Arric felt them - the cracks that tore her heart out. The first was muffled as the blade’s guard drove into the soft flesh below her ribcage. He had heard the squelch more so than felt the crack, but both were real.

  The second crack was much, much louder. Her body had jerked as the ribs of her back gave way to the increasing pressure of the blade. The clattering of the blade hitting the ground made his blood run cold. He knew what lay next to it, without even a glance.

  No. It was a simple thought. All he could muster. All they could muster.

  Nisha’s eyes glazed as she looked at the heart on the ground and then at her sister’s body in Arric’s arms.

  “What?” She said, “What?”

  Like something broken.

  They stood in silence for what felt like eternity. Arric’s breath hung in the air above her body. His eyes stared straight ahead. He knew death. He knew what lay beyond - the frozen river of the Incorporeum. The stone. The waiting. The aching.

  She didn’t deserve it, she –

  “Put us down,” A ragged, layered voice rose from the corpse in his hands. A whisper that was reminiscent of a scream. “I feel…much better,” the voice continued.

  Arric shook his head, as if to dispel some sort of illusion. He looked to Nisha whose face bore a look of undignified horror.

  “I shall not command it again,” the voice growled.

  His arms moved, as if he couldn’t control them.

  What are you doing? Castigan whispered within.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “I…don’t know.” Arric replied.

  Eve rotated as he lowered her from his chest, placing both feet on the ground and rising to her full height - more than her full height. He couldn’t look at her - his eyes moved to Nisha’s and remained locked with hers.

  “We are…at the academy, are we not?” the voice questioned.

  Nothing but a cold breeze filled the air. Arric could see her, out of the corner of his eye. Just barely a glimpse of silver hair, now shrouded in some sort of cloak. This wasn’t Eve. This was something different.

  The creature knelt on the ground, a slight chuckle escaping its throat.

  “It beats, yet. For what purpose, I wonder?” The blade scraped the ground as the creature seized it in its hands and stood.

  “Put it down. Step away from the heart.” An authoritative voice spoke. Arric turned, the first motion he’d felt in control of in quite some time, to regard the newcomer. An older woman, black of hair, stepped calmly between the columns of the administratorium exterior.

  “You dare speak to us in such manner,” the creature screeched at her from behind Arric. It was now, with her at his back, that he heard it. Underneath the layers, the screaming of souls, the ancient tongue - a quiet voice.

  “Arric!” it called, “Castigan, please!”

  He shook his head again, he couldn’t –

  Get out of my way. Castigan’s thoughts pierced through Arric’s confusion as his fingers began to burn. Arric knew what Castigan wanted to do.

  Wait. Not yet. He pleaded internally.

  The creature moved. It didn’t walk, it simply…moved towards the newcomer. Arric’s hand twitched as she passed him. He inadvertently avoided looking in her direction as she passed.

  “Come no closer,” stated the newcomer. “Anastasia,” Arric heard her whisper under her breath, “temporal lock. Don’t let her get to us.”

  A voice whispered in Arric’s ear. “She’s in there.” It was Nisha. “Eve is in there. I heard her. Did you –”

  “Yes,” Arric interrupted as he felt Castigan’s flames rising.

  The creature stopped mere feet away from the newcomer. “Temporal magic? From a stonebound soul?” it sneered, “pathetic.”

  A scream ripped through the campus as the creature crossed the distance in an instant, placing a bony claw upon the shoulder of the newcomer.

  “Anastasia!” the creature shouted over the scream, “your soul is soured by your obsequience. Nonetheless.

  We consume you.”