This was it.
My last stand.
My mind hung in a cold, dark space far removed from the fear that coursed through my veins or the hunger that poured from my Eclipse nature in an endless torrent. The grim calculus was obvious. There were too many enemies coming for me, and eventually they would wear me down and rip me limb from limb.
If I couldn’t win, then I’d make the monsters pay for killing me. I’d hold them until Abi and the Portal Defense Force could seal the gate between worlds.
I could do that.
That was enough.
I sank into my Eclipse Warrior nature. I felt the hunger bubble up within me like poison gas. I didn’t fight it or try to control it. This was what I was meant to do. It was the reason I’d been born, and I finally understood that. My core, aura, and blade were all in perfect unison. I was as ready as I’d ever be.
The first wave of hungry spirits slammed into me, and Thief’s Shield technique devoured them. The shattered armor tumbled away from the wisps of their bodies and crashed into their allies. The next rank stepped up and I sheared through their chitinous blades with my fusion blade.
My Eclipse nature transformed me into a tornado of destruction. My weapon carved through spirit bodies, while my Shield technique consumed their sacred energy and twisted their aspects to harden my aura. In this strange and alien world, I’d become more than I’d ever thought possible.
It was a terrible thing to behold.
My blade killed spirits on contact. It devoured their jinsei and stole their aspects. No sooner did an enemy come near me than it was consumed and its remains cast aside.
I was an untouchable god of death.
That power, though, had a price. The unrestrained dark urge consumed any spirit who touched my aura or was touched by my blade. It fed a constant stream of jinsei into my core, pushing it to its limits. The pain from an overfull core threatened to overwhelm me, and I pushed as much of it as I could into my body’s channels. I became stronger and faster than ever before.
Much stronger and faster than my body could stand. My channels were overloading, and the jinsei they couldn’t contain burned through my flesh like acid. That damage couldn’t be healed by jinsei, and as the battle wore on, it would only become more serious.
But I couldn’t stop. While I was up and fighting, the spirits wouldn’t get past me. They couldn’t reach Earth.
That was all that mattered.
I felt a gentle touch across the throbbing ache of my core and recognized the tingling sensation from the moments before Abi and the others had arrived. It must have been Clem and Rachel helping anchor the portal to my core. That meant Abi had gotten through to his people. They knew where I was. They’d find the gate. If I kept fighting and held the gap for just a bit longer, they could close the gateway forever.
Then, I wouldn’t have to fight anymore.
The fight melted into a timeless slough of burst bodies and jinsei. Time had no meaning in the heart of darkness, and survival was the only thing that mattered. My channels burned, so overloaded with sacred energy they glowed through my skin.
And, then, the spirits retreated. They pulled back from the fray and set up a perimeter around me.
I had no idea what they were up to, but I knew it wouldn’t be good.
The Truth
THE LOCUST COURT HAD given up on getting past my choke point and had called in the big guns.
The army of spirits split down the middle to reveal a group of the Lost. The pale figures advanced toward me with determined strides, their black eyes fixed on mine with a hypnotic intensity. Their hands were wreathed in black fire and the ground smoked where their feet touched it.
“You cannot stop this,” their leader said. She was more muscular and taller than the rest, her physical presence the most imposing of all the Lost I’d seen so far. “We are the inevitable price of betrayal, and the Empyreals must pay what is owed.”
I wasn’t in the mood to start this song and dance again. In the next few minutes, the portal between this world and the Far Horizon would close forever. Spending eternity debating what I could or could not do wasn’t my idea of fun.
“I’ve already been over this,” I shot back. “Whatever you’re selling, I’m not buying.”
“I can take you to your mother,” the tall woman said. “Right now. You can make sure she’s safe while we deal with the betrayers.”
The offer hit me like a bucket of ice water.
“You don’t know where she is.” It was a trick. There was no way it could be true. The Lost hadn’t even been on Earth before I was born. They’d been here, trapped on the wrong side of the Far Horizon.
“We do,” she said. “Eve and I were friends, Jace. Long before you were born. I was called Larissa then. Now I am simply First among the Lost. Come with me, and your mother will be happy to tell you the truth.”
It couldn’t be true.
Niddhog had told me the Utter War had ended a hundred years ago. That would make my mother much, much older than she looked. I couldn’t see how that was even possible. Only the most advanced practitioners could slow their aging and extend their lives for centuries.
Memories of my mother’s strength flashed through my thoughts like blasts of lightning. She’d taught me to fight despite my broken core. She’d healed my shattered hand at the tournament. She’d somehow designed the machina...
The truth crashed through my thoughts like
