A Hero of Realms

by Bella Forrest

  I looked around the bumpy landscape, then frowned. “So… where is Arron?”

  Aisha beckoned for the two of us to follow her as she moved forward. She led us across the islet, through thickets of bushes, and as we neared a small tree, I spotted a figure that could only have been Arron. Sitting on the ground, his back turned, he appeared to be tied to the tree. He must’ve heard the crunching of twigs beneath our feet as we approached. He craned his neck around to reveal his sharp beaked face. His gray eyes widened as he stared up at me.

  I looked him over with silent contempt. This was the man who had kept me captive as a newborn. I of course had no memories of him from my visit to Aviary. I only knew what he looked like from the vision the jinn had given me. Arron looked a lot more bedraggled now than he had then. His hair was thinner and practically white. His face looked lined and worn. And as he sat there—tied to the tree by some kind of invisible rope—I realized that he had lost an entire arm and wing. This must’ve been the injury he’d incurred during the battle with the Elders. He was lucky to even be alive after that war.

  “Ben,” Aisha said, “meet Arron. I have already explained to him why we are here, and why I kidnapped him from Aviary.”

  Arron grimaced.

  Aisha nudged his head with her hand. “So, tell us what you know, Hawk,” she said, looking down at him expectantly.

  Arron’s sharp eyes met mine. I still couldn’t get over how strange it was to be seeing him in the flesh. This legend of a Hawk, reduced to a weak victim. It appeared that Aisha had made his body rigid because he wasn’t even attempting to move. The only movement he made was turning his head.

  “Benjamin Novak,” he said slowly. His baritone voice was nasal. “I didn’t expect that we would meet again… You look just like your father.”

  Aisha unceremoniously prodded him again. “We don’t have all day,” she said.

  I bent down on the ground, so that my face was level with his. “You know what would happen if the Elders were allowed to rise to power again,” I said. “You know better than anyone. So I suggest that you be as helpful as possible. Aisha has told you about the situation, and you know the Elders’ plan for resurgence. What do you have to say?”

  The look in Arron’s eyes was that of deep dislike. He paused, then said, “If the greater good is really what interests you, Benjamin, then you would simply remove yourself as a risk.”

  His tone bordered on patronizing.

  My eyes narrowed on him. “What are you saying exactly?”

  “I’m saying that you are the only hope for the Elders right now. They are bankrupt of blood and vessels, and even if they had vessels, they have become too weak to inhabit them.”

  “What would be the use of calling Ben back to Cruor then, if none could actually inhabit him?” Aisha asked, looking dubious.

  Arron continued to address me. “You, Benjamin, are the only exception. Because of the unique bond you have with Basilius, if you came within his proximity, he could live within you and use you to not only recover himself, but also set the ball rolling for the others. In other words, you are their only hope. Hence, you and you alone will be responsible for the Elders’ coming to power. If you didn’t exist, they would remain the dormant spirits that they are now. That’s why I say, if you really care about the greater good… then you would eliminate yourself from the equation.”

  “I hope you have some better ideas,” Aisha said, her voice irritated. She knocked the Hawk’s head again, harder this time, so that it banged back against the tree trunk. “Benjamin is one of our own—he belongs to the Nasiris. Committing suicide isn’t an option.”

  Suicide. I stared at the Hawk, my stomach churning.

  His words made a thought that I’d driven to the back of my mind resurface. What if removing myself from the equation really is the only way to solve this?

  Arron was watching me intently, clearly enjoying the effect that his words were having on me. I assumed a poker face and stared right back at him. I raised a brow and asked as calmly as I could, “Well? Is that your only suggestion?”

  “That is the only foolproof suggestion that I have. There is one other thing you could try, but there is no guarantee that it would work, or that you would even survive it. It’s just a… speculation based on the vast knowledge I have of the Elders and their ways.”

  “What is it?” Aisha asked, glaring down at him.

  “Free my limbs first.” The Hawk scowled at Aisha. “Let me sit comfortably.”

  Aisha reluctantly lifted whatever restraint she had over him and allowed him to get to his feet. Or rather talons. Hawks are the strangest things. Their bodies were just like humans’, and they even had normal arms and hands. But where their feet should have been were talons, and their otherwise humanoid face possessed a beak instead of a nose and mouth. And of course, they had giant wings sprouting from beneath their shoulders.

  I took a step backward as I scanned Arron. He flexed his only wing, stretching it out to its full length, before walking a few feet over to a rock and sitting down. With only one wing, I wondered how he even traveled places. I guessed he must rely on others to help him get around. In any case, it meant that there was no danger of him trying to escape even after Aisha lifted her restraint.

  Arron winced and breathed out slowly, as if he were in some kind of pain, before continuing. “When an Elder first imparts its nature into a victim, it’s the heart where the infection settles. While I won’t pretend to have come across a case quite like yours, vampire, I can say with almost complete certainty that whatever hold this Elder has over you is rooted within your heart.”

  Arron’s words sent my mind into a tailspin. The hold that Elders had over vampires, or at least the hold my Elder had over me, felt like it transcended physicality. His influence was subtle and intangible, a part of my consciousness. It had never occurred to me to think about the physical side of how this worked, not to speak of pinpointing their influence to a specific organ. But now that Arron had told me, the heart made sense. It made total sense.

  “So the heart is the center of it all,” I repeated, more to help the notion sink into my own brain than for any other purpose. “It’s where their influence takes root.”

  “Yes,” Arron replied. “Hence, the primary way to kill a vampire—or a vessel, as we Hawks call them—is by piercing through its chest and destroying the heart. I’m sure you know plenty about this…” I thought back to the vampire I had just slaughtered in the Blue Tavern. My clothes were still stained with his blood. “Staking or tearing apart a vampire’s heart is the most common method to rob a vampire of its immortality,” the Hawk continued, “because destroying the heart also destroys the Elder’s nature and influence over the vampire.”

  “That’s why you can snap a vampire’s neck and spine, or break almost any part of his body, and he will still survive,” I muttered.

  “That’s right,” Arron replied.

  Aisha exhaled impatiently. “Where are you going with all this, Hawk? I already told you that suicide is not an option.”

  Arron slowly crossed his arm over his chest, eyeing me even as he replied to the jinni. “If you would be patient enough to listen to what I’m about to say, you will understand that I’m not suggesting suicide.”

  “How could a vampire live with his heart destroyed?” Julie asked, speaking up for the first time since arriving in Arron’s presence.

  “Obviously that’s not possible… The vampire would have to live with the heart of another.”

  I gaped at the Hawk as his words sank in.

  “What? You’re talking about like a… a heart transplant?”

  The words sounded crazy to me as I said them. The idea of a supernatural being undergoing a medical procedure that was common in the human world just seemed so… out of place.

  “Whose heart would Ben need?” Aisha asked.

  “Logically, it would need to be the heart of another vampire,” Arron replied.

  The heart o
f a vampire. My mind traveled back to the vampire I’d left paralyzed only hours ago—which was of course stupid. He had likely been found by now along with his companion’s corpse as the people of The Tavern scoured the island for the culprit.

  “It would also need to be a fresh heart,” Arron said. “Removed not less than a few minutes before from the willing—or unwilling—donor.”

  My eyes narrowed on the Hawk as I wondered if I could really trust a word that he was saying. He’d made it clear that he wanted me dead. Even if we did procure the heart of another vampire, how did I know that this wasn’t all a ruse? I’d had no idea that vampires could even survive such a procedure. And me lying there on some operating table with my chest cut open… I’d be utterly vulnerable. I would be relying fully on Aisha’s protection.

  “How can I trust you?” I asked Arron.

  “I don’t think you have any other choice,” the Hawk said.

  “So we need a vampire heart,” Aisha muttered to herself more than anyone else. She had seemingly accepted Arron’s words.

  More than seemingly.

  She spun around to face Julie, who stood behind her.

  “See, Benjamin,” the jinni said with a gleam in her eyes, “I told you another vampire might come in handy…”

  Chapter 17: Ben

  “Aisha, no!” I yelled, leaping at the jinni as she stunned Julie’s limbs and sent her falling to the ground. To my horror, Aisha manifested a knife and moved toward the vampire as though she was planning to drive it right through Julie’s gut then and there.

  I grabbed Aisha’s arms and forced her away from Julie. Twisting her around, I glared daggers at her. “What the hell are you doing? You can’t just go murdering someone like that!” Says the man who slaughtered cells of sleeping humans a few hours ago.

  “You heard Arron,” Aisha said, blood rising to her cheeks. “You need a vampire heart!”

  “You’re insane,” I said, staring at her in exasperation. “Even leaving aside the fact that I can’t allow you to murder Julie in front of my eyes, say you did successfully remove Julie’s heart without damaging it, and it happened to be suitable for me, what then? Do you even have the first clue as to how you would go about this procedure?”

  Aisha paused, and I could tell from the look on her face that she hadn’t thought this through at all.

  Perhaps Aisha’s jealousy was coming into play with Julie after all. Maybe she thought that I had taken a liking to Julie, and that was why she was so quick to want to kill her.

  Stupid, impulsive girl.

  Arron chuckled behind us. “You’re right, Benjamin. I doubt this jinni has knowledge of how to perform such a procedure. In fact, I wouldn’t know how to do it myself. I know of only one person who might be able to help you.”

  Grabbing the knife from Aisha’s hand and giving her one last glare, I turned back to Arron. “Who?” I asked.

  “I can tell you who… But that information won’t be of much use until you’ve considered whether or not you’re willing to sacrifice another’s life for your own.”

  I swallowed hard.

  No. I couldn’t do this.

  “There has to be another way,” I breathed. “Without sacrificing someone’s life. Without murdering anyone.”

  Arron stood up and strode a few paces toward me. “Understand, Benjamin, that the situation you’re in is grave. Very grave. A sacrifice is going to have to be made somewhere along the line—either by someone else… or you could just take the noble route and end your own life.”

  “If you suggest that one more time…” Aisha seethed, storming toward Arron. She levitated higher in the air and gripped him by the throat, staring him deep in the eyes. “I told you,” she hissed. “Benjamin is ours.” The jinni turned back to look at me defiantly. “If Arron has no other ideas, then we will just have to find a vampire to murder.”

  I turned away from both of them and sat down on a rock nearby. I buried my head in my hands. We’d hardly spent half an hour with Arron and this nightmare was already worsening.

  How could I sacrifice another life for my own? I had already claimed more innocent lives than I could count.

  I sensed Julie approach. As I looked up, she eyed me tentatively. At first I thought she had come to stand near me just to feel safe from murderous Aisha. Then she took a seat on the rock next to me.

  “I don’t trust this Hawk,” she whispered. “I don’t trust anything about him.”

  “Neither do I,” I replied. “But as he said, I don’t see what other option I have.”

  She chewed on her lower lip. “Even if you did undergo this weird surgery, he said there’s still no guarantee that you would survive. What if something happened during the operation? You’d be totally exposed—”

  “I’ve already considered it,” I said shortly. “Until we come across a better idea, this is all we’ve got. Trust me,” I added darkly. “I have asked around.”

  “Why don’t we go to see a witch?” Julie pressed. “I’m sure we could find one who is willing to—”

  “The doctor I speak of is a witch.” Arron spoke up in reply, apparently having been listening in. “She is probably the most knowledgeable witch you’ll ever come across, at least when it comes to medical matters.”

  “Who is she exactly?” I asked. “And where does she live? The Sanctuary?”

  “Her name is Uma. She lives on her own little island, where she consults. She is known among supernaturals because she is one of the very few physicians willing to help all species. Most witches with medical knowledge refuse to help others, and will only assist their own kind. Although she is originally from The Sanctuary—a white witch, not a black witch—she moved out.”

  The distinction between white and black witches was blurry for me anyway, after knowing how capable of evil both sides were.

  “She lives with her sister,” Arron continued. “She is neutral, not allied to any particular land or people. However, I think it’s safe to say that she is not so neutral as to want the Elders to come to power again. I’m sure she will agree to help you… But as I said, first you need to decide whether or not you’re willing to claim another life for yourself, because Uma doesn’t take kindly to people wasting her time.”

  I stood up. “I just want to speak to her first,” I said. “I want to ask her if there is any other way.” Although I knew that it was implausible, somehow at the back of my mind I was hoping that she would have some kind of freezer stuffed with spare vampire hearts that would save us from making a kill.

  “You can consult with her, of course,” Arron replied. “Though I’m quite certain that you will not be able to get around murdering someone.”

  I turned to the jinni. Her expression was irritable, her eyes on Julie. I could see that she was tiring of this mission. She just wanted to bring me back to her home as soon as possible. She didn’t understand why we couldn’t just claim this perfectly good vampire heart standing right next to me.

  “Have you heard of Uma?” I asked the jinni.

  She shook her head. “I haven’t.”

  “Have you?” I asked Julie.

  “No,” she replied, still looking highly doubtful about the whole situation.

  Arron had said this witch was well known. It left me unsettled that neither of my companions had ever heard of her. It meant I was going entirely by Arron’s recommendation.

  “Where exactly is her island?” I asked.

  “It’s in the middle of nowhere,” Arron said. “Extremely hard to find if you don’t already know where it is… I would be willing to come with you to see her.”

  I didn’t know whether to be thankful or suspicious over Arron’s offer. My every instinct told me the latter.

  Chapter 18: Ben

  Uma’s island was strange. It was very small, and aside from a strip of sandy beaches lining its circumference, the landscape consisted of nothing but a tall hill, at the top of which was a wide, five-story grey stone castle.

  Afte
r we finished taking in our new surroundings, we left the beach and began to climb up the steep slope. Arron led the way, while I walked a few steps behind him. Julie made sure that she remained at my side, away from Aisha, who hung back behind us.

  “I’m starving,” the jinni grumbled as we arrived at the steps leading up to the entrance of the castle.

  We weren’t about to go hunting for human bones, so unless she magicked some for herself she was going to have to suck it up.

  Arron arrived at the wide doorstep and banged three times against the heavy oak door. We were kept waiting about two minutes before the handle clicked and the door creaked open to reveal a short, petite woman with bright red ringlets and a round, plump face. She wore a white smock with green trimming. Her light blue eyes traveled over each of us, widening as she took in Aisha.

  “Do you have an appointment?” she asked.

  I looked toward Arron. He shook his head. “We need to make one.”

  The witch opened the door wider, allowing us to step inside. We emerged in a spacious, high-ceilinged entrance room I soon realized was a waiting room. It was bare except for a wide desk at the opposite end of the room, and rows of chairs lining the walls—five of which were already occupied by what appeared to be a group of warlocks.

  The witch led us over to the desk. She walked around it and sat down, pulling out a dark red ledger.

  “So who is here to see my sister exactly?” she asked, donning a pair of wide-rimmed spectacles.

  “Me,” I replied.

  “A vampire,” she muttered, picking up a quill and jotting down a note on the parchment. “What is your name?”

  I hesitated, wondering whether or not I ought to give my real name.

  “Benjamin Novak,” Arron replied for me. I threw him a sharp look, which he ignored.