31. Callie

Montana shifted closer to me, her arm brushing against mine as we stood in the face of the god who wanted our lives.

“Yes,” Andvari purred with glee. “Death should pay for life. Don’t you agree?”

“There must be something else,” I protested as my heartbeat thundered in my ears. “Something else you want in place of our lives?”

I refused to accept what he was saying. That we’d come all this way, sacrificed so much, defeated all that was stacked against us just to find the cost of salvation was so high.

“Nothing holds value equal to the souls of sun and moon,” he purred. “It is a high price for the lives of many a foul creature, I will admit. But if you want the curse broken then that is the price.”

His voice held no room for negotiation, no option to offer anything less. He had his sights set on our souls and I knew nothing else would ever be enough to clear this debt.

“No,” I breathed, taking a step back. My life waited for me beyond this mountain, the man I loved, everything I’d ever wanted was just beyond the walls of this infernal cave. How could I abandon all of that when we’d fought so hard to claim it for our own? We’d barely had a taste of freedom and never even sampled safety. Was this really all we got to take from life?

Montana’s eyes slipped to mine, a tear tracking down her face and her gaze filled with a desperate kind of acceptance.

“Not her,” I snarled, pointing at my sister. “She’s already died once for this curse. I won’t let her do it again.”

“Undead is not quite dead,” Andvari commented. “Though her heart has ceased to beat, her soul remains right where it always was.”

“If it’s a soul you want then have mine,” I snarled.

“No!” Montana cried, catching my arm as I took a step towards the god. “I’m already dead, Callie. I’m on borrowed time as it is. He can have me and you can still-”

“As touching and noble as all this talk of sacrificing yourselves to save the other is, that isn’t the price I require. I do not wish for half a payment; your souls are linked to each other’s. You are two halves of the same whole and the price of ending this curse is the complete set. Sun and Moon.”

“No deal,” I growled, pushing Montana back a step. I refused to let him have her. She was too good to die like that. She was the kind one, the forgiving, honest, sacrificing one. And she’d given too much to this already. I wasn’t going to let her die in this hole beneath the ground for the sake of some curse which was never our responsibility to begin with.

“You may be interested to know your time is running short if you wish to save your friends,” Andvari murmured.

The huge mirror behind him rippled like it was made of water and suddenly I was looking at Magnar as he was slammed into the mud by the fury of Valentina’s storm. Lightning struck him again and again and his cries of pain cleaved my heart in two.

Erik appeared a moment later, hurling lumps of earth through the air with the full force of his gifts but a swarm of Biters fired on him with rifles and he was knocked from his feet, blood flying.

A choked sob escaped Montana’s lips and she pressed a hand to her mouth to stifle it.

Clarice, Julius, Fabian and Chickoa fought valiantly side by side at the entrance to the cave but the numbers were vastly against them and it was only a matter of time before their ranks would break and they would be overwhelmed.

“How about a sweetener?” Andvari asked as the vision faded and the mirror returned to pale glass, though nothing was reflected back to us in it.

“What?” I breathed, a lump forming in my throat as I scrambled to think of any way out of this that didn’t end with my sister’s death.

“I will give each of your immortal friends one extra minute in the clutches of the curse. That way, when all those who stand against them find themselves human once more, they will have the time to cut through them before their own transformation occurs. It would be a shame for them to return to humanity just in time to die at the hands of an enraged army after all.”

Andvari smiled wickedly and it felt as though an icy hand was gripping my heart.

I looked at my sister with tears welling in my eyes. How could I agree to him taking her soul? But if I didn’t then what? Even if we could leave this cave we’d be killed by the army waiting for us outside. At least this way we could save the people we loved. And if I had to die for anything then I knew in my heart it would be that.

“We’ll be together?” Montana asked. “Wherever you take us?”

“Yes,” Andvari purred eagerly. “Your souls are useless apart. I will keep you together for all of eternity, though you may wish in the end that I hadn’t.”

My lower lip started trembling at his words. He wanted our souls for some foul reason of his own design and I couldn’t begin to imagine what it might be. But despite the fear coursing through me, I knew that we had no choice. I would give my life for Magnar. For Erik, the man my sister loved. For humanity and the chance for the world to heal again.

Montana took my other hand and as I looked into her eyes, my tears came flooding past the last of my defences.

I would make this sacrifice ten times over if I could spare her from the same fate.

“Then we are agreed?” Andvari asked eagerly. He swept closer, his breath washing over my skin as my pulse thundered in my ears, desperate to beat as many times as possible before it had to stop.

I didn’t look at the cruel god, refusing to allow his face to be the last thing I saw in this unforgiving world.

I kept my eyes on my sister instead, clinging onto her hands like they were all that kept me rooted to this spot.

“Yes,” we breathed as one and Andvari reached out to place a hand upon our shoulders.

Montana’s eyes widened with wonder as the vampire curse was stripped from her and her features returned to their beautiful human imperfection. Her cheeks flushed with colour as her heart started beating and mine slammed against my ribs almost painfully too.

Her return to life only lasted half a second before I felt the chill of Andvari’s grip on my shoulder slipping beneath my flesh.

I gasped, taking my final breath as his fist closed around something deep within me and the tightness of his grip seemed likely to suffocate everything that made me who I was.

I reached for Montana in a way that was anything but physical as he plucked our souls from our bodies and the flesh which had once housed us tumbled to the floor of the cave.

Darkness prevailed, filled with pain and loss and longing but somewhere amongst it I found her, crying out to be united with me one final time.

My soul clung to hers with a desperate, aching need and for one last moment, I fell into her embrace before the arms of death stole even that from us.

And we were no more.