Marcus was staring at her in strange stillness. I was not sure if was using some power on him that I was not aware of, or if he was shocked to see an angel in the flesh. I was grateful either way.
Her words left me with a strange feeling in my stomach. Asking her to take his life felt different than fighting him for the right to end it. She would not fight him in the truest sense of the word – she would take what was hers. I had no doubt she would win. But Marcus controlled the sword. Would that give him an edge? As long as he held the sword, the world was doomed. I couldn’t let that happen. If I had to sacrifice the honor of the fight, I would do it. There was no other way to win. It wasn’t an easy choice, but it was a choice all the same.
“Fine,” I replied.
Nemesis turned away from me and looked at Marcus. She inhaled sharply then exhaled. On the exhale, she let out a soul-deadening scream. It was not directed at me. If it had, I would have been killed. I put my hands over my ears regardless. Marcus fought against the scream, the sword giving him extra powers to resist her scream, but it was not enough. Nemesis walked across the space separating them as she screamed. When she reached him, she reached out and touched Marcus on the head.
Marcus finally stopped fighting, and his body turned pale. The paleness lasted for a brief second. Then his whole body went through a slow transformation. Starting from his feet to his head, his body turned to ash. The last thing to turn to ash was his face. He looked at me with uncharted longing and desire before it dissolved. He had really thought we were destined to rule the world together. He thought our powers combined would bring him everything he had desired. He had never considered an alternative. His yellow eyes were also panicked. He had feared death for so long – now, it was facing him down. He could not fight it. Death had found him in the end.
His face finally dissolved, and the ash blew away. The sword he had been holding dropped to the ground with a solid sound I would remember forever. It was the sound of finally being out from under the fear. The darkness receded from the fight. We were free. I was free.
Freedom was fleeting.
Nemesis turned to me. Her bound eyes burned in to my soul.
“Do you now forfeit your life in exchange for his?” she asked.
“Wh-what?” I asked.
“A favor for a favor,” she replied.
“I thought you owed me?” I asked.
“I did. I brought back your love, Daniel,” she said.
“I didn’t ask you to do that,” I said.
“But it was asked for in your stead, by Farris,” she said. “He is your father. He had the right to make the trade, so it was made.”
“But that wasn’t my choice!” I argued.
“Would you forfeit Daniel’s life then?” she asked. “I can undo what was done. He can be your payment for the life I just took.”
I realized what the voices I heard in the cave had meant. Farris had bargained with her, and Nemesis had brought Daniel back to me as payment for rescuing her from the dark. I was not sure if that made me angry with my father or happy he had thought enough of Daniel to bring him back to me. I knew that there was no backing out. I did not want Daniel to suffer for the bargain I had just made.
“No!” I said. “You can take me. But let me destroy the sword first…if only one of my kind can do it, then let it be me.”
“Fair trade,” Nemesis agreed.
I walked over to the sword. The seconds separating me from its destruction were the same seconds that separated me from life and death. As I walked over to it, I wondered why Farrah had not just destroyed the sword…or used it to get her brothers to stop fighting. I wondered why anyone, if they had the ability to destroy such darkness, would not. It was too dangerous to leave such a weapon in the world. Their fear of the sword had almost ended the world.
I bent down and took the black blade in to my hand. It was cold and warm in the same moment – electric, like taking the hand of a Watcher. There was an alien awareness. There was evil that went beyond simple lust for death. It was evil that searched out suffering. It was evil that wanted the chance to bring uncharted suffering to the world. The sword was conscious; it was alive. It had been locked away too long – it was eager for life and ultimate death of others. It wanted blood.
At the touch, I felt the evil work through my veins. It was hard to resist the call. It appealed to my Watcher nature – the part of me that found anger and violence easily. It was the part of me that enjoyed killing, when I knew I shouldn’t. It was the part that I had kept hidden in the back of my mind, carefully concealed by hope, love and the people I cared for the most.
I never realized until that moment how much a part of me the anger had always been. There was no hiding from that truth. I was a violent person. I was geared for bloodshed. I was born to this life; I had embraced it before most even knew they were different. The changes that had happened to me before my birthday were proof I was meant for this type of thing. I had been hiding from the truth for as long as I had been alive. It was time to stop hiding.
My hand tightened on the sword. I could feel its power building inside me. It was power the likes I had never felt before. It whispered more dark truths in my ear.
I could create worlds – I could end them. I could do whatever I wanted to. Not even Nemesis could stop me. I could kill her – she was not the threat to me that she had been to Marcus. Marcus had been weak. He had not held the natural ability I held. He had not been born of Farrah’s bloodline; he was not the evolution of our kind. He did not know the true expanse of ability and power I held. With the sword, I could take on heaven and hell and emerge victorious. And I would. I would.
The necklace burned white-hot against my skin. It hurt. It was a reminder of something else in my life…Farris. He was trying to warn me. Farris was not the reminder I wanted. He had let me down in a dozen ways. He had let Ellen down. He was weak, foolish. I pulled the necklace off my neck. It hit the floor, and the light died down.
I turned to Nemesis, a white haze clouding my vision. I had lost control. Her expression had not changed, though I knew she could tell the sword was working its way through my thoughts and body. She was curious about what I would do. She was well aware it might come to a fight she would lose. She was willing to take on that fight. It was her duty.
As I looked at her, I thought of the last promise that had been made to her. Farrah had given Nemesis her life in exchange for stopping Lorian and Darian. She had given up her life in the hopes that her love, Jacob, and her child would have a better life. Nemesis had failed Farrah. She had failed the world with her failure. We had all suffered because Nemesis was too weak to kill the brothers. She would pay for her failure.
I took a step forward. As I did, my ring burned with electricity I found familiar.
It was a reminder of Daniel. The sword had worked hard to keep him from my mind. Daniel was a bright light in the quickly darkening world. He would be crushed by the violence I felt like unleashing. He would never love me in the same way; I would never love him in the same way. I would be a god – he would be another weakling to crush under my boot. He would never be able to look at me in adoration, surprise or hope. We would be strangers...until I killed him. I would be alone with only the sword as company.
The sword tried to whisper that was not such a bad fate – it was good company to keep. There were rewards beyond my imagining. There was payment and bliss beyond a boy and the looks he could give me. But ‘payment’ was not a fate I wanted. I spent my life protecting people, not crushing them because they disobeyed my will. That was not me.
My mind started to pull away from the darkness that was clouding it. It struggled to find the light.
The sword was growing desperate. It tried to whisper more truths in my ear. It reminded me of the power, of the freedom we would share together. It reminded me of the power building up inside me. I shied away from that logic. I took a step back from Nemesis, realizing why no one had dared destroy the sword. It
was powerful. Its dark pull was strong. No one had thought themselves capable of destroying something so completely determined to rule the world. But, then, they were not as stubborn as I was.
I closed my eyes and let the full expanse of the power of my mind circle my thoughts. It was the power of the sword and the power of the change combined. I was no longer afraid of what it could do. I took the power and let it build. It built until my whole body actually shook with the force. Then, I directed all that power on to the sword. I put the full crushing weight of my mind on to the sword. I focused on its destruction. I focused on the end of the darkness.
The sword actually screamed. It was a terrifying, high-pitched sound that made my ears bleed from the noise. It was the sound of evil stepping in to the light. Nothing happened for a short second after the scream then the sword started to glow with a white light. The glow surrounded the dark steel. The steel rippled for a second and broke in to a thousand pieces. Those pieces then caught on fire and dissolved in to ash.
As the sword broke apart, a bright force of light knocked me off my feet. The light rippled up through the open roof, to the fight above and onwards. It was the power of my mind; it had completed its task of destroying the sword and was searching for new darkness to face. It would go far.
The light gave me hope. I had done it. Not only had I beaten Marcus – the man of my nightmares – I had beaten the sword. I had found strength I thought I would never find.
It was finished.
My satisfaction was fleeting. Nemesis stepped over to me. Her expression showed surprise but also determination. My time was come. I had a debt to pay.
I would pay it happily…if it meant Daniel and the others lived. It was not a hard decision to make. My only regret was that I wouldn’t see him again – I wouldn’t get the chance to say ‘goodbye.’ I just hoped he would know what I had done for him…and how much he had saved me in my final moments.
Chapter 23
I felt drained, totally exhausted.
Destroying the sword had taken all of my strength. All I could do was lay there and wait for Nemesis to take me. I waited expectantly, wondering if it would hurt. Nemesis finally turned away from me and looked toward the arch I had initially stepped through to face down Marcus. I couldn’t see what she saw, but I felt another person standing there.
“You are right,” Nemesis said. “No other could have done what she did. She was brave and strong. I will agree to your terms.”
“I thought you might,” the historian said.
Though I was exhausted, I found the strength to lift my head. The torches had gone out with the force of light and the explosion of the sword, but I could still see. The historian was looking at me proudly. Her multi-colored eyes were aware of the battle I had just gone through. Her look told me she had never been so satisfied with a person in her entire life. I had done the unthinkable. Her trust in me had not been flawed.
“What terms?” I asked the historian.
“My life, instead of yours,” the historian said.
“No!” I said.
“You played your part…you did something that not even Farrah dared do,” the historian said. “Farrah feared the sword. You were stronger than she was. You have earned the right to live your life as happily as you can…and I hope that you will live it well.”
“Please,” I said. “I take responsibility for my actions. I will go…”
The historian held up her hand.
“This is what I should have done in the first place,” the historian said. “It should have been me, not Farrah, to make the original bargain with Nemesis. I should have been braver. I am not scared any more.”
The historian held out her hand to Nemesis. Nemesis took it gently, her expression soft. Nemesis was not above compassion.
“No!” I said.
The historian smiled at me. I had never seen her look so peaceful. There was no past weighing her down; there was just the dignity of the present. Nemesis’ hand tightened on the historian’s hand. The smile still on her lips, the historian fell to the ground. The light left her eyes, and Nemesis lowered her head.
“It is finished,” Nemesis said.
Nemesis bent down and picked the historian up. She stretched out her black wings and took flight with a sound that made my ears ache. Another flap later, and my mentor – my friend – was gone.
The historian had given up her life for me.
I felt my tears leak over and spill out on to the floor. They were simple tears, salt and water, but they were no less strong with their emotion. The historian was really gone. Everything had changed with my descent in to the city Farrah and the brothers had once called home. My whole world was different.
I stayed in the same spot for a long time, trying to find the strength to move. All I wanted to do was sleep…sleep until I had found my strength again…until the thought of losing the historian, and probably many others from the battle, did not hurt so much.
There were still things to do, however. My task was not as complete as I wanted it to be. The last I had seen of my friends, they had been ambushed by an army of Nightstalkers. I had to know if they were still alive…I had to help them if I could. I could find the strength for that.
I wiped away my tears and focused on what I had to do. I had to go back to the fight. I picked up the necklace I had dropped and wrapped it in my hand. Then, I felt the weak pull of the darkness. With effort, I managed to fall in to the world in-between. As I moved in to the moving darkness, I heard a voice.
I am proud of you….
The voice was full of passion. It was the voice of my father. I felt it was the last time I would ever hear it. My task was done. So was his. Whatever protection he felt I needed before was no longer necessary.
The darkness passed. I fell back out of the place in-between. My landing was not graceful. I hit the sand hard and rolled. I did not get up. The strength to do so had abandoned me.
I could tell where I was despite my prone position. I was on the battlefield. The battle was over. There were no sounds of fighting, just the sound of the injured crying out for the pain to end.
It took me a second to realize a strange truth. There were no Nightstalkers anywhere. There were naked people, who could have been Nightstalkers at one point, but the field was deserted of beasts of any kind. Many of the naked people did not move, but there were plenty who did. Many of the naked Watchers poked and prodded at their skin in a dumbfounded way. Others sat and cried. I saw Anna hugging a large man with dark features; the man she had professed to love was no longer a Nightstalker. At first, no one looked at me twice. Then, I heard a call.
“Clare! It’s Clare! She’s here!”
I looked up and saw Alex, her blonde hair flying out behind her as she ran toward me. When she reached me, she hugged me tight. I couldn’t move my arms to hug her back. My body wouldn’t respond the way I wanted it to.
“Are you okay? What happened?” Alex asked, inspecting me for wounds.
Her hand moved to the scratch on my neck, where red blood had formed around the wound. I could feel that it had not healed the way it was supposed to. The dark magic of the sword had made the wound tougher than most. I would have a scar. It would be a reminder of what I had just gone through. I felt the tears threaten again as I thought about what had happened and the sacrifice the historian had made for my sake.
“We won…” I said.
Alex’s x-ray eyes knew there was more to the story than those two words. The cost of winning had been great. She put a hand of comfort on my cheek and looked up to something beyond my range of sight.
“Daniel is here,” she told me.
I was transferred to Daniel’s arms in one fluid motion. He wrapped his arms around me, and his face swam in to view. His green eyes were worried. He, like Alex, wore clothing that didn’t fit him properly. He was unhurt, though dirty. He was alive. He had won his fight as well.
“Are you okay?” Daniel asked.
“Da
ndy,” I said in a weak voice. “How are you?”
“Curious,” he admitted.
“About what?”
“What happened, for one,” he said. “And why you’re not moving for another.”
“I’m tired,” I told him. “I’ve had a very busy day.”
“We all have, I think,” Reaper added, stepping in to view.
His armor was covered in blood and dirt, but his silver eyes were very bright. He was still wrapped up in the success of the fight.
“Hey, Reaper,” I said.
“Hey, Clare,” Reaper said. “We were worried about you.”
“You were?” I asked.
“Well, you did take a nosedive out of a tower,” Daniel replied. “Then the sky darkened unlike anything I’ve ever seen…then, there was this light. It was warm and felt like you.”
“Are you the reason all the Nightstalkers are suddenly human again?” Reaper asked.
“Could be,” I said. “How’d it happen?”
“That light…It knocked us all on our asses,” Daniel said. “When we got back up, we were normal again. Everyone was. Then, the light kept moving. It’s probably still moving.”
“Oh,” I said. “Yeah. That was me.”
The others looked at me in shock. I finally found the strength to move. I raised a hand and put it on Daniel’s cheek. He smiled at the touch, his shock disappearing in an instant.
“One day, I’m going to tell you how you helped me down there…but right now, I’m going to sleep,” I said.
“Okay,” Daniel replied. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”
“I know,” I said.
Daniel kissed me lightly, and I felt the pull of sleep drag me down. For the first time since the change, I allowed the sleep to take me. Darkness, warm and complete, filled my senses. It was bliss.
When I woke up, I was in a leafy paradise. The air was warm and wet. We were in the jungle again. Outside, I could hear the sounds of people moving and talking in low voices. I recognized the voices of my family. I recognized other voices – voices of the Saints who had survived the battle. I took a long moment to listen to the sounds of humanity. The weight of the fight with Marcus was still on my chest, but I felt better hearing proof of life. It would take time to fully come to grips with what had happened in that buried city, but I knew I would not have to face it alone.
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