the canyon. It seemed so big and vast and expansive. A world wonder. At the time it had filled her with awe.

This, on the other hand, filled her with fear because she knew what it was.

The Void.

And Darrak was nowhere to be seen.

Theo was right. It was too late.

No, damn it, it wasn’t! She’d just heard him. She couldn’t have missed him by mere seconds. Life wasn’t that unfair.

“Darrak!” she yelled. “Where are you? Answer me!”

TWENTY-ONE

The sound of her voice brought Darrak’s memories back so forcefully it almost made him lose his already shaky grip on the side of the cliff.

The redhead.

Eden.

Terrific. Now he was hallucinating. In his last moments of existence, he thought of her. Not a huge surprise, really. After all, she was the only thing in the universe he cared about.

She’d be proud he’d made the right decision about the kids. So selfless. So unlike him. It almost made him smile.

Demon-angel, the wraiths called him.

This, too, came back to him now at the end of everything. He’d thought there was some hidden meaning, but it was exactly as they’d said. The wraiths sensed both demon and angel in him because that was exactly what he was.

It was his angel side, the annoyingly do-gooder side, that had shifted his morals enough to make his final decision — sacrifice himself rather than take a job that would force him to hurt others.

He didn’t want to hurt anyone. Now he wanted to help them.

The demon side of him thought this was all kinds of lame.

Darrak was the ultimate teeter-totter of good and evil. Black and white. He’d fought it from the beginning. He refused to accept that he’d been tainted with humanity, let alone celestial energy. The two sides of himself had remained apart like oil and water. It was what had caused him the tearing pain when Eden had shifted those parts of him a bit too close together. They hadn’t wanted that.

He hadn’t wanted that.

It was clear to him now: The decision had always been in his hands. The pain resulted from his failure to accept that he’d changed.

But he had. And that the change had come because of Eden — well, that made it a good change as far as he was concerned. He could accept this now at the end of his existence. He was a demon-angel, filled with equal parts light and dark.

So be it.

He felt something fill him then, easing his tense muscles and relaxing his mind. The peace of accepting who he was, once and for all. Even if it was just for a moment before he ceased to exist.

Embrace your inner freak, Darrak thought. For better or for worse.

At the moment, it looked like it was for the worse. The Void wasn’t going anywhere but down. And down.

He’d thought Eden had destroyed him by giving him her celestial energy, but she hadn’t destroyed him. Instead she had made him better than he was before.

If only he’d realized this sooner.

“There you go, Eden,” he whispered. “You did make me a better man after all. Thank you for that.”

An animal howled in the distance. Great.

Well, any hellbeast sniffing around for scraps would be out of luck very soon. Nothing to see here. Move along.

“Where are you?” Eden’s apparition yelled again. “Darrak! Say something! Say anything!”

He already missed her so much. “Good-bye, Eden.”

Some of the cement fell away as his grip loosened. Only seconds now.

But then a hand reached down and grabbed tightly onto his wrist. With surprise, he looked up into the most beautiful face he’d ever seen.

Her green eyes were filled with tears and she smiled down at him. “There you are, you jerk!”

He guessed he’d memorized her face perfectly because this apparition was as real as they came. Or maybe it was her angel side coming to visit him in his last moments. He almost expected to see white fluffy wings stretch out behind her.

Sharp nails dug into his skin. “Darrak! Snap out of it!”

He blinked. “Wait a minute, you — you’re not an angelic apparition?”

“Not the last time I checked. What the hell do you think you’re doing right now?”

“Oh, you know.” He glanced at the bottomless drop below him. “Just hanging around.”

Determination filled her gaze. “I won’t let you fall.”

He snorted. “You’re going to pull me out of the mouth of the Void.”

“That was my general plan, yes.”

This earned a full laugh. “I’m imagining you right now. Or maybe that damn entity is using your face to mess with me some more.”

Eden’s fingers dug hard into his arm as she grappled for a tighter hold on him, but he slipped a few inches farther down. “Darrak, I’m really here. I came to the Netherworld to find you before it was too late. What you see is what you get.”

This was impossible. “Tell me something to make this real. It can’t be real.”

She hissed out a breath of frustration, but then locked gazes with him. “I’m here because losing you made me realize I don’t want to live without you. Ever. I love you more than anything, Darrak, and I want to be with you forever, no matter what the future brings. Now pull your ass out of that goddamned Void right now!”

It hit him like a monster-sized fist. This was real. He didn’t know how, but Eden was here.

And she loved him.

Hope flooded through him, and it gave him enough strength to grab hold of her. Enough strength to fight against the pull the Void had on him.

He spoke through gritted teeth. “Just for the record, you’re crazy for doing this.”

“Less talking, demon. More climbing. Come on!”

He braced his feet against the side of the cliff, and began dragging himself upward, fighting with every ounce of his strength against the Void’s tight grip on him. Finally, he breached the edge of the cliff, gasping from the effort.

He looked back at where he’d come from. That was close. That was so unbelievably close.

“Darrak… we did it!” Her voice was filled with pure joy and relief.

A smile spread over his face and he turned to look at her, to take her in his arms and never let her go. They made it. He survived and it was all thanks to her.

But then Eden shrieked and suddenly she was being dragged backward from him. He scrambled to grab hold of her but she was pulled out of his reach.

He leapt to his feet. “Eden, no!”

The wraiths had returned, and they surrounded Eden in shadows.

“My magic…” Eden managed. “I can’t use it…”

Wraiths leeched any sort of power from their victim. Made it easier for them to ensnare their prey.

Вы читаете That Old Black Magic
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