Dace as a teen, the very first day he laid eyes on me.
Dace as the beast, calling on every scrap of what remained of his will to spare me from his drive to kill.
His love for me matched only by my love for him—I leave him with a piece of my soul and slowly extricate myself.
Finding myself back in my body only to discover the world is still dark.
My ancestors are gone.
And Dace is lying inert before me.
I’ve failed.
Truly failed.
Nothing left to do now but wait for the end.
The thought leaving me strangely still and bereft—until Dace drags a long inhale and pulls me into his arms.
FORTY-THREE
XOTICHL
The second the world falls dark, Auden clasps tightly to my hand and we fall into a state of communal stunned silence.
There’s no need to speak, when we both know what it means.
Daire is dead.
The beast has won.
The dark days have dawned.
And our lives are over before they had a chance to really get started.
Though, for Auden and me, our lives were in jeopardy well before that.
“Auden, I—” I want to share my regret at not being able to see how the Richters were manipulating us all this time, when I notice a sliver of space opening up all around him.
At first it’s subtle. No more than a glimmer. Though it’s not long before it expands into a glorious nimbus of light that circles around him. Stretching and pulling at the edges until he’s completely illuminated.
“Auden,” I whisper. “You’re glowing! Can you see it?”
“Are you serious? I can’t even see my own hand.” He raises it between us and wiggles his fingers to illustrate his point.
“Wait—” I fall silent for a handful of seconds, long enough to see if my suspicions are right.
“Xotichl, what is it?” He squeezes my fingers, but the glow is now gone and I can no longer see him.
“If I’m not mistaken, I think I might’ve just found a way to get us out of here.” The sound of my voice bouncing off Auden’s form causes him to light up again, confirming I’m right. “It’s kind of like echolocation, except instead of sensing the sound wave of the object before me, I can actually see what’s before me.”
“You can see me? Now? Seriously?”
“I can’t see you in perfect detail, but I can definitely determine it’s you. You know, when I first started seeing Paloma, I asked her to show me how to do it, especially when we discovered I was guided by Bat. But Paloma said she could d
o me even better, and taught me how to rely on my blindsight. And yet, ever since my vision returned, my blindsight was lost. Until now.”
“What do you think changed?”