Chapter Twenty-Four
Thane felt exalted. It was intoxicating to feel this much might, this potent and all-powerful. Thane drew the superhuman strength into his being, pushing everything else from his mind. Unrestrained, Surt’s black energy rushed through him, burning away all resistance and leaving steely cold resolve.
Reya’s throat felt like a twig in his hand as he lifted her feet off the ground. Her hands were around his, but she didn’t fight him. She didn’t do anything. He wasn’t expecting that. It confused him. Why wasn’t she fighting him? He needed her to fight him.
“Get the crystal,” Surt said from behind him.
Thane checked her with his free hand, and finally located the crystal in her waistband. It was warm from her skin and hummed in his hand.
“Now throw her into the vortex,” Surt said. “Save your mother. Reunite with your family. Exact justice as you see fit.”
He wanted all of that. He could save this world and make it right. All he had to do was push Reya into the vortex. It was that simple. Her eyes glowed soft light and warm tears ran down his hand. When he looked into her eyes, there was no fear of him and no hatred of him. She was just waiting for him to kill her.
He tightened his grip, and she still didn’t fight him.
You can choose, he heard her say in his dark mind.
Free will, yes. He was choosing. He wanted his family back. He wanted what was taken from him.
Her hands clasped his arms, but they were gentle. Her heat spread out from her fingers across his body. He tried to snuff it out, but it kept spreading. Memories surfaced. Her smile, her touch. He pushed them back, but they marched through his mind. Her compassion, her undying hope and faith.
Thane fought the conflicting thoughts. He was doing what he was supposed to do. Wasn’t he? His grip on Reya faltered.
Don’t choose for me, she said. Choose for you.
In her eyes there was no judgment, only trust. He didn’t understand. She was the one who was going to die, why didn’t she hate him? Fight him? Stop him?
“Do it!” Surt yelled from behind him. The words tore through him. Surt’s darkness clawed at him, weighing him down, oppressive and cold.
Reya closed her eyes, pain registering on her face at last. Not physical pain, he realized. Heartbreak. He was doing that to her. She’d believed in him even when he didn’t deserve it. She’d trusted him with her life. She’d loved him knowing what he was.
Her light began to fade, and in that moment, in that flash of clarity, Thane chose the one thing he couldn’t live without, the only thing that mattered.
Anger melted out of him, followed by the love he held for Reya. It surged through him, making him feel more powerful than Surt’s empty words. It choked out the darkness in his soul and filled in the desolate spaces. All the answers came to him. The meaning of his life seemed suddenly very simple.
She loved him enough to die for him. He wouldn’t let her down ever again. He loosened his grip on Reya’s throat, and she inhaled sharply. Her eyes opened in confusion.
I choose you, he said in his mind.
Her eyes shone with pride and feeling. It swelled in his chest.
“Kill her!” Surt ordered, reminding him that darkness threatened his world.
Do your duty. Do what we raised you to do, his mother’s voice whispered in his ear.
He clenched the crystal in his other hand and knew at once what his legacy abilities were for.
Reya’s eyes widened in understanding. Thane, no.
My choice, he told her. He burned the beauty of her soul into his eternal memory and gathered all the light he possessed and all the light from the love Reya gave him. He released her, turned swiftly, and stabbed Surt in the chest with the crystal. Electricity shot up his arm and exploded in his head. He yanked the crystal out and dropped to his knees. Everything around him faded in and out of focus.
Surt roared, and Thane felt a blow to his face so hard it threw him onto his back against the smooth pyramid. He held on to the crystal, refusing to relinquish it. He became aware that Surt and Reya were battling again. He couldn’t see them though, and he reached up to find that his face was a mass of tissue and bone and blood, nearly destroyed. There was no pain, only peace.
He felt the dark ones descend, joining Surt and empowering him. Reya was in trouble. She wouldn’t last long against them all. He had only one option, one last thing left to believe in.
He called Orson.
* * *
Reya fought with every ounce of strength she had left, every breath in her lungs, every cell in her body as all hell broke loose around her. She slashed at dark ones as they surrounded her, joining the battle. The crystal had damaged Surt, but dark energy was rallying him quickly. Surt matched her blow for blow, growing stronger by the second and wearing her down, backing her up against the pyramid. Her mind was focused but her heart was breaking.
Thane was a bloody mess. He needed help right away. But even as she thought it, she knew it wouldn’t matter. He was supposed to die. This was his time. Anguish stole her concentration, and her staff spun out of her hand, leaving her defenseless. Surt grinned like the madman he was as he towered over her. The blue vortex hummed behind her, pumping as a heart. She was spent, battered, and exhausted.
She’d failed Thane. The world. Herself. Her destiny.
Surt pointed his staff at her heart, ready to let it fly. “Go to Hell, Reya.”
A great burst of light blinded her. It turned the underground cavern walls and ceiling white. It held her, gently suspended in the moment. Time stopped. Her breathing stopped. The vortex stopped. Everything stopped.
Her body was suddenly crystalline, weightless and ethereal. She hovered a few inches off the floor of the chamber, enveloped by soft and loving white light. Orson was there, standing next to Surt and surrounded by the spirit council.
They were all looking at her, and their voices chimed in her mind.
You have done well, Reya. You executed your role beautifully, just as you planned. Know that you are loved totally and completely. You will be restored, and your future will be yours to decide.
She didn’t understand, and looked to Orson. You promised this wasn’t about me.
It wasn’t, he replied with a smile.
She was confused. Then why did you step in?
Orson flashed an image of people singing in the streets, taking back the city and the love. She watched the dead drunk find a way to shine his love and a million newly awakened people helping one another. They gave selfishly and with purity. They shared, they comforted, they cared. They fought their fear, listening to their hearts and their true selves. Then she saw the chamber, the pyramid, and Thane calling out Orson’s name, believing. She finally understood.
There was hope after all. She wept with the joy of it.
Then she dropped, her feet hitting the floor hard, and the light vanished. Surt was gone, along with Orson and the others. Tears streamed down her face from the revelation. Her wounds were completely healed. Her staff was back in her pocket.
It was over. She nearly fell to her knees in gratitude.
Then she heard a moan behind her and turned to find Thane. His face was mangled and blood was running down the pyramid and pooling onto the tiles under him.
“Oh God,” she said and dropped next to him on the floor, horror gripping her. They hadn’t fixed him. Why hadn’t they fixed him, too? “Oh God. Thane. No. Orson!”
“Jesus, what happened?” Martin asked as he and Chu came running through the entrance.
“Martin,” Thane managed to whisper. “I knew he’d…”
“You were right,” Reya said through tears. They fell to no avail. He was slipping away. It was his time, she’d seen it the moment Surt appeared. She couldn’t stop it from happening, even though he’d saved her life and the lives so many others. She had seen him change, seen him choose love. He deserved to live.
Please, please give me a miracle, she pleaded silently.
She clutched Thane’s shirt, holding on to him. “Martin was too powerful for Surt,” she told him. “And so are you.”
“I can carry him up,” Martin said, rushing to Thane’s side. “We can get him help.”
Reya knew it wouldn’t matter. No amount of medical treatment could save him. By attacking Surt with the crystal, he’d sealed his own fate. His body was being destroyed at the molecular level. And he’d known this would happen. He’d done it anyway. Through tears that just wouldn’t stop, she said, “I don’t think we should move him. Go get help. I’ll stay with him.”
Martin frowned with uncertainty and looked at Thane. “Hang in there. I’ll be right back.” Then he jumped to his feet and ran out of the tunnel, leaving Chu behind.
She knew that Chu understood the situation. Somehow, he knew this was coming, too. He placed his hand on her shoulder. “Do you want me to stay, Reya?”
“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “You’ll have to explain all this to Martin and to the others. That’s why you came with us. I’ll bring him up myself. Go.”
He leaned forward and whispered to Thane, “You did good, son.”
Then he struggled to his feet, and left.
It was quiet then, and Reya hoped for a miracle. Thane wasn’t so hopeful. Reya sat down next to him and held his hand up to her lips.
He whispered, “Tell me my sins, Reya.”
His request cut through her deeper than any knife. “I can’t.”
“It’s your job,” he said. “Please.”
The “please” was more than she could bear. Through tears and pain, she recited the bad things he’d done as she had so many times before to so many dark ones. But Thane wasn’t a dark one. His light had battled darkness and won. So she told him the good things he’d done as well.
His breathing had slowed; the life force was draining out of him. They didn’t have long.
“All that you have done can be balanced and brought into the light,” she said, holding on to him. “It is never too late. You just need to ask.”
She took a shuddering breath, and put her soul to task. It was hers and hers alone to experience. Her heart ripped open with every word. “Thane Driscoll, are you sorry for your sins?”
Tears poured down her cheeks as she waited and prayed for a miracle. Just one more.
His lips moved. “I am.”
And then he died.