Page 65 of Ascendent
He turned.
There were new bodies behind him, rising from the ash.
Ten of the eleven men who had beaten him at Andreapol faced him. They stared him down. Glared. Hissed. Curled their lips. Spat.Pidor. Goluboi. Huisos. Grebanyy pedik. Their dead hands curled into fists. Blood squeezed from their fingers, fell like rain to the snow.
His soul curled around itself, convulsed. Blood appeared on its face, dripping from its eyes, its mouth. A crack in its side appeared, right where Sasha’s new spleen was. Like something had shattered the ice. His soul fell face-first into the ash and snow.
Someone new pushed through the line of his former wing mates, his attackers. He pushed aside quivering, still snowflakes and strode to stand in front of Sasha. He wore a Russian army uniform. His rank insignia read sergeant—
His soul screamed louder, sharper than ever before.
Sasha fell to his knees. He couldn’t move.Never again.He’d sworn, never again. He said he’d never see him again. He said he’d die first. He swore he’d kill himself before he saw his recruit training sergeant again.
His sergeant smirked. Reached for his fly—
Sasha. Kilaqqi’s voice appeared in his mind, rose out of his bones. He could hear him as if Sasha had thought the words, but he hadn’t. He couldn’t think. He couldn’t do anything. He was frozen, just like before, and his sergeant was getting closer.Never, ever again—
Sasha, these are the demons holding your soul. They’ve trapped your soul down here. If you want it back, you must free yourself.
“How?” He trembled. His sergeant stepped closer. Undid his zipper.
This is the land where all things die. Where everything ends.
His soul wailed. Its icy fists pounded the snow. “No,” he heard his own voice whimper. “Please.”
You have the power of the tundra within you, Sasha. You have the blood of the bear in your veins. Your spirit walks in the shape of the bear. You are lucky, for bear is the strongest of all the animals. They are the warriors of the heavens. Gods that fear nothing.
His sergeant reached for him as one hand dug into his pants, reached for his—
“No,” Sasha growled.
He lunged.
Bear spirit erupted from him, leaping out of his bones, his skin. The shape of Bear was carved from starlight, and the moonlit fur of her hide burned throughout the dead lands. She stood on his hind legs and roared at his sergeant, bellowed into his face. Bear’s claws, made of iron from the center of the oldest star, slashed completely through his sergeant’s skull.
His sergeant’s body hit the ground and burst into ash. Scattered across the desolate lands.
Raging, Bear turned to his old wing mates, his former squadron, the ones who had attacked him. She charged and launched at the phantoms of his former friends. Bear took out two with her jaws, snapping their necks. Another three went down under her massive paws, her brutal claws. The rest tried to run. Bear chased each down, brought them to the ground. Ripped out their spines and crushed their skulls.
In the end, their corpses turned to dust and snow, to piles of nothingness, and blew away on the wind.
Bear padded back to Sasha. She lifted her chin, shouted to the sky. As she drew closer, the stars of Bear’s fur seemed to brighten, their blaze growing, until Sasha had to squint and close his eyes. A flash, and—
Bear was gone.
A perfect snowflake in the shape of a star rested in Sasha’s palm.
“Sasha?”
He turned. His frozen soul stared up from its frightened kneel. Its blank face, the smooth ice, stared into him.
Sasha held out his hand, held out the star. “We’re going to be okay now,” he said. “Never again. I promise.”
His soul hesitated.
“Come with me.” Sasha kneeled. “I need you. I’ll take care of you this time.”
Another hesitation. His soul seemed to stare into him, the sightless, faceless ice somehow gazing deep within, picking him apart like Bear had dug for his bones. Sasha stayed still. He left himself open.
