Chapter Thirty-Four

About an hour later, a Wraith Lord army stood concealed within the forest just beyond the Corrupter's ward. The plan was for me to test the charm by taking my team into the Corrupter's fortress first. If it worked, we'd capture the Corrupter, and I would . . . free him. In private. Hopefully, I could get in the mood.

How would I keep the Corrupter from escaping? I was going to use his own weapons against him. We still had a pair of his magic-suppressing manacles. I would slap them on the Corrupter as soon as I saw him. That would take care of a host of problems, including the ward around his fortress. With his magic suppressed, the ward should go down, allowing our army to fade in. If that didn't work, I could always return and fade in the rest of the army with the pendant.

Of course, our plan relied on Aranren keeping the pendant a secret from Death and the Corrupter. But if anyone could do that, it was Ara.

"Are you ready, Ember?" General Ranor asked as he stepped up beside me. His stare went from me to the misty ward and back.

"Yes." I clasped hands with my men. I pictured the bedroom I had stayed in and aimed my fade at it.

Seconds later, we stood in the luxurious room.

"Holy shit," Keltyr whispered. "It actually worked."

"Now, we just have to find him," I whispered. "Without alerting Death."

I crept into the corridor and down to the next door—Aranren's room. I didn't expect the Corrupter to be in there, but I had to be sure. I opened the door and checked if he was inside. To my surprise, I found him lying on his bed, turned on his side, facing away from the door. I widened my eyes at the men and pointed at the bed. They nodded, and we crept into the room. Using Air Magic, I lifted the manacles silently from my hand and sent them hovering toward the Corrupter.

Careful to not make a sound, I followed the manacles while the others waited near the door. A foot away from the bed, the Corrupter turned toward me. But it wasn't the Corrupter. It was Ara. His face was red and puffy, his eyes swollen from crying, and he sniffed, sounding like a child. Then he saw me.

"Ember!" he whispered.

"Oh, fuck," Xae growled as he and the others spread out around the bed.

Ara sat up, his stare going to the manacles that hovered before him. Eyes widening in comprehension, he held out his wrists. "Hurry!"

I didn't hesitate. Air blasted the manacles forward, and Ara lifted his wrists into them. Seconds after they locked around him, a roar came from all around us.

Aranren shot to his feet. "We need to leave! Now!"

I lurched for Ara, but before I could reach him, Death pulled his shadow-man trick, forming between us.

"He's mine!" Death said.

"No, he isn't!" I shouted back. "And you are fucking powerless without him, aren't you?"

My men stood to either side of me, swords drawn, though there was no one physical to fight. They looked from me to Death in dawning realization. It was as Taroc said—the Corrupter was Death's door into our world. And we had just slammed the door in Death's shadow-face. Xae growled in the way of a pleased predator who had cornered his prey at last.

"Those manacles may suppress my magic, but they can't keep me out," Death said.

"Ember!" Ara cried.

"Ara!" I tried to dash around the shadow, but it only shifted with me.

Even as I danced with Death, Aranren succumbed. It took only seconds for Death to submerge him again.

"I am more than magic," the Corrupter said. "These manacles are a temporary obstacle." Then he shouted, "To me!"

Death stepped aside, revealing his puppet.

"I'll free him," I vowed. "You know I can!"

"Go ahead. I will only reclaim him. There is nowhere you can take Aranren that I will not find him," Death said. "Nowhere safe from me, Ember."

"Oh, yes, there is," Rath said. To me, he said, "Take him to the citadel, Ember."

"The citadel?!" Keltyr asked. "That's the fucking Corrupter!"

"I'll take him to the Emperor," I said.

"You can't take him there either. Not like that."

"Then I'll free him first."

I gathered Spirit, but before I could send forth my wraith, Death slammed into me, but my wards were back up and they were stronger than ever. He screeched as he bounced off them.

"You were fools to come here," the Corrupter said. "Now, I will have more Wraith Lord meat for my experiments." He swiveled his cold stare to me. "Soon, you will be the one in chains, my love. But don't worry, you won't need them for long."

Then footsteps came from the corridor. Shouts. The Wraith Lords had arrived. Once the ward was lowered, they would have faded directly to the fortress. And the Corrupted wouldn't stop them. They probably weren't corrupted anymore.

But it wasn't the Corrupted who burst into the room. It was the undead.

"Fuck!" I cursed.

"Some spells remain whether their caster is empowered or not," Death said smugly. "And I think you know that I've always been the one in control of the dead. I only needed Aranren to forge the link."

Xae, Rath, Kel, and Taroc weren't taken by surprise. They'd been prepared for anything, and immediately spun to fight the dead. But one slipped past them, heading for Ara. The Corrupter couldn't remove the manacles, but Death could—through the undead.

"No, you fucking don't!" I pulled my sword and beheaded the corpse with one blow.

It was an amazing swing. So amazing that I gaped at the body as it crawled toward me.

"Ember!" Rath shouted. "Get the Corrupter out of here!"

I turned to face Death. The shadow-man had thinned into a wall of shadows, separating me from the Corrupter. But they didn't scare me anymore. I had been consumed by him and escaped. He had just tried to reclaim me and failed. Spirit protected me. And Spirit would help me free the man I loved.

"Fuck you, you traitorous bastard," I said to Death and dove right through his belly.

Death condensed around me. He tried to enter my mouth, ears, and even eyes. He pushed into my very pores. But there was no way in for him, especially when Spirit was blasting through me. My wraith—the dark, freeing one—flew ahead of me, empowered by love. Not just my love. Even buried under Death, Ara sensed that I fought for him. That I was trying to free him. He clawed his way up to me, rising on the wings of his will, and sent his love through the bones. When it met my wraith, the bone cage shattered. It crumbled even easier than before, as if it had been weakened by its last failure. Seconds was all it took for me to free Aranren this time.

Death roared.

I burst through the shadows and right into Ara's open arms.

"My Ember," he whispered as he clung to me. "You came back for me."

"Always, Ara." I faded us away with one last shout, "I have him!"