Page 121 of A Kingdom of Monsters

I knew the curse had lifted, knew we were free at last…

But somehow, I’d never been more miserable. More caged. More alone.

“No…” I heard myself say. “No! She’s coming back.”

I was so sure that my throat didn’t even twinge. Lonnie would be back. She was the fucking Source. She had the power of Aisling, and fire couldn’t kill her.

“She’ll be back,” I said again, just to reiterate the point.

Ambrose turned to look at me. His face looked shattered. Dead. He’d turned as white as his hair, and while his eyes were focusing on me, they weren’t really seeing me. “She won’t,” he said, tonelessly.

“Shut up!” I barked, moving toward the edge where Lonnie had jumped. I looked down and tried to make out anything other than churning molten lava and smoke. “She’s coming back.”

This time, my throat burned and I realized with a sickening jolt that I was becoming less sure by the second.

“No, she’s not,” Ambrose said again.

“After everything this is the end? I don’t fucking accept that. Bring her back!” I shouted at the Source, my voice echoing across the mountains so loud I was sure even the fucking gods could hear me. “Bring her back you fucking evil?—”

My voice cracked.

I swallowed the lump that was beginning to form in my throat. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d cried. Perhaps never. But the fact that I could access that depth of emotion now, only because she was gone…

I didn’t believe it.

This couldn’t be happening. She wouldn’t have done this. Wouldn’t have left us all like this.

I looked at my brother, desperately. “What happened? What happens to her now?”

He shook his head, his eyes glazing over as if he were staring at something so far in the distance he couldn’t make it out. “I don’t?—”

“Don’t fucking tell me you don’t know!” I raged. “You know everything! Tell me what happens to her!”

“Nothing!” He lunged forward at me, screaming in my face. “Nothing happens to her! Nothing happens to us! This is how it ends.”

I shook my head, disbelieving. Uncomprehending. “That’s not right. That can’t be right.”

“Yes, it can,” he said, his voice dark and furious. “Lonnie is gone so she can’t be blocking me, yet I see nothing after this. That means we die here. There is no future after this.”

A new wave of darkness settled over me. All my newfound senses were dull. Muted. Taken over by this malignant presence hovering over me.

That presence was death, I thought vaguely. It had come to collect Lonnie and settled over all of us. Waiting. Biding it’s time until we joined it willingly just to be near here again.

And I would, I realized. I’d follow her whether I jumped into that volcano or not, I was already dead.

I might be immortal, but I was not living. She was my entire life, and now I’d die with her.

I stood there for a long moment. It might have been an hour for all I knew. And then, vaguely, I noticed that Bael had said nothing since his initial roar of shock. Not a single word.

I looked over at him, not precisely curious. I wasn’t sure if I could feel curious ever again, but just…searching.

Bael had reverted back to his human shape. His clothes had gone the way of his lion form and he was kneeling naked on the rocky ground, his eyes closed.

“What are you doing?” I asked him. He didn’t move and I spoke louder, striding toward him. “What are you doing?”

Bael's voice was flat, almost tranquil and he didn’t open his eyes as he answered. “Praying.”

My face twisted in anger and I scoffed. “Are you fucking serious? You’re praying?”

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