Page 291 of The Ascended
Reality tore open.
It started as a single point of absolute nothing—the most vicious, soulless, black. Then it spread, a jagged wound clawing its way open. I stumbled, my eyes darting towards Thatcher. He was backed up, creating space between himself and the emptiness.
“This is the space between realms.”
It was the endless dark, the vast expanse where somewhere, the other three pantheons might be waiting among the cosmos. This was the hungry absence that had swallowed three-quarters of divinity during the Sundering.
And it wanted in.
The tear widened, edges fractaling and reaching. I felt its pull. It wanted to unmake things, to drag them under and scatter them.
"What did you do?" I screamed at Moros's dispersing form.
That terrible laughter echoed from everywhere and nowhere. "I opened a door. And your brother helped."
The pull intensified. Chunks of dissolving temple fell upward into nothing. But it wasn't random. The wound had chosen its meal.
It wanted Thatcher.
His feet slid across the stone as the pull focused on him. He tried to anchor himself, tried to use his power, but what living matter was there to manipulate? His abilities, so mighty against flesh and blood, found no purchase on this wound in existence.
I dove for him, our hands clasping just as his feet left the ground. The hunger pulled at him with inexorable force.
"Hold on!" Stellar fire blazed around us both as I tried to anchor us to reality. My power fought against the nothing, insisting we existed, that we mattered, that we would not go gentle into absolute night. "I've got you!"
But the expanse didn't just want Thatcher—it needed him. I felt my grip slipping, felt him being drawn toward that terrible absence.
Let go,he sent, mental voice calm despite everything.You'll be pulled in too. Save yourself.
Never!I poured everything into holding on—starlight, divine strength, mortal stubbornness, and twenty-six years of love.We stick together! Always! That's what we promised!
Some promises can't be kept, Thais.
This one can! This one will!
Laughter echoed from nowhere and everywhere—Moros's voice, bodiless but still present, dispersed but not destroyed. "If I cannot have him here, I'll have him somewhere else."
"No!" I dug feet into cracking stone, felt it dissolve beneath the strain. My fingers were going numb, starlight flickering as the hunger of the Abyss began eating at me too.
“When you ruined my initial plan, I had to form another.”
Thatcher's hand slipped another inch. Another. His gaze met mine—wide with knowledge of what was coming. Not fear. Never fear, not from him. Just sadness—a wretched, terrible grief that spread across his golden eyes.
Tell them what happened here,he sent.Tell them about Moros. About the other realms. About the breach between worlds. Tell them they need to prepare.
Tell them yourself!Tears streamed down my face.We're getting out of this! We always do!
Not this time.I love you, Thais. I won’t go down without a fight. I’ll be waiting for you.
Don't you dare say goodbye to me!
His hands slipped from mine.
"Thatcher!"
I lunged forward, fingertips brushing his as he fell backward. Our eyes met across the threshold. I saw him mouth three words—then the tear snapped shut with predator's jaws.
"No, no, no." Stellar fire sparked uselessly from my fingers, trying to tear open a wound that had already healed. "Come back. Please come back. You can't—we had a plan—we were supposed to do this together—we were supposed to…"
