Damien turned back. “Did he just—”
Then Kellan yelled in our heads, “SHAY!”
Damien and I both jumped. We’d forgotten for a brief second.
“Kellan, where are you?” I asked.
“In the back.”
We took off.
The house was still emptying, and people ran in every direction, including the backyard. A crowd had formed when we got there, and we pushed through.
At the front I could see two floating black veils of mist trading blows. Kellan was still non-corporeal.
“What are you doing?” I asked him.
“How do you kill it?” Damien added.
“I can’t.”
“What? Why not?” I demanded.
The thinner black mist swerved, and the larger black mist countered. They weren’t forming hands, just bunches of black mist as they hit each other.
“What is that?” Damien shrieked.
I could feel Kellan’s reluctance, but I was losing patience. “Kellan!”
He sighed. “It’s me.”
“What?” Damien squawked out loud before flushing, rolling his eyes, and asking in our heads, “What?”
“My father lied to me. He got me to cross the boundary to the Underworld so a part of my darkness could separate from me.”
My mouth dropped. “Wha…”
Damien said, “Okay. What can we do now?”
“I have no idea.” Kellan struck again.
The black mist dodged but then stopped and turned. I felt its attention, and it shrieked in all of our heads. “YOU!”
“Oh, fuck.” Damien mumbled.
The black mist lunged for me, zipping in a flash.
I stepped back as Kellan roared, “NO!”
From there, three things happened at once.
There was a giant BOOM.
Kellan lunged forward, toward himself.
And I threw up my hands, not knowing what to do.
Blinding light erupted from me.
I felt it leaving my body—soul, hands, arms, and every inch of me. I closed my eyes as it happened.
Then there was silence.
Sweet, blissful silence, and I cracked an eye open…not seeing anything at first. Blinding white light spread all around. I felt like I was inside a cloud.
“Kellan?”
Silence.
“Damien?”
Silence.
Oh no.
“Welcome.”
I didn’t know who said that, but I felt a strange sense of familiarity. Out of the white mist, a form came forward.
I frowned.
It was, well, a he-she. He was male, but he was also female, and they smiled at me.
“I am you, Shay.”
“Me?”
They nodded, such kindness coming from them. “We are you. We are your messenger spirit. You have extracted us to defend yourself against a part of your soulmate’s darkness.
“It’ll be fine. We are stronger than your soulmate’s darkness—at least this one that got loose from him. As we are speaking, he is binding his darkness back to himself. You are helping him. We are helping him, because he didn’t know this could happen. We are instructing him.
I felt a pinch in my chest.
“That’s the binding. It is coming into your soul bond. There’s no other way.”
“What’s happening exactly?” I asked.
“Your mate has neglected his darkness for too long, but it’s a part of him. He’s tried to live among the humans as you do. It is hard on him. A portion of him suffers, and he’s begun to unravel on the inside. His father felt it happening, took advantage, and helped move forward more unraveling. Your mate’s darkness can do the father’s bidding, and that bidding is to destroy you. With you gone, he’ll get his son back, but he’s not aware of the ramifications if that ever happens.”
I swallowed hard. That didn’t sound good. “What are those ramifications?”
“Total destruction of the universe.”
Oh…okay then.
“Your bond is woven too deep. If you were to be extinguished, Kellan’s pain would be too much. He wouldn’t return to his father, as is assumed. He would destroy everything. The pain would be intolerable, and yes, your soulmate is powerful enough to bring about the destruction of the universe. His power would be unmatched, except by a few.”
“I didn’t know Kellan was that powerful.”
“He’s a full demon, but he grows more powerful the longer he is bound to you. He has woven your bond so tightly that if you were ever killed, he would take all of your power. You both have pockets of strength that neither of you is aware of. He would seek those pockets and empty them. It would be enough to end the universe.”
My head swam with all this information, and the figure broke off into two parts. One female. The other male. The male stepped forward, and both spoke out loud at the same time. “We are both you: the feminine and the masculine. We are your pure goodness and your celestial spirit. We are here to guide you, instruct you, and protect you. We are you, but we are your human guides as well. We are all-knowing. The binding is almost done. We will join with you again, but to prevent this from happening again, your soulmate must be allowed to be himself. To deny oneself is to starve oneself. The universe survives on both sides of the pendulum. Each side needs to fulfill its destiny.”
“What does that mean...?” I trailed off.
There was another flash of light and a sudden burst of wind. It came at me all at once. I felt like a part of me had been stretched thin to stand apart, and now I was whole again.
I opened my eyes, finding myself once again in the backyard of Damien’s fraternity house, but it wasn’t Kellan staring at me. Or at least, it wasn’t the Kellan I knew.
Panic lurched up in me, seizing my throat. “What just happened?”
A DOUBLY EVIL KELLAN
I raced against time, chasing after myself, after Shay, and then time stopped.
He’d made a lunge for her, intent on shredding her from the inside out, when she threw up a hand, and everything paused.
I fell back, feeling the force of her power as it seeped into me—both of me—and a pure essence materialized. It was Shay’s soul. I was held immobile. My other self was held paralyzed, and a needle appeared, much like the scythe that had appeared to me in the Underworld. Glowing light from Shay’s essence began to weave the separated thread into me, her light helping to infuse it.
It burned into my soul as the needle moved in and out. In and out.
This wasn’t entirely Shay, but it was her, joining the separation back to me with herself attached. The pain of her essence helped return that thread to me, not by its own spirit, but with her power infused.
It was painful, like surgery without anesthesia, but in the end, this extra power from her seeped into my being. I couldn’t explain it, but I had so much power, I was engulfed in it. It was everywhere. In me. Behind me. In front of me. Above. Beneath.
It stretched as far as the world I could see, and I saw it all.
It was all within my grasp. I could reach out and take it—that easy.
But I knew that wasn’t the truth. It was just a feeling, the false sensation of being the ruler over all kingdoms, my father’s included. It was intoxicating and heady, but I knew there was a caveat. Every cell in my being wanted to seize it, take it, control it, and do what I wanted with it.