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  “No. All these years and I have failed to keep him at bay. I can’t do this alone. I am still weak and new in this body. I am vulnerable to him now.”

  Then there is a price you must pay.

  “I’ll pay it.”

  But do you truly understand what you’ll be giving in exchange? You know so little of this world.

  Talisa didn’t respond.

  Humans are helping you. They don’t even know why, and already they’re swept up in a war that’s bigger than themselves.

  “I do not want them to be involved. I left them behind. I come to you alone because this is my fight.”

  It’s too late. All three of them are already here. In the cave. I feel them now.

  Talisa stiffened. “How?”

  Humans have always been pawns in the war between gods.

  “Let them go.”

  You ask me for protection, and now you ask me for mercy?

  She was desperate. “If I stop him, you will benefit as well.”

  I do not side with anyone in this war. The outcome remains the same for me regardless of who wins in the end.

  Talisa climbed to her feet. “They came here under my protection, they were never yours to take. I will pay your price, but I demand you honor me by releasing them.”

  There was a long silence.

  I will release them.

  Talisa let out a sigh. “Thank you.”

  All but one of them. What you ask for demands a price. Which human shall you choose to sacrifice? Or shall you give yourself to me instead?

  Her eyes widened.

  “No!”

  The voice was faint, but she heard it nevertheless echoing down the rocky path from somewhere higher up in the cave. She turned around to face the direction she had come, and saw a light moving in the distance.

  Then she heard a low chuckle inside her head, and she realized that Darkness was laughing at her.

  Talisa had recognized the voice in the distance, but she couldn’t quite place it. But now she knew that something was wrong.

  As Darkness’ laugh grew louder, Talisa realized she had been a fool. Darkness didn’t want to help her.

  Your salvation has come to greet you.

  Talisa watched the light grow larger and larger. She recognized it as Liam and Noah’s flashlight, but the voice had not come from its carrier. Its carrier was in pursuit of someone else, someone who was quickly advancing on the cavern. Footsteps echoed loudly against the stone floor, growing louder and louder until the sound was almost deafening.

  Talisa raised a hand over her head and a bright light materialized out of the air, crackling like a contained ball of lightning. It cast deep shadows across the cavern and lit up the path leading back toward the cave entrance. She could see a figure running toward her, the source of all the noise.

  Then the noise stopped, and Talisa found herself staring at a straggly-haired, emaciated man, his chest stained red with blood. He stood before her with wide eyes, a look of shock and adulation.

  She stood frozen with her hand stretched overhead. He looked up at the ball of lightning in her hand and she registered a look on his face of...relief? Sadness?

  Then the expression faded into cold determination, and he charged straight toward her.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Liam moved carefully down the smooth path, his gun-wielding hand sliding along the rock wall while keeping the flashlight pointed downward to avoid sudden cliff edges. The shapeshifter wasn’t trying to stay quiet, and his footsteps sounded strangely like claws scraping against stone.

  “Noah!” Liam shouted. “Ellie!”

  He strained to hear their voices, but all he heard was his own echoing back at him.

  Suddenly, his shoes slipped on the slick stone, and he fell, nearly pitching over the edge of a steep ravine. He cried out and grabbed at the wall, wrapping his arms around a stalagmite and clinging to it with all his strength. His flashlight clattered onto the trail above him, and for a terrible moment he was plunged into darkness as the beam turned away from him.

  He felt around with his dangling feet until he brushed the edge of the path and slid slowly back to a standing position.

  He took a deep breath, blindly felt around until he touched hard plastic, and lifted the light. He could see the path now. It turned abruptly in a serpentine pattern toward the main chambers.

  Liam holstered his gun and continued down the path. He heard the shapeshifter scramble ahead, and suddenly the cave opened into a great expanse. He caught a glimpse of him in the light as he ran on the other side of an underground pit.

  “Stop!” Liam shouted. He tried to focus the beam of his flashlight on the man, but there were too many turns and he disappeared into the darkness.

  “There’s nowhere else you can go!” Liam shouted, and his voice echoed strangely from the pit below. “Stop now and turn back!”

  Liam rounded the edge of the pit until he had reached the spot where the shapeshifter had just been standing. The walls began to narrow into a tunnel, and he crouched down low to keep from hitting his head on the ceiling.

  He followed the man for what felt like hours, but was only a few minutes in reality. His heart beat wildly in his chest and his lungs burned.

  Then he turned a corner and saw him. They had come to the end of the tunnel where it opened into a giant chamber. Just as he began to comprehend the enormity of the underground room his flashlight blinked off, leaving him in total darkness.

  Before he could orient himself, a blinding white light pierced his sight. He cried out in pain, trying to shield himself as he struggled to open his eyes. Lights danced along the cave wall, a shimmery blue and white that moved erratically as if charged with electricity.

  It was electricity.

  Talisa stood inside the chamber, her arm stretched overhead. A ball of lightning revolved in mid-air just above her hands.

  She was watching them arrive, and the man was running straight for her.

  “No! Stop!”

  By the time Liam uttered his command, the man was already on top of Talisa. She screamed and Liam pulled his gun out of its holster.

  “Get off her, now!”

  He expected to see blood and carnage, her throat ripped open, her lifeless body on the floor.

  Instead, the man held her in a tight embrace.

  Liam caught Talisa’s face in the light, her eyes wide with surprise, but he couldn’t shoot the man without hitting her too. She slowly lowered her arm, but the ball of lightning stayed suspended in the air. Liam eyed it cautiously, keeping his gun aimed at the man’s head.

  “I said let her go!”

  The man pulled back so he could look directly in Talisa’s eyes, hands still gripping tightly onto her arms.

  “Talisa,” he said softly.

  Talisa looked at him with uncertainty. She studied his face behinds locks of wild hair. He looked eagerly back at her, and for the first time his crazed expression melted away to something more tender. Loyal.

  “Easy now,” Liam warned, shifting position until he could get a lock on the man’s head. “Step away from-”

  Recognition flickered in Talisa’s eyes, and she reached up to touch the man’s face.

  “You are awake, too,” she said.

  Liam stopped.

  Tears rolled down the man’s face. He suddenly looked much younger, a man no older than twenty. “I have been awake for awhile, but I had the misfortune of waking up here. Near It.” He looked up at the vast expanse of darkness overhead.

  “Why didn’t you flee?” Talisa asked.

  The man’s chin trembled and he lowered his face in shame. He sobbed, and Talisa pulled him down into an embrace, his head pressed against her chest. His body melted against hers, shoulders shaking as he cried.

  Liam lowered his gun with uncertainty and tried to catch Talisa’s eyes, but she wouldn’t meet his gaze. She kept her arms wrapped around the man, fingers
tangled in his hair until the sobs finally subsided and he pulled slowly away.

  “I can’t leave,” he told her.

  “I will take you with me.”

  He shook his head, hair flopping against his head. “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “Darkness is inside my mind, and I am Its prisoner. I tried to escape, but now it’s too late.”

  “I can help you- we can help each other.”

  The man nodded. “Yes. I can help you. I can help you with your fight.”

  “What do you know?”

  The man reached up and began pulling at his hair, struggling against a sudden tick. His eyes began to roll, and Talisa reached out to steady him.

  “Darkness knows, and so now I know,” he said, his lips trembling. “You come seeking protection, but you don’t know what you must give up in order to get it. An offering. Darkness always demands an offering.”

  Talisa nodded. “I know, but I will not give It the humans.”

  “You cannot give up yourself.”

  “I don’t know what else to do.”

  “I will give the offering for you,” he said.

  “No,” Talisa shook her head firmly. “I can’t ask you do that-”

  “I must.” He grabbed her arms, and Noah raised his gun again. The man caught himself and quickly let go. “You cannot possibly give Darkness what It wants. I’ve done so many bad things-” he sobbed again and he struggled to control himself. “I’ve been Its prisoner for too long. If I do this, I can help you and I will finally escape this place.”

  Large tears slid silently down Talisa’s face. “But we just found each other.”

  The man embraced her again. They held each other for a long time, her arms wrapped around his neck. Liam watched them, a feeling of unease growing in the pit of his stomach.

  They separated, and this time the man reached up to touch her face. His smile was serene. At peace. “I’m sorry that we didn’t have long,” he said.

  He straightened up, a shadow crossing over his face. Liam recognized that look. He had seen it countless times on criminals on the street just before they tried to do something bad. He saw a glint of metal, but by then it was too late.

  “Wait,” Liam said, stepping forward. “Stop-”

  The man plunged his rusted, blood-stained knife into his own chest. Liam yelled and jumped back. For an agonizing moment nobody spoke. Then the blood began to soak through his tattered shirt, and Talisa let out a strangled sob.

  “It’s okay, Talisa.” His face strained with pain, but his eyes were no longer crazed. He gazed at her with resolved clarity.

  “I didn’t know,” she shook her head. “Please stop-”

  Then the ground began to shake.

  * * *

  Liam’s feet slipped from underneath him and he felt hard rock against his back. The noise was terrible, and he was certain the whole ceiling would come down on him.

  He covered his head with his arms.

  A raw scream filled the air, animalistic and wild. It carried on for a long time, merging with the roar of the earthquake. Liam squeezed his eyes shut, heart pounding in his chest.

  But the sound was already fading. The shaking stopped. All was silent.

  He’d dropped his flashlight in the chaos. From a few feet away, its beam flickered back on, focusing a solid beam of light against the cave wall. He slowly got to his knees and reached for it. He steeled himself before turning the beam around.

  Talisa sat hunched in the center of the cavern, cradling the man in her arms. He lay as if asleep, eyes shut and head hanging with his hair draped against the cave floor.

  As Liam slowly approached them, the man changed. He flickered, hair and features taking on different colors and shapes until they became inhuman all together. He shrank in size and twisted over until he took on his true form.

  A coyote.

  Talisa looked up at Liam, her face streaked with tears. She looked down at the coyote and hugged him one last time, burying her face in the red and brown fur. Then she stood up slowly, leaving him in the middle of the cave, his body a pitiful shape on the hard floor.

  Liam noticed something around her neck. A large rock hanging from a chain.

  He wanted to say something to her, but he couldn’t think of anything.

  She looked up at the cavern ceiling. He followed her gaze, and saw nothing but darkness.

  “Your promise,” she said loudly.

  Then they waited.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Lightning flashed across the late afternoon sky and illuminated the eighteenth-century spanish catholic mission, a beacon amidst a brown sea of sand and brush. The setting sun cast a ray of golden light beneath a blanket of rumbling clouds. White stucco towers stood in sharp contrast to the colorful sky. The byzantine and moorish design once served as a historic symbol of salvation to desert pilgrims risking heat and sun exposure for a new spiritual life. Today, its packed earth and stone structure continued to stand the test of time, retaining its iconic shape while the modern buildings crumbled around it.

  The stranger admired the mission from a distance.

  To the casual passerby, nothing seemed out of the ordinary with a well-dressed man standing respectfully before a well-traveled spiritual destination. He wore a crisply pressed tan suit with a white dress shirt, unbuttoned at the throat. Brown leather shoes donned his feet, remarkably polished against the dirt. Eighteen-carat gold cufflinks glinted at his wrists. A tan trilby perched atop his head, covering black wavy hair and casting a shadow across black eyes.

  He strode purposefully up the path to the front entrance, crossed the patio, and pushed through the heavy wooden door into the building. Candles flickered against the sudden gust of wind, plunging the interior momentarily into darkness before he shut the door and the breeze died down. The flames recovered slowly, casting a warm glow around the room.

  No one else was in the sanctuary.

  He took a moment to look around. Ornate religious carvings and paintings covered the walls, cracked and faded with age. He was not familiar with the Catholic faith, but he recognized the ancient symbols adorning every pew, window, and stone. Images passed down for millennia with ever-changing interpretations.

  He walked slowly down the aisle until he reached the altar, passing empty wooden pews and clay statues. A monstrance sat in the center of the table, gilded rays shimmering in the light. The ancient symbol for the sun had lost its original pagan meaning.

  He knew he had come to the right place. This had been made for him.

  He reached for the monstrance.

  “What are you doing?”

  He dropped his hands and turned around. An elderly man stood in the doorway, white robes slung over his arm. A cross dangled from his neck. Their eyes met, and the priest flinched.

  The stranger stepped down from the altar, his footsteps clicking against the stone floor. “You are the caretaker of this place?” he asked. His baritone voice rumbled through the sanctuary with unexpected volume.

  “I am Father Ignatius.”

  “I believed this to be a place that is always open for worshipers, am I wrong?”

  “This mission is always open to those seeking spiritual guidance.”

  “Yet there is no one here now.”

  “The storm has frightened many away. They will come back.”

  “They could seek salvation here instead.”

  The priest frowned. “It’s a storm, it is better to be with their families in their houses where it’s safe.”

  “Is this house of worship not the safest place in the world?”

  The wind started to whistle loudly against the building’s crevices and rattle the large wooden door. The clouds turned a deep purple as the sun slowly dropped in the horizon.

  Even in his triumph, the stranger felt a momentary twinge of fear. There wasn’t much time left.

  The elderly man didn’t notice th
e setting sun, or anything else happening through the window. “Is something troubling you?” he asked. He absentmindedly fingered the cross hanging heavily around his neck. The stranger’s eyes drifted down to the watch the priest’s movement with irritation.

  “Why do you put so much trust in something you have never seen?” The stranger asked. “Everything around you has been borrowed and taken from other gods. A mosaic of a deity. A lie.”

  The priest dropped his hands in surprise, his face red. “I beg your pardon?”

  The stranger leaned forward. He was already a tall man, but suddenly he felt larger. The elderly man cowered against the door, a mere mortal against a much greater thing.

  “Did your god help you when the Grid fell?” the stranger asked, his white teeth shining in the darkening room.

  “The G-Grid was n-never welcome here to begin with,” the priest gasped.

  The stranger stopped smiling. “Your place of worship is just an empty vessel, a facade as fancy as the art on its walls. But I am here now, and I will fill this vessel as it rightly should be.”

  He grabbed the man by the head. Before the man could cry out, he was already engulfed in a wave of flames. The fire roared loudly, flooding the sanctuary with bright and terrible light. The stranger did not look away, not even as the man screamed in pain and terror, not even after the screams had long died away. He only stopped when there was nothing left but dust and ash, floating softly to the ground.

  The stranger looked back at the altar, the last light of day resting on the monstrance, a star glinting in the sunlight. This was his place now.

  In the distance through the front doors, he saw figures moving in the distance. A family, a clan, he recognized, making their way slowly toward the mission. He smiled.

  Then the sun dipped below the horizon and the stranger faded away until he became solid black, a shadow in the dark, moonless night.

  Chapter Twenty

  Noah felt cold raindrops splash against his face, the water trailing down his cheeks and onto the ground. His wet clothes clung to him like a second skin. The sounds of faint sobs echoed around him. He struggled to open his eyes, but his vision was blurry.