite me, I thought smartly. But she'd be fine where she was. Now that Salvago's soul had been removed from her, she'd be okay.

Hound, the voice warned.

Yes, yes, I know, I thought with another frown. I'll get to—

The Hound slammed into me, and I gasped at how much it hurt. I didn't think gods — not! — were supposed to hurt. Maybe the torch was right — of course — after all.

I twisted with the blow, and the massive dog-like beast rolled across me. When it landed, it skidded across the roof, its smoking claws digging in to slow it down. Its eyes burned with a fierce swirl of emerald and ruby light that cut through the amethyst world with their intensity. I saw the thing's lips peel back in a ferocious snarl as its muscles bunched. Then it flickered, moving so fast that to mere mortals — like you — it would seem as if it were disappearing.

But if I wasn't a god, I wasn't quite mortal, either. My free hand shot up as the Hound reached me, and I seized it by the throat in mid-air. It seemed almost surprised by my strength and speed as I held it before me.

I wasn't. I recalled bearing the torch before, feeling all of that power. I recalled the strength the other poor soul had possessed as I'd fought him in the tunnels beneath Chicago. What had his name been? — Myron Pierce — ah, that's right. He'd been strong then, and quick; now that speed and strength was mine.

But as powerful as I might be, apparently I wasn't invincible. The position I held the Hound kept his teeth at bay, but his burning nails were slashing and ripping at my chest. I felt the pain as each swipe tore at my Balaur leather jacket. Even with its durability keeping me from shredding me open, I knew I'd be covered in deep bruises from the force of the blows.

Quickly! the torch said, but I was already moving, thrusting the bone-white lantern at the Hound. Its flames wavered against its dark flesh, the power of the beast resisting the power within me. At least its limbs stopped trying to tear me to shreds, and a battle of wills began as the Hound tried to cling to the piece of soul it had been given.

I broke out into a sweat as I held the torch to the Hound, feeling the creature spasm in my grip as the torch fought to draw the soul out. The Hound resumed its thrashing, a high swipe catching me across one cheek, and I may have screamed out into the amethyst world as the flames finally sank into the beast.

The same thing played out for the Hound as it had Violet. A dark light… Anti-light? Is that a thing? — NO — Well, the darkness was shrouded within the light of the torch, and slowly drawn out of the Hound. As it passed into the torch, the massive beast finally ceased its struggles, and I released my grip on it.

I might have been slightly less gentle with it than I had with Violet. But seeing as it'd broken my ribs in our first encounter, and possibly again in our final struggle, I thought that was fair.

Should we find the others? I thought as I turned about. Does Salvago need to be last?

The Lampades guide them, the torch replied. Take the mage now If you can.

Wait, if I can? I thought, but then I was turning as a woeful cry echoed across the mountains. It was a sad sound, a wail of loss unlike anything I'd heard before. When I looked toward him, I found Salvago leaning on his spear. It was the only thing keeping him upright, and it looked as if someone had gutted him.

And perhaps I had. There was no gaping wound to explain his state, and the others had all been beaten back. But I'd just torn his soul from two of his… not horcruxes… what had the wizards called them? Pterodactyl? — phylactery — Right. I'd just torn his soul from two of the philyacteries — close enough — that kept him alive.

I glanced toward the others, and was surprised to see Moretti down. Either Salvago or the Hound had finally managed to slow down the wizard by tearing the dark metal limb from his body. The steel arm lay on the rooftop a few feet away from Moretti. It looked like it had been disconnected from the ball joint that attached it to his shoulder, which also capped in black steel.

With his arm missing, the wizard had been vulnerable, and someone had taken advantage. More bloody rends, either from spear or nail, had appeared in his gray cloak. Moretti still had his warden sword, but he could barely prop himself up, much less continue the fight.

Anya and Sal had apparently gone to his aide, as both had taken up a defensive stance between him and Salvago. Sal was still massive, and I noticed that in a world purples and violets, the flames licking across his body were still scarlet and cardinal. He looked to be in decent shape, although I noticed a few new wounds gouged into his thick hide.

I looked over Anya just as she glanced my way, and was startled to see the bright white pinpoints that were her argent eyes. Her skin glowed with a pearly light as she drew on her power to sustain herself. She'd taken a beating, and I saw the opalescent smear that was her blood as it soaked over her white leathers. Simon's black coat was undamaged at least, but it oddly shadowed around her, to the point that I found looking at it oddly uncomfortable. I forced myself to look away, and trained my sight on the Lich.

Salvago was just recovering when I started toward him, but there was enough strength left within him to send a wall of air at me. His dull eyes were defiant as rasped out the words to his enchantment. I saw his hand raise as he spit out a spell, and I braced myself for what was coming.

In my amethyst hued world, I found that I could see the spell take shape. Tendrils of plum energy snaked through the air, seeming to draw it together into a dense form. It was mostly transparent, but I could make out the shape as it hurtled toward me, a battering ram that would knock me clear off the roof.

The lavender flames whipped out from the torch, cutting up through the spell as it came. The energies holding the air mage's will became torn and frayed beneath the greater power of the Lampad's torch. Gusts blew to either side of where I stood, but I remained untouched.

"No," Salvago hissed, his dead eyes narrowing as he saw the power I now wielded against him. "No," he repeated as he threw one hand up again, even as he gestured behind him with the other.

Another wall of air appeared before us, this one stationary and still. It was a barrier separating us from the wizard, who was busy tearing reality apart at the seams with his other hand. The air rippled as a slit appeared, a dark and unmoving rend forming and growing nearly six feet in length.

Now! the torch seemed to scream in my head, even as the fire whipped out ahead of me to tear through the wall. It shattered as I ran forward, as did a second that Salvago had formed behind it. The whip tore through the third and final barrier just as the dark mage disappeared into the dark doorway he'd created.

Acting on impulse, I flung the torch forward, as if I were wielding a true whip. The thin tendril of amethyst flames snapped out and shot through the rend in reality. I could almost feel the torch's satisfaction as the fiery braid coiled around the wizard, and then I was wrenching it back toward me.

Salvago screamed in outrage as he was pulled back onto the rooftop, his spear turning to point at me as he focused a spell in retaliation. I didn't hear the words from the spell, but I knew what it was a second later. A familiar breathlessness washed over me as a sphere of air formed around my head, drawing the oxygen from my lungs just as it had in that nameless town the night before.

My free hand reached for my neck, and rebounded off the barrier. A panic quickly set in, as I knew the wizard wouldn't spare me like he had last time. No longer was my continued existence useful to him; he wouldn't release the spell until I was good and dead.

But as helpless as I might have been against the wizard, the torch was anything but.

Fire burns air, the torch seemed to growl as flames erupted toward me. The fire washed over the barrier, swirling around it in a fury that the mage's spell could not resist. The casting broke beneath it, and air surged back into my lungs as my vision cleared.

"Your time of judgment is long past due, Yannis Salvago," I said, even though it didn't feel like me talking. "The Three Judges will decide your fate. Pray that they are merciful, and condemn you to only a millennia of suffering for each of your blasphemies."

"No, no!" Salvago screamed, his dead eyes coming alive one last time as the tendril of flames pulled him across the roof. He slashed at the flaming whip with his warden's sword, and I saw lilac sparks fly as the enchanted blade bit at it. "I am not yet done! I must cleanse the world of this darkness!"

"There will be no darkness where you travel," the torch said through me. Three more tendrils of flame grew from the torch, each one wrapping about a different limb. The bands of fire tightened across his wrists, and the wizard screamed as he lost hold of his weapons. "The flames of eternal torment will purify that which you so throughly defiled." I wasn't sure what that meant, but it sounded bad.

I watched on as the four strands of living fire lifted the man from the ground, holding his arms and legs out as it righted him. A crazed fear shone in the wizard's eyes, and I flinched at seeing any humanity in that inhuman face.

"No!" he screamed again, and then his gaze focused on me as he prepared another spell. An emerald light began to shine within those dull eyes. I felt a pressure building in my temples, and blinked in pain as it began to spread to my chest.

I'd only just realized that Salvago was preparing to turn me into one of his philadelphias — phylactery — when a fifth whip of fire shot out from the torch and slashed across the dark wizard's face. The man screamed as his eyes were torn from his skull, leaving only a bubbling and smoking ruin in the empty sockets.

And then I was plunging the torch into his chest, allowing the flames to consume the Lich. Salvago thrashed furiously as the fires drew out the last remnants of what had once been a human soul. The flames coiled around the darkness within him, ensnaring every last trace there was from the corpse it inhabited.

But it didn't do it quickly.

"Noooo!" the thing that had been Salvago screamed as the fire not only retrieved his soul, but burned the husk it resided in. The dry and brittle skin erupted into flames, which was quickly followed by the emaciated muscles and organs of his body. The agonized wail died off as his lungs were consumed, and I had to turn away.

The man had done horrible things, but I'm not sure even he deserved such a gruesome end.

Finally, the torch drew the last of his soul from the body. What was left suspended between the fiery tendrils was thrown to the rooftop. The little that remained smoked as tiny flames worked through it, and the ashes of the once great air mage drifted on the winds of Chios.