I do not think I've ever read a series of books where the end of each book hits as hard as the books in the Dark Rise series do.
C.S. Pacat really knows how to twist the knife. This whole final scene with James in DR is gut wrenching:
Will felt the flickering of the past, old selves like shadows. It was difficult to breathe, the air heavy. “You said you didn’t remember that life.”
“I don’t,” said James. “But sometimes there’s—”
“—a feeling,” Will said. [...] James didn’t hear the admission in his voice. Instead the words seemed to draw them closer, as if they were in a bubble, the only two people in the world. “My whole life, all anyone’s ever wanted was to possess me,” said James. “The only one who ever set me free was you.”
And if that wasn't bad enough, it gets exponentially worse:
“I may not carry his brand, but he . . . He’s burned into me.” James’s eyes were very dark. “He branded himself on my soul. They called him the Dark King, but he was a bright flame, and everyone else, everything else is just his pale shadow. I was Reborn, but I lived a half life. It’s like this world was a blur. No one else was in focus. Until you.”
Building to this final gut kick:
“You made me believe he could be beaten. You make me believe—” James broke off. “The boy savior. I didn’t think you’d save me.” James’s smile was painful. “I thought Simon would bring the Dark King back. I thought the collar would close around my throat. I never thought I’d be free to choose my future. But I am.” In the quiet of the room, his words seemed to twine themselves around the beats of Will’s heart. “Simon and his father . . . they had a dream of ruling a dark world, and they told me there was a place for me at their side. But I don’t want to follow them,” said James. “I’m here to follow you.” His eyes were bright, his lips smiling, his hair gold in the shifting light from the fire.
Will said, “Of course you are.”
The atmosphere is both enticing, frigthening, and so so sad. You can feel Will's self loathing. That he hates himself for his desire for James. Because he knows he's decieving James. That what is happening here is exactly the opposite of what James has been struggling for years to obtain. But he can't turn James away. He simply cannot make himself do that.
And James? James really thinks he's free. He thinks he's broken the pattern, that he is finally making his own fate. Ugh. It hurts so beautifully.
I'll have to do another one of these for Dark Heir, and then Dark King when it comes out. Since there is supposed to be a happy ending there, maybe it will turn this pattern in its head?
