Afterlife (Second Eden #1) (45 page)

The gap between them was a black scar, but calling it black didn’t do it justice. Black is a color, a thing. This was a void, an absence, a hollow cold that no amount of light could ever penetrate.
 

A figure stepped from the abyss. The void tugged at the figure, its shadowy tendrils plucking at his arms and shoulders, beckoning him back into the black. Smoke rose from him in patches like he’d just put a smoldering fire out on his dark suit.
 

He held his hands behind him, pressed against the small of his back. He looked up from a deep contemplation, and when he did, he gazed upon Toby with two dark, hollow eyes. Shadows leaked from them like oil seeping from the ground and rolled in snaking streams down his cheeks.
 

When their gazes met, the archduke smiled. It radiated a chill wind despite the kind, handsome features of his face and oozed a kind of primitive hunger that could never be satisfied. “Toby Blackwood.”

“Archduke.
Adam
.” Toby slowly approached the man, and even that proved difficult beneath the oppressive, icy power of his will. He neared striking distance and drew his sword. “I won’t let you have her.”

Adam’s smile widened. “But, Toby, she’s already mine, just like you are mine.”

“I’m not yours! She freed me.”

The archduke laughed, and it rocked the walls. He gazed at Toby with those hollow eyes, and an excruciating pain drilled into his flesh like an icicle being rammed down his chest. Toby’s knees buckled, and he hit the floor.
 

Toby lashed out with his curse, but Adam ignored it like it was little more than the barest breeze on an autumn day. The man opened his palm, and a swirling vortex coalesced above it. The two halves of Toby’s mask appeared in the billowing dust. The archduke clenched his fist, and the mask sealed together.

“No!” Toby fought against Adam’s will, but it was useless. A power latched around him, dragging him closer to the man.
 

“Why fight, Toby? You are better when you’re Bone Man. You’re
stronger
.”

“I won’t be him again! I won’t let you do this!”

“You think you have a choice?”

The pale mask glided toward Toby. He tried wrenching his face away from the relic, but Adam pulled his chin level with the disguise.

“Don’t lie to yourself, Toby. You wanted this. It’s why you came here instead of going with her.”

“No! It’s not true. I … I hated being Bone Man. I hated what you made me do. I’m not a murderer. I’m not a monster!”

“It is true, and you know it.” Adam sighed, nonchalantly polishing his nails on his suit. “Setting this trap wasn’t easy, but the rewards will be worth it. I’ve lost one of my generals, but Wilhelmina has proved herself a capable replacement for the Council. And now that Amber is headed for the dust devils, soon I’ll have my bride back and all my enemies dust in the wind.”

A pit of dread opened up in Toby’s stomach. The mask was barely an inch from his face now. He could feel its power tug at his skin. “The dust devils will save her!”

“Is that what you think?” The archduke laughed again. “Poor Toby. If only you knew the truth. It wasn’t easy keeping it from you, pretending I didn’t know the relic thief was you sneaking out while the mask slept. But if this was to work, I needed both you and Bone Man to be completely ignorant of my greater plan. I had enemies in Afterlife, and I have enemies in the Deep, but I’m sure Amber will be a good girl and take care of them all for me.”

“This was a trap,” he rasped. “It was all a trap.”

“Mortals spring traps while Gods fulfill prophecies. Learn the difference. You will need to remember it once I ascend.”

The mask sealed against Toby’s face. The torturous pain and gift of power bestowed by the relic seeped into his muscles and buried in his bones. Toby screamed as his soul fell into a void, the light of the world fading into black.

Bone Man straightened. He rolled his shoulders and stepped back from the archduke, bowing deeply as he did. “She will return for me, Master,” he said.

“I’m counting on it.” The archduke turned his back to Bone Man and strolled into the scar of darkness. “Until then, we have much work to do. I will call on you soon.”
 

Bone Man waited until the great doors sealed. Then, he pivoted on his heel and headed for the black garden, where he would wait quietly until his master summoned him again.

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