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CHAPTER 13

Author: Pure Ink
last update Last Updated: 2025-11-27 11:11:09

MIA'S POV

One second I was falling through sand, the next I was standing in my apartment. My old apartment. The one I'd shared with Tanum before everything went to hell.

"No," I whispered, recognizing the peeling wallpaper, the secondhand couch, the stack of manuscripts on the coffee table. "Not here. Anywhere but here."

But the Sandman didn't care about my preferences. This was my nightmare, and I was going to live through it whether I wanted to or not.

I heard it immediately. The sound that h
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  • The Art Of Dying    CHAPTER 82

    MIA'S POV"Did it work?" Axel gasped, his voice barely a whisper.I couldn't speak. Could only nod as tears streamed down my face. He was alive. Somehow, impossibly, he was alive."The enforcer's blade missed your jugular," Erina said, kneeling beside us. She was examining his throat wound with clinical precision. "By millimeters. You bled a lot, but it wasn't fatal. You just passed out from blood loss.""Felt pretty fatal," Axel muttered. He tried to sit up and immediately winced. "How long was I out?""Maybe five minutes," Walter said. "Long enough for us to think you were dead. Long enough for Mia to almost erase half the enforcers in existence."Axel looked at me. At the blood still dripping from my nose. At the way my hands were shaking. "You used your power. Too much of it.""You were dead," I said. "Or I thought you were. I didn't care about the cost.""You should always care about the cost." He reached up with his good hand, wiped the blood from under my nose. "Can't save the

  • The Art Of Dying    CHAPTER 81

    MIA'S POVThe enforcer's blade was buried in Axel's throat and blood poured from the wound, dark and thick, pooling on the ground beneath him. His eyes were open but unseeing and staring at nothing.He was dead. Not unconscious or pretending. Like, actually dead."No," I whispered. Then louder: "NO!"My power surged inside me, wild and uncontrolled. I could feel reality bending around me, responding to my rage and grief. The air crackled with energy. The ground beneath my feet started to crack."Mia, don't!" Erina grabbed my arm. "You're too weak! If you lose control now, you'll kill all of us!"But I couldn't hear her. Couldn't think past the sight of Axel lying there, his blood soaking into the dirt. He'd promised. He'd promised he'd come back.The Elite Enforcer that had killed him yanked its blade free from his body. It turned toward Marcus, who was still gripping its arm, still glowing with that strange blue light."Release," the enforcer commanded in its mechanical voice."Not

  • The Art Of Dying    CHAPTER 80

    AXEL'S POV"You want one of us to die," I said slowly, making sure I understood correctly. "So you can steal information from the enforcer that kills us.""Not steal but absorb and not permanently die. Just temporarily." Marcus's hands were shaking but his voice was steady. "In that moment between death and erasure, the system is still processing and still connected. I can tap into that connection, pull data directly from the enforcer through the dying person.""That's the stupidest plan I've ever heard," Brady said. "And I've heard a lot of stupid plans.""It's also our only option," Marcus countered. "Those Elite Enforcers know everything about the gate. Security protocols, access codes and weaknesses. If I can copy that knowledge, we can get through.""And if it doesn't work?" Willow asked. "If you can't establish the connection in time?""Then whoever volunteers dies for real and gets erased." Marcus met her eyes. "I know but look at our alternatives. We can't fight twelve Elite

  • The Art Of Dying    CHAPTER 79

    AXEL'S POVWe collapsed on solid ground, and our bodies were aching from the jump across fifty platforms while wraiths snapped at our heels. Mia was unconscious in my arms, blood crusted around her nose and ears from the strain of holding that corridor open. Willow's arm remained translucent, ghostlike, and it served as a permanent reminder of how close we'd come to losing her completely."Everyone alive?" I asked, setting Mia down gently.Groans answered me but that was good enough.Brady was checking his bruised wrist where I'd caught him during the fall. Marcus had claw marks across his shoulder from the wraith that had broken through his barrier. Walter was hovering over Willow, studying her translucent arm with growing concern.Erina sat apart from us, staring at the dead pendant in her hand. Without Dracula's protection, without her shadow fiends, she looked smaller and vulnerable."How long until Mia wakes up?" Marcus asked."I don't know. She pushed hard back there. Harder tha

  • The Art Of Dying    Chapter 78

    Brady POVMore wraiths crashed into us. I lashed out with my blade but it was like fighting fog. My weapon passed through them harmlessly while their claws found solid flesh.Blood was flowing now. Mine, Axel’s, Walter’s. The wraiths were tearing us apart and we couldn’t even touch them.“Mia!” Axel called out. “Can you erase them?”“I can try!” She stepped forward, eyes starting to glow with that reality-breaking light.The threads appeared around the nearest wraith. I could see them now after all the time spent with Mia—the invisible lines that connected everything to existence.Mia reached out and cut.The wraith didn’t disappear. It didn’t even seem to notice. It kept coming, claws extended.“They’re not fully real!” Mia shouted. “They exist between states. I can’t get a solid lock on their threads!”“Try harder!” I yelled, barely dodging a wraith’s grab.Mia’s eyes blazed brighter. She pushed harder, cutting more threads. Finally, the wraith flickered. Parts of it started to fade

  • The Art Of Dying    CHAPTER 77

    Brady POVThe platform beneath me crumbled without warning. One second I was standing there, checking my weapon, the next the stone was disintegrating into dust and I was falling.“BRADY!” Marcus screamed.They all lunged at once. Axel was closest—he dove flat on his stomach, arm stretched out. His hand caught my wrist just as I dropped below the platform’s edge.But the momentum was too much. Axel started sliding forward, dragged by my weight.“Grab him!” Erina shouted, throwing herself down beside Axel. Her hands locked around his ankles just as he was about to go over.The chain formed instinctively. Mia grabbed Erina’s waist. Walter grabbed her. Willow wrapped her arms around Walter. Marcus anchored the end, his feet braced against a raised piece of stone.They became a human rope, stretching from the platform down into the void where I dangled.“Don’t let go!” I yelled. My face was pale, eyes wide with terror. Below me, the void stretched endlessly. And in that void, wraiths circ

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