Bewitching Sloth

by Gross, Michelle

  I had no destination. No clue where she’d be, but I kept moving straight in hopes that I’d find her in the middle. It felt like a lifetime dealing with the pain slamming through me inside this place, but I knew each step I took was agonizingly slow and I had no time for that.

  The only thing that hadn’t been torn to shreds was the cloak I wore. Whatever elements it was made of, it could withstand the force, unlike my flesh that didn’t last thirty seconds.

  Then a new battle rose inside me. Like it did every time it happened, I felt my curse swallow me up from the inside and the exhaustion rested on my shoulders. The storm, somehow, pulled and made the fatigue stronger.

  I staggered.

  I feel like I need you, Sebastian. I can’t explain it, but the darkness likes you just as much as it likes Harvest.

  It was the memory of her sweet voice and all of its honesty that had me remembering what was at stake. Through the sleep-fog, I searched for her.

  Thank you, Sebastian.

  For showing me what it feels like to feel protected. Even if we are practically strangers.

  Those words sent an unnerving amount of desperation through me as I recalled the things she said to me. The surrounding lights ebbed, and the darkness grew in my line of sight.

  I want to be like you.

  Isabella, you were so much more than me. You fought against your fate, our fate. There was no way I was letting you go.

  In the distance, she finally came into view. In a protected bubble, she floated with her arms out and her head dangling in front of her chest. My skeletal arm and hand reached out, but I still hadn’t closed the distance between us yet.

  I was almost there. But so was the desire to sleep.

  I need you, but I want you just as much as I need you.

  “Fuck needing, Izzie,” I whispered in the storm as I forced my legs another step, then another. “I just want you.”

  Just don’t leave me, and I’ll be okay.

  “I fucked up,” I admitted to her. “But I won’t again.”

  Several feet in front of me, Izzie was protected within a barrier. Her red flesh was blistered. The power of the sins would destroy her the same way they had Delena. But my witch was proving her strength—no person should be able to hold so much power. Fury ripped through me as I realized why Harvest wanted Izzie.

  Her death date changed within seconds, and as I felt that data store itself away inside my head. She was dying. Today.

  Fear clamped ahold of me, and I fought my brain another three steps when that bone-deep dread smacked into me relentlessly, not liking the fight it was taking to bring my body into slumber. I’d never found a way to fight until now.

  I wanted to tell her how much I had walked to get here to her when I should have been asleep already.

  I fell to my knees. My essence flickered in and out around my bones, and I knew the only reason I was even in this form was because my body was protecting itself inside the vortex. I lost my vision first, but I hadn’t lost the will to crawl, and that was what I did. I crawled to her, arms stretched out, I knew to go straight since she was right in front of me.

  I felt one of my hands breach through the barrier she was in first, then the other, followed by my head. Only I collapsed on my stomach. As much as I told myself not to, my body did so on its own. It couldn’t fight the curse anymore. I didn’t even know how I fought it this long.

  The darkness that stole my vision wormed its way into my head.

  I lied to myself, I knew that now. I still needed her.

  “Izzie!” It took every ounce of strength I had left to raise my voice. “I need you to come the rest of the way.”

  Then I fell into the darkness.

  Thirty-Two

  Isabella

  The darkness hummed dimly, almost sadly. The same powerful energies that the shadow had stolen were now causing pain. Unimaginable misery. Enough that I couldn’t be nothing. Nothing had no hurts. Which meant I was someone.

  Only I couldn’t scream out in discomfort. I couldn’t move. And the shadow didn’t have it in it to stir either. Inside me, it realized what I already knew. We were dying. The one it stole for, the one it sought out, had wanted this from the very beginning. Julius made its gloom and desolation to die here. For him.

  But, that was already known too. And although, it should have been okay with what it already knew as the agony ripped through me, it was sad and angry, then I felt its regret. Regret in choosing its creator when… it was missing the bad one.

  In my head, the blackness painted a picture of the bad one’s face and while imagining him; it grew sadder and filled with more regret.

  My darkness was lonely, like me.

  Only I didn’t know why I was lonely. Or why I was sad. And that ache in my chest? Well, it felt worse than my dying body.

  The worse our situation grew, the sadder and angrier it got at Julius. I didn’t understand its change of heart, but I came to understand it didn’t want to die today, even though I was already halfway there. If I died, it did with me. It didn’t like that idea. Just as shocking, my darkness didn’t want me to die at all.

  “Izzie!”

  What?

  The shadow stirred at the sound.

  He came?...

  If the gloomy blackness spoke that would have been its words..

  “I need you to come the rest of the way.”

  It let me lift my head, then it allowed me to open my eyes. Through my eyes, its depressed presence purred against my insides at the skeleton lying on the surface of the vortex. I was inside a barrier, but all around me, the storm thrashed violently like it was waiting for the moment it could get me when the barrier was broken.

  Why was the bad one here?

  And why did that make me feel good?

  The remorseful blackness that lived within me began to yearn for him.

  Then it let me remember one word. A name.

  And everything rushed back to me in angry and bitter memories. But there were also a lot of good ones, especially ones that came with the name.

  Sebastian.

  I remembered what I had done, and I knew why he was here. And instead of drowning in guilt, my eyes swam with tears because I was so fucking thankful for him. He wasn’t going to let me go. Just like he promised. I loved him. And I thought he would be okay with that.

  “Sebastian,” I cried out for him.

  Agonizing pain rippled through my body and I screamed. It felt like any second, I might burst. I had to do something.

  Sebastian came for me. He needed me. Me.

  I tried to move my arms and couldn’t. The vortex held me locked in an awkward pose I couldn’t seem to move out of even though there was nothing on my body. The darkness that was once dimming was now restless and bursting with the need to get to Sebastian. I gritted my teeth and pulled at one of my arms until it popped free and I was able to move it. Next came the other. Lastly, my feet. The shadow working with me instead of against me made the effort easy until Julius popped up between Sebastian and me.

  “You have to stay,” Julius warned me.

  Instead of a hum, his creation roared at him. And the next thing that happened surprised the hell out of me. Instead of taking control of me or letting Julius have me the moment his hot iron grip smacked my shoulder, my gloomy shadow gave up control. To me.

  Not to Julius.

  Not to itself.

  Not even to Sebastian.

  But me.

  Because we both wanted the same thing.

  Sebastian.

  As I took control of what had always been inside of me since Julius put it there, I felt its desire for something other than pleasing Julius. I felt its uncontrollable want for Sebastian Reaper.

  Even my broken body couldn’t stop the smile on my face. “You’re not real.” Then I slipped through the mirage of Julius and bent down to the skeleton lying partially out of the barrier.

  I grabbed his boned fingers and just like all the times before
, ecstasy rolled through me like waves. His turquoise-colored essence burst back to life around his bones as he lifted himself to his knees, cupped my cheek, and said, “Izzie,” just as he melded back into flesh and blood. He was naked, but I wasn’t complaining because I was too.

  Breathing heavily, I simply stared at him, then myself as his sin began to heal me. What was a curse for him, worked in so many ways for me and my darkness. “You didn’t have to save me,” I told him honestly.

  “And miss the chance to wine and dine you?” His left eyebrow went up playfully despite the situation.

  I laughed lightly at his words. “But I’m glad you did,” I whispered, holding his eyes captive, hoping my own, conveyed everything I felt and wanted to say but hadn’t yet.

  “I haven’t saved us yet.” He stood up, holding my hands as he helped me to my feet. “If we don’t stop this vortex from ripping into the human world, no one will be left and the survivors… well, they’d wish they were dead.”

  He was right. Julius had informed me of his plan and my part in fate right before he dragged me under his control.

  “What do we do?” I asked him.

  “First,” he materialized clothes on himself, then me before turning away from me as he took off his cloak, “we get out of here. Hop on my back. You won’t make it inside the vortex if I don’t hide you underneath my cloak.” I did as he said and placed my arms around his shoulders, followed by my legs around his waist. Pressed snugly against him, I lay my head against the nape of his neck and let him cover me with the cloak. I felt the tug in the front where he held it closed with his hand. “I’m gonna run.”

  And he did. I didn’t see or feel much of anything underneath the cloak, but I know Sebastian did. He lost his skin, and I pressed against the coolness of his bones and his essence lit up underneath the cloak. Mesmerized, I watched as his essence moved around my body and the darkness formed underneath my skin, chasing around the glow. It was oddly beautiful, almost like they were kissing each other. Maybe they were because they needed each other. Maybe that made them thankful toward one another. My insides tingled and warmed with their connections. I wondered if Sebastian felt it too?

  For the first time, I found acceptance in the darkness. If it could give over its control to me, I could accept the past, the present, and the future of it.

  “Sebastian!” One of his sisters sounded relieved. When the cloak was removed, and he placed my feet on the ground, I saw that it wasn’t his sister, but his mom.

  His siblings were no longer bound by the bracelets now that I was free, and by the expressions on their faces, I could tell that they were happy to see Sebastian. I stood slightly behind him, using the height and width of him to hide from their gazes. Sebastian had to materialize some clothes on himself again, but mine had been protected inside the cloak.

  “He did it.” Maureen smiled, then whipped her dark eyes on me. “She back to normal?”

  “Of course she is,” August said with a shrug. “Look at the way she’s gripping his arm for dear life. If she was still the crazy thing earlier, she’d be running from him.”

  I hadn’t realized I was clutching his arm like a lifeline. I stopped immediately. “I’m sor—”

  “We can’t wait any longer,” Melanie yelled. She was bent down next to the Grim Reaper as he faded in and out. She had tears in her eyes. What was happening to him?

  Maureen ran at the vortex, a sword in each hand as she sent a powerful wave of her orange essence at it. The storm swallowed it up whole without a hint of danger. “How do we stop it?” she hissed.

  I studied the layers of magic around the whirlwind. I knew its energies as well as its weaknesses. I had been the one to create it after all. They couldn’t stop it at this point. It was too big.

  I moved beside Sebastian. Shoulders straight, I glanced at the ones I had stolen power from against their will, knowing I was about to ask to do it again. This time with permission.

  “You can’t stop it,” I told them the truth. “But I can.” So many eyes were watching me. “But, in order to do so, I’m going to have to hurt you again.”

  Thirty-Three

  Sebastian

  Isabella was stiff and full of nervous energy as she gazed at everyone, but her eyes were slanted and full of determination. Instead of worrying about all the wrongs she had done while under Harvest’s control, she stepped up and offered help in the form of pain, knowing the reaction might be harsh.

  “I know given how much control Julius has had over me, you have no reason to trust that I’m telling the truth or that this isn’t some sort of trick, but this isn’t something I can do alone.” She glanced over at me and took my hand. “There’s no way I can direct that much power alone or inside me for very long, the vortex was killing me. Sebastian will have to take over when I have enough, then everything I’ve taken from you all—”

  Isabella abruptly stopped when she saw that Maureen was heading toward her. Eyes narrowed at her, she held her arm out to Isabella and I smiled while Maureen looked the other way. “We don’t have the option to sit here and listen. Our father is slipping away right along with the world, it’s us that follows if we don’t do anything.”

  “Ah, fuck,” August groaned. “Let’s get on with the touch of death, shall we?”

  “Can someone knock me out before she touches me so that I don’t have to go through that excruciating pain again?” Joy asked, and Barron snorted. It was Mom who came up behind her and slipped her hand over her forehead, putting her to sleep like she asked. Joy’s eyes closed, her body leaning forward with Payne there to catch her. He lifted her in his arms and cradled her to his chest as he carried her to Isabella.

  “Such a baby,” I heard him mutter.

  “Can you use mine?” Mom asked Isabella.

  Isabella nodded. “More like, we’re going to need it.”

  “Maybe when this is over, we can find me some of that touch of death.” Prudence piped in. Soon everyone was lined up in front of Isabella oddly enthusiastic. Or maybe it was the thought of our last moments being sad that kept the perk in the air because Prudence never made jokes or took the time to talk. “Would come in handy,” she even added.

  “Sebastian,” I turned to Isabella as she said my name. “I need you to take it all away from me when it’s time.” She was referring to their power.

  “How will I know when it’s time?” I asked her.

  “You’ll know.” She smiled. “When my body at its limit, I trust that you will stop it.”

  “Izzie…”

  “This is going to work,” she whispered with a positive smile. “I didn’t meet you just to lose you in the end.”

  “This isn’t the end.” Maureen nodded, sounding more determined. “Hear that, Dad?”

  “I hear ya,” Dad whispered his response.

  Turning away from me, Izzie took in the rest of them. “Payne, you’re going to have to let someone else hold her. You’re not immortal. You risk being exposed to my touch by touching her skin. We can’t chance it.”

  Looking down at Joy, Payne seemed reluctant to let her go, which was weird considering he usually ran away from her.

  “I got her,” Barron said, scooping her up in his meaty arms. “Okay, let’s get this started.”

  “Everyone touch me at once.” That was all Isabella had to say, and they latched onto her like leeches. They all started screaming, but none of them seemed able to let her go. I stood as the bystander, in the eerie minute it took for Isabella’s skin to blister and bubble until she was screaming. I was already reaching out for her when she opened her eyes and whispered my name. “Sebastian.”

  This would be the only time her touch physically hurt me. The brutal force of everything the Reapers had given her, she had brought into me like an avalanche. For a second, I was suspended in air, only I wasn’t. Not really.

  Isabella pulled away from the others and gripped me, then she forced me to my knees and that was it. Because whatever spell she had u
sed, burst out of me like lightning as it struck the vortex straight down the middle.

  It didn’t crumble. Instead, the maelstrom disappeared under the force of her magic.

  Sucking in a breath, I planted my hands on the ground and coughed. When I glanced up, the sky was clear. We did it. I gave an imaginary fist-bump to both worlds for surviving as I grinned. My parent’s castle was destroyed, as well as most of the woods, but we had just prevented the Apocalypse.

  Only it was a small feat. Because the vortex had been open long enough to wreak havoc on the human world. The death toll number was rapidly going up because even though we had just ended it, they were still suffering from what we had taken so long to destroy.

  In a way, we had failed terribly.

  And it wasn’t we as much as it was me. I glanced back at my reason. She was gasping for breath just like I was, and when she met my eyes, she burst into a beautiful smile that made my heart pitter-patter like a lovesick fool.

  I was a lovesick fool.

  Was this the choice the witch, Melinda, had been talking about?

  If I could go back, I’d make the same choice to go after Izzie like a maniac until I had her in my arms again.

  Maybe that made me a bad good guy, but the humans would never know a Reaper delayed saving the world—including his own life just to get his girl.

  “We did it.” Isabella laughed as she said it.

  I wouldn’t tell her the human world was in chaos. At least parts of it were. Not yet. Just a few more hours of the beautiful smile taking over her small face.

  There would be a lot of work from here on out.

  “Isabella,” a dark, penetrating voice came from behind me. I recognized it and stood, materializing a scythe in my hand. “What have you done?”

  Thirty-Four

  Far below, a monster stood waiting. The outcome of this day, he already knew. Even so, he watched and waited, and when the end began, he smiled and laughed alone. The sound was a hollow echo that bounced off the walls of his home.