Ninety-Seven Dianna

I couldn’t tell if thunder cracked in the distance or if the bones in my hands snapped from the pressure. I groaned, holding the hilt of the dagger with both hands while Kaden and Isaiah tried to push it closer to my chest. We were three unmovable forces, unrelenting and refusing to surrender. Wood cracked beneath my knees, and I gritted my teeth.

My arms shook, and a trickle of moisture ran down my cheek. I thought it was sweat until the iron smell spilled into the air. My nose had started to bleed, and my entire body ached. Isaiah’s eyes bore into mine, and I realized he was using that damn power on me again. I wasn’t going to let them just take me. My will was not to be underestimated, and I wasn’t going down without a fight.

I sneered, blood pooling in my mouth and slipping past my lips. A pop sounded behind my eyes and then another in my ears as my blood vessels began to burst. It wouldn’t matter how strong or powerful I was if it reached my brain. I would be unconscious in seconds.

My beast roared, her body writhing within the confines of my skin. She poured more strength, more power into me, trying to bolster my waning reserves. Wood continued to crack under me, and I sank deeper into the floor as they pushed. The muscles in my arms screamed, and the blade slipped a fraction closer. My chest heaved. One more push, and I was done. Gone.

They were going to win.

I was going to be taken and never see Samkiel again.

“You give me the best memories.”

I had said it that night, and he had. Under stars, on a lake at night with sparklers and moonkrest who were rare and eternal. And now I wouldn’t remember that or the first time he made me laugh. I wouldn’t remember the festival and the face he made the first time he tried cotton candy, my heart fluttering as I laughed—really laughed—for the first time in ages. I wouldn’t remember the photo booth he could barely fit in, that stupid garden at Drake’s, or that damned flower I’d tossed away the first time we fought. That was when I thought he despised me, but I’d stared at it for days as it wilted. I wouldn’t remember the castle he made me when I wanted nothing but to be left alone. I wouldn’t remember the ocean and how I dipped my toes in the edge as he watched, waiting and making sure I did not break. I wouldn’t remember how he healed me or our ice skating and laughing. I wouldn’t remember our small but perfect wedding. I wouldn’t remember what we had, the fights, the laughs, the playfulness. None of it. All of it would be gone and tainted by Kaden. I failed Samkiel like I failed Gabby. I should have told her I loved her more. I should have told him more. Now, I’d never get the chance.

A cry left my lips, a wordless plea playing over in my mind. The blade slipped closer. Even with all my strength, my body was giving out. Blood ran down the blade from my leaking fingertips as I tried to grip it tighter, but Isaiah was causing every blood cell in my body to seize. He pushed even harder, and I couldn’t tell if I was crying or if it was blood flowing from my eyes. A hollow, aching sob tore from my throat.

No. I couldn’t forget. I wouldn’t.

Even as my hands slipped on the hilt, I promised to claw, rip, and tear my way back to Samkiel. I swore it.

My muscles finally seized. A battle lost. My arms dropped. My eyes closed.

“I’ll remember that I love you.”I knew he couldn’t hear me, but I made the vow just in case.

Silence fell, and the world paused. Everything stopped, and I fought to find a way to lock a part of him away in my mind, to choose just one memory for safekeeping. I could save him, revisit it. It was a lifeline for me to hold on to until I made it back to him, because I would make it back to him.

My world. My heart. My lost soul.

A sonic boom broke the silence, so loud and violent that I wondered if the sky was still intact. My eyes snapped open on a gasp. I fell forward and felt control of my body return to me. I tossed my hair out of my face, rubbing my eyes to clear them of the blood and tears so I could see. My mouth dropped open as I sat up, looking around in awe.

It was as if I had been transported to another world. The building I’d been in was gone. Every building had been reduced to ash, a world littered with gray snow. There were no trees, mountains, or living beings. Everything around me was suddenly gone. A residual vivid silver light skittered across the sky where a hole had been punched open. A portal. I took a shaky breath when I noticed that Isaiah and Kaden were gone, nothing left of them but ashes floating on the wind.

And I knew.

“Samkiel.” My voice emerged as a whisper. I knew what this meant. Everyone would know he was alive. She would know he was alive.

I wrapped my arms around myself because I finally understood the stories and the legends. Samkiel never needed the Oblivion blade to be feared. It was clear now why so many bowed, why they chanted, why they followed. Looking around the desolate wasteland that he had created, I finally understood the true nature of his destructive power and why they called him World Ender.