Grave Dance (Alex Craft, #2)(132)

No. She couldn’t merge realities.

But she was.

I struggled against the spel , fought to stop dancing. To stil myself. My body continued twisting and jumping.

Beyond the circle, the gray man and the raver fought the dragon, jerking souls free one after the other, but the construct didn’t shrink. A leap and swirl in the dance turned me away from Edana so I couldn’t see the spreading rift.

But I could see the reaper. His whip snaked outward, wrapping around Death’s neck. Death winced, but grabbed the length of the whip, holding it immobile as the reaper tried to jerk him forward. Death held his ground, not budging.

Then magic slammed into his back.

Death toppled forward, fal ing to his knees. A woman’s laugh twined with the pipe music. I couldn’t see Edana, but I could see the thick black lines of the spel she’d hurled. A spel with lines not only slamming magic into Death but pul ing something out of him as wel .

His essence.

“You’re exactly what we need,” she said, and the dance turned me, bringing her into view again.

turned me, bringing her into view again.

“Stop. Leave him alone!”

She glanced at me. “You’l have your own time to fuel the spel . Be patient.”

I swal owed. Falin and I were both part of the spel now. I could see him in my peripheral vision, stil whole and alive.

The spel holding us was kil ing us slowly. Whatever she was doing to Death was draining him fast.

I have to stop her.

Grave essence leached off the fal en dancers’ bodies, the magic their souls had generated fil ed the air, and Aetheric energy shot through al of it. The gap had spread, the bodies closest to the center of the circle rotting away as the land of the dead touched them. Aetheric energy swirled in the air, dark tendrils wrapping around Edana as if she’d plugged herself into the very fabric of the magic realm.

I forced my shields wider, opening myself to everything, blocking nothing. The chil of the grave rushed into my body, but there was more magic to be had than just grave essence. I drew it in indiscriminately, pul ing power until my skin felt ready to burst. Then I let it explode out of me, hurtling toward Edana.

She wasn’t a corpse, so my power couldn’t sink into her, or jerk her soul free of her body. It slid over her skin, her life and her shields protecting her. No. I had to do something. I had to.

Fred had told me that when the world decayed I’d have to do what was against my nature. According to Kyran, my nature was to weave reality together, but I could also shove it apart. So that’s what I did.

I shoved.

With everything I had inside me, I shoved at the realities converging around Edana. I started at her skin, pushing outward. As it had when I’d been in the shadow court, reality buckled and then moved under my magic’s touch. I poured more power into the effort, thrusting with my magic.

The enchanted pipes slipped out of Edana’s hands as The enchanted pipes slipped out of Edana’s hands as though she could no longer hold them, and the music stopped.

I tumbled to the ground, my legs col apsing under me. My whole body shook, a darkening light-headedness threatening behind my eyes. Stil I pushed with my power.

Layers of reality peeled away from Edana, leaving an area like a giant bubble around her clear of everything but mortal reality.

The spel draining Death fizzled out of existence. He slumped forward, and I released the power channeling through me. I tried to climb to my feet, but al my limbs were numb, too heavy, too slow. A scream interrupted the sound of my teeth chattering.

Edana backed through the gap she’d opened, and the bubble I’d created moved with her. Layers of reality pushed aside, bunching around the tear. As they fel back into place, the already tenuous gap snapped closed, reality righting itself everywhere except the bubble I’d created around her.

Edana screamed again, stil backing away. “No! What have you done? What have you done?”

The reaper dropped the whip, letting it fal to the grass as he ran toward her. “Love, what is it?” he asked and then stopped short three feet away. Right on the edge of the bubble.

He couldn’t pass. His reality didn’t exist around her.

He pounded on the empty air. “No! What’s happening?”

As Edana lifted hands suddenly withered and liverspotted to her rapidly wrinkling face, I wondered the same thing. Before my eyes, she aged until her back bent and her skin turned paper thin around a skeletal frame.

Then she crumbled, turning to dust.

I swal owed. I’d cut her off from al realities, al magics.

Even Faerie. And changelings relied on Faerie’s magic to keep their years from catching up with them. Soon al that was left of Edana was a dim, sickly yel ow ghost standing in was left of Edana was a dim, sickly yel ow ghost standing in the middle of a dead spot. But the land of the dead didn’t exist in the bubble, and her energy dissipated as she tried to retain a sense of herself.

Then she faded from sight.

“No!” the reaper yel ed, stil pushing on the bubble of reality. Then he spun around to face me. “You.” His eyes were hard, fierce, and if I could have backed away, I would have. But my body stil wasn’t working.

The reaper stormed toward me, the air crackling around him. “You did this. You took her away from me.” He lunged for me, his fist slamming into—and through—my chest wal .