The Partisan Chronicles [Dystopia | Supernatural | Mystery]

Riz

That wasn't supposed to happen. That wasn't the deal. It was supposed to help me keep her safe. I wanted to stop her from being stuck, but not like that. I didn't mean like that.

I couldn't remember the last time I was mad, like, really mad. I'm just not a mad guy. So, yeah, I didn't know what to expect from myself with the level of anger I felt in the moment. But then I saw her face, those big eyes, just… there. Expressionless on the surface, but I knew the truth. She was screaming inside, but she wasn't a mad girl. I was raging inside, but I wasn't a mad guy. She was the one who was dying, and I was already dead.

It took everything to keep it together, but in the end, I gave Ever a long, long hug, made all the sweeping promises I could think of, kissed her on the top of the head, and left the wagon.

I stood at the edge of the fairground. Everleigh was right. We'd been trying, but I know I hadn't been trying hard enough. And even though my powers were next to nil, I still felt them there—like a song stuck in your head. Distract yourself for a while, sometimes it goes away, sometimes it never comes back, but then sometimes… there it is again.

And with any luck, I could build enough energy to get Its attention. Maybe even scare It a bit. I crouched and put my hand to the ground. Communication with the elements is always a reach, an ask. So, yeah, maybe I wasn't trying hard enough. Maybe I just had to reach further and ask louder.

It was short and barely there, but the ground shuddered beneath my touch.

Further, louder—Riz, you're a legend, so just do it.

The wind picked up around me.

The ground trembled under my feet, steady now, so I lifted my hand from the ground and stood. While the wind circled around me, I absorbed the moisture from the air, just like I had the last time, and formed a liquid barrier around my body. The fire came next, and I fed it to the cyclone. The tassels on the willow trees thrashed violently with the wind. The tornado was as tall as I was, and then it was even taller, and even taller than the trees.

It wasn't long before the entire Vonsinfonie troupe was standing outside their wagons, watching. Avis, the brothers, the look on their faces…

Ever, clutching her hat, watched from the very edge of the storm.

The last time, when I summoned It, I'd directed the energy internally. But what if instead I—

Charged from the earth, I fielded the magnetic force from my fingers, bringing the other elements together in a wild, swirling orb. It floated above my hand, growing, growing, and growing until finally I aimed it at the ground beside me.

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It was like the camera all over again, but so much worse. The light of a thousand of Ever's enemy suns, and a high-pitched ringing I couldn't tell was coming from inside or outside. I closed my eyes when the fairground was blanketed in a bright, white light.

It was only a minute, but the minute was excruciating. The high-pitched ringing stopped and when I opened my eyes, the light was gone and everything was still. The jugglers, the fire-eaters, the Brothers and Avis themselves, frozen. Everybody but her. She walked toward me and the rift that had formed beside me. Twice my size, it took the form of an iridescent swirl.

"I think I did it." I said.

"I think you did, too." She was standing in front of me now. "But I'm not going."

"And I'm not letting you die again if you don't have to. We never should have come here. You need to go back to our friends. They love you, too, I know they do. And Sebastian…"

"But I want to stay here with you."

"I want nothing more than to be with you. Forever, and ever, and forevermore. But Everleigh—do you want to die?"

"I probably should, I probably should have died thirty years ago. But no," she said. "I didn't want to die then, I don't want to die now. I don't want to be scared again. I want to see our friends. I want to help them change the world. I want to go back to my father."

Her eyes filled with tears the same way they did the night of her concert. It was the moment I fell in love with her, and I told Drei all about it not long afterward. Seriously. I wasn't kidding that time. I stepped up and pulled her into my arms. "If you don't want to die, then you have to decide. I might be dead out there, but I'm still alive in here. You'll just be there, and I'll just be here." I kissed her head. "You'll be there, and I'll be here, okay?"

"How do I do it." she asked.

I kissed her everywhere I could. "How do you do what?"

"How do I walk away."

I turned us toward the shimmering rift.

"I don't know, but I can help you," I said.

Her body felt so small, shaking under the sobs. I held her with one arm while I reached into my pocket where the photograph still was. I pressed it into the palm of her hand. She tried to give me her hat, but I'd traded my mother's compass to get it for her. Not for me—it was all for her. She'd left her violin in our wagon and said I could have that instead. I conceded.

"Will you do me a favour?" I asked.

I could see it now; the way she was sick again. Now that the makeup she'd been using to conceal the shadows under her eyes had been washed away.

"Anything," she said.

"Make sure my kids are safe. Rhydian knows, and he's—yeah, if you could work with Rhydian to get my kids from the orphanage. Tell them I love them."

"Okay," she agreed, and I believed her. With every fibre I believed her.

"Okay," I answered. "Now kiss me, if you want to."

She wanted to, and we did, and I wanted to drink every last drop of her, but I wasn't sure how long the rift would stay open. I turned her gently toward it.

It was quiet for a minute.

"Say a thing or do a thing," I said.

"…Do a thing."

"Go home."

I needed her to leave. I needed her to leave so I could scream, and cry, and not let her see the way it was killing me. She stepped all the way to the front of the rift as the wind whipped her beautiful, silver hair. Then she stopped, turned, and with her hat clutched to her chest, she performed a deep bow.

And then she was gone.

And then It was gone.

And then I was…