That’s when I see a ray of sunshine pointing the way. I run in that direction—towards the light—and find that Pell’s tomb looks exactly the same way it does on the other side. No shadows darken the doorstep of his tomb. No foggy tendrils threaten to strangle me into submission. My spelling poem is even scribbled over the entrance in black Sharpie. I slip inside the tomb and Tomas’s cries get louder and louder the deeper I go. Until I reach the little clearing where Pell and I sleep.
There is only one door there, so I don’t even hesitate, I just step through, then run. Retracing my steps through an opposite world. A world of sunshine, and seventy-degree weather, and green grass, and… damaged gods.
Because that’s what we are.
The damaged gods aren’t Saturn, and Juno, and whoever the hell else is involved in this whole twisted story.
We are the damaged gods. Pell, and Tomas, and me. And these people here in this world—these humans, the town of Granite Springs and its eros protectors—those savage saints—they are the ones meant to keep us down. Meant to throttle our magic, keep our monsterity in check.
I come out of Pell’s tomb to darkness, but with a glow of orange in the distance. It flickers over the tops of tombs and trees and lights up the sky with a color that can only be called bloodhorn.
Tomas’s screams echo through the sanctuary. He is wailing, calling a name. “Madeline, Madeline, Madeline!” And when I step out onto the path that leads up and down the hill in the middle of the tombs, I see the monsters dragging him towards the cathedral.
“Tomas!” I yell, running towards him. My monster body is back. My hooves thump on the pathway as I skim the ground and I feel powerful. “Tomas!”
This time my call makes them turn. Tomas is wriggling and protesting, trying to break free. But he is surrounded by dozens of monsters holding him back.
“Look what they did!” he yells. “Look what they did to her!”
He is in tears, I realize. And my heart breaks as my gaze finds Madeline’s lifeless body limp in a monster’s arms. “Oh, Tomas.” I want to cry with him. Because even though he just met this girl, Tomas is the kind of man who gives his love away to everyone. He seems like he doesn’t have an evil bone in his body, though I know instinctively that this isn’t true. He’s here for a reason. He’s here because he has done bad, bad things. He had to be punished, but they can’t kill the last dragon, can they? Where would they get their precious scales? So they put him here.
“They killed her!” Tomas says.
But then Batty is between us. He’s talking, furiously. Pointing at me, then Tomas, then Madeline.
“What is he saying?” I ask.
But Tomas isn’t listening to me. “Do it!” he commands Batty. “Do it or I swear to gods, I will—”
Batty stops the threat with a hand. He’s holding something up in the air and Tomas breathes, trying to calm himself.
I squint to see what Batty has and realize it’s a rock. A little sandstone rock like the ones he gives me to take to Vinca.
Magic rocks.
Batty squeezes the rock between his fingers and it disintegrates into a puff of glittering sand. It blows over Madeline’s lifeless body and I kind of lean in, waiting for something to happen.
But nothing does. And then they are on the move again, Tomas still wriggling and yelling Madeline’s name. But more monsters appear and they drag him into the cathedral.
I know where they’re taking him. To the dungeon. They’re going to lock him down there. With a key, or a rock, or some other kind of magic.
There is a part of me that wants to stop them, but then I turn and look at the blood-red sky over the top of the trees.
I’m like a hundred percent sure that Granite Springs is up in flames and Tomas did that. And then I am equally as sure that the dungeon is exactly where Tomas belongs.
“What the hell is going on?”
I turn and find Pell coming up the path, leading a huge group of monsters. And this suddenly feels like a life on repeat. Because didn’t we just do this?
Well, almost a life on repeat.
Because these new monsters are all female.
I chance a glance at our monsters and despite the absolute shit-show of drama happening all around us, I find them grinning like wild beasts.
Things are about to get a lot more interesting around here, that’s for sure.
Pell walks up to me and takes my hand. “Are you OK? What happened? Where’s the queen? Why is Tomas screaming? Where are they taking him?”