27. Callie

The mountain towered overhead like an inescapable beacon, calling me on. My blood was alive with the magic of this place. The weight of the power in the air pressed down on my back, drawing me to it, calling me.

Montana held my hand and we led the way towards it in silence.

A deep rhythm started up all around us like the beating of a drum which rolled from the heart of the mountain across all that surrounded it. The deep ba-bam, ba-bam, ba-bam sang to me in a way I was powerless to resist and my heartbeat fell into the rhythm it created. Our fate was calling us on and it was impatient for us to face it.

The long grass before our feet parted in an unnatural breeze but instead of blowing in one direction, it split straight down the middle, carving a path into existence which hadn’t been there before. Even the trees bowed to it, their thick trunks leaning left and right as the pulse thrummed through the air.

Montana gasped. “My heart’s beating,” she breathed in astonishment, her hand pressed to her chest.

Neither of us stopped walking but I turned to look at her in amazement. Her features were still that of a vampire but her eyes were wide with the thumping of her heart.

As we reached the edge of the trees, we paused to look up at the holy mountain. Helgafell towered above us impossibly high. Its sides were sheer and covered in emerald green foliage which fell away to grey rock. I could see snow glimmering on its highest slopes just before it disappeared into the clouds which hung around its peak.

Birds of every size and colour swooped across the open plain before us, from brightest green to shimmering gold, pink, blue and yellow. Their cries were lilting and musical, combining to create a sorrowful lament which wound together with the beating of the mountain’s heart by perfect, unnatural design.

I could feel the others following at our backs but this place hadn’t appeared for them. It was meant for us. Twins of sun and moon.

Everything in our lives had drawn us here. Now that I stood beneath the mountain, I could feel it in my soul.

This was where our journey ended. This was what it had all been for.

Time to pay the debt. The voice rumbled through the fabric of the world and stirred my blood with the force of its power.

We stepped out onto the plain and the grass fluttered in a breeze I couldn’t feel, tossing side to side, shimmering silver then gold and back again.

Ba-bam, ba-bam, ba-bam. That heartbeat was my heartbeat. Montana’s. One and the same. We were bound together as one soul. Alive and dead. Before and after.

To our right the sun hung low in the sky, a burning orb of power which threw brilliant golden light across my flesh and sung with the warmth of every day that had ever passed.

To our left, beyond Montana, the moon had risen, low and fat, a shimmering ball of silver in a dark, star-filled sky. The light it cast swept out, highlighting my sister’s pale skin in a cool breeze which carried the depths of every night in the memory of the world.

Where our hands met, the two celestial beings collided, but instead of a struggle for power, the light found a natural equilibrium and an echoing sense of balance prevailed.

We crossed the plain and that heartbeat grew louder, stronger. We were in its grasp and I didn’t think we could have turned back even if we’d wished to. But we didn’t want to. This was our destiny. The end of our path.

As we reached the middle of the plain, the wind picked up and we paused as it swirled around us.

I felt the kiss of the sun and the brush of the moon on my skin, in my hair, weaving through the blood in my veins and the air in my lungs.

When the wind dropped away, I gazed at my sister in surprise. She was wearing a dress which seemed to have been carved out of moonlight itself. It spilled over the curves of her body and pooled at her feet in the deepest shade of silver. Her arms were bare and the pale, near-transparency of her skin glimmered faintly. Her hair seemed even darker than before, tumbling down her back in silky waves and her lips were deepest red as if they were stained by the colour of the blood which sustained her immortal body.

Her lips parted as she took in the change in my appearance too. My dress was weaved from sunlight, though it was the twin of hers in all other ways. I could feel the warmth of it as it coiled about my flesh and twisted to the ground.

As I looked at our joined hands, I noticed the perfection of my skin with a hint of surprise; every cut and bite had been smoothed away as if they had never existed at all. And the warmth of my blood shone through it as if sunlight lived beneath my flesh.

My palm started to itch where it was clasped in my sister’s hand and I released her to look at it as the partnership rune which bound me to Fabian was stripped away. Montana held her left hand before her eyes, watching as the mark which tied her to Erik faded too.

Fabian groaned behind me and I turned my head to look at our friends. It was harder to do than it should have been, but eventually my gaze found his. Fabian’s eyes rounded with a deep pain for a moment but as the rune finally faded, his shoulders sagged and it seemed like a weight was lifted from him.

His eyes left mine and he turned to Chickoa instead, offering her the hand which had marked him as mine. She took it and I almost smiled but the mountain’s heartbeat was growing stronger, more demanding and it didn’t want me wasting any more time.

Montana took my hand again and we headed on.

At the foot of the mountain, a huge cave stood waiting for us, yawning wide like a mouth hoping to swallow us whole.

I couldn’t tell what was within the pressing darkness that filled it but I knew that was where we were going.

Ba-bam, ba-bam, ba-bam. On we walked and my eyes stayed fixed on that cave. Nothing else existed but that. Nothing else mattered but what was within it.

The ring on my finger was burning, aching, pleading to be reunited with whatever lay in wait.

A harsh cry sounded somewhere behind us but I didn’t turn.

People were shouting, screaming, fighting. It didn’t matter. Destiny called us and we walked towards it on bare feet.

A small piece of me was aware of leaving something behind but it was what awaited me that truly mattered.

Montana’s grip on my fingers was firm and unyielding and we walked together to the end of the world.

Ba-bam, ba-bam, ba-bam. We stopped as we reached the mouth of the cave. Darkness stretched so thickly within it that I couldn’t see a thing beyond the next step we had to take.

Ba-bam, ba-bam, ba-bam- the beating of the drums ceased and the stillness it left behind stole the air from my lungs.

I looked at my sister and a faint smile lifted her red lips. This was it.

I almost stepped forward but something called me back and I could feel Montana hesitating too.

I turned my head, pressing my will against our destiny for one last look at the man I loved. He couldn’t follow me here. Once we stepped inside I knew none of them could pursue us.

Montana pressed against the compulsion to continue too and we both looked over our shoulders at the men we loved one last time.

I sucked in a sharp breath as my gaze fell on the scene behind us.

Valentina had arrived with an army of Biters to try and stop us from breaking the curse.

The rest of our group had fallen into battle to defend us from her so that we could go on. Erik was tearing the plain apart with his power over the earth and the air writhed with an unnatural storm in Valentina’s control.

My eyes found Magnar amongst the mayhem, his swords raised high as he carved a path between the Biters who sought to halt our destiny with his immeasurable strength.

My heart seized as I looked at him and for the briefest moment, his gaze caught mine. Pain filled my chest as my love for him overwhelmed me and I ached to turn and run back into his arms. But I couldn’t. It was too late. Our fate called to us and there was no other way on but this.

A tear slid from my eye as I turned away from him and we stepped into the eternal darkness of the cave.

The mountain swallowed us and we delved deeper and deeper into it as the world fell away behind us.

My sister’s hand was tight around mine and I clung to her as the pain of leaving Magnar behind filled me. We had come here for a reason and I wouldn’t turn back from it now. But with each step we took, I couldn’t help but feel like I’d just said goodbye.