I rolled onto my stomach and I felt my whole ribcage shift and the warmth spread through my entire chest. It would’ve been relaxing in any other situation, but definitely not now. As I looked on I could see a small twinkle of something metallic out of the corner of my eye. Sam had lost the blade in the blast and it was only ten yards from me. I took a deep breath and pushed myself up as fast as my body would allow, and I limped slightly to the blade, feeling everything shift within my leg as it healed. I snatched it up and began to run towards all of the action. This would be the end of the garmr. I knew with certainty that it wouldn’t be able to come back from what I was about to do to it, and it was going to be messy.
I let the heat build and I threw a ball of fire towards the wolf, calling out to get its attention. It worked. It turned just in time for the flames to smash into its face. This would be enough to piss it off and turn it to me and that was exactly what I wanted. It began to run in my direction and as I closed in on it I knew my moment was coming. I sunk to the ground and slid, pointing the blade up towards its belly. I slid underneath it and felt the blade makes its messy path through its skin. Blood poured onto me and burned slightly. Just enough to be uncomfortable. A cry emanated from me that I didn’t recognize as my own, and I was able to spot its beating heart behind its ribcage. It was just enough time for my hand to burst through its breast bone, shattering it into small pieces that flew around me. I shut my eyes to avoid shards taking out my vision and I felt my hand close around the heart. It was slippery with blood and it beat against my hand, voicing its own protest for what was about to take place.
I opened my eyes as I absorbed its power into me. I could see it in bright rivers of light flowing from its still beating heart and through my arm to rest in the apex of my chest. The light there was growing brighter and brighter and I could swear my chest was about to implode. I broke out in sweat as the heat rose, feeling like the heat of a super nova. I still didn’t let go, even though a part of me was practically screaming and begging for me to. I couldn’t. I knew that if I did that it would all be over, and defeating Lilith would be a distant dream never to be fulfilled. The garmr began to collapse and turn slowly into a pile of ash before my eyes, the embers beginning to fall around me. That was my cue to turn up the heat.
I focused the energy and heat into the heart of the beast and it began to turn into ash and liquid fire in my hand. I could feel myself becoming even stronger as its power flowed into me. The only way I knew to describe the feeling was like you were having an anxiety attach. Your heart was pounding, you were pouring sweat, and you felt like you could pass out at any moment. My vision was beginning to blur and it was like I was looking through that same veil of the beast’s power again.
I screamed as the heat inside of me became unbearable and I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I was going to blow and no one could stop it. Not even me. The light within me exploded around us all and I could feel rivers of fire flowing from me, enveloping what was left of the wolf itself. I could feel it burning away the soul of the creature as I lie there. The light subsided within seconds and the ashes of the garmr fell around me in a perfect little circle. Then everything went dark.
Chapter 30: Bringer of Death
The light had faded, my eyes hurt and my ears were ringing. What had just happened? I opened my eyes as quickly as I dared and shut them again. Even the darkness surrounding us was too bright, and the soft glow of the fire burning away in the pit didn’t help. Everything sounded muffled, like I had just been lying underneath a bomb with my hand inside of it. Now that I thought of it, my hand was burning slightly. The rest of my body was covered in cooling and congealing blood from the garmr. It was thick and it warmed my skin like I was sitting next to a fire.
I forced my eyes open again and looked around to assess the damage. As I glanced around I gasped at what I saw. It looked like an atomic bomb had gone off, leaving almost nothing behind. I would’ve said it killed the trees right into the line of the forest, but they were already dead. If anything, it turned them into scattered piles of ash and charcoal with some floating in the air as small living embers. If I didn’t know better I would’ve said I was surrounded by fireflies, and lots of them. They were just blinking balls of orange light and I wanted to reach out and touch them, but I knew better than to do that.
I turned onto my side and was stunned by what I saw when I looked at my outstretched arm. The neat networks of veins were still glowing. I literally had liquid fire running through me and as I looked on I stood, leaning on my other arm for support. It seemed like it would never fade and I would be stuck like this forever which would look cool, but I sure would get some funny looks. My heart began to beat even faster and the beating light from my heart was illuminating everything within five feet of me. I was in awe of what I was looking at, but then a thought crossed my mind. Where was everyone? Had I killed them?
I stood up quickly, possibly too quickly. The world began to swim and I stumbled. I reached out automatically with my hands and then the world was finally stable again. I could feel my body adjusting to the new level of power and if anyone asked me to explain how it felt I wouldn’t even know where to start. Warm. It was warm. The feeling was warm and fuzzy, like I had tremors running through each cell and they were humming in delight. I couldn’t describe it any other way. My body did ache slightly, but it had taken quite the beating lately so I wasn’t exactly surprised.
As I searched the landscape for any signs of life I could see a small fire burning away. I walked up to it, hoping no one I knew or loved was burning in the flames. Upon further inspection, after stumbling over to one not even eight feet away, I noticed gray fur. It was a piece of the garmr and it was still cooking. Nausea began to come in waves, and I placed my hand over my mouth like it would hold everything in. It wouldn’t. I sank to my knees and vomited right then and there and there was no stopping it. It burned on the way up, and all I could taste was ash and heat. Finally, there was nothing left in my stomach and a nice pool of brilliant liquid fire was on the ground. I wiped the corners of my mouth with the back of my hand and stood slowly. This morning sickness stuff was getting out of hand, or was it the sight of a burning piece of the garmr that triggered it.
I had to focus. Gordon, Sam, and Escara were still missing and I had to find them. Plus, Escara was the one who knew how to activate the pit so we could get out of this god forsaken place. I was more than ready to be home. I hadn’t noticed until panic began to rise in me that the beast was rolling right below the surface, growling in defiance. I swallowed, trying to choke it down while I searched.
“Gordon,” I screamed into the near firelight surrounding me. I listened for an answer and didn’t hear one. My ears were straining to hear something, anything. Hot tears began to stream down my cheeks when I still didn’t hear anything.
“Sam.” I screamed her name. I had killed Sam and Gordon I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself. “Gordon,” I cried once more. It came out choked with tears and the beast was trying to push its way out through my throat.
I bent over, hands on my knees, and let the tears fall to the ashen ground. Embers were still falling around me and I watched as a solitary tear fall, smothering an ember on the ground with a hiss. As I stood there, wallowing in my own sorrow at the loss of those I had come to care about, I heard something in the distance. It wasn’t too far from the sound of it, but far enough. I rose to a standing position and squinted into the dark that was barely lit by the blaze of the pit. I heard it again and could see a figure running towards me like their life depended on it. For all I knew it did.
“Robin,” I heard. It was a strong male voice that was growing louder with each stride. I recognized the voice, but everything was still muffled and distorted so I could barely make out that he was yelling my name. Then it registered. Gordon was running towards me, calling my name and waving his arms.
“Gordon,” I screamed, running with everything I had. My legs and arms pumped and my breath c
ame in fast and hard.
Then I was right there and our bodies slammed into one another, and my arms automatically wrapped around him and held onto him. I wasn’t going to let go of him ever again. We sank to our knees right there and his arms were so tight around me I almost couldn’t breathe, but I welcomed the feeling. I didn’t care if I ever breathed again as long as he still held me.. Tears began to stream down my face yet again and I was so happy that I could barely contain myself. I could swear that even the beast inside of me was doing a happy dance with the same enthusiasm, purring in delight.
Gordon pulled away from me just enough to check for any injuries. He moved my hair out of my face, making contact with a cut on my forehead. It began to sting and I hadn’t even realized I had blood pouring in a stream down my face until then. He didn’t look much better than I did. His nose was bleeding and he had a few other scrapes and scratches, but was otherwise in good health. He placed his hands on the sides of my face and looked me square in the eyes and from the reflection in his I could see they were still burning bright amber, but seemed to be dimming slowly as the beast backed down. There was no battle to fight here.
The glow within my veins was beginning to fade as we sat there looking at each other and the beast was curling back up in its dank and dark corner. It would hide there until I needed it again. I watched him take slow and deep breaths, unshed tears glittering in his eyes and a broad smile across his lips.
“Are you okay?” I nodded in response. That was all I knew to do. “And the baby?”
My hand flew down to my belly and everything felt fine. As a matter of fact everything felt better than fine. Much better. I put my hands on top of his and nodded again.
“I’m okay. The baby is okay. We’re both okay.” The words came out in a rush of air, breathy and choked. My throat was still dry and I could still taste the powdery and charred flavor of ash in the back of my throat. It didn’t matter what I did. Gordon didn’t seem to care that I was covered in garmr blood, but when he had pulled away from me I could feel my shirt stick to me and pull away from my skin in a sickly stickiness. Just the feel was enough to send waves of nausea through me again, but I swallowed them down as best as I could.
I heard a shuffle behind Gordon and looked up to see Sam and Escara walking up to us, ashes and embers flying around them. They were both okay. Well, not one hundred percent, but it wasn’t anything time wouldn’t heal. All I could do was sit there and stare at them. Questions began to build in Gordon’s eyes and I directed him to look behind him. He took the hint and turned to find Sam and Escara there. He let out a big sigh of relief and I could feel even more tension leave his body as he dropped his arms to his lap. Escara, always the one on top of things, spoke up first.
“I need to show you how to activate the portal, Executioner, and you must keep your promise.” She was quick on the draw today, wasn’t she? I rolled my eyes and rose to my feet. I could feel the strain and the ach of every muscle and joint as I stood.
She walked with slender grace to the edge of the pit and stared down into the flames. For a demon, she wasn’t as bad as I thought she would be and I regretted making the promise before fully realizing what it meant. Killing a friend. I followed her slowly and stopped, standing so close to her that I could feel her arm brush against mine, but just barely. It was almost like she wasn’t even there. She took a deep breath and turned to me. The lecture was about to begin.
“You need a blade. A sharp one,” she said. I searched for the blade and found it glinting in the light from the pit. I retrieved it as Escara made her way to the edge of the pit. She nodded and said, “Good.”
“What next?” I asked. I was almost too scared to know, but I had to get a move on if I wanted to get home with enough time to save the world.
“You need blood but you don’t need a lot. One cut and a few minutes and it will be activated.”
I looked into her eyes and hers bore into mine. “And then I do what?”
“You jump in.”
Wow. So all I had to do was cut myself and jump into the pit? Why was I terrified of that? Oh yeah, I was just going to jump into a strange hole not really knowing where it was going to take me. I saw something cross behind her eyes in that instant and I knew what was coming next. I wanted to deny it, but no matter how much I wanted to forget the promise I made to get here I knew she would be reminding me.
“Now, your promise, Executioner.” She walked away from me a few steps and turned back to me. I began to shake my head. Her quirky tendencies towards our humanity made me want to laugh most times, but that was what made her loveable. A loveable demon? I would’ve never said that before I met Gordon, but I found myself thinking it a lot these days. My hands were trembling and I was whispering the word no over and over. This was going to be a lot harder than I originally thought it would be.
“You must keep your promise to me, Executioner! I have led you here, now it is your turn.” Tears stung my cheeks again.
Gordon walked up to me and took my hands in his. He was trying to be reassuring. “Robin, she’s right.”
I looked up at him and I knew anger had to be plain on my face because he froze as soon as I met his gaze. I didn’t want to do this anymore. I didn’t care what I had promised.”
“She can come with us. She can help us,” I said. I wasn’t going to give up on this too easy. Her life didn’t have to end here.
“Executioner, you must. I am not meant for the surface. You are. Even your demon lover is,” she paused, “I am tired of death and destruction, Executioner. I am tired of all of the blood.”
With that there was nothing left to say. I had to do this. Not for me, but for her. She was tired and I had promised her that she would no longer have to deal in blood anymore. I didn’t have a tendency to break promises, but this was one that I would be willing to break if they would allow it. It seemed like I wasn’t going to be getting my way this time. I nodded and Gordon stepped behind me. This would be the hardest thing I would ever have to do. This was the end she wanted and I would be rude not to give it to her, right? Anything I had to say to myself to justify what I was about to do.
I let the beast build up inside of me again. I looked back to Gordon and saw my eyes light up like the sun in the reflection. I was about to use the only tool I had to destroy her, and she was surrendering to it. My body hummed with release and the heat building broke me out in a sweat. The glow from my heart began to spread through the veins of my body and the familiar pulse of that glow lit up the darkness. It started out soft and grew brighter with each beat.
I could feel a slight breeze starting and it was causing my hair to flow softly around my face and I knew this had to be my power building. It had never happened before, but I didn’t believe in coincidences. I could feel the energy building in my chest and the heat rising within my heart and threatening to spill from my throat and out of my mouth. Light began to pool in the palm of my hand in a swirling ball of energy, and I raised my hand towards her.
A silent tear rolled down my cheek and she nodded, giving me the okay to do what needed to be done. She had been waiting for this for a long time, and she was ready. She couldn’t have looked more at peace in that moment.
The swirling ball began to glow brighter and a scream escaped from within me that I couldn’t recognize as my own. Escara looked completely serene as release came and fire spewed from the palm of my hand and overtook her in mere seconds. She didn’t scream and she didn’t run. No cries of pain erupted from the mass of fire. There was nothing.
As all energy left my body in that pillar of flame and light, the glow disappeared and I fell to my knees. I watched her burn in the darkness and sadness overtook me. I had encountered something here that was supposed to be pure evil, but she showed more humanity than I had seen in most human beings. Gordon joined me on the ground and took me into his arms, holding me as I let the tears flow. Something that was supposed to be so black and white with absolutely no shades of gray showed
me that those shades do exist. I had just been blind to them before, and I had the man here with me to thank for that.
Chapter 31: Through the Wormhole
I had fallen to my knees as Escara burned right before my eyes. I really hadn’t even remembered my knees giving out, but they had and it was like I had forgotten how to breathe. Either that or the fire burning her up was stealing all of the air from the space surrounding me. I couldn’t move, couldn’t think. All I could do was stare at Escara’s burning flesh as she lay on the ground.
Gordon was standing beside me and Sam still hadn’t moved and was watching me from a safe distance like I was about to break. I didn’t blame her. I felt like I was about to come apart at the seams and all for a demon I had met in Hell. Evil wasn’t just evil anymore, but what did that say about good? I think I had proven myself that even good is tinged with even just a little bit of wickedness. Hell, I was more than tinged. I was soaked in it from head to toe as far as I was concerned, and what I was watching at that moment proved it to me.
I had always believed that there was a clear cut line between good and evil, and it turned out I was wrong. I had been wrong on all counts and now I felt hopeless. I didn’t want to kill her, but she fought me so hard when I protested her that I had no choice. If I didn’t feel like I belonged in Hell before, I sure did now.
They both stood there awkwardly, watching my reactions and expressions but there were none. I was numb. I was tired of death and being the one to cause it. I didn’t want to kill any more, but Lilith wouldn’t let me have that so there was at least one more death that I would be directly responsible for. I knew I wouldn’t be that lucky. I would have to forge a bloody path straight to her. I heard Gordon wipe his hands on his pants as he moved in front of me. He came down to his knees on the ground and looked directly into my eyes, concern and worry gleaming in those beautifully dark eyes. He reached out with one slender hand and touched the side of my face and that was when I lost it. I stood abruptly and pushed his hand away, causing him to fall backwards onto the ground and began to scream wordlessly into the nothingness surrounding us. My heart was broken and everything in Hell was going to know it.
Follow the Screams (The Executioner Trilogy Book 2) Page 17
