I took one, two running steps and then leaped up to the stage, landing gracefully in front of Noah and Kevin.
“Stay back!” Noah commanded. His claws scratched through the fabric of Kevin’s shirt and through his skin, drawing blood. Kevin hissed, but he didn’t cry out. He just kept his gaze locked on me. What did he see when he looked at me? Did he see a terrifying creature with red-and-white hair? A goddess? Or did he see the dead girl he loved with all his heart? The answer was as obvious as it was heartbreakingly sweet.
But the other—the one who had lived long before Kevin—looked at me as though he thought he could bargain. As though he had any control over me. Stupid, stupid child. So desperate for power and worship. More broken and needy now than he had been in life, and he’d believed death would make him so much more.
Death only gave preference to a few of us, and this pathetic, dandyish boy was not one. Haven Crest had been given a choice the moment I merged; did it want to give its power to Noah, or to me?
It had been an easy decision. Noah would only rape this vulnerable place and exploit its pain. I offered peace.
“Let him go, Noah.”
“No!”
I was tired of this. Tired of so much of my night being spent on this pathetic creature. He’d taken Emily, conspired against Alys, robbed Charlotte of her destiny and almost prevented me—Lark and Wren—from discovering what we were. What I was.
“You can’t win, Noah. This is all of your own making.”
The claws flexed deeper, and this time Kevin did cry out. It was a sound that echoed in my soul, because a part of me cared for him, deeply. And the other part of me hadn’t been able to see just how much until then. Wren knew her heart so much better than Lark, which didn’t surprise me, because Wren had no fear of having it broken.
“I’ll kill him. I swear I will. Just like your predecessor killed my sister! Now back away, you filthy half-breed! Bow to me, or I’ll rip his throat out.”
“Bow to you?” Shadows drew close to me as my anger rose, wrapping around me like a loving embrace. “You have no dominion over Death, child. You have no dominion over me!” The words tore from my throat like a thunderstorm, knocking Noah back so sharply that Kevin fell from his grip. That’s when I moved. In a blink I had Noah by the throat. He clawed at me, but I barely felt it.
“Your plan probably would have worked if you’d left us out of it,” I said. “But you were so bent on revenge, so greedy for the power you thought Wren could give you. Did you not realize how much power you fed her at the same time?”
His eyes widened and I laughed. “You didn’t even know, did you? You didn’t notice those red veins creeping around your form? If not for you, we still wouldn’t know what we truly are! Everything you did, every deceit and lie only worked against you. And it all started the day you killed your own sister.”
Yes, that was Noah’s terrible secret. Wren had gotten a glimpse when she began leaving some of her own essence behind in Noah. And Lark had already figured out part of the story.
“You killed her so, as a medium, you could have her all to yourself. But she became a vengeful spirit. You thought you could control her, but then along came Emily, who gave your sister release. Then you killed yourself because you thought you could be with your sister, but, no. She had moved on, and you couldn’t because you were too deranged. You swore revenge on Emily, and you tricked Alys into destroying Charlotte’s sister so the twin cycle would be interrupted. Emily couldn’t move on with Alys in the void, and you imprisoned her. And then you came after me, because you thought you could destroy me.”
Noah squirmed in my hand. His power was waning as Haven Crest slowly rejected him. He was the one causing it pain, who had demanded it feed him in return. He was the one who had helped Josiah Bent, and then sat back and watched just to see how strong I was, pitting my two selves against each other. He’d brought so much darkness to this place.
But his real mistake had been in thinking that he could turn me against myself.
“I don’t regret any of it,” he rasped.
“No. I don’t think you do. Which is why I’m not going to send you on.”
His eyes lit up. “If you don’t send me on, you have to let me stay.”
I smiled. “Oh, my dear Noah. You forgot the third option.” I didn’t need the spirit board or an infection-induced vision. For a few more hours I was Death—or at least the daughter of it—and imbued with all the power that brought with it.
The shadows that surrounded me rose up, swirling and twining around us, like dark vines. Below and over they climbed, until there was nothing but dark. Nothing but the void.
Noah realized where we were almost immediately. “No!” He clawed at my hand, but I held tight. Around us, the monsters in the dark circled. Waiting and hungry. But he wasn’t for them.