He watched Daddy searching for him, and breathed. I am safe for a moment, but it’s a reprieve, no more. My time is here, and I’m grateful to collect my thoughts and lift my thanks. My heart grows peaceful.
Alma lifted the doll, fitting the long, pure silver carpenter’s nail between the clustered pins piercing the top of the doll’s head.
“You’re killing my boy today, djable. I intend that you pay a high price.”
Her fingers wrapped around her solid silver hammer, and she tapped the nail, pushing into the figure in increments, making the pain last.
Daddy’s howls scritched along Wellie’s skin as the witch writhed on the ground. Ah, Chere, that the good hoodoo.
“When I find you, you die!” Long arms swinging, Daddy moved across the space, coming closer to Wellie, searching for contact.
If I move, he will hear me. Wellie watched as the demon’s search led him towards where Wellie stood, silent. I won’t run; I am ready. She damaged him, made him crazy in the head. Chere, you did so well. I love you, Mama. I will see you again.
Alma clutched her chest before grabbing the doll and smashing the nail the final inch into its ruined head. “Oh, my son, my beloved Wellie, how great your heart is, a full measure of love and strength.”
Tears ran free as she held the doll, a mute testament to a destruction that slowed but couldn’t still the evil. I failed you, Chere.
I love you, Chere.
Big Daddy’s hand closed around Wellie’s arm. “I have you! Burn in fire for eternity!”
Wellie burst into flames.
“There,” Melia pointed at the glow of fire off in the desert. “He returns. The ruse has run its course.”
Theo snorted, wings expanding.
“No, Theo, you will not survive. Stand down.” Melia’s command was absolute. “Return to Magic. Go.”
The dragon opened and shut his mouth, power pressing into him from all sides, then lifted, arcing away from the approaching glow, headed to Magic.
The night sky glowed orange, an unholy sunset. Intermittent roars of pain wafted to the remaining four. Melia descended, landing in front of Jasper. Their eyes locked.
“You are as strong in the light as you have ever been. In this state, you have a chance. He’ll do everything in his power to douse you, bring you to his side and own you forever. This is a war within, my love. Fight him, but fight only with light. If you emanate darkness, he will seize your soul.”
“If that happens, kill me.”
Her smile was sad. “I am the balance. I will be merciful.”
“Destroy him too, Melia.”
She kissed him, filling him with the finespun threads of her tenderness for him, a sacred seal of promise. Feet leaving the ground, she turned in the sky to face the cacophony from hell.
Big Daddy approached, backlit by the burning balloon that was Wellie’s body, and Jasper gasped. Dead! No, I have to pull the light; he wants to tear me apart and kill us all.
Romer stepped between Jasper and Daddy, exuding protective power as Daddy’s gruesome head swung toward him. “Another?” he chuckled. “I can collect the set tonight. You too, Muse. This is a good day.”
Melia floated, deciding. My best opportunity is when he is weakened. This fight is not about preserving each individual’s light, but of prevailing in the face of great evil. Decision made, she shot a line around Lyra, pulling her away from Romer and Jasper. Binding Lyra to her back, Melia stilled, her aegis filling the sky, waiting.
“A quitter before the battle begins, Muse? Weak and expected. You have never, none of you, curtailed me. I am the reason the world continues. My darkness fed this struggle and became its purpose. You are nothing, toads hopping across my roads, flattened, unknowing. They send another, and the fate is the same. You are stupid and preening. ‘I am the light, I am the balance’. Such idiocy.”
Melia eyes glowed. Jasper stared, feeling her sending him quietude and inner peace. She’s handing me the clarity to hold the energy body and engage with this monster.
“It is you who will see loss today. This cycle of desperate evil ends here,” Jasper interrupted.
“Cheeky little bastard, aren’t you,” Daddy’s low laugh etched into Jasper’s skin. “Such balls. You’ll mewl and kowtow as is befitting. Or you’ll die. I am another coming.”
Melia’s eyes turned to the witch.
“Kill me,” she mouthed.
Melia glanced away.
“Not even going to try? What a useless lightbulb you are, floating in self-importance.”
Big Daddy backhanded Romer with a crunch. He held his footing but fell to one knee. Two more blows rained on Romer’s neck before a finger of fire pressed into Romer’s forehead.
With a little shake, Romer stood, aura blazing, and reached out to touch Daddy.
He howled, shocked by the invasive light. “Touch me? Begone, nuisance!”
Romer blinked and re-crossed his arms, holding the space between them. Daddy charged, seizing Romer by the upper arms, twisting him and throwing him down on the sand. The witch, nodding at Melia, waved a spell. Romer untwisted, looking surprised and stood.
“That all you got? I thought you were something special. This is basic run-of-the-mill demon crap. Why is everybody so worked up about this?” Romer brushed dirt off his shoulder and fixed an eye on Daddy. “Maybe you ain’t a damn thing, huh?”
Big Daddy charged as Romer blew his aura out, encasing them both. Romer’s vibration shook the sand, punctuated with Daddy’s growls of frustration. The ball of light rocked back and forth, Daddy desperate to separate from the light and Romer determined to keep him in it.
“Now Muse?” Lyra wondered.
“I can aggravate, I suppose,” Melia sounded amused. A ribbon entered the aura, wrapping Daddy’s sore head and giving it a good squeeze.
Romer, losing strength, bounced the demon from him, and returned to his sentinel place in front of Jasper.
“I’m fading, Jasp, but I made him weaker. Our best shot yet. Hang in there and don’t quit,” Romer murmured. “To the end, my friend.”
Wellie is dead and Romer is sacrificing himself for me. I don’t deserve this, I’m nothing compared to them.
No, my son, you are worthy.
Mom?
This is your line, the one I prepared and drew you toward so long ago. Do not give in.
Big Daddy lunged, rage emanating in waves, snapping Romer’s collarbone before stomping him into the sand. He grabbed Jasper’s throat, his skin sizzling with the touch as his feet left the ground. Flames licked the light within, consuming the edges of his energy.
Everything is black and swirling with hate, Mom! It’s so damn dark.
Big Daddy’s breath, inches from Jasper’s gaping mouth, choked him. “Mine. You belong to me. This was all for nothing. You killed your friends, you’ll kill your girlfriend. Your mother’s death is on your head and in time, the deaths of millions. Stop fighting me. Know your unworthy place and succumb. Death surrounds you because you are death.”
Crushing Jasper’s windpipe, he tossed him to the ground, making a slow turn toward Melia. “Your turn, toad. Time to die.”
Chapter 16
Light. Hang onto the light. Can’t breathe. They’re dying…. Wellie…. Romer… Hold on… shine.
Cell by cell, Jasper felt his throat repair, energy prickling as it restored, air filling grateful lungs. Sprawled in the grit, he absorbed Melia’s glow, feeling it multiply the intensity, feeding his healing. She fills me because she loves me. She’ll kill me for the same reason, to preserve what was good before hell rained.
Romer, twisted and bleeding, pushed himself up from the ground, staggering, and placed his body between Big Daddy and Jasper, waiting. One arm dangled, useless. Melia turned her eyes on him and Romer’s aura filled out. Jasper’s chin lifted, taking in her beauty and fullness of purpose.
What she radiates is the life I want. I choose lightness and sacrifice, to act on what the world needs, become a he
aling for the future. I’m a warlock, there is no turning from it now. Time to tap that.
As Big Daddy leapt to engage Melia, Jasper shot a hand out.
Heavy
Daddy crashed to the ground, anger electrifying, vibrating in waves through the sand. He rose, flinging himself at Melia again.
Away
Daddy flew forty yards, and Jasper felt the witch’s gaze on him. She knows.
In a scuttling lope, Daddy bore down, backhanding her off her feet. “Do not aid, Traitor. We have an agreement.”
The witch said nothing.
Glow igniting, Melia’s line wrapped around Daddy’s ankles lifting and dangling him upside down. Her eyes flicked to Jasper.
Swing, batter, batter, batter.
Daddy shot across the desert, but not before infecting the line that held him. Black tar raced toward Melia, frantic in her efforts to stop it. Hands closing around the infected piece, she yanked it from her chest, crying out in pain.
“They are her heartstrings,” Romer murmured to Jasper. “Once destroyed, they’re lost forever. A Muse cannot live without them. It cripples her power in this fight because he knows how to kill her.”
“I’m trying to cast spells.”
“I feel them. You’re a distraction, and it helps.”
“I want to redirect his attention away from her.”
Romer stared at the night sky. This is my death order.
“Hey, you pointless piece of crap, you’re losing!” Romer’s laugh filled the desert, and the darkness boiled.
“Then, she sent me here,” Theo paced the office, frustration evident.
“It’s her job, Theo. Each form of magic has contributions.”
Topper watched the irate pacing for another minute, and rose, wrapping Theo in an uncharacteristic hug. “Settle your mind, Theo. We need to think.”
Surprised, he returned the hug. “You’re my best friend.”
“I know.”
Theo sat on the edge of his desk. “This whole thing smacks of Romeo and Juliet. The chances of them making it out are zero. When they said goodbye in here, well, that was rough to handle. Everybody was crying, and this old dragon was damn close.”
Topper bolted out of her chair. “Tears? Both of them? Here?”
Theo nodded, pointing to the area in front of the cell door. “There. Why?”
“I need something. A container. With a lid.” Waving her hand, a small stoppered jar floated in the air. “Where, specifically, did Jasper and Melia stand?”
Theo squinted. She’s dead serious. Huh. He rose and moved a couple steps, pointing. “Jasper was there, Melia here. Wellie stood nearest the front door and Romer was between Wellie and Jasper.”
Topper nodded and pointed a finger at the floor.
Rise
Silver and red droplets pulled up out of the wooden floorboards and danced along its surface.
Topper knelt, unstoppered the glass container, and tapped it. Seven drops, three commingled, floated, rising and depositing into the jar. She pushed the stopper in with care and her shoulders dropped in relief.
“I feared I brought nothing to this fight,” she muttered, half under her breath. “You wanted something to do, Theo? Take this to Melia and save the day.”
He nodded, moving out the back door, stripping and initiating his shift. Topper tucked the vial into a pouch, pulled the strings tight and eased it over his forearm.
“Be safe and brave. You cannot beat him. Please, don’t try,” she grabbed his nostrils and kissed the tip of his snout. He turned his head sideways to look at her, nodded, and unfurled his wings.
Lyra cried out as Big Daddy beat Romer’s limp body, bloody and motionless. Daddy’s great horned head lifted and gazed at her, lashed to Melia’s back, filling the air with rumbling sarcastic laughter.
“That was fun! Wish he’d lasted longer. Daimons are such weak sauce. So noble, so easy to kill. What a pointless existence.”
He turned, grabbing Jasper by the wrists, forcing him to his knees. “You are mine. Feel your power.”
Darkness flowed over Jasper’s skin. In horror, his skin blackened, the scars from the long ago burns appearing for the first time as the inky blackness flowed across his palms and fingers and crept up his arms.
Focus
Romer’s remembered voice rattled in his head as Jasper dug deep for the energy, concentrating on the tingling core, trying to move it into his arms. The progress of the black rippled and slowed.
“I am my own. I reject you.”
Black skin see-sawed, edging toward his heart.
Don’t quit
The faint whoosh of wings caused Daddy to glance up, and Jasper drove the blackening death down to his elbows.
“It’s been too long! A chance to destroy an uppity dragon is fine entertainment. Your old dad needs a minute.”
Daddy jammed a finger on the point between Jasper’s eyebrows, the odor of burning flesh rising to Melia. With quiet patience, she waited for the outcome, and the decision it demanded, to reveal itself.
Theo glided, silent, towards the sorrowful tableau. Wellie’s flaming body lit the stillness of Romer’s broken one, the black death creeping up Jasper’s arms, and the cowed, broken witch kneeling in the sand. Melia, floating with Lyra, waited in silent reckoning.
Lyra turned her tear-stained face to the sky, sensing Theo’s light. The pouch dangled as he swooped lower, and she grabbed the bag, yanking hard to break the strings. He banked away from the evil he wanted to fight, Daddy’s sneering laugh goading and infuriating. He gained altitude and glided in a lazy circle, watching, waiting.
Lyra handed the small container to Melia, whose eyes widened.
“Brilliant. To do it, I must ask for your all, Daimon. I am sorry.”
“I give it without reservation, Muse.”
Melia nodded and floated in indiscernible increments toward Big Daddy. Jasper, concentrating, held the creeping dark from his heart, and Melia’s eyes burned with protective pride. She eyed the witch watching them easing over Daddy.
Attention waning on the departing dragon, Daddy pulled his finger away and Jasper’s head rolled back, agony tearing out of his throat. “I refuse you. I will die first!”
“If you must,” Daddy mocked, reaching for Jasper’s exposed throat. “But, I know I’ll persuade you. I’ve never lost a son and I’m not starting with you.”
Melia opened the stopper, bending forward as Big Daddy paused, realizing she’d moved. The tears fell, landing on his upturned face. In an instant, his size quadrupled. Huge fists crushed Lyra and Melia, shaking them as violent spasms rocked him.
“You bitch! What have you done?”
Leathery skin flaked off Big Daddy’s torso. Lyra, focused on keeping Melia from being crushed, stared at the under skin, a swirl of red and silver, falling apart and coming together once more. I never knew what love looked like as an entity, the forever flex of passion and purity. This final gift makes the pain bearable. Lyra’s ribs snapped, then her upper arms. She stared at Daddy’s torso as more skin fell and the beauty of love gleamed beneath it.
“So beautiful,” she whispered. “I am spent, Muse.” Lyra’s broken body slid from the coils and dropped, with a dusty thud, to earth.
Big Daddy’s arms, flaking skin, showed the tear’s progression.
“You now know love, and its infinite power,” Melia told him, watching it consume his body as he shrieked and twitched in violent, rejecting spasms. “It eats the darkness. You believe evil consumes the light. Now you know the true balance. Darkness cannot live in the light, but light will overcome the dark.”
“Get it out of me!”
“I cannot. It is the price of pride’s folly, the presumption of a power greater than love. This is out of my hands, operating under its own force, burning though your evil to leave your bones clean.”
Big Daddy’s body jerked, a wide cut opening across his belly. In her kitchen, Alma raised the knife and sliced the doll across the back
. Long cuts opened and ran down his arms and legs, a final one slashing his throat. Ah Wellie, my beloved Chere, it is done.
Melia shot the lines, wrapping Daddy and rising toward the gibbous moon.
What the hell is she doing? Theo watched the pair shoot through the star-filled sky, headed west. Greece? Someplace else?
The night wind whistled as the collective Muse sang, joyful in the triumph.
You were right, Muse, and we celebrate this victory in our songs of beauty.
Melia looked to the firmament, testifying the stories of old. Orion, Cassiopeia and daughter Andromeda, Pisces, nose to tail, sparkling at the new balance, and Cygnus. She bowed to the symbol of her ancient and continued, heading for the Dead Sea.
“This is your sentence, to lie forever in this sea untouched, salt in the wounds of your folly, consumed by that which you fear. Dwell in light for the remainder of time, demon.”
He splattered onto the thick, salty surface, sinking with a piteous wail. As the viscous sea took his heavy body, silence reigned.
It has not been quiet for so long, I float, grateful for this reprieve.
Above, a smattering of stars, moving points of light, drifted down. A swan materialized on the dense sea and swam in a figure eight, leaving a gleaming mark of infinity in its wake.
“Hey, Kiddo,” the swan’s liquid eyes gleamed. “As efforts go, not too shabby. I was rooting for you, but Hades is a righteous bastard, and that asshat was one of his. He’s been a pain in my backside for a long time. It’s not just about smiting and strutting around corpulent with piety, Melia. Our story is the oldest of the truths, of good, evil, and maintaining the balance. Until you, I thought darkness screwed the world and won. A lot of pomp and meager portions of love. The collective got rusty. Too much dessert and not enough moving. Thick in the middle.”
Melia blinked. “Um, thanks? Nobody’s heard from you in centuries. I assumed we bore the torch unaided.”
Broke In Magic Page 9
