Chapter Twenty-Six

Fear slammed into my heart. Ara and I clutched each other like children. Lost children in the dark. But unlike children, our fear was justified.

"Conspiring are we, my pupils?" Death sneered. "Plotting to free yourselves? As if I haven't given you the greatest freedom there is!"

"I was only testing him," Aranren said, his voice shifting into the one he used when he was the Corrupter. "And Ember has passed. He refuses to be swayed."

"Now, you dare to lie to me, Aranren?" Death's voice went, well, deadly. "All these centuries, and I have tried only to give you what you need, what you desire. I have given you Ember—the chance to gain his love, just as you begged me for. And what do you do? You tell him to fight me! You betray me! You were supposed to seduce him and bind yourself to him. You were supposed to make him love you!"

"I have seduced him! We are lovers. I was gaining his trust." Aranren stood up, glaring at the air before him. "I have never betrayed you."

"Stop lying to me!" Death roared.

I got up and took Ara's hand. It trembled in my grip. I looked at him, then squared my shoulders, and said, "We don't belong to you, you bastard! Get out!"

Ara gaped at me, then his grip tightened, and he shouted, "Get out of me!"

Death went silent. It felt as if the whole world did. But inside me, a battle raged. I felt Death dive through my mind and then slam against my soul. There were pieces of me that he couldn't touch, only submerge. Cage. His bones lay over my soul, but not within it. And there lay my strength. Our strength.

"Remember who you are, Ara," I said. "He can't touch your soul. That's why you still rise when he leaves you, even after all of these years. You are still you within his cage. He is the interloped, and that means you can take back your mind!"

Aranren nodded, his stare determined.

The sky went dark. The world vanished. It was just Ara and I, standing on a vast field of black. I knew this place. I had seen it once before when we fought. And it was once again a battlefield. But this time, we were on the same side. Fighting the same evil. And we were both imprisoned by it.

My vision was framed by the eye sockets of a skull and the view I had was of Ara's face behind a mask of bone. As I watched, the determination faded from his eyes, his expression going slack.

"No!" I shouted. "Fight him, Ara! Your will is stronger than his magic!"

"But not stronger than my will," Death said, his voice deeper and more resonant. It rumbled through me, shaking and shaking until my will crumbled. "I was generous and allowed the time to fall in love naturally, but you spat upon my generosity and betrayed me. Now, I shall not be so kind."

I screamed as I fell to my knees. Ara remained standing but didn't release me. He held my hands as Death took me again, going deeper this time, pushing the real Ember down until I was only a puppet in a bone cage.

When I looked up at Ara again, he was smiling, and so was I.