“The heart!” she bellowed. “Or it’s your girlfriend’s heart that I’ll give to your dogs to eat.”
“What heart?”
My incessant cries rendered their discussion barely audible. There was only pain in me.
“Katy.”
My cries intensified. I couldn’t fight The Reaper who was taking over my body and have another voice in my head.
“Katy, please, hold on.”
The despair of the voice caught my attention. I tried to concentrate, but as soon as I was aware of my existence, of all that I felt, that suffering tore me away from all rational thought. A surgeon was extracting all my organs, or a man was removing my skin with a blunt knife. Whatever it was, it was painful.
“Katy.”
Jayden’s voice echoed in the distance as my mind faded, much to my relief. I wouldn’t suffer anymore.
But Jayden was there. I felt him by my side. The burning desire I’d seen in his eyes, my will to embrace him, to hug him and never let go of him. I lived again our moment in the bathroom. I felt once again the way his magic had flooded through my body. The incredible and surprising sweetness of his power, a side of him I never knew existed.
I felt his power surrounding me now. I felt like I was in that cocoon again. The pain was less intense. My mind was clearer.
“Katy, I need an opening.”
“Faster!” The Reaper commanded.
“This isn’t my house; I have no idea where it might be.”
Using my powers seemed impossible, and I felt too weak to strike her.
“I don’t need you to fight her, only to distract her. I’ll do the rest.”
I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and gathered the little energy I had.
3… 2… 1… I elbowed her, hitting her in the ribs. Then, with a brisk movement, I swung a blow at her with the back of my head.
The first blow didn’t affect her, but the second destabilized her. She lost her grip on me for a split second. But that was more than enough for Jayden.
In an instant, he was in front of me. Everything happened fast. I saw a flash in his blue eyes burning with anger. Then he freed me from The Reaper’s grip.
Still very weak, I collapsed on the ground. Then there was chaos.
A fiery heat reached me, for an erupting volcano was a few meters away from me. Jayden held The Reaper by the throat; bright blue flames shrouded his hands.
The Reaper screamed even louder than I had earlier. I didn’t think that was possible. She got down on her knees, forced by Jayden’s dominance. The mage’s body radiated sweltering heat. The ground trembled, and roots came out to encircle Death’s body. She was held tight by the roots. Jayden dropped his grip on her throat. He grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him.
“It was just a warm-up for me. Move the slightest bone to see, and I can start having fun.”
The Reaper was panting, but she seemed downcast.
Jayden ran up to me, examining every part of my body, looking for a physical injury, but there was nothing. I’d felt a thousand and one ways to die without living them. It was strange, I felt like my body was on fire, but it was never real.
Jayden pulled me to him and squeezed me against him. Then he broke away as if I’d burned him; his eyes filled with surprise then confusion. He helped me get up without a word.
Then he went to stand in front of The Reaper, his Hells dogs heeling him, a menacing air surrounding them. “For one, let go of my friends.”
Death raised her head toward him, her gaze imbued with disdain. Two unconscious men appeared on the ground. Maurice and Liam!
“Oh my God!” I cried, alarmed by their motionless bodies.
“They’re alive. Craid demanded I let the owner live.”
“The Reaper who works for a mage. It seems impossible,” I said, my voice throaty because of the screams.
Her anger vibrated in the air.
“I thought highly of you, you know, but after that?” Jayden said, sweeping the room with his hand. “I’m disappointed.”
She glared at him. “You can’t kill me.”
“No, it’d be a little weird to kill Death; I don’t know what effect it might have on the world. However…”
Jayden inched closer to her while I was just backing away. For good measure. Up close she was terrifying.
“I can free you.”
Her eyebrows rose high on her forehead. “What do you want in return?”
“Anything you can tell me about Craid and his plan.”
CHAPTER 16
I’d never felt such power. Even Alice stood pale next to what Jayden could do, and the Order said that their members had the most powerful of their kind. It was false; Jayden was the most powerful mage ever, I was sure. He should have been a member of the Order. Or maybe he turned down their offer? That would explain why he didn’t want to come back.
“Free me and I’ll help you.”
“Do you think I’m stupid?” Jayden replied with a raised eyebrow.
She sighed. “If I hadn’t tried, I wouldn’t be The Reaper. Craid has some pretty unique powers. I mean that’s what I thought before I met you. Your powers are quite similar in their greatness,” she hinted.
“We know that,” he replied.
“What is he to you? Your brother? It’s a blood tie, I’m sure of it.”
The question caught me off guard. I was shocked to find that my brain was studying the matter. Until now, I’d dodged the question, finding it absurd. Jayden and Craid didn’t look alike at all, but I wasn’t in a condition to study Craid’s facial features when he attacked us. So my analysis wasn’t the most valid.
“I ask the questions,” he replied.
So, he evaded the question, and it didn’t escape The Reaper, who smiled from ear to ear.
“Why did he send you? What’s his plan?”
“He wanted me to steal the heart.”
“What heart?”
“The Reaper is stealing organs, I’ve seen it all,” I murmured.
“I didn’t have a choice. As I said, his powers are beyond comprehension and he took me by surprise.”
“Why you?” I asked. “Knowing that he forbade you to do what you do best, kill.”
“Killing isn’t what I do best, I call it personal enjoyment. In the hierarchy of supernatural creatures, I’m well placed. He uses the most powerful of us. Whatever my initial job, he needed power and efficiency. What can I say? I’m awesome,” she said, shrugging her shoulders with a smirk.
“What about the heart?” I asked, recalling Jayden’s question.
“Our queen’s heart. This heart has incredible powers, impossible to know what he intends to do with it. He can open the gates of the Hells forever, he can enhance his powers and enslave the entire earth and the list goes on of ravishing things that this heart can trigger.”
“And it’s here?” I squeaked.
Why the hell do people always want to keep everything? I don’t understand that. When we see on the label, “Can open the gates of the Hells,” I think an important and logical decision is necessary: we mustn’t keep this cursed object!
“Yes. Now it’s up to you to help me.”
“On one condition.”
To Jayden’s response, the wrath of The Reaper struck me stronger than a train. “That wasn’t the deal. I said everything I knew about Craid.”
“You pledge allegiance to me.”
“You think I’m stupid enough to go from one leash to another?” She scowled as she struggled.
Her magical essence had regained power, and I was almost sure Jayden’s roots wouldn’t hold.
“I don’t trust you; I want us to make a blood pact that will prevent you from betraying us.”
“No!” she screamed with rage.
“Then you will forever be Craid’s puppet, forced to do shoplifting of no interest. You’ll no longer be feared, you’ll no longer feel the excite
ment of seeing fear in the eyes of your victims. You’ll lose the will to exist, but you’ll be forced to. You’ll blame yourself during your entire life because you could end your suffering, but you are arrogant rather than intelligent.”
Jayden stalked her. A few inches separated him from Death’s face when I was far, far away. A few meters apart, as a precaution. The Reaper remained still, her anger thick in the air.
“You’re Death, not Thief, no matter how useful your gifts are for Craid,” I said in the distance.
“People always think I’m the worst while my sister is the plague of this world. And I’m the one who gets attacked by this psychopath Craid. What an injustice.”
“Your sister?” I asked in a high-pitched voice.
Oh, because there are two Reapers? Wonderful. I think I’m hyperventilating.
“I am Death and my sister is Life. If your life is hell, it’s because she didn’t like your face,” she explained, shrugging her shoulders, mimicking fatality.
As my mind tried to decipher the information, she returned to the major subject.
“I don’t trust him.” She nodded toward Jayden. “He can be his brother, hence their unmatched powers, and all this is a shenanigan.”
“You don’t have a choice there. What’s worse than being Craid’s puppet?”
She sighed. “Nothing. Craid holds my heart and therefore part of my powers. He’s blackmailing me. He’ll give me my heart back in return for my services.”
“Your… heart…? You… have a heart… but not in your body?” I stuttered.
This day was sinking into weirdness.
“The hearts of icons like me have immeasurable powers. They’re precious and hard to find. Craid already has mine.”
“And he wants your queen’s. Who is…?”
“Liliane.” Sweet Jesus. “Liliane? Like Liliane the queen of the Hells?”
“She herself.”
“But what the hell does her heart do in a library?” I exclaimed.
Jayden shrugged. “Some people collect cars; the Order collects the hearts of the most powerful supernaturals on this earth, to each his own. I’m not even surprised.”
“Maurice was once one of the most respected and powerful guardians in existence. His white magic could have challenged Alice’s. He gave his vital energy to his dying brother and since then he hasn’t regained all his magical powers. He’s lying to the Armistice about this. But I was there. He saved him while losing a part of himself. There is a price for those actions.”
My heart tightened when I remembered that I’d done the same for Liam. Had I lost a part of myself?
“Now the library is vulnerable. That’s why Craid came to get Liliane’s heart before searching for the third heart,” she said.
“Because there are three?” I squeaked.
Problems never come alone, it seems. They always make babies who get bigger than their parents.
“I would help you stop Craid provided you brought my heart back to me.”
“How are you going to help us?”
“When you arrive at the Armistice, I’ll fight with you.”
“Can’t you take us there too?”
“The portal I use is for me and I have no heart, you wouldn’t survive the journey.”
“One last thing, you know where Alice is?”
“No. But I can find out.”
“This deal must be sealed with magic,” Jayden said.
The Reaper sighed. “All right. Let’s do it.”
I wasn’t very reassured about sealing a pact with The Reaper, who had just tried to kill us. But I couldn’t refuse help, and now that I knew what it was like to have The Reaper as an enemy, I favored her as an ally.
She took an oath to help us and used her blood to seal the spell. Then Jayden released her before she disappeared. She went to find out where Alice was.
After a few minutes of silence, where I stared at where The Reaper had been a few seconds earlier, convincing myself I wasn’t losing my mind, Liam and Maurice woke up.
“And one less problem… one,” I murmured. “There’s only…”
I turned to the hellhounds that Jayden had called. They hadn’t disappeared.
“Are you afraid of dogs?” Jayden asked me as I watched the huge, sharp-toothed fire dogs that were approaching him.
They were terrifying with their red eyes illuminating the room.
“No,” I said with a high-pitched voice.
“Great. This is Logi and Felagi.”
I saw the scene long before it happened. Everything seemed to be in slow motion. Jayden’s sincere smile, the two dogs’ heads turning to me, the smile of these hellhounds, their tongues coming out of their mouths. And after that moment, everything happened so fast, too fast, way too fast.
I bolted, heeled by fast, ferocious and huge dogs. I was screaming and running around the room, stomping on the couch and the coffee table. I was going around in circles and I was hysterical, but my life depended on it. Somehow, I knew these dogs were faster than me and they were playing, otherwise I’d have been dead by then. But this information drowned in my panic.
When I climbed on a table, they stopped in front of me and lay down, their tongues flicking out of their mouths, and their tails wagging. Then one of them jumped on the table and I lost once again the little calm I’d found. All I saw was their teeth sunk deep in my neck.
I saw Jayden in the distance and ran toward him. I grabbed him by the shoulders, placing myself behind him and, above all, using him as a shield against the hellhounds. I placed my head between his two shoulder blades, eyes closed.
“Stop them. Please stop them,” I begged.
My knees trembled and my heart pounded as panic screeched in my head.
“I thought you weren’t afraid of dogs,” he said over his shoulder. “Look how cute they are. Look, they’re smiling at you.”
“With their deadly sharp teeth!” I cried.
“Yes, but it’s a detail. Once, these two little bad guys gnawed at my exhaust pipes because they wanted me to stay home and play with them. They must have been rodents in another life,” he said with a laugh.
“These two dogs are also intelligent. What an unfortunate piece of information for their victims.”
I could feel him shrugging his shoulders. He seemed in awe of his killer animals. “Do you want to touch them?”
“No!” I shouted. “They’re Hells dogs! They can burn down anything that crosses their path, so there is no way my hand is approaching them. I care about it.”
“Why? What do you do with it that’s so special?”
I didn’t have to see his face to know he had that devastating smile he had the secret to.
I sighed. It was better to ignore this part of the conversation. “Also, the first time, they weren’t fans of me.”
He turned, and I laid my head against his torso, while he held me by the waist.
“I’ve just avoided certain death because of The Reaper, so frankly everything that comes from the Hells isn’t my friend at the moment.”
“Logi and Felagi are my friends. They’re connected to me; they won’t do anything to you. When you’re ready, I’d like you to get to know each other.”
I felt his power caressing my skin, and when I opened my eyes, the two hellhounds were gone.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes. I’m in tip-top form,” I said with distorted enthusiasm.
“I’m fine too!”
I heard Liam’s voice as he rose from the ground. He put his hands in his pockets and he considered us with a raised eyebrow.
“Me too,” Maurice said.
“Who cares?” the necromancer blurted.
Maurice approached us, annoyed by the young man at his side. “What happened?”
“In short, we know what Craid wants, and we made a deal with The Reaper, and I don’t trust you anymore.”
“What? What
for?”
“You made a deal with The Reaper?”
Maurice and Liam took turns exclaiming, both in shock.
“You lied to the Armistice. Your actions could have caused the Apocalypse if Craid had gotten his hands on the heart.”
“What heart?” Liam asked.
“I’m the great guardian of this library; no one could do this job better than I do.”
“And yet The Reaper knocked you out in less than two seconds,” Jayden noted.
“It’s the fool’s fault!” Maurice snapped, pointing to Liam. “I’ve been fighting The Reaper for days. He arrived, he distracted me with his harmless attacks and The Reaper took advantage of this moment to attack us both.”
I looked at Liam, who shrugged. We agreed that Maurice shouldn’t die. I was angry that he didn’t listen and that he was willing to sacrifice the most precious possessions of the supernaturals, but Jayden expressed his wrath ahead of me.
“You tried to kill him?”
“No, no, no. I tried to teach him a lesson.”
“What lesson? What are you talking about?” I sneered.
I was lost; Liam had seemed different since he came into this library.
“Open your book page one, first notion: What is an abomination?”
His eyes turned bright green, and Jayden rushed toward him. He dragged him outside, and I followed them.
Jayden held Liam by the forearm and walked away with him toward the woods.
“I don’t have time to deal with this now! Calm down for God’s sake!” Jayden growled.
“I’ll calm down when he’s dead! You promised me! You promised me we’d kill them all,” Liam chided, but a note of sadness and despair tinged his voice.
“He isn’t one of those who tortured you, Liam. He’s just an arrogant librarian.”
“He said you were an abomination! An abomination!” Liam shouted as his teeth became sharper, and his nails became long, sharp claws.
What the hell! Where do they come from?
An excruciating pain flared out with every word Liam uttered.
“Exactly! I’m the one he called that. Not you.”
“It’s like it was me,” Liam whispered.
“Liam, jerks like that, we meet them all the time, you have to control yourself. You’re much stronger than that, we’ve been through a lot worse. I need you.”
Hells Magic (The Armistice Book 1) Page 10
