With these words, he extended his talon and used a long glowing claw to trace a large circle upon the ground before him. The stone inside that circle fell away, revealing a black pit, full of stars.
“The material world lies through this portal,” said Greatshadow.
Infidel turned her head toward me and motioned with her eyes that I should join her. I ran up and clasped her hand, giving her a swift kiss. She dragged me closer to the ring of fire. Fortunately, the Jagged Heart shielded us from the heat. Hand in hand, we stared into the abyss.
“Is it safe to jump?” I asked.
“When have we ever worried about that?” she said with a grin, falling forward, her fingers wrapped in mine. She dangled on the edge for the barest instant as my weight held her. Then, in total confidence, I leaned forward and we tumbled into the darkness.
Infidel released the Jagged Heart and it fell beside us in a lazy spin. We hugged each other tightly as we flew past stars, past moons and suns and comets. We tumbled though airless voids, hugging one another in terror, awe, and wonder. We were neither in the spirit realm nor the ordinary world of matter; we were two isolated souls, entangled, entwined, a whole and complete universe where seconds and hours had no meaning. Yet, despite our inability to measure time, our eternity of togetherness drew to a close as a great blue jewel of a world emerged from the void beneath us. We clung to each other as the world grew large enough for us to make out the shapes of landmasses beneath the wispy white oceans of clouds. We fell toward a small green speck amidst a vast blue sea, the wind tangling our hair as we slowly emerged from the abstract realms. Far below, we spotted a smoking caldera atop a high mountain that seemed to be the bulls-eye where we’d land.
We looked into each other’s eyes. There was no hope of speaking amid the howl of the wind whipping past us. We both knew that Greatshadow had cared nothing for our safety by sending us back along this path. Dropping to earth was no problem for him; he had wings. It was going to take more than a net of vines to save us this time.
Despite this knowledge, all I felt looking into Infidel’s face was joy that we would once more be together in the land of the living, however brief that experience might be.
She kissed me.
I kissed her back.
Her lips grew softer and softer until, suddenly they were gone. My arms closed around empty air. I opened my eyes and she was still inches away, her eyes wide, searching. I raised my hand to her cheek and it passed right through, as if she was a ghost.
Or as if I was. Infidel had fully emerged into the physical realm, and I was left behind, still a phantom.
“Infidel!” I screamed, as she dropped away, feeling the full tug of gravity. The Jagged Heart flashed past me, following its parallel path. I hovered in mid-air, no longer touched by gravity. I felt for the spirit tether of the bone-handled knife to pull me closer to Infidel but didn’t move at all. I looked down, and saw the knife tucked in my belt. My link to the material world was trapped with me on the other side.
I gave chase with all the speed I could muster, drawing close enough that I could see genuine fear in Infidel’s eyes as she tumbled toward the black caldera below. Even if Infidel had still been invulnerable, I don’t know if she could have survived a landing on volcanic stone without a net of vines to cushion her.
Then, rising from the caldera in a pale blue mist, a humanoid shape flew to intercept Infidel a half-mile above the ground. The foggy wraith reached out with ethereal fingers, stroking the shaft of the Jagged Heart. Light flashed from the tip of the harpoon, striking the stone below, and suddenly there was a hill of snow heaped a hundred feet tall, its base sizzling on the black rock. A second later, Infidel punched into the snow mound, leaving the perfect outline of her splayed limbs in the surface. The Jagged Heart dropped into the snow several yards distant, far enough away I didn’t worry she’d been impaled.
The ghost of Aurora continued to drift upward, raising a hand in greeting as she saw me. “You can see why my people built a temple around the harpoon.”
“Will she be alright?” I asked, staring down into the hole Infidel had left in the snow mountain. I couldn’t see anything in the shadows. The whole pile was melting at a frightening pace, an ever-growing puddle boiling off at the edges.
“It was like she fell onto a mountain of feathers,” said Aurora.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you. You’ve stuck around longer than the others did after they died,” I said. “Does that mean I’ll have some company from now on?”
She shook her head. “I couldn’t leave until I saw the Jagged Heart had returned from the land of the dead. I assume your efforts were successful?”
I shrugged. “We’ll need to wait a few weeks to find out if she’s pregnant.”
Aurora gave me a blank stare.
“Oh! You mean did we kill Greatshadow?”
She nodded.
“She let him live. He let us go.”
She raised a blue eyebrow. “Why?”
I shrugged. “She had her reasons.” I didn’t want to admit that I didn’t fully understand Infidel’s choices. I hoped Aurora wouldn’t ask any follow-up questions.
Aurora looked north. “It doesn’t matter. The call of my ancestors is strong. I hear the songs they sing as they chase the ghost whales in the Great Sea Above. I want to join their hunt.”
“Go,” I said. “The Jagged Heart is in good hands. We’ll see that it gets home.”
Aurora gave me a smile that said, I know, then faded from my sight.
A half-mile below, Infidel climbed from a pile of slushy snow now only a few yards high. Her lips and fingertips were completely blue. She stumbled forward, dragging the Jagged Heart behind her, limping toward the circle of light atop the dragon skull where Zetetic and Relic waited. I flew toward Relic and said, “You’re in big trouble.”
He didn’t respond.
“Hey!” I shouted, waving my fingers in front of him.
Nothing. Yet, I was still relatively solid, as a phantom goes. I could see my own fingers, and was pleased to see I was still wearing my braided wedding ring. I seemed to have my full phantom body; I even had the clothing Zetetic had dressed me in. Why couldn’t Relic hear me? Or, maybe he could, and was just being spiteful?
Infidel climbed up onto the skull, her teeth chattering. She tossed the harpoon to Zetetic and said, “You. Carry this. Carry it over there, in fact. I’m freezing.”
He nodded and backed up about ten feet, so that she was no longer in the range of the harpoon’s aura of cold. He said, “You’ve changed since last we met. I like you with long hair. You could use a comb, though.”
“I could use a jacket even more. Brrr.” She leaned down and picked up the Immaculate Attire. “I wondered where this went.” She slipped the pants and vest on and the magical leather adjusted to fit her. With her arms outstretched as she dressed, her eyes lingered for a moment on the braid of hair still on her finger. I wondered why it had made the transition while mine didn’t?
Infidel didn’t dwell on the ring for long, however. Instead, while she pulled on the boots that went with the armor, she eyed Relic (we didn’t yet know he’d changed his name). “Your daddy is going to kill you one day. But he wants to build suspense first.”
“Greatshadow’s alive? How can he still be alive?”
“You’re the mind reader. You already know why I did what I did.”
His reptilian eyes narrowed into slits as he stared at her. “I… I can’t read your thoughts.”
She looked surprised.
“Oh no,” said Relic, rising up. “I could feel it earlier. During his sadistic assault, his spirit moved within me, ripping my mind as he snapped my body. But, with no other minds near that I could look within, I didn’t realize what he’d done. He’s torn the part of my mind that senses the thoughts of others! I’m blind!”
“It won’t matter once you’re dead,” said Infidel.