I shake my head. “No. Gravesend is a newborn. She needs to live long enough to grow that muscle. If anyone kills her now, she won’t ever resurrect.”
“Luna won’t either,” Iris says. “If we can save the phoenix, we will, but if we can’t, we must do what has to be done. You’re not calling the shots here, Emil. Especially not after you were ready to walk. But we do need you to fight alongside us.”
It would be easier if I walked away from this battle. To spend tonight tracking my brother. “No lie, there have been times the past few days where I was hoping for a quick death. But what I want is a long life, and I know I can’t have that if Luna lives forever.”
Wesley nods. “It’s what we all want, but I hear you. We got to grow into our roles, and you were pulled out of home suddenly. Honestly, I’m surprised you’ve stayed in for this long.”
“This is the fight of our lives,” Iris says. “If we don’t move now, the sacrifices of everyone we’ve lost will have been for absolutely nothing.”
If we lose, Luna can rise to power, and alchemists everywhere will stop at nothing to figure out her formula. And if they succeed, we’ll have a world that’s overrun with immortals fighting beyond the end of time.
We leave home.
During the ride over, we gear up in power-proof vests Iris had packed away. I wonder how much stronger I could be if I hadn’t been cut up by the infinity-ender, but I’ll take what I can get. During stoplights, Prudencia tests the elevated strength of her telekinesis out the window—lifting a parked motorcycle, knocking over a trash can. She’s proud and hopeful, and I wish I felt the same.
We reach the Alpha Church of New Life. It isn’t massive, but it’s impressive. The bricks are dark gray with steeples as blue as Gravesend’s feathers. We’re spotted immediately when we get out of the car, and a sniper in the building next door fires a rapid bolt at me, which Prudencia sweeps away. Wesley takes the lead, faster than ever, and lays out acolytes left and right like a game of pinball, and he bursts through the front door. We run inside and there are murals of various creatures. It’s refreshing to see them illustrated so peacefully and living their lives out in nature instead of the usual, like three-headed hydras viciously attacking cities or basilisks swallowing children whole or shifters deceiving loved ones or phoenixes being drowned.
I blast open a large door that leads us into the garden, and there they all are. Luna is in a ceremonial cape that drapes down to the floor, standing beside Anklin Prince. Stanton, June, and Dione are all dressed in gray jumpsuits with half a dozen acolytes surrounding them. Thankfully, there’s no shield like the one in the cemetery.
Luna turns her back on us, muttering a prayer as she swings a massive scythe over the hydra’s neck. The hydra roars in pain, and Stanton holds it down as Luna hacks away, yellow blood spraying and pooling into a metallic cauldron. Gravesend is screeching in her cage. We all break. June appears behind me and wraps her arms around my chest, kneeing me in the back repeatedly. I cast my fiery wings and take flight, shaking June off, and she crashes to the floor. I fly straight to Anklin as he twists open the urn, but a bolt from an acolyte’s wand blasts me in the center of my vest. My world spins as I’m flipping toward the bronze spikes of the gate—suddenly I’m jerked in midair and fall into a cluster of bushes.
“That was close,” Prudencia says as she helps me up. Before I can thank her, we see Iris being cornered by Dione and Stanton. “I’ll do what I can.”
“Be careful!” I shout as she runs off.
I knock out an acolyte with a fire-dart and fight past others trying to reach Luna. The ghosts have been released from the urn, and even though their mouths are moving, no words are coming out. It’s the same howl as the night from the cemetery, except even more haunting and bone-chillingly empty. Everyone feels it too, but the battle keeps going. Luna isn’t looking to capture this time. She’s going to kill them with a dagger fully made of bone. I’m hurling a fire-orb when an acolyte tackles me, screwing up my aim.
Luna is swift as she runs the oblivion dagger across the necks of her mother and father, their gray blood spilling into the cauldron before their ghostly bodies fall face-first into the grass and fade away. She mixes the bloods with powders and liquids I don’t know, and she turns to Gravesend’s cage.
I finally wrestle the acolyte off me, and as Stanton charges me, a red bolt catches him in his side and he drops, his skin flaring as if being burned from the inside. I turn.
Brighton is standing at the entrance of the garden with a wand in each hand, and Maribelle has orbs of dark yellow fire rolling around her palms. The fire-orbs fly like arrows, and Dione drops to the ground.
I’m in shock, but I have to protect Gravesend. Anklin blocks my path, and I fight him like I’ve been doing this my entire life—punch to the gut, elbow to the chin, kick to the knee. I’m about to wind up a final blow when he quickly withdraws a dagger and slices my arm. Anklin holds the dagger above his head, and as he’s driving it down, he’s set ablaze.
Roaring streams of dark yellow fire flow from Maribelle’s fists, and she doesn’t let up until Anklin Prince’s screams go quiet.
There is no remorse on her face as she helps me up.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You killed him,” I say.
“She’s next,” Maribelle says as she spots June across the garden and pursues her.
Luna opens Gravesend’s cage, but I cast a fire-arrow into her shoulder, and she falls. I grab Gravesend out of her cage, holding her to my chest. Even with Brighton and Maribelle joining the battle, the tides are turning against us. Stanton and Dione have recovered and appear more vicious than ever. The potion is nearly done, and all it needs is Gravesend’s pure blood.
I pick up the infinity-ender. “I’m sorry,” I say to Gravesend as she looks up at me with adoring eyes. I was the first person she saw when she was born, and I have to sacrifice her for a world she never got to see.
This is wrong, I can’t—
The blade is snatched out of my hand, and Luna drives it straight into Gravesend’s heart while she’s still in my arms. Gravesend’s brief cry sounds like all the pain in the world. I’m staring into her eyes as the fire goes out, and I’m completely frozen when Luna rips the blade out of Gravesend and stabs me in the stomach. The pain blazes as she twists the blade. She wrenches Gravesend out of my arms, and I slam on my back, staring up at the Crowned Dreamer, whose brilliant light fades from me as my eyes close.
I hear screams all around me, and I’m hoping my people are all good. I want them to run and hide—this is all a done deal. I pull the infinity-ender out of my stomach and press down on my wound while trying to breathe. I look up to find Luna draining Gravesend’s dark blue blood over the cauldron. I’m too weak to call for help—every breath needs to be used to stay alive. Luna takes a step back from the cauldron and throws in a pouch of stardust, and it all erupts in see-through flames that smell of rainy evenings in the park and houses on fire. Luna is shaking as she scoops up enough potion to fill a round bottle that looks like an empty snow globe. The elixir looks like dirty seawater.
Red bolts strike through the air, blowing apart the cauldron and flying through Luna’s stomach. Her eyes widen, and she falls to the floor, choking. Elixir splashes out of her bottle, but she’s protected most of it. I try crawling to her. I’ll spill it out myself and turn my back on Luna as she dies.