by Steve McHugh
The cave troll noticed me and roared once again.
“Go fuck yourself,” I said and charged toward the monster, ducking at the last moment and using a blast of air to push me past him. I turned my hands and with another blast of air, propelled myself into the air, behind the troll, whose attention was refocused on Rean. As I fell, I created a blade of fire, with the aim to drive it into the back of the troll’s neck, killing it. Unfortunately, the troll moved his head aside at the last moment, and the blade caught the side of its face, removing a large portion of its bottom jaw in one motion.
I hit the ground with a roll and scrambled away, while the troll went insane, tearing up tombstones and flinging them in all directions.
“I think you may have made him angry,” Rean said, although his words were slightly slurred, due to some damage to his face.
“I think I know how to end this,” I told him. “But you need to get inside the church.”
“I’m not leaving you to fight it alone.”
“You can come fight it once I’m done, I just need space. I haven’t exactly tried this before.”
The cave troll flung a large piece of rock in our direction, which we easily avoided, but told Rean to hurry. The cave troll would remember who hurt it soon enough. Once Rean was safely inside the church, I placed one hand on a tombstone and concentrated, allowing my air magic to flow out of me into a large sphere.
As it increased in size, the circle of air picked up pieces of debris and furiously whipped them around me. The longer I kept this up, the more and more necromancy I had to channel. When the circle hit ten feet in diameter, my vision began to darken and pain began to rack my arms and chest. In the past, without the necromancy, I’d managed to create a sphere only about 4 feet in diameter, and a wind speed nowhere near as intense as this one.
I kept my concentration up, even as my hands began to slip from the tops of the tombstones and my body felt like it was being crushed under its own weight. The magic I was expelling was more than my body was accustomed to using, and the longer I kept the spinning up, the stronger it became and the more dangerous it was to me.
“Hey,” I called out, my voice puncturing through the maelstrom. It was loud enough to reach the troll, who immediately turned in my direction, murderous intent in its eyes. “Come get me, you big sack of shit.”
The cave troll didn’t need to be told twice and bounded toward me at a terrifying pace. When it was close enough, I unleashed the debris-filled sphere. The troll was ripped off its feet and thrown through the air as if it were shot out of a cannon. It connected with a statue twenty feet away and tried to move, but all of the rock and junk that had been carried along with it, suddenly reached its target. It was as if a hundred objects, all moving at the speed of a cannon ball, hit a target a few feet wide. They tore huge chunks out of the troll, covering both it and the surrounding ground in thick blood.
I tried to stand, but my body was drained, my necromancy depleted, and I fell forward with only the tombstone to keep me from collapsing onto the ground in what would have been the least heroic end to a fight ever.
I took deep breaths as Rean walked over to the motionless cave troll and plunged the steel, four-foot-long church windcock into the back of its neck, killing it instantly.
I tried to stand again, but Rean caught me as I slumped forward. “You okay?” he asked.
I nodded. “Never used that much necromancy at one time. It sort of took it out of me. My magic says I should be fine, but my spirit is exhausted. I don’t think I’m quite used to it, yet.” I glanced behind Rean. “The big bad troll dead?”
He nodded. “You’re lucky I spotted the big bastard and decided to track it.”
“I’d have been okay without you,” I said. “Probably.”
Rean laughed, I got the feeling it wasn’t something he did much of. “It’s good to see you again. I never apologized for how it was left last time.”
“I’m sorry about your family. If I’d known.…”
“You have nothing to be sorry for. Galahad has atoned for his mistake, and while we will never be friends, I can forgive him.”
“That’s very big of you,” I said and allowed Rean to help me upright.
“Yes, I thought so too. I left my colony soon after; I’ve been living alone since.”
“Why?”
“Because I needed time away from every reminder of what I’d lost. And by the time I’d grieved, it was apparent that I was no longer the troll I used to be, and certainly no longer the troll my colony needed. So, I live out here, helping people who need it. When I came across those werelions killing three hikers, I managed to scare them off with a few well-placed throws from some boulders, but I couldn’t save the men.”
“Well, I for one thank you for saving my incredibly lucky ass.”
Rean placed one arm around me and helped me stay upright. “You can just owe—” he started to say, but suddenly he fell back, his arm dragging me down to the ground.
“Rean,” I shouted. “Rean, you okay?” I managed to get to a kneeling position and saw the hole from a bullet wound in his chest.
I glanced around, trying to figure out where we could hide, and I noticed Edward and Danny making their way toward me. Danny appeared to be limping. Something must have happened, there was no way they could have made it to the mall and back in the time it took the cave troll to die.
“Sniper,” I almost shouted, but they either couldn’t hear me or weren’t listening. I couldn’t use my magic to protect them—I was still too weak.
They got close enough for me to see Danny’s mouth was sewn shut, and I knew that we’d been betrayed. Edward winked at me, pulled out a gun and put a bullet in the back of his partner’s head, removing a good chuck of his skull as it exited.
I was horrified at what had happened, but before I could say or do anything, Edward smiled at me and said, “Made you look.”
I turned around only to be caught in the jaw with a punch from Joshua that sent me unconscious to the ground.
CHAPTER 33
I woke up with my arms above me tied at the wrists, with some sort of metallic pole keeping me high enough off the floor that my feet didn’t touch it. I managed to open my eyes, although they hurt, and found that I was also blindfolded. That was probably not good.
“Rean,” I shouted. I didn’t really care who knew I was awake; if my captives came in they’d more than likely remove the blindfold, so at least my predicament would improve. But instead, there was only silence.
I stayed motionless for exactly 481 seconds; when you’re blindfolded and unsure where you are, counting the seconds is a good way to keep your brain active and not allow yourself to start imagining the worst. After that a nearby door opened and I heard the unmistakable sound of high-heeled shoes walking toward me across a hard floor.
The blindfold was removed a few seconds later, after my captor had traced her fingers up and down my bare chest and stomach. I blinked to make my eyes adjust and noticed that I was, one again, inside the House of Silent Screams. Although this time, I was held in one of the upstairs rooms. Bianca stood before me, next to a pool of old dried blood that had stained the bare wooden floorboards.
“You should really give the place a clean,” I said. “It’s fucking depressing in here.”
Bianca punched me in the stomach so hard that I thought my spine would snap.
“Now behave,” she said. “What do you think of the silver-plated tube?”
I glanced up and saw that my hands were bound to either side of a circular tube that ran the length of the room, attached to each end with what appeared to be a dozen screws.
“You made yourself a torture chamber,” I said. “How enterprising.”
“I’m going to keep you here as my new pet,” she said with glee. “I assure you, it’ll be fun. And then you’ll die, as all my pets do.
Normally Joshua gets jealous and tears their head off, but for that brief moment, I get to enjoy myself. We’ll start with the name tags.”
A horrific image flashed through my mind. “You’re going to carve my name into my chest, aren’t you?”
“Oh, you know this game; that’ll take a lot of fun out of it, but I can live with that. Normally those I keep here think it’s okay, then I show them the knives and they start crying. You can start crying whenever you like.”
“I’m not going to cry, Bianca. I’m going to be ever so quiet.”
She punched me in my thigh, making my leg go dead. “Now, that’s not nice. It’s no fun if you’re quiet. One man screamed so much, I had to tear his tongue out, just to shut him up. I lost interest soon after and told Joshua that I’d fucked my pet while he hung from this ceiling. I’m not sure what Joshua did, but I know it made the pet scream…well as much as he could.”
“I’m going to get free, I’m going to kill you. And when I’m done, and you and your boyfriend are remains under my feet, I’m going to burn this fucking house to the ground.”
I tensed for another punch, but instead she started to laugh. “You’re handcuffed, with silver, to a pipe that you can’t get free from. Your hands are positioned in such a way, that if you use magic you’ll only give me enough time to gut you like a fish. I like fish…I like to play with it once I’ve sliced it open. It’s fun. I wonder, would I enjoy it so much if I played with your entrails?”
She picked up a knife from a tray that had been hidden behind me and drew the silver blade across my stomach, just enough to draw blood and cause me to tense up with pain.
“Oh, you didn’t yell. What did I tell you about the yelling?” She pushed the knife into my stomach, only about an inch, but it was enough to make me yell out. “That’s much better,” she said and clasped her hands together before licking the knife clean of my blood.
“Glad I could help.”
“You taste good,” she eventually said after staring at me for several seconds. “Maybe you’ll last longer than the others and I can taste you every night.”
“Are you done already?”
Bianca’s smile was part sweet and part crazy lunatic, but her eyes were all the latter. She walked over and grabbed the back of my head, forcing it forward until our mouths touched. Her kiss was full of animal need, and for a second I thought she was going to try and bite my lip off, but she pulled back and sighed. “More,” she said and kissed me again.
She used her hands, one on either side of my head to hold me in place. I ignored the pain in my arms and wrapped tendrils of air around her, keeping her against me as I increased the temperature of the breath inside my lungs until it was super-heated. I snapped the tendrils closed in one quick motion, making her unable to move as I breathed the heated air into her body, causing her to scream in agony against my mouth.
When the use of magic became too much, I pushed her away and she collapsed onto the floor. I shuffled along the tube until I was against the far wall and pushed up with everything I had, tearing the pipes out of the wall with an almighty shriek.
Bianca crawled away from me as I walked over and searched for the key to the silver cuffs. Once they were off, I tossed them out of the window behind me and rubbed my slightly burned wrists.
“How?” she managed, her body’s healing ability already working to fix the massive damage I’d done to her throat and lungs.
“Sorcerers don’t have to use their hands to create magic, it’s just easier that way.” A quick flick from a whip of fire removed her head from her shoulders.
I left the torture chamber and made my way down the staircase, walking slowly to keep an ear out for anyone who might want to ambush me on the way. Instead, I was left alone and soon found myself outside of the basement door, opening it slightly to the sounds of someone whistling.
I stepped inside the basement and closed the door with barely a click, but it was enough to gain the attention of Edward, who was hunched over a prone Rean. “Hello, Nathan,” Edward said and stepped aside to show the machete he held against Rean’s throat.
“You’re human,” I said, taking every effort not to use my magic to crush his body like a bread stick. “You’re helping these murderers, why?”
“I wish to see the glory of Karl Steiner take his rightful place.”
“Steiner? You’re not working for Charles Whitehorn?”
“No, of course not. Charles doesn’t want to retake Shadow Falls. He’s more interested in his power in this realm. No, Charles just wants the crystals. Karl will be given Shadow Falls as his gift for years of service.”
“Why do you even care? What did they offer you, money?”
“My father served Karl when he worked for Galahad. When Karl was banished, my father took his own life. But before then he made me promise that I would aid Karl in any way I could. If that meant working with these…feral beasts, then so be it. Once the throne has been regained, we’ll execute them and I can take my place in King Steiner’s inner circle, as my father wanted. It’s unfortunate, we had to accept some of the…lesser members of society, people whose love of inflicting pain and damage on people far outweighed their ability to have any sort of respectable IQ.”
“You’re a fucking idiot who betrayed and murdered his friends. Where’s Caitlin, Fern, and the family?”
“I have no idea about the agent, nor the family she took with her. Fern is enjoying my lord’s hospitality.”
“Where are they?” I took a step closer.
Edward pointed at the machete. “If you come closer, I will kill him.”
“How do I know Rean’s still alive?”
Edward poked the wood troll with his fingertip and Rean moaned slightly. “Looks like there’s some life in him yet. I’m surprised that bullet Patricia put in him didn’t finish the job. I don’t see why you care though.”
“His condition will determine how long I’m going to take to kill you.”
Edward laughed. “Really? I can see the knife wound still hasn’t healed. Did Bianca do that? How do you think you’re going to beat me without your friend dying too?”
A smirk spread across my lips. “Do you guys all share the same threats? Do you write them down to use later? Bianca told me she was going to make me cry and beg. Now she’s a good foot shorter than when she woke up this morning.”
“Bianca was insane,” Edward said and glanced over at Rean. “His wounds will kill him without intervention. The cuts are deep and many. I was going to drain his blood like a pig and send his corpse to my king as a gift. I guess once you’re dead, I’ll be spoilt for choice. There is nothing you can do—”
I blasted him in the chest with a jet of air, making sure to knock the blade away from my friend, which clattered to the floor several feet away from Edward, who was sprawled on his back.
I walked over and grabbed his shirt, dragging him upright. I head-butted him, destroying his nose. He dropped to the ground as blood streamed down onto his shirt.
“Don’t say that,” I told him. “I’ll take it as a personal challenge, and believe me there’s a shitload I can do to you to make you talk. Where is Fern?”
“Fern is back at the church,” he said.
I smashed my knee into his face, ruining whatever wasn’t already covered in blood. “You are a weasel-like piece of shit, but I don’t have time to correct your behavior. Is there anyone else in the house?”
Edward’s eyes had trouble focusing on me, so I pulled him upright again and slapped him. Hard. “No, all alone now.”
I slapped him again, knocking out a tooth. “You really shouldn’t have involved yourself with all of this. It wasn’t your fight, and if you’d stayed out of it, you wouldn’t be a problem I have to deal with.”
“I am ready to die and be taken to heaven a martyr and hero to those who stand by my king.”
I shook my head sadly. “You’re going to die alone and no one will mourn you. Your name will vanish from the lips of everyone you knew or thought was interested in what happened to you. And soon, you’ll barely register as a memory. All because you picked the wrong side.” I plunged a blade of fire into Edward’s heart, killing him instantly. “What a fucking waste,” I said to myself as his body crumpled to the ground.
I wanted nothing more than to lie on the ground and let my injuries heal. My ribs were more than enough to slow me down, but I ignored it as best I could and went to Rean.
He heard me walk toward him and opened one eye; the other was swollen shut. “Nathan,” he said weakly. “Is he dead?”
“Edward? Yeah. He won’t be hurting anyone else ever again. Bianca’s dead too.”
“So much death, and now mine to follow.”
“Whoa, don’t talk like that. You’ll be fine.” I knew he wouldn’t, the blood loss was too much and the wounds too deep. I was amazed he’d lasted as long as he had, but something inside me screamed I should have hope. It was enough to cling onto.
“We both know I won’t be fine.” He coughed several times, bringing up more blood. “I was too stubborn to die from the bullet in the graveyard. What kind of wood troll would I be to die from being shot? It’s lunacy. But I went fighting, Nate, and that’s all I can ask for. It’s all any of us can ask for. He drove that knife into me, and I never once gave him the satisfaction of crying out. Not once. I spat and cursed and struck out until my strength was gone.”
I placed my hand in his. Rean’s grip was loose, weak. “You’re a good troll, and I feel honored to call you my friend.”
“The friend of Hellequin. That’s quite the honor in itself.”
“You knew?”
He nodded. “I found out after it all happened, although it took a long time. Very few people want to talk about those who scare the monsters. I wanted to try and find you, but then you vanished.”
“Long story,” I said.
“Will you kill them all?”
