Chapter 55

MAEVE

I'm in Hell.Is this what the place is like? The stench from the burned-out recruits adds to the acrid taste in my mouth. Only the fiery pits are missing but there's a faint smell of smoke too.

Nobody else in this theatre moves.

Hell.

The shadows submerge Andrei, clouded around him as he lies beside Gabriella who's on her side, facing away from me. Has Andrei killed Gabriella? Has he killed the others?

Tobias. Jamie. Ash. Every one of them lie on the stage, unmoving. Tobias isn't far, on the boards between Jamie and I as if moving to help him. Ash hasn't left the spot he landed before, or Jamie shifted from where I made the heart-rending decision to leave him and challenge Andrei. Through the remnants of shadows still with me, I can't make out whether they're bloodied or burned. Or dead.

The shadows whispered to me to let them go the moment Ash first fell, urging that they could end the threat. But beneath everything, Andrei still existed. How could I unleash them when I'd no idea what they might do to him?

My hesitation in giving the shadows their freedom cost lives.

I drag both hands down my face, whirling around in a circle, figuring out where to start. Who to check first. How to get us out of here.

Tears choke through the shock. No. The guys are not dead. They can't be.

But this is the end of the First's game where we never knew the rules or how to win.

"What the fuck are you doing?" The First's voice carries from the balcony, and I drag hands covered in residual shadows through my hair, drawing a sharp, shocked breath. "What. Is. This?" the creature continues.

I stumble backwards as the First appears on the stage in front of me but at a distance I never expected, the killing blow not happening. My mouth parts at her appearance. The First's dressed as if for a visit to the original theatre in one of my dresses. The one I wore when I visited the dragons with Ash.

Ash. I choke another sob and glance back. No movement.

"Why isn't Gabriella dead?" the First snarls.

"She isn't?"

"Not properly! She's a hemia vamp. Her heart needs removing." The creature glares. "You stopped Andrei, but why didn't you kill her, Maeve? Didn't you see the hybrids? What she's planning?"

"Why didn't you?" I shout. "Why are we even here?"

"Because you all have to die otherwise everything goes wrong!"

"If they're dead, you kill Gabriella now," I scream.

The First never once intended to kill Gabriella herself. Gifting Andrei her power, knowing how much it would take to kill the Dominion leader and take us down too, guaranteed something the creature threatened us with.

Collateral damage.

Andrei's First-fuelled magnitude drew too much from the world. He swatted the new recruits like flies, but Gabriella drank from the First's pure blood. Not as much as Andrei because she'd other plans for its use, but enough to set her apart from the rest of us. Only Andrei held the power to end her life.

The First knew we'd never face Gabriella alone. That every one of her enemies would gather together in support and die if Andrei killed her. I picture the First's smugness the day in the kitchen: ensuring the threads of connections and that the future plays out as planned takes hard work.

"Was this the plan all along?" I shout at her. "Why not just kill us weeks ago rather than play your stupid fucking game?"

The First sneers. "Haven't you figured that out? Andrei needs to kill Gabriella. Today. I can't change that without changing the future."

"And what if we'd decided not to kill Gabriella because we wanted to change our lives?"

"As if you'd allow hybrids to exist and humans to die?" The First smiles. "There was never any risk once you discovered that part of the present and future."

"But Andrei stopped so your future's now changed. You ‘gifted' him power and intensified everything within him. That included his need to keep me safe, and prompt fury against anybody who hurt me." I tip my chin. "And the shadows stopped him. You never saw that in your future, did you? Maeve Winterfall and the shadows."

The First snarls. "I'll deal with the obstacles."

"Then why aren't you?" I ask. As I move closer, the First steps back. The creature is worried about shadows. "Why don't you kill me?" I ask, and the creature bares its teeth. "Because you can't, can you? Not now the shadows are with me. You lost."

I steel myself as the fury ignites behind the First's eyes, holding my ground as her power magnifies but doesn't touch me.

Slowly, the First claps its hands. "Bravo, witch, you won and changed the future but what will this cost you?"

"Not my life."

"You think the shadows would bend to your will? That you'll survive them when they turn on you?" The creature's disdain grows at the doubt in my eyes, and it points at Andrei. "And do you believe that he won't turn you one day before your mind is gone? You do know that future sighted witches who interfere too much in that future lose touch with their new reality?" The First taps her lips. "Oh, wait. You do. Your aunt."

"Not everybody," I snap back. "I'm different. Stronger. I changed the future once."

Nothing I say fazes the First or changes the smugness. "This has nothing to do with strength, Maeve. Do you know how your aunt predicted him massacring your family?" The First jerks its head at Tobias.

"A vision."

"And where did that vision come from? The woman's too confused to remember but I'll tell you. The day your aunt had the vision of the Winterfall deaths is the day she'd visited the shadow realm in your father's stupid attempts to push the boundaries of life and death." The First bites away a smile. "The shadows gave her the vision that changed a future and killed a part of her mind. Like your aunt's, this shadow-altered future will splinter your mind."

"More lies."

"Ask your father. He'll tell you it's the truth."

I clench my teeth, refusing to show a reaction.

"Andrei's intense, unbreakable desire to keep you safe interfered today but he's still useful." The First's eyes glint. "The ultimate way for my creation to protect the girl he'd tear the world apart for? Turn you before you lose yourself to madness."

I take calming breaths, the First's heartbeat thudding in my ears as it has since I first detected the presence beneath the academy. I've achieved what I wanted tonight. Changed the future. Proved that the shadows have an effect on the First. That the creature can't kill me. But why aren't the shadows helping by attacking the First like they did Andrei?

"We're going to end you," I whisper. "The answer how to exists in more than grimoires. We'll find that answer and trap you. Forever."

The First scoffs at me. "We? Do you mean you, your shadows, and your dead lovers?"

"They're not dead," I say. "I stopped Andrei's magic in time."

The First pauses. "Not yet." The upended world steadies a little. The guys are alive. "But they're incapacitated, and you can't help them all."

"You underestimated me and still do."

"Your shadows and magic?" The First smirks. "That didn't help the remaining Blackwoods that night. Can you smell something?"

Nothing but the cool darkness of the surrounding shadows. I wave a hand as if they're annoying flies I'm swatting away, then inhale deeply.

The faint scent I imagined earlier is now heavy with the smell of wood with a pungent chemical tinge. Smoke. But I imagined that? "Have you set fire to the building?" I choke out.

"Pay attention, Maeve. Did I or did I not say you all needed to die tonight? Considering the small chance this would not play out as I expected, I needed a less magical back-up plan. The idea worked against the Blackwoods, seems fitting to use fire to kill the Winterfall." Again, the smile as the First twists a strand of hair around a finger, smiling coyly. "But, I'll allow you to play one final game since you've already screwed up the future. Hunt your way to the one exit I've left for you."

"What?" I ask hoarsely.

"And choose who to take with you." The First wrinkles her nose. "If you can carry any of them."

Now aware, the smell of the fire thickens in the air around, a soft glow in the balcony recesses flaring into vibrant orange, the flames casting dark shapes across the walls as if bringing more shadows.

Not shadows. Smoke.

The First points at the beams cracking over the balcony. "Old building. A lot of wood. Disturbingly flammable." It smirks. "I'm leaving. Fire won't hurt me, but I do rather like the dress I chose tonight and wouldn't want to spoil it."

I seal my lips, mind racing towards my next move, but I'm paralysed where to go. What to do. Whether this fucking creature is about to give me a clue in its latest game.

"Where's the exit?" I shout.

The First taps its lips. "Andrei, perhaps he'll survive the shadows and the fire, but I can't be sure. I've never set fire to one of my creations. The shifter walked in and out of a fire once, didn't he? I saw him leave the burning cottage the day you took me from Ione. Although, this would be a much bigger blaze. Now, Tobias…" The creature pulls a non-committal face and shrugs. "Who knows, but to be honest, I never liked the guy."

But I've already turned away from the First, on my knees beside Andrei. The First won't give clues how to escape; I'm wasting time. Andrei's First-gifted superiority can help. If Andrei's still alive beneath the shadows, he's our biggest chance we'll survive.

"Andrei! We need to get everybody out!" I push at the thick cloud of shadows swallowing him. "Let him go now. Please."

The curtains surrounding the balcony ignite, the metal burning bright white as the flames course through the theatre. Thick grey billows downwards until I've no idea whether shadows or smoke fill the stage.

"Let Andrei go! Come back to me!" I gasp in a breath and drag at the shadow's cold tendrils.

The shadows don't budge.

I scream at them, clawing at my hair instead, grasping at what to do next. Pulling my jacket upwards across my mouth and nose, I crawl across the stage, feeling my way in the direction of where Tobias lies. My eyes sting with smoke and tears, throat burning as I reach out into the smog, unable to feel anything but the wood that's ripe to burn.

As I inhale smoke not oxygen, my lungs burn, and my mind retreats into confusion and terror as I lose control of my limbs.

What's the point in changing a future none of us will live to see?

I collapse forward towards oblivion, sinking into death's calming embrace as if someone wrapped their arms around my aching chest and lifted me from the nightmare and into the next world.