by Hanna Peach
Something snaps a branch in her path. Alyx jolts back in the air. The Darkened. The bushes part.
“Alyx.”
It is Jordan. With him are Lukas and another Rogue that Alyx doesn’t recognize. She almost cries with relief.
“Jesus Alyx, what did they do to you?” Jordan cries at the sight of her still covered in her own dried blood.
“I’m fine,” she says. “The lightwarriors, they aren’t far behind.”
“There is a group of Darkened not two hundred meters from here,” says Jordan, nodding to the right. “We should go around them. Who is she?”
“Move now, talk later.”
Jordan nods towards Israel. “Lukas, take him.”
Alyx feels more than Israel’s weight lifting off her shoulders as Lukas takes Israel from her. She shifts the girl in her arms.
“I―.” Alyx doesn’t get a chance to finish her sentence.
A blur flies towards them through the trees. Something pierces her shoulder. The pain, causes her to groan.
An arrow. A Seraphim arrow.
Alyx holds the girl out to Jordan. “Take her too. Take them both somewhere safe. I’ll hold back these guys for as long as I can.”
“We,” Jordan says, drawing his sword. “We’ll hold them back. Lukas, take the girl as well. We’ll meet you at Tara. Go.”
Lukas eases the limp girl out of Alyx’s arms. Hands free, Alyx pulls the arrow out from her shoulder and throws it to the ground. The wound starts to close.
Lukas takes to the air with Israel and the girl slung across either shoulder. Alyx draws her soris as she watches them go. The other Rogue draws his blade too.
“You didn’t have to stay,” she says meeting Jordan’s gaze.
Jordan’s lip tilts into a half-smile. “Here they come. Keep it tight.”
Chapter 66
Alyx, Jordan and the other Rogue stand close together in a semi-circle as they face the oncoming band of lightwarriors breaking through the bush, almost upon them.
Yael and Stantanople zero in on Alyx. The others split between Jordan and the other Rogue.
Swords clash.
“You’re not getting away this time,” says Yael, hacking at her with his soris. Alyx says nothing. She keeps her eyes focused on the moving blades.
There is a stampede of movement through the bushes coming towards them from the other side.
Yael’s eyes widen. “The Darkened. How dare you reveal our city’s location to them.”
His sword impacts so hard against hers that her teeth clatter.
“Yael, listen. I’m not on their side,” Alyx pleads, between the clashing of swords. “Passar directed the Darkened here. He only rescued us so he could hand us over to them. We have to work together if we are to fight the Darkened off.”
“You’re trying to trick us,” Stantanople says as he lashes out at Alyx. She flinches as the tip of his sword catches her stomach.
“I’m not. I swear to you.”
The noise of the Darkened approaching grows closer still. Alyx glances to her left. Jordan and the other Rogue are also fighting two warriors each. Alyx and her friends are already outnumbered. They won’t survive the Darkened joining the fight against them.
The Darkened burst through the undergrowth. They pause for a moment looking confused as they see that the Seraphim are fighting each other.
The other Rogue cries out, falling as a blade pierces his side.
Alyx makes her decision.
“The sparrow has the mortal,” Alyx yells at the Darkened. “Help us defeat these lightwarriors.”
“Traitor,” Yael cries.
His soris cuts deep into her arm. Alyx hisses at the pain. The Darkened swarm into the fight. Their demonswords, black blades flashing, clash with the lightwarriors’ steel.
Alyx slips away from Yael and Stantanople as they are surrounded by the Darkened. She flies over to Jordan who is pressing his hands over the Rogue’s wound. It has started to close but he is still losing a lot of blood. His face is screwed up with pain.
“We have to get out of here before the Darkened realize I have tricked them,” she says.
Jordan nods. “Hang on Marin. I’m going to put you under, for the pain.”
Jordan pulses DreamWalker at his friend and the Rogue named Marin falls limp. Jordan scoops Marin up in his arms.
While the forest is raging with metal on metal and singing with the cries of the fallen, Alyx and Jordan slip quietly into the sky.
“You don’t look very happy,” Jordan says to Alyx as they speed through the forest.
“I have just given the Seraphim irrefutable proof of my alliance with the Darkened. I have no hope of ever going back or of ever clearing my name.”
“Would you want to go back?”
Alyx shrugs.
“Being a FreeThinker isn’t so bad. There’s more out here for you than you think.”
Alyx remains silent.
“That was actually kinda smart what you did,” he says. “And brave.”
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
Chapter 67
Alyx watches the girl open her eyes. She squints and cowers away from the soft sunlight drifting in through the open window. It isn’t all that bright in this room on the second floor of Tara but it would be bright compared to the thick, viscose darkness of the Hollows. How long has it been since this girl has seen sunlight?
Sitting at the edge of the bed Alyx raises her hands in a show of placation. “It’s okay, you’re safe here.”
The girl makes a little gasp and draws her knees up to her chest, clutching at the bedcovers with her little fingers. She looks so tiny in that bed, like a little doll. The girl’s head twitches about, her gaze darting around the room.
“You must be starving. Let me get you something.” Alyx stands to leave. She hears whimpering behind her.
When she turns the girl is staring at her. “I’ll be back, mini one. I promise.”
Alyx returns to the room carrying a bowl of spiced cubes of beef and potatoes, a piece of flat bread and a glass of water on a tray.
The bed is empty.
“Mini?”
Alyx hears a small noise. The girl has tucked herself into the far corner of the room.
“What are you doing here?” Alyx moves towards her. “You prefer being on the floor do you? All right then. We shall have a picnic right here.”
Alyx lowers herself into a seated position on the floorboards, placing the tray down between them.
“Min nee,” it comes from the girl’s lips.
“What’s that?”
“Min nee.”
“Yes. Mini.” Alyx pushes the bowl and the spoon towards her. “Are you hungry Mini?”
Mini snatches the bowl. She grabs a fistful of beef and potatoes, shovels it into her mouth, barely chewing before the next mouthful is pushed in. All the while she is grunting like a swine. The bowl is scraped clean in minutes. She grabs the bread and begins tearing hunks off with her teeth.
Alyx watches in stunned silence.
“Who are you Mini?”
Mini does not answer.
Alyx sits on the edge of the bed by Israel’s side. His bedroom is a simple rustic room on the second floor of Tara. The sun floods through the window. Alyx has never seen Israel look so pale. She wants to touch his face but her hands stay folded in her lap.
“How long have I been out?” he asks.
“Almost a whole day.”
Israel moves different parts of his body and groans. “Why does everyone feel the need to knock me out all the time? Am I such bad company?”
This draws a clipped laugh from Alyx. “You mustn’t be feeling too bad if you’re making jokes. You should feel stiff until your body gets rid of the last of the Cerberus venom. It may take a couple days.”
“Cerberus? As in the Greek mythology three-headed Cerberus?”
Alyx nods. “Most of your mortal myths are rooted in truth. The Cerberus is a demon pet.”
Israel shakes his head, then looks around. “Where are we?”
“It’s a farmhouse in the country outside of Saint Joseph. It’s a Rogue safehouse. They saved us.”
“You saved me. Thank you.” Israel takes one of her hands in his, brings it to his face. He trails his lips across her fingers, her skin lighting up at his touch. “My angel.”
My angel. Her body spreads with fire. It brings back the memories of the night that they shared together. Angel. My dark angel. He had whispered these words, growled them, called them out to her over and over again.
Israel smiles. “Next time I go after Adere I’m not doing it without you.”
Adere. The name is a kris to the heart. Fire turns to ice, sharp and jagged.
“Israel. You need to call off this quest for Adere.”
“I can’t do that. You know I can’t do that.”
Alyx pulls her hand away from him and crosses her arms over her chest. “Tell me why?”
“Because...”
Because you still love her. You want me but you love her.
His face twists as if he is in pain. “Because I need to. I can’t just leave her like that.”
“It’s not over between you two is it?”
“I...” Israel rubs his hands over his face, “I can’t just stop caring about her, Alyx. For so long she was all I had.”
Pain spears through her. She almost can’t breathe. “I can’t do this.”
“This?”
“This. Us. I can’t do this, anymore.”
“Why?”
“As long as you keep chasing Adere I can’t be with you.”
“That isn’t fair. I owe it to Adere to free her.”
“That’s fine. You do what you need to. I just can’t do this anymore. I can’t.”
Alyx gathers all the pieces of her that is falling in love with Israel and tucks them away. Tucks them right away into the depths of her heart. She holds her face like polished marble.
“We’re better off as friends anyway,” she says.
“Friends...” his voice sounds dull and hollow.
Alyx nods. Her throat is too dry to speak. Is this really happening? Will he really let us end?
Tell me that it’s me that you can’t be without. Fight for me.
“You’re right,” Israel says as he locks his fingers together across his stomach. “We’re better off as friends.”
Alyx smiles, cool and measured, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. Inside, her heart is aching.
Chapter 68
Since Elijah was taken from him, Passar has oscillated between consuming rage and numbing sorrow. Sleep has been his only reprieve. Tonight as he is shoved into this sitting room by the Darkened servant named Alzeke he feels the first new emotion in weeks. Fear.
Samyara is reclining along a black chaise smoking a cigarette and staring up at the ceiling. His cinnamon skin is set off by the ivory pantsuit and pale blue shirt that he wears.
He flicks ash into a crystal ashtray on a mahogany side table inlaid with diamond-shaped patterns in mother of pearl. The table matches the walls, also mahogany. A bookcase that takes up a whole wall is full of books that have never been opened, thick spines still un-creased. Spring by Vivaldi is playing in the background, the sound drifting down from strategically-placed speakers that have been installed into the ceiling.
Alzeke leaves, closing the door behind him. Passar is left alone with Samyara. Unlike Purgatory where Passar was under the protection of the enchantment here he has none. But he had no other choice than to come here.
Samyara has still not taken his gaze away from the ceiling. He takes a long draw of his cigarette then blows one, two, three smoke rings into the air.
He turns his head, finally, to look at Passar. Samyara waves an arm out across the room. “What’s missing in this picture?”
“It wasn’t my fault. Your Darkened let them get away too.”
“By using your name. You have disappointed me.”
“I risked my life for you. I gave up my home, my—.”
“No,” Samyara growls. He stabs the cigarette out in the ashtray. In a single bound he is in Passar’s face. “You did that for you.”
Passar swallows.
“You should have just killed her.”
Passar’s blood turns icy as it drains from his face. “I thought you said that no one had to die.”
“Plans change.” Samyara’s lip curls. “Isn’t the life of a few worth the greater good?”
“That wasn’t part of the deal.”
“Don’t you want Elijah back? Weren’t you telling me how you’d do anything, anything, to get him back? Is this not true anymore? Don’t you love him anymore?”
“No. I still love him, more than anything.”
“Then you’ll do what you have to.”
“But…” Passar remembers the look of pain in Alyx’s face when she was forced to defend herself against him. Her blade didn’t once cut his skin, even though she could have killed him several times while they fought. “She was my friend.”
“Your friend. Your friend?” his voice growing louder. “She’s the Guardian. You won’t get to him unless you get rid of her. Next time you don’t hesitate. Just do what you have to.”
“But I...” Passar’s shoulders slump. He what?
“You signed the contract. I never forced your hand.” Samyara’s eyes narrow. “Until you fulfill your side of the bargain you’re mine, little sparrow.” Samyara spins, the tails of his smoking jacket whipping behind him.
“Alzeke,” he yells as he returns to his chaise, falling dramatically across the leather.
The door opens and Alzeke’s face appears. “Yes, Master?”
“Take him to his room. I’m sick of the stench of him.”
The door slams behind Passar. He stands alone in this large room in Samyara’s mansion. The large poster bed covered in plain bone-white linen also stands alone, making the room look even larger and even more bare.
Alone. Alone in a house full of Darkened. It is this cold realization that causes the last of the rage to slip from his frame.
How did he get here? If he could just turn things back... No. He can’t go back, too late to go back.
Maybe he could still make this work? Maybe Alyx doesn’t have to die. Maybe, even if he did have to kill her he could then also bring her back. She would forgive him wouldn’t she? When she saw the new and better world he had helped to create she would forgive him?
He’s doing the right thing. Doing it for love. For peace. To end this war.
Passar remembers Samyara’s impassioned speech about his plan to end the war, to stop the fighting, stop the killing, once he was ruler. Passar tries to push away the feeling growing inside of him that perhaps Samyara had been lying.
Peace. How many people have to die before there can be peace?
A sob tears forth from the depths of his lungs. It isn’t supposed to happen this way.
“I just wanted you back,” he cries to the empty room. “Just wanted you back.”
Passar sinks to his knees, burying his face his hands, his already broken heart tearing further into pieces.
“Forgive me, Elijah.”
Chapter 69
At dusk Jordan finds Alyx sitting high up in the largest tree on the farmhouse property, an old oak. She has long-since run out of tears and the evidence on her cheeks has long-since dried. But the hollowness is consuming. It now wears her.
Jordan settles on the branch next to her. “Are you okay?”
Alyx shakes her head. How could she explain it to Jordan? Her heart, her body, given so freely, so stupidly. She has been sure that Israel felt the right-ness of it too, but she has been wrong.
Now she may be carrying his child. A child who could be used to open hell back up to earth. A child who would be hunted by everyone if anyone were to find out.
“I understand,” he says.
Alyx inhales sharply. Is everything written on her fa
ce?
Jordan continues, “It would have been a blow to find out that a long-time friend was betraying you.”
Alyx nods. “I just can’t believe it. Passar. I thought I knew him.”
“Love can make you do strange things.”
“Elijah and Passar... I should have known, should have picked up on it.”
“When you live in a society that tells you that your true-self is wrong, when you fear judgment, you learn to hide it.”
“But if I had known, maybe things could have been different?”
“Don’t blame yourself. Even if you knew you couldn’t have done anything to change the path that Passar was on. That’s his journey.”
Is that true? Could she have done anything if she had known?
Alyx lets out a sigh, long and heavy. “What now?”
“We’ll stay here until Israel is well enough to be moved,” Jordan says. “Then we should go to Aradale.”
“Aradale?”
“It’s my home. A FreeThinker sanctuary. It’s safer there.”
“A sanctuary? But I thought that Rogues, I mean, FreeThinkers, are...” Alyx searches for a word that won’t be taken as an insult, “...solitary,” she settles with.
“Just because we defected from the Elders and their society it doesn’t mean we lost our humanity or need for community. I have told them about you at Aradale. They are waiting for us.”
“And then?”
Jordan takes a deep breath. “There’s something I need to tell you. It isn’t good.”
Alyx can feel the ends of her emotions start to fray and twist. To fray and twist as if they will snap. If they snap she isn’t sure she can put herself back together.
She closes her eyes. I can get through this. I can get through this. I can... she feels Jordan brush her hand with his fingers.
We, she realizes. We can get through this. She feels herself steady. She lets Jordan lace his fingers into hers.
She opens her eyes and focuses on Jordan’s face. Despite the bad news he is about to tell her, his face is composed, calm. She feels herself breathe a little easier.
