Immortal Consequences(107)

Masika flinched. “What difference? Dammit, Irene. Don’t you get it? You’re selfish and cruel and manipulative. You’ve broken my heart more times than I can count and you’ve smiled while you’ve done it. And yet despite all of that, despite the cruelty you wear and the pain you inflict on others…you are my friend.”

A gust of wind blew through Irene’s hair, washing the side of her face in a blanket of darkness. Her eyes welled with tears, hands trembling by her side. She opened her mouth as if to say something, and then she simply turned back to face the arch, stepped through it, and vanished into thin air.

Silence swept over the clearing in a devastating blow. Masika’s eyes were glued to the space where Irene had been standing only seconds earlier. Her glassy eyes were wide, jaw slack. For a moment, Olivier was certain she would collapse onto her knees and break down completely, but then something changed.

She wiped the tears from her eyes. She inhaled a long and steadying breath.

When she turned back to look at them, the sadness was gone. The only thing left was a stone-cold look of resolve.

“She’s right,” Masika said. “We should get this over with.”

The others began to cross, one by one.

Carter was first, silently approaching one of the arches. Olivier shivered at the look in his eyes. It was the look of someone who had accepted their fate. A look of pure surrender. He didn’t utter a single word before disappearing into his arch.

Josie wiped the cascading tears from her cheeks as she hugged Emilio. “I…I can’t do this.”

“You can.” Emilio placed his hands on her shoulders. “I know you can.”

She gave him one final hug before facing the next arch. A shaky exhale escaped her lips as she turned to look at the rest of them, a broken smile on her face.

“Good luck.”

And then she crossed through, disappearing into thin air.

August and Wren were next. Olivier had expected some dramatic last conversation between the two of them, one final clash…but there was nothing. They simply stared at one another for a prolonged moment, silence reverberating in the space between them. And then they turned toward the next two arches in unison and vanished.

Olivier glanced between Masika and Emilio.

“Well.” He cleared his throat. “I suppose it’s our turn.”

Masika lifted the corner of her mouth into a sorrowful smile. “This isn’t goodbye. We could still make it to the last trial.”

“I know, but…” Olivier didn’t need to say the words out loud. They knew.

Even if they survived this trial…only one of them would make it to the very end.

Emilio let out a shuddering breath. “I wish…I thought…” He looked between the two of them and shook his head. “I don’t know how to do this.”

“It’s okay. You don’t have to.” Masika inhaled a sharp breath. “I’ll go first.”

She walked up to the next arch, eyes narrowed, and paused at the threshold. Her breath quickened, her chest rising and falling as though she was on the brink of panic. When she glanced over her shoulder, Olivier had the sudden urge to run up and stop her. To grab her by the shoulders and pull her back to safety.

“If this is the last time we speak to one another,” she said, a rueful smile forming on her lips, “then I just want to say I’m glad we became…unfortunate acquaintances. It wasn’t a lot of time, but…it was enough.”

She walked through the arch before either of them could respond.

Olivier bit back the sob fighting its way up his throat. He turned to look at Emilio and found his own desperation mirrored in his eyes. They stared at one another, neither of them moving, neither of them even daring to breathe.

“Emilio.” Olivier whispered his name, clinging to it with divine reverence. He swore under his breath as he struggled to find the right words, cursing his own inadequacy. His hands trembled with fear and anticipation—with the possibility of ripping open a seal that he should never have closed.

A paralyzing silence engulfed them. Emilio’s expression shifted from pained to anguished as he cupped Olivier’s face in his hands, pressing their foreheads together with delicate care.

“I know,” Emilio whispered. The two words sank into Olivier’s chest and cracked him open.

They pulled away from one another, eyes locked in a dizzying moment of uncertainty.

But terror had hardened Olivier into stone. He couldn’t move. He could only stare at Emilio, at the warmth of his eyes, and pray that the love he had for Emilio would be enough to freeze time over.

“We should go,” Emilio whispered, breaking the spell. Olivier nodded through the pain.

They approached the final two arches. A sharp, overwhelming feeling struck Olivier in the chest. It was like water rushing down his throat, panic seeping into his lungs.

Emilio glanced up at him. “See you at Bonestrod?”

Olivier nodded, the words he wanted to speak lost within the panic. Swept away by the current.

And then, with one final breath, they crossed through the arches and the world around them dissolved.

49

Irene

Irene was beginning to think she might freeze to death before the Decennial had any chance of destroying her. She’d stumbled into a never-ending tundra, nothing but snow and ice and jagged mountains dotting the horizon. It was a startling transition—so much open space after years and years of nothing but Blackwood. She wasn’t sure how to wrap her head around it. Knowing there was more to purgatory than just the walls of the academy.