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I smiled at Xavier, Cameron standing between us, cerulean blood trickling to the floor and pooling between his feet. Cameron’s sword clattered to the floor, and he grabbed at his abdomen.
“Careful, don’t drop your organs,” I said. I shifted my weight and kicked Cameron with enough force to send him flying over the balcony.
Xavier didn’t hesitate or spare me a glance. He was on his feet in an instant and running toward the railing. With no hesitation, he jumped over the balcony after his fallen friend.
Movement behind me had me turning right as Imogen’s blond head popped up. A large gash marred her forehead, but her skull must have healed enough for her to function. She glared at me, cobalt blood running from her temple and down the side of her face. She looked behind me where Cameron and Xavier had fallen, anger, pure and vicious, twisting her features.
“Boys and their swords, am I right?” I smiled and slung the blood from my blade as she summoned an ablaze weapon of pure silver.
“You will not leave here alive,” Imogen said and came for me.
“Oh, I think I will.” I grabbed the vial between my breasts and lifted it. Imogen stopped, unsure of what I held and what I meant to do with it. Her eyes followed my movements as I spoke the incantation and dripped two drops of blood on the floor. The room darkened and bent, a tear forming before me, a swirling hole of stars and galaxies staring back at me.
I waved at Imogen and said, “We’ll catch up later.” I stepped inside and felt the darkness press against me like a lover.
Imogen’s scream of denial was the last thing I heard before the rift closed.
Nineteen
Dianna
I placed my hands on my knees, trying to keep my lunch from coming back up. Blowing out a breath, I stood. Fucking vortexes. I would never get used to them. I summoned the forsaken blade to my ring and spun, taking in the swirling room. It looked just as it had when Samkiel brought me here, but I had a feeling that things didn’t change much in Roccurem’s little pocket of the universe. Stars whizzed by, the colors ranging from dark purple to an array of greens and pinks. An entire galaxy existed in this one room, but the scenery was not what I’d come for.
“Roccurem!” I shouted. “Come out, come out, wherever you are!”
I stepped forward, my nails elongating as I scraped them across the neighboring sky. It shimmered and bent as if trying to twist away, and I smiled.
“Please, do stop that. It is painful.”
I lifted my nails, inspecting the darkened material that clung to them. I watched it crumble and float away before turning toward Roccurem.
“So, this place holds you and is made from you. Interesting.”
The matter that made the room swirled around his lower half like a thick coat blowing in the wind. He floated a few feet from me, his three faceless heads spinning.
“Queen of Yejedin.”
“I hate that name.”
“Daughter of—”
“Stop.” I held up my hand. “Can we skip the names? It’s stupid.”
One of those three heads paused and jerked as if he laughed before resuming a counterclockwise rotation.
“You made it to me here without the World Ender. You are learning, and you are,” his heads stilled and seemed to stare at me, “evolving.”
“Thanks, I thought so too.” I clasped my hands behind my back and smiled, baring my sharp canines.
“You are here to end me as well, I suppose. For the death of the one you call sister.”
I nodded and rocked back on my heels. “Smart creature.”
“And how do you plan to accomplish such a task when the gods themselves could not extinguish me?”
I moved faster than even he could track, grabbing the swirling mass by his throat and lifting him. “I am a big believer that with the right pressure, anything,” I squeezed and felt his body vibrate, “can break.”
His three heads did not falter nor look away from me, but a swirling mass of hands grabbed at mine. A shimmer of a star blinked behind him, drawing my attention. It flickered, beckoning me like a signal to a ship lost at sea. I felt the need to stop for the first time since her death. Strange.
