Chapter 417: May the Moon Goddess Guide You

"I’ll tell her," Victoria said, walking up to Nicholas. "I’ll let her know"

Thalia returned to the ritual circle and made one final adjustment.

Then stepped back.

"It’s ready," Thalia said. "The circle is complete. The components are aligned. The soul anchor is attuned. All we need now is midnight."

She looked at Nicholas.

"Lie down on the altar," Thalia instructed. "Get comfortable. Or as comfortable as you can be knowing you’re about to die."

Nicholas lay down slowly.

The stone altar was cold beneath him.

But it did not matter.

In a few minutes, he would not feel it anymore.

***

Thalia placed the glowing soul anchor crystal on Nicholas’s chest.

Immediately, Nicholas felt its warmth spreading through him. Felt it connecting to his heartbeat. Felt it preparing to guide his soul when the separation began.

"Victoria," Thalia called.

Victoria approached the altar. She looked down at Nicholas.

"Thank you," Victoria whispered. "For doing this. For saving her. For being willing to sacrifice everything."

"Take care of her," Nicholas said. "When she wakes up. Help her understand. Help her heal. Help her live a full life."

"I will," Victoria promised.

She leaned down and kissed Nicholas’s forehead gently.

"May the Moon Goddess guide you," Victoria whispered.

Then she stepped back.

Thalia moved to the head of the altar. She placed her hands on either side of Nicholas’s head.

"This is your last chance to change your mind," Thalia said. "Once I start the chant, there’s no stopping it. You will die. You will go into the Veil. You will not come back. Are you absolutely certain?"

Nicholas thought about Lilith.

About her smile. Her laugh. Her strength. Her vulnerability. Her absolute determination to survive despite everything trying to kill her.

About how much he loved her.

About how empty the world would be if she stayed dead.

"I’m certain," Nicholas said.

Thalia nodded.

"Then close your eyes," Thalia said. "Focus on Lilith. Hold her image in your mind. Let your love for her be the anchor that guides you. And Nicholas, when you find her in the Veil, don’t let go. No matter what you see. No matter how scared you are. You hold on until the very end."

"I will," Nicholas promised.

He closed his eyes.

Took a deep breath.

And waited for death.

Waited for the moment when his soul would separate from his body and cross into the realm of the dead to find the girl he loved.

The clock began to chime.

Midnight.

It was time.

***

The chanting began.

Thalia’s voice filled the sanctum....low and rhythmic, speaking words in a language Nicholas did not recognize. Ancient words. Dark words. The kind that predated modern supernatural society.

The kind that should never be spoken.

Nicholas kept his eyes closed and focused on Lilith.

On her face. Her voice. Her presence. Everything about her that made her real.

He held that image in his mind like a lifeline.

The soul anchor crystal on his chest began to pulse. Warmth spreading. Growing hotter with each word Thalia chanted.

Then the pain started.

Small at first. Just a tugging sensation in Nicholas’s chest. Like something was trying to pull him in a direction that did not exist in physical space.

But it grew.

Intensified.

The tugging became pulling. The pulling became tearing.

Nicholas gasped as pain exploded through his entire body.

It felt like he was being ripped apart from the inside. Like every cell was trying to separate from every other cell. Like his soul was being forcibly extracted from flesh that did not want to release it.

Nicholas’s back arched off the altar.

His hands clenched into fists.

His mouth opened in a scream he could not voice because his lungs had stopped working.

Three minutes, Nicholas thought desperately. Thalia said three minutes. I can survive three minutes.

But three minutes felt like eternity when every second was agony.

The pain grew worse.

Nicholas felt his consciousness fragmenting. Splitting. Part of him still anchored to his body. Part of him being dragged somewhere else.

The Veil.

He could feel it pulling at him. Cold and vast and absolutely wrong.

Thalia’s chanting grew louder. More forceful.

The soul anchor blazed with heat.

And then.....

Something tore.

Nicholas felt the exact moment his soul separated from his body.

Felt the connection sever. Felt himself become untethered from flesh and bone and mortal existence.

The pain stopped instantly.

And Nicholas was falling.

Not physically. There was no up or down. No gravity. No sense of movement.

But he was falling through spaces that should not exist. Through layers of reality. Through the barrier between life and death.

Into the Veil.

Nicholas opened his eyes.

Or thought he did. It was hard to tell because he was not sure he had eyes anymore.

But he could see.

The Veil was grey.

Not the grey of storm clouds or shadows. This was the grey of absence. Of things that existed in the space between existence and nonexistence.

Everything was grey.

The ground, if it could be called ground....stretched in every direction without variation. Smooth. Featureless. Made of something that was not quite solid but not quite nothing.

The sky, if it could be called sky....was flat and empty. No sun. No stars. No source of light. Yet somehow Nicholas could see.

And the silence....

The silence was absolute.

No sound. No echo. No sense that sound had ever existed or would ever exist again.

Nicholas tried to speak.

Tried to say something. Anything.

But no sound came out.

Because he did not have a voice here. Did not have vocal cords or breath or any of the physical components required to make noise.

He was just consciousness. Soul. Awareness floating in nothing.

He looked down at himself.

He had form. Sort of. He could see hands that looked like his hands. Arms that looked like his arms. A body that resembled the one he had left behind.

But it was translucent. Insubstantial. Like looking at himself through smoke.

I’m dead, Nicholas realized. Or close enough to dead that it makes no difference.