Page 205 of The Dark Mirror

‘You go,’ I cut in. ‘Take the others with you. Jax, get out of here.’

‘With pleasure,’ Jaxon said. ‘I recommend you do the same, Underqueen.’

He shadowed Mistry to the entrance, beckoning his poltergeists. Sukie circled me once more before she raced after her binder. As I regained my breath, I tried again to search the æther. Verca and Maria were now on ground level, but Lesath was below, likely with Arcturus.

‘Paige.’ Nick gripped my arm. ‘Look.’

I looked. Cade was trapped on our side of the floor, without any Rephs to protect him, pouring another salt circle.

Our eyes met.

He tried to get the jump on me, cannoning his spirit out so hard the æther surged. Nick countered his attack with a vision, but Cade sent him crumpling to the ground. That sight was all I needed to spur me, even though the agony was hard to bear. I wrenched into the æther.

And I broke into Cade.

When I had seen his dreamscape in London, I hadn’t had any time to look, and that remained the case. Still, I glimpsed the trunks of trees, red leaves scattered on the ground, before I made towards the light.

There was his dream-form, waiting for me, larger and more imposing than his physical self. It resembled a Reph, down to its eyes. I shunted it out of place, into the gloom beyond his sunlit zone. Before he could recover, I was in control of his body, fighting his resistance. I took one drunken step in his skin, walking him out of the salt circle. A Buzzer smelled fresh meat and came rushing towards him.

Cade kicked me out with frightening ease. Back in my own body, I watched him bowl a spool past the Buzzer, distracting it. As soon as it turned its back, I leapt up and ran at him.

The sheer madness of the sprint must have shocked him. I hurled a fistful of sand into his eyes, making him shout in pain, and then I was in his circle of salt, taking him to the ground. I drove my fist into his face, but I already knew I was no match for him. He must have been training in body as well, protecting the cradle of his gift.

As I knocked one of his back teeth loose, he rolled me over and trapped my arms above my head, the way they had been on the waterboard. My chest tightened.

Cade was too weak to dreamwalk now. In spite of all of his training, our fight had pushed him to the limit. I slammed a knee between his legs. As his grip slackened, I tried and failed to project my spirit one more time. Our tanks were both empty, but Cade was incensed. Before I could stop him, he let go of my right hand and tore the brace off the left one. I knew what he was going to do, and what I couldn’t stop.

When he twisted my wrist, I knew I was finished.

A gut-wrenching scream escaped me. The pain was blinding, beyond anything I had ever felt. My left hand was in boiling oil. As tears streaked my cheeks, the golden cord rang.

‘You know what this is, the feeling we have?’ Cade asked, blood on his lips. Nick let out a groan and reached for me, nearly unconscious. ‘That longing to join with the æther?’

That impossiblewe. I remembered the first time Jaxon had said it, inviting me to belong among voyants.

‘It’s the call of the void,’ Cade ground out. ‘Some amaurotics claim to feel it. That urge to jump from a high place. The belief that you can soar, even though you have no wings.’ I inched my hand towards my boot, trying to ignore the agony that seared along every bone, every finger. ‘But that isn’t the call we hear. You and I have known the void, and we are part of it.’ I sensed his spirit dislocating again. ‘I wish I didn’t have to do this. I don’t want to be alone in the world. But the void is calling, and it’s time for you to answer, Paige.’

He used both hands to grip my throat. That was when I drove my boot knife into his neck, using the wrist he had thought was too weak, the fractured bone that had already died.

‘Not just yet,’ I hissed.

Cade hadn’t been expecting that. It took him a long moment to understand that I had stabbed him. That I had used such an amaurotic ploy in the midst of the spiritual conflict he wanted.

‘I’m not just a dreamwalker,’ I said, my voice straining. ‘I’m a professional fucking lowlife.’

I twisted the knife deeper, wringing a choked gargle from Cade. His spirit might be powerful, but his mortal body could still betray him. Before I could pass out from the pain, I wrenched the blade from his neck and brought it up to finish the job. I could not flinch this time.

An unseen force knocked the knife from my grip. I looked up to see Gomeisa, his gaze set on us.

Cade was yanked towards the pit. I lunged after him, but he levitated over the edge, pulled by the same apport that had disarmed me. He drifted over the battleground, blood dripping in his wake, whipping the Buzzers into a frenzy. I drew my revolver and fired, missing twice before I heard a hollow click. Not even these direstraits could turn me into a sharpshooter. A Reph caught him and carried him away.

I threw away the gun and shoved the knife into my boot. Even if I hadn’t killed Cade outright, I had aimed for the jugular. He would die. And then I would be alone in the world.

Across the Colosseum, the Rephs were at war, clashing with blades and spools alike. Terebell ducked a blow from Castor, who wielded some kind of spear. Kornephoros was still circling them. None of them had a clue that Gilberto Draghetti was about to blow us all into the æther.

I checked my watch. Five minutes left. If I didn’t leave now, I wouldn’t make it.

‘Terebell,’ I shouted. ‘Terebell, we have to go!’

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