Scorched tdf-2

by Sharon Ashwood

  The smart ones went looking for weapons that could be used from a distance. An arrow nicked him. The two he had already taken were slowing him down. He could feel his own blood beneath his shoes, slippery, treacherous. Though he felt no weakness or pain, his injuries were still taking their toll.

  Invincibility, even in a demon, is illusion. There is always a way to die.

  The whole place stank of magic from the pond. It was growing thicker by the moment, egging him on, feeding his killing trance. Only his darker side remained, burning to sear away every trace of the guardsmen and their ritual.

  Even swallowed up by the demon, Mac tried to protect the one he loved and the ones she loved. Though many fell, Sylvius remained safe, untouched, and secure.

  But in the end, there were too many enemies, even for a warrior made of fire. Already wounded, bleeding out, his energy consumed by bright flames, Mac couldn’t watch everywhere at once.

  Death surprised Mac for the moment it took him to die.

  Constance tore the bar from the cage and let it drop, as she had the door, on an advancing guardsman. The links that bound the cuffs together dangled free with a sinuous, snakelike motion.

  Atreus stretched out his arms, testing the play of the chain. “Brave, Constance, but it is still not enough.”

  “What do I need to do?”

  “Silver drains my power and defies your strength.”

  She’d heard that part already. She grabbed his wrist, twisting the cuff around so she could see how it closed. “I have a knife. Maybe I can pick the lock.”

  “That would take time.”

  Constance glanced down. Sylvius had crawled away and was hiding beneath the scaffold, away from trampling feet. With a sick lurch, she saw the trail of blood he had left in his wake.

  Then she nearly fell out between the gap-toothed bars. Horror and wonderment hit her like strong liquor, forcing her to grab the cage for support.

  Mac had become a creature of fire. A halo of pale flames covered him like a second skin, moving and swirling as he fought. She watched him dodge and thrust, his big, strong body lithe and quick as the blaze itself. Mac, what have you done?

  “He has become his demon, a perfect killer,” Atreus said, answering her silent question.

  No. The man I love is still in there. And if he was going to stay in one piece, the battle had to end. Now. There were too many guards for even a demon to fight.

  There was no doubt he needed Atreus’s help.

  Defiantly, Constance slid her thin fingers beneath the rim of the silver cuff, pulling the hinges apart. The edges of the silver cut into her skin, coating the metal with slick blood. Her grip slid.

  “This is useless,” Atreus snapped. “If these shackles could be so easily bent, no one would bother making silver chains!”

  “Let me try!” she snarled back. She resettled her grip, closed her eyes, and threw all the force of her vampire strength behind it. Please! Please!

  She strained, ducking her head and using her shoulders. The hinge pin snapped, allowing the cuff to bend. Atreus pulled his arm out of her bloodied fingers and ripped at the metal.

  “Huh,” he said, clearly annoyed she’d proved him wrong. Immediately, he brightened. “This silver can’t be pure. Of course you can get the better of it, my girl!” One hand now free, he held out the other, his black eyes bright as stars. “Break the other. Bless you for claiming your vampire blood, Constance, you’ve saved us.”

  Now filled with confidence, she had the second cuff off in a moment. Atreus hurled the chains out of the cage, stretching out his arms in triumph. Constance felt the rush of his gathering power. It seemed to swirl around them, whistling through the bars as it gained speed.

  Sylvius, Mac, we’re coming!

  She moved to jump out from where the door had been and launch herself down below, but Atreus caught her sleeve. “Stay one moment,” he said, barely turning his head. “It’s safer here.”

  Constance stiffened, something in his words sounding ominous. “What do you mean?”

  His attention was fixed on the knot of guardsmen below, Mac burning bright among them. “The guards will never touch my son again.”

  He rose to one knee, leaning out of the cage. The whoosh of energy grew to a cyclone, rife with a mad, restless energy so like Atreus himself.

  Constance had wanted the sorcerer to help. Now she was suddenly terrified. I used my powers to free him. Did I make a terrible mistake?

  “Stop!” she cried, but the word died in the sudden absence of air.

  White lightning filled the cavernous hall, nowhere and everywhere at once. It flicked like the tongue of a serpent, touching pillars, the scaffold, the balcony where Constance had stood. She fell against the bars, flinging her arm over her eyes, praying Atreus could keep it from the metal cage.

  Thunder cracked, shaking her through and through, rattling dust from the ceiling. She bit her tongue, the taste of blood confused with the smell of hot stone and the crisp tang of storms.

  Atreus stood at the very edge of the cage door, conducting a rising wind as if it were a band of musicians. Blinded by tears from the brightness, Constance barely blinked her vision clear in time to see the lightning gather itself into a bright, throbbing glow, a single ball poised above the battle below. Her eyes sought Mac in the confusion of milling bodies.

  All the guardsmen, including Mac, battled directly below the burning globe of energy.

  “No!” she cried, grabbing at Atreus. “You’ll kill them all! You’ll kill Mac! You might kill Sylvius.”

  But her words were lost in the funnel of wind that held the ball poised on a cushion of air. Anger rushed through her like Mac’s red-hot fire. Atreus was laughing. Constance jerked the sorcerer’s arm hard, forcing his attention to her. She had only seconds to make him stop.

  Atreus wheeled, unable to resist her new strength, and missed his footing. He stepped onto thin air. His mouth opened as if to speak, his eyes holding Constance’s in a blank stare Of surprise. Another time, he could have saved himself, but all his power was in the storm.

  All his power was bent on killing.

  She had to stop him. But maybe she already had, deep in her heart. She didn’t reach for him, couldn’t bring herself to grab his hand.

  He had reached out to her, but only so that she could free him to massacre the men below. Enough was enough.

  In that instant, Atreus’s power speared downward and dragged Atreus with it. He fell like a wind-tossed scrap of paper, drifting, spinning down through the stone cavern to the cruel rock below.

  Magic was hanging all around Mac, like fog. Part of him had been aware it had been there all along, growing stronger as he’d been fighting. Now it clogged his mind. Memories from the past few hours flickered, but refused to coalesce. Lightning. Blood. Fire. Pain.

  He shook his head to clear it. It helped a little. Enough to notice where he was.

  He was sitting in the front row of one of the balconies, looking down at the chaos below. He seemed okay. Unhurt. Even his clothes were clean and unwrinkled.

  For some reason that made him afraid.

  “Thank you for putting me back.”

  He whipped his head around, half jumping to his feet.

  A woman was sitting next to him, her legs crossed casually under long skirts made of some gauzy rainbow-colored fabric. Mac’s first thoughts were of Renaissance fairies and organic gardening. She looked the tofu type, with one of those ageless faces and long, long straight hair.

  She seemed familiar.

  He looked harder. There was something about her that was hard to see, as if his eyes kept trying to shift away. He had to force himself to study her face. Black eyes. Hair so pale it looked silver. And then it clicked. She had Sylvius’s features.

  The Avatar.

  “You’re back in the Castle,” Mac said.

  “I am the Castle,” she replied. Her voice was husky and low. She folded her hands in her lap. The bangles on her wrists—gol
d, silver, copper, and metals he couldn’t name— jingled as she moved. “You see me as Atreus made me, but in truth I have no physical form.”

  It made sense. Witches built sentient houses. The Castle was just a big house, conscious in much the same way. The Avatar was its sentience. More complex, more powerful, but the principle was the same.

  “Very good,” she said, even though he hadn’t spoken a word.

  “If you’re here, is Sylvius all right?”

  “He will be fine.”

  Mac didn’t want to look away from the Avatar, but he looked down over the balcony railing, anyway. He wanted to check on Connie, but couldn’t find her in the milling crowd below.

  “She is unhurt,” the Avatar said.

  Mac looked up, mildly irritated. He felt a beat behind the conversation.

  “You want to know why you were involved in this battle,” the Avatar said, making it a statement.

  “That would be nice.”

  “It is a very mortal need. Why is so important to the short-lived. The simple answer is that I needed your strength.”

  “And the longer and more satisfying answer?”

  The Avatar shifted, her bracelets making a clinking sound. “The Castle—I—was failing. Sylvius had just come into his powers and was old enough to release me without suffering harm himself. You were there, and your demon was in a mutable state.”

  “So it was you who changed me?”

  “I took your dormant infection and made it active again. I switched you from a soul eater to a fire demon. Fire demons are much more useful for raising power, and I needed power to complete the spell.”

  Mac’s mood went black. “So the time was right and I was convenient. That’s it.”

  The Avatar gave a half smile. “I knew you were the one the moment you spared Bran’s life, right before you met Constance. There is a line you will not cross, one that keeps you from surrendering to darkness. You are someone who has a will to help others. You held on to that despite how the demon changed you. No other demon would risk death to save a teenage incubus from a roomful of guardsmen and sorcerers. Everything you are or ever have been destined you to save me and those who dwell here.”

  That sounded a lot like the hellhounds’ prophecy. Lore had been right. “You mean I was just a pawn of destiny?” he said dryly.

  “There is always free will. You could have not saved us. You could have let us all perish.”

  “But instead I did my bit.”

  “And I appreciate it,” she added.

  “Good to know. So you got your spell. Can I go home now?”

  She looked perplexed. “Home? You’re a wandering spirit.”

  Mac began to feel sick. “Spirit?”

  “You gave your life so that I could be free.”

  A wave of desperation surged through him. He was dead. He couldn’t be dead. He slapped a hand to his chest, but he felt real enough. The bench felt hard and uncomfortable beneath him.

  “You feel what you expect to feel,” said the Avatar. “Just as you see me because your mind needs an image to talk to.”

  Mac licked his lips. Or thought he did. Whatever. “You said Sylvius is all right. How come he got to live and I didn’t?”

  “Sylvius was two beings in one. Me, and his father’s son. There’s only one of you.”

  Mac looked over the railing again, trying to catch a glimpse of the kid. He caught sight of Connie instead. She was leaning on Caravelli, starting to sob. She’s found out. She knows I’m gone. That should be me holding her.

  “But you can’t.” The Avatar sounded vaguely perplexed, as if he were being slow. She didn’t look so relaxed now.

  Mac swiveled to face her. “Look, you turned me into a monster. A killing machine. I did terrible things to fulfill your spell. Soul-destroying things.”

  “That’s true.” She didn’t sound very worried about it.

  “You owe me for that. You turned me into a murderous monster.”

  She leaned forward, not exactly angry but definitely intense. “Yes, as part of the spell to restore me, you killed a great many guardsmen. You paid for those deaths with your own life. Isn’t that atonement enough? And wasn’t it in a good cause?”

  Mac didn’t say anything more. How do I argue with a pile of stone?

  The Avatar put a hand on his knee. It felt cold, heavier than a woman’s hand should have been. “Very well. You died in my service. I acknowledge my debt to you. What would you have me do? Do you wish to return to your human life?”

  Mac lifted his head.

  “Can you do that?” Mac heard the hope in his voice. Hope for everything he’d lost—his job, his family, his friends. He could see himself back at his desk, dirty coffee cup and files and more work than was humanly possible to accomplish stacked before him. It looked like heaven.

  And there was more. He could keep October mornings. The smell of coffee. Dogs. Going for a run in the rain. He wouldn’t have to die, a wisp of nothing fading into the dark.

  The Avatar gave an apologetic smile. “It is difficult to remove a demon symbiont from its host. It is harder still to keep that infection from returning. I would have to set safeguards in place to limit your contact with the supernatural world. If you were human again, my doors would be closed to you. You would find the supernatural community outside your reach.”

  On first hearing, it sounded like a small price to pay. Mac looked out over the cavernous gloom, the small figures below lit by the fire from the lake. It was a macabre scene, like something from a medieval painting of hell.

  Then he felt the Castle’s words like lights going out in his heart, one by one. No supernatural community meant no Holly. No Caravelli, or Lore, or Sylvius. He could have his old life, but it would be without those friends who had been there for him, demon or not. Worst and most terrible: No Connie. He would be doomed to live without her love.

  Mac felt his limbs growing cold. Was that death, or just sadness?

  “Does a human life not please you?” asked the Avatar. “Is there a door number two? One where I get to be a white hat?”

  She sat back, turning the bracelets around and around her wrists. The long, pale hair fell over her face, and she was silent for so long Mac thought she had lost interest in him.

  Mac slouched against the balcony rail, looking out over the cavern. When the Avatar spoke, he jumped. His thoughts had wandered away—down to Connie, and Holly, and all those who had fought beside him that day.

  “Then would you serve me?” she asked. “You were a guardsman in your old life.”

  “I dunno. Doesn’t sound like your guards are all that happy.”

  “They fell into despair because I was gone. In truth, it was my absence that killed them. Not your sword or Atreus’s mad spell of fire.”

  Mac turned to face her. She sat, looking up at him. Her expression was earnest.

  “I want to make amends.” She lifted a hand, and let it fall with a jingle. “The few guards that remain are good men, but they’re lost. They need someone to lead them. Someone stronger than they are, like a demon.”

  Mac’s heart sank. “Demons destroy. We’ve been down that road already.”

  “I’ll make you the demon with the badge that helps people.”

  “That makes no sense.” He could feel despair seeping into him, cold and gray.

  “Yes, it does. It was as a demon that you looked after Constance, and loved her, and gave her the strength to grow into her own power. She’s her own woman now, servant to no one. You rescued her son, twice. You carried Reynard to safety. You put the events in motion that saved Lore’s people. You have high ideals, and the demon gave you the physical strength to live up to your own standards. The creatures of the Castle need human compassion, but in a form that matches their own.”

  “I surrendered to the fire demon. I slaughtered your men because I couldn’t control it. Why would those guardsmen who are left follow me?”

  “They will know you by how you lead
them. You know how such men work far better than I do. You’re one of them.”

  “I think they’ll complain if I burn them to crispy critters.”

  “I will give you mastery over your demon nature. It is something you would have developed in time, anyway. It takes practice to harness your powers. Isn’t that what you told Constance?”

  “Then I get some control on the heat thing?”

  “Of course.”

  Mac rallied, his spirits rising despite himself. “And none of this no-eating crap. I keep my appetites, thank you very much. In fact, you should have more repression-free zones like the Summer Room. It’s healthier that way for everybody. Maybe if people get to let off steam now and again, they’ll stop hunting the incubi like truffles.”

  The Avatar blinked, looking taken aback. “That would be up to you.”

  Mac froze. “Up to me?”

  She waved a hand, taking in the entire cavern. “I must regenerate rivers and forests, a sky and stars. That’s a lot to look after.” She shrugged. “I’ll have to leave a lot of the smaller details up to you.”

  “You actually need me,” said Mac, surprise bubbling through him.

  The Avatar nodded. “Yes, Conall Macmillan. And this time I’m asking your permission. Will you help me become the beautiful place I once was? Will you look after my people?”

  Mac thought about Reynard and the guards, the warlords and the smugglers, and all the downtrodden of the Castle. It was more than an army of social service agencies could ever hope to clean up, and he was proposing to do it on his own.

  “Hell, yes.” And then he laughed.

  Cleaning up the street was exactly the kind of work that got Mac up in the morning. Besides, he wouldn’t be on his own. He had friends, and there were folks in Fairview who cared about what happened behind the Castle door. They’d proved that today.

  Most of all, there was Connie. If ever there was a girl worth being resurrected for, she was the one.

  “I’ll do it.”

  The Avatar smiled, and it was like the sunrise. “Good.”

  “Just a few more things before we shake hands...”