by Am Hudson
“I said, it won’t work,” I said with a stiff upper lip. “I will never give you my baby.”
“He called for his Aunt,” she sung, pouting mockingly. “He called out to his sweet Aunty Arietta to help him—of all the people in the world. Poor boy, screaming for the dead.”
“He’ll recover,” I stated factually, knowing deep inside that he most likely wouldn’t.
“Hans, of course—” she motioned back to the giant holding my baby, “—enjoyed it thoroughly, didn’t you, Hans?”
Hans looked at Jason with a sick kind of hunger in his eyes, bringing one hand up to his mouth and purposefully licking it clean.
My stomach turned.
“But, it clearly means nothing to you for the boy to suffer.”
I looked away, biting my tongue.
“I was willing to negotiate,” she said, in the same tone Vicki would when she’d offered me dinner and I refused, “I was willing to let you go—give you a life, but you have left me no choice.”
My attention jumped back onto her when she swept across the room to Jason’s side again. “What are you doing?”
“After so many centuries of fighting, I would have been appeased with the insertion of my daughter’s soul into that babe. Now, I will only be satisfied with Lilith’s soul, so that I may breed her with this boy in thirteen years—when her womb is ready.”
Hans broke into a deep, goofy laugh, slapping his knee, and the baby jolted around disconcertingly in his arm.
“I will force you to transfer your soul,” she continued, eyes falling on my neckline. “And I know you wear the crux that binds it to this earth.” Her hand extended over Jason. “Give it to me.”
“No.” I stepped back, covering my chest where it rested low under my shirt.
“Give it to me!” she demanded in a high, angry voice.
“No!”
“Then you shall see what I—” Her mouth moved but her words were drowned out by a sharp squeal, cutting the air above the tower, and an earth-shaking rush of wind moved through the window, blowing my hair over my face and knocking the plants and herbs to the ground.
Safia ducked, and Hans curled himself around the baby, as a deep rumble vibrated the floor. Glasses and pot plants danced to the edge of shelves and tables, toppling over and into pieces on the floor. And even in the daylight, as I glanced over my shoulder out the window, I could see the fiery glow of flames colouring the trees in the distance.
Safia righted herself, dusting her dress off as though none of it fazed her. “So they have come for you.”
“We both knew they would.” I slowly pushed my legs straight, keeping my eyes out that window. A flood of men moved over the snow-patched green fields like a plague of locusts, unopposed, the group growing by the dozens as Drake’s faithful subjects joined his Warriors alongside my Knights. In a few short minutes, they would be upon us. Even if Safia had used a cloaking spell on me, or this room, I knew Drake would find me. I could feel him, feel his Cerulean Light somewhere out there behind his men, so I was just as sure that he could feel me.
“They will never find you here.”
“Then they’ll tear the entire place down looking,” I said through my teeth, taking a good, long look at the baby to make sure she was all right. My whole body just wanted to move over there and take her—my heart screaming out, almost forcing my limbs to move. But I knew I didn’t stand a chance against Hans—not if he was powerful enough to subdue both Arthur and Jason. If I tried, I was afraid he’d accidentally hurt the baby trying to fight me off.
When I looked back at Safia, she was gone—standing now by the window, leaning slightly out.
I repositioned my feet to run forward and shove her out, but as I moved, she spun around to face me, ushering me to her with a wave of her hand. “Come, girl. I want you to see this.”
I rolled to stand straight again, as if I’d not been planning anything, and my eye caught a black pebble-sized bug in the cup of her palm. “What is that?”
“A Black Widow, ironically enough.” She faced the window again and leaned out slightly. “Flesh-eating, of course.”
“And…” I asked with apparent interest, hiding the concern splintering my chest. “What are you doing with it?”
“Killing everyone you love,” she said simply, dropping the spider out of the window before I could reach her. I heard another deep rumble in the ground then, my heart filling with relief as I pictured the plane flying overhead again, but without the roar and the squeal and the wind, the hope faded and I walked cautiously toward the window, keeping my chin high and my hands stiff to stop the shaking.
Safia backed away as I leaned over the ledge, my eyes narrowing. From this high up, I wasn’t sure at first if I’d seen what I thought I saw, but as a soldier swung his sword at a mass of moving black carpet, it crept up his legs and consumed his entire form in the seconds it took my lungs to expand, quickly moving on again as his skeletal remains toppled to the floor.
“What is that?” My voice quickened with panic.
“That, girl, is my Army.”
“That’s not possible.” I looked back at her. “Nothing can penetrate vampire flesh.”
“Nothing but a little bit of Black Magic, you mean,” she muttered.
I drew back, pressing my spine firmly against the wall as the pulsing rug of arachnids wrapped itself around another soldier. Those that hadn’t yet been consumed ran for their lives, very few standing around to fight off the tiny millions.
“My Black Widows are fuelled by Black Magic. They cannot be killed,” Safia advised. “They cannot be harmed or even slowed down. Your men will die—even the vampires.”
Hesitantly, I leaned forward slightly to take another look. Around the borders of the field, the grass caved into sinking pits, and patches of dirt moved unnaturally as these creatures picked their way to the surface from deep within the land—bleeding their way across the ground like thick black hair. Those of my men that had already been consumed lay fleshless under those that were fighting ’til their death, slashing repeatedly at their own bodies as they were swallowed up in black.
I wanted to leap out the window then, and fight for my men, defend the ones that didn’t see it coming, but I stood a better chance of stopping the magic at the source. If only I knew how to kill the witch.
“Is that supposed to make me give you what you want?” I said, spinning around to face her. She’d moved across the room while I was watching the sickly bugs, and my eyes flicked around several places before finally finding her by Jason’s side again, pushing clear liquid out the needle of a syringe.
“When you have nothing left to fight for, you will give me what I want.” Her voice was so calm and so certain I felt a pull inside of me—started to wonder if I really stood as good a chance up against her as I hoped.
“Okay,” I said nervously, moving in with my hands out. “Just don’t put that in him—whatever it is.”
“Lilithian venom.” She rolled Jase’s sleeve over his shoulder and pressed her thumb into his upper arm. “He has no immunity, and with one word, neither will your husband.”
Every tiny drop of blood in my limbs felt too light to keep me grounded. My bones started to panic before my mind could stop them, and I felt a rush of hot bile shoot up my throat. I kept it down, though, taking a long, deep breath.
“Just… don’t do that, okay?” I pleaded. “There’s no going back if you do that—”
“There is no going back now anyway, girl,” she snapped, waving a hand over Jase’s belly, and as she spoke one word in a language I had never heard, activating the spell, cold bumps spread over my skin.
Shock turned to fear which turned quickly and toxically into anger.
“Bitch!” I screamed, charging forward, ramming my fist so fiercely into her face that it split open across her cheek, my engagement ring catching and ripping the flesh downward at the end.
She wailed, cupping the blood in as it spilled down her neck. “They are linked thro
ugh body now,” she said through her teeth. “And nothing you do will change it. What Jason suffers, so too will his twin!”
My knees felt wobbly, like I’d just climbed a mountain of stairs. But the fear for my husband’s life now took hold, and instead of faltering, sinking to the floor and weeping, I sent my gaze out the window—directly at a man aiming a flame-thrower into the floods. David stood beside him, charging in as the bugs pushed back, reaching down to haul our men to their half-eaten feet.
Run! I yelled into this thoughts; his head turned directly toward me. You can’t win against them. Run!
A thundering rattle made me jump inside then, and Drake’s voice screamed my name from the other side of the door.
Safia looked up in surprise. “How did he find us here?”
“Why shouldn’t he have found us?” I asked, inching closer, planning my steps to grab that syringe. “He and I are linked by Cerulean Light—by blood. He could find me anywhere.”
“Not with my magic in place.” Her mouth shrunk and her eyes narrowed into slits. Then, she smiled. “It does not matter now. He can have you. I have the child and I have this boy’s seed. I will find another way to resurrect my daughter.”
“You won’t get away,” I assured her.
“I will, because you cannot let your husband die.”
Before I could ask what she meant, the door broke open through the middle and Drake forced his way into the room, cutting through the remaining shards of wood.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” Safia ordered, aiming a finger at him, the syringe poised above Jason’s chest. “The boy is linked to his brother now. If you harm me, I will harm her King.”
Drake looked from Safia to me, his eyes falling then on the baby in Hans’ arms. “Is she okay?”
I nodded, but I wasn’t so sure about that.
With four long strides he moved across the room and cupped the back of my head, drawing me against him, speaking in to my hair. “I was so frightened for you.”
“I’m okay,” I assured him, half-checking behind him for backup. There was none. As I looked up at his face then, my eyes went straight to the unique cut across his cheek—ending in a jagged cleave—and my blood ran liquid with heat. It all made sense. The linking spell. Immortality.
His bright blue eyes questioned mine, but I couldn’t say it aloud. It was Safia’s greatest secret, and my only hope. My baby’s only hope.
“Safia, this ends now,” he demanded, taking on the authoritative and Kingly pose I first knew him for. “Enough blood has been shed. Call off your army and let the child go.”
“You may take your whore daughter,” Safia said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “But the baby comes with me.”
“We both know that will never happen,” he said, tightening his arm around my shoulders. “Let us end this now, and you can live out your life here—in peace.”
“I will never be at peace,” she cried, centuries of frustration spitting from between her teeth. “Not until my daughter is by my side. Not until my promise is kept. Not until this eternal nightmare ends.”
“No one understands the pain of loss better than Drake,” I pleaded, “better than I. But too much has been lost in pursuit of this, Safia—”
“Do not speak my name,” she said stiltedly, backing toward the fire. “I will have what I want, or I will take away everything you love!”
“Safia!” Drake put a hand forward, taming a rabid beast. “Just stop, please. Just take a moment to talk with me. I—”
“I am tired of this, Drake.” She moved forward again with renewed fervour, and aimed the syringe at Jason’s neck. “Go ahead. Take my life. End me. But you will die when I do.”
Drake’s hand slowly lowered from its point at her, his brows pinching in the middle, and he looked down at me. “That’s what you were thinking—when you looked at me that way before?”
“She bound her life to yours.” I nodded. “To kill her, I’d have to…”
“Take my life,” he stated, but it sounded almost like an order.
“Weak!” Safia snapped, gripping the syringe with both hands. “She’s too weak to kill her own father! She doesn’t have what it—” She retched on a wet, gurgling sound, gushes of blood spitting out from her neck over her hands and the needle.
I took a wide step back from Drake and watched as the blood gushed from his throat too, down his shirt and into his cupped palms, filling my hand as it trickled down the blade I stole from his belt.
His eyes lifted, meeting mine with a deep look of horror and shock, before finally giving way to acceptance, a proud smile moving one corner of his lip.
“I’m sorry,” I said, opening my hand to drop the knife.
The baby screamed in the giant’s arms, thrusting her arms and legs so fiercely I thought for a second that he’d hurt her. But he just sat and stared, in shock.
I wanted to move in and take her, but this needed to end. All of it.
I cupped Drake’s sword in his belt with both hands and took a deep breath, blocking out Safia’s strained titter, drowning in a gurgling sound as the blood gushed faster from her throat. And as if her eyes spoke a thousand tales of revenge in that split second, she raised the needle, slamming it back down into Jason’s chest.
I yanked the sword from Drake’s belt and swung it high into the air, pausing only a second as Drake lowered himself to his knees, gasping for air.
Our eyes met one last time, my father nodding his acceptance before the blade cut the flesh at the side of his neck, sticking firmly against the bones.
Safia fell forward, landing in a sickening way against Jason’s chest.
I drew the sword back with a mighty thrust and raised it again, blocking out the cries of my baby, the terror of the men outside, and the fact that I could smell Lilithian venom coursing now through Jason’s veins, killing him. Killing David. It wouldn’t matter that David was immune—not if Jason wasn’t. Not when Jason was the root of the spell. Time was up for both of them. No matter what.
The sword came down in one last attempt to slice the bone. I drove it through with my upper arms, stretching my elbows as I used a quick twist of telekinetic energy, feeling the snap of his neck resonate through the steel.
The tip of the blade hit the floorboards, and Drake’s head splattered as it rolled from his shoulders, coming to rest alongside Safia’s head.
I didn’t hear the cries of my baby then. I didn’t even spare a thought for Jason or for David. I bit my trembling lip as the muscles in my arms settled, still feeling the way the blade cut through the flesh.
I killed my own father. I finally knew who I was, who my father was, and I killed him.
My hands released the sword, feeling the cold rush of wind move in against the blood on them.
My hands: his hands.
His blood: my blood.
But these hands weren’t done yet.
My head jerked up toward Hans. His sad gaze was fixed on the convulsing Jason. And as much as I wanted to snatch my baby from his arms, I needed to do something to save Jason, too.
“You enjoyed him—Jason?” I asked Hans.
As if he didn’t have a voice, he just nodded.
“Right. Then you need to hold my baby and be very gentle,” I ordered, pointing at him sternly. “If you hurt her, I will let Jason die, and you won’t get to play with him anymore. Do you understand?”
He nodded worriedly, kissing the baby’s hair to make a point. And I made a mental note to thoroughly wash her head—right after I ripped Hans’ off.
“Stay right there.” I pointed at him, then quickly ran across the bloody floor to Jason. I shoved the spitting headless corpse off his chest and it fell in a heap on the other side of the table, like a sickening end to a tragic tale.
“Jase,” I said, my voice coming out horridly panicked. I lifted his bloodied shirt and lay my hands to his cold, fleshy chest, picturing David right here under them. We’d let it go, David and I. We’d let the past go and we
were happy. We were ready to move on, live. How could it all go so wrong in just a few hours?
“Live,” I pleaded. “Please live.”
I closed my eyes, blocking out the fear and the shaking in my elbows, and sent the first, very subtle pulse of light into Jason’s heart.
I waited, forbidding all thoughts about where David might be right now—if he was okay, even still alive; if Safia’s interference had cost him his life out there on the battlefield, among undying arachnids from a darker realm.
Seconds passed, feeling like minutes, but Jason didn’t take a breath, so I laid my hands firmly to his chest again and sent another pulse of light into it. It moved through his arteries and electrified his limbs—I could feel it—feel the warmth in his body. But his heart didn’t start.
I waited again, my chest quivering with jagged breath, tears stinging my eyes.
“Please, Jase. Please.” I leaned over and kissed his head, my tears wetting his skin. “Please fight. I know you don’t think you have a reason to—not after everything that’s happened, but please just fight. If not for yourself, then for David. Don’t make me live without him.”
Laying against his chest, my ear catching the emptiness inside him, I rested my hands on both sides of his ribs, sending in one last slow and long pulse of light. I willed it to connect with his heart, awaken the tissue there that hadn’t beat for a hundred years. I imagined it moving, feeling human blood within its walls again, pushing it out around his already human flesh.
And as the hope died with time passing, a sudden sinking of his chest renewed it.
I laughed aloud, grasping his ribs again with both hands, and held onto him tighter than I ever had before. I could hear it—his heart. Jason’s heart, beating as I’d never heard it before. I could feel the warmth of his blood filling his limbs, bringing life to them as he’d not felt since he was just nineteen. And the air, the soft whir of it under my ear as it moved through his lungs was about the best sound in the world. I wished I could be there with David right now—to see his eyes open for the first time as a human.
But that wish died as the screams of my baby became soft whimpers.
