Page 227 of Of Nine So Bold

I scoffed with disgust. “Idid.”

He made a thoughtful sound. “We’ll see.”

Temper flaring, I turned to him. “I grewbeyondmy world, Alaric. That’s the truth of it. And your ridiculous nitpicking won’t change the fact I crushed you into nothing when I?—”

Light flickered at the corner of my eye.

“I think you’ll find, pet, that you haven’t wonquiteyet. Look.”

My gaze followed to where he pointed.

In the distance, an eight-pointed star glimmered. A light as bright and clear as a diamond shone at its heart.

“She’s still fighting you,” Alaric commented. “The Nine all are.”

“How?” The word tore from me like a growled curse. “The voidtookher. She couldn’t survive that.Noneof them could.”

“And yet.” He gestured like the truth was self-explanatory.

Fury stole my words.

Alaric only chuckled. “Vampires are our creation, pet. Brought back to some semblance of life and thus made into vessels for us, same as the orcs or harpies or shifters whose species had once died out only to have us resurrect them. Enough of our power exists within them to let them last a fraction longer in the emptiness than most—a fact I once used to my advantage whenyouwere thrown into the void, if you recall. Besides, there are worldswithinworlds, and the Nine are oneunto themselves. Over and over, they acted to create the realitytheythought should be, until they bent their very world around them. It happens like that sometimes in these petty little realms. Someone rises up so high, they start to embody the energy of the realm itself. But… ” He smiled. “That doesn’t mean they can’t be broken—and through them, break everything.”

“But I alreadydidthat,” I snarled.

“Almost. Would you like to see how it truly ends?”

He started forward. Seething, I trailed him.

Gwyneira’s little star began to take on definition, revealing the glowing forms of her little band of irritants standing on a ghostly remnant of the world I’d destroyed. At their back, a hint of dull light shone, like a memory of the portal I’d opened. Vines of my power still extended from it, growing out into the darkness.

But all around the pathetic Nine, fragments of light drifted like she and her men were on the edge of disintegrating into dust and snow.

Alaric smiled to see it. “Remember what I once told you, pet. The Nine aren’t this world’s salvation.” His soulless eyes met mine, and his metallic teeth glinted in the dying light. “They are its downfall.”

59

GWYNEIRA

At the heart of oblivion, we were nearly gone. A ghostly scrap of dirt remained beneath our feet, as ephemeral as a dream. A shadow of the portal was at our backs, like a painting so sapped by time, the details had disappeared. Vines choked it, blocking our path and pulsing like they were draining the lifeblood of our realm. Our protection given by the Wall of Erenelle was eroding like glittering sand beneath a brutal wind.

And beyond us was only endless night.

“Stay together,” Dex said, scanning the darkness.

Lars nodded. “We’ll find a way out of this.”

His optimism was welcome—but I had no idea how to do that. Our bonds were holding for the moment, but the darkness before us had a weight, and it was intent upon crushing us like glass.

And we weren’t alone.

My breath caught at the realization. My senses wanted to rebel against this void. Everything in me wanted to run screaming from the dark. But horror riveted me here, watching the emptiness with the sudden knowledge something slithered in the void. Some great and hungrythingthat knew exactly where we were.

And it was coming closer.

It was watching us as it writhed toward our position like an enormous snake twisting through the night, hissing mad words that chased themselves round and around without end.

Corruption is power is poison is victory is hunger is…

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