by Izzy Shows
After what felt like an eternity, his lips claimed mine, my eyes closing automatically. He tasted like cinnamon and whisky; tempting and intoxicating all at once.
I kissed him back, too eager, letting the other thoughts that had been rioting in my brain drift away to nothing as I focussed on this one moment.
He teeth grazed my lower lip, eliciting a small gasp from me, and his tongue entered my mouth. His hand released mine and wrapped around my waist, finding a home at the small of my back and pressing me close to him. I melted against the strength of his body, eager for the contact, tried to kiss him back but woefully aware of my lack of experience in this area. He deepened the kiss, teasing me with the movements of his tongue, my body thrilling to the contact.
I felt it.
Power sweeping around us.
As if I were at the edge of a hurricane, wind tossed my hair, tugged at my arms, threatened to knock me over but for his arms holding me up. It whirled around us for ages before it funnelled into me, lighting my insides on fire.
I broke away from him with a gasp, staring around me as the sensations settled, before I turned my wide eyes to him.
“I’ll admit, I took much pleasure in that.” He smirked.
I didn’t have the awareness yet to roll my eyes at him, too caught up in the feeling of power that thrummed within me, though already it began to die down to a quiet whisper in my mind.
And then a new burning sensation began, localised now to the inside of my wrist. I rubbed at it, frowning.
“That’s not going to make it go away.” He pointed out. I heard him take in a breath, to say something further, but he hesitated.
I glanced up at him, brows knitted in confusion, as I yanked up my sleeve to stare down at what had just a moment ago been pale skin. Now, burned into my skin like a brand, was a giant red welt. It looked like a backwards three.
“What is this supposed to be?” I demanded, finding myself again just in time to glare at him.
“My mark.” His voice was a husky murmur, and he reached out to grasp my wrist, running a thumb over the mark. A jolt of pleasure ran through me at the movement, and I flushed and looked away from him. “To the others of my kin, it is what denotes you as mine. One who has made an agreement with me, and one who they are forbidden to touch.”
I looked up again, narrowing my eyes as I tugged my arm away from him. “I am not yours.” I told him with an upwards lift of my chin. “I do not belong to anyone, don’t get any ideas that this changes any of that.”
He smiled, as if he had been expecting that response. “I understand your spirit cannot be tamed.” His voice was teasing. “I would not try. All this means is that the others of my kin are not allowed near you and that you cannot enter agreements with them. I would never dare to insinuate that you are somehow my property because of it, and you are free to do as you wish.”
“Good, well I’m glad we cleared that up.” I snapped, walking to the couch to grab up my jacket.
“Done with me already, then?” he asked. If anyone else had said that, I would have thought they were genuinely hurt. I could hear the laughter in his voice though.
“Quite,” I said, rolling my eyes even though he couldn’t see me. “I do have a ritual to stop and a city to save.”
“Ah well, that’s as good an excuse as any.”
I turned around and he was gone.
Good. I had shit to do.
33
I LEFT THE FLAT IN A rush, scrambling to get my jacket on without stopping. I checked the sky to take note of the sun, still a bit of time left. Not as much as I would have liked, but beggars can’t be choosers. Chances were the necromancers were going to try and get as close as they could to midnight before pulling off their ritual. I didn’t have a lot of information to back that hypothesis up, but it seemed plausible if a little clichéd.
Seemed to fit with the whole idea of rituals.
I drove to Aidan’s as fast as I could, grateful for the opportunity to sit down for a while. The world was coming to an end, but I had been on the move all day and it was honestly nice to be on my backside for once.
Adrenaline began to pump through my veins as I neared his home—or was that Mal’s gift?
This was it. We were going to get this wrapped up tonight and face The Order in the morning, or we’d be dead. I wasn’t looking forward to that conversation, but I would take it over dying.
I really needed this excitement to be over, and for it to not become the norm in my life. I hoped Finn was wrong and that just being exposed to this shit didn’t mean that I’d become a magnet for it.
My hands were trembling when I pulled into his driveway and parked up. I was scared to get out, and it dawned on me that it wasn’t related to what we were about to face. My cheeks were hot, my palms were sweaty. I was afraid of the judgment I expected to receive if Aidan found out what I’d done.
I glanced at my wrist to reassure myself that the mark was hidden, safe and sound, under the layers of hoodie and jacket. I could only hope that he wouldn’t ask too many questions, that we wouldn’t have time for any of that.
Would he be able to take one look at me and know? I flipped my sun visor down and looked in the mirror, hunting for some physical sign of what I had gone through, some change in my eyes that would scream at him that I had done the unthinkable and made a pact with a demon.
Nothing. Just my normal eyes staring back at me, haunted and sad.
I got out of the car with shaky legs, pushing the thoughts out of my mind. I didn’t have time for this and neither did Aidan.
I strode to the door and knocked, shifting my weight from one leg to the other as I drummed my fingers on my thigh. Muffled sounds came through the door before it opened and he gestured for me to enter.
“Kinda thought you wouldn’t come back,” he said.
My heart pounded in my chest, and I managed a weak smile.
“Couldn’t just let you die, huh?” I said, shrugging. “Guess I’m a stubborn idiot, too.”
He snorted. “Right.”
“So, what’s the plan?” I asked.
He lifted an eyebrow. “It’s a pretty simple plan. We show up, bad guys are either already there or we wait for them, and then boom. Blow bad guys away.”
I rolled my eyes. “Wow, that makes me feel so much better. You didn’t learn anything from that fight.”
“I thought you had learned to listen to me,” he said.
“Ugh. Fine. Fine. We’ll all die, and maybe you’ll realise I’m right at the end.” I said, careful not to snap the words at him. We didn’t have time for another fight. “So what am I going to be doing?”
“I’ve already told you. You’ve learned how to throw a shield up and you know how to dodge, that’s all you need to do. They won’t even be focusing on you.” He said, cavalier as always.
It was so infuriating. I clenched my jaw so hard it throbbed to keep from screaming at him. It wouldn’t do any good now, and I don’t know why I was trying so hard to make him recognise the inevitable.
Maybe I was afraid he would see the power I had borrowed if it came out while we were fighting and he would hate me. Maybe I would rather have made a pact and not need to use the power, even if that meant paying back a debt for something I’d never touched.
“I do have something for you though, in case you did show.” He said, fishing a hand in his pocket. He pulled out a silver pentacle hung on a simple leather thong. “It’s a focus for strength. I know it would be better if you had made it for yourself, but I didn’t want you going in without any help.”
I stared at him for a moment, eyes flicking from the pentacle to his and then back again. “Oh.” I felt awful for all the things I’d shouted at him, but at the same time…he needed to change his mind. I reached out and took the necklace from him. “Thanks.” I whispered as I slipped it over my head.
“Yeah well, you may be dead set on dying but I’m not.”
“Ugh. Shut up,” I groaned.
We were plunged into darkness before he could.
I took a step back, both hands balled into fists. “What’s going on?” I hissed, trying to keep my voice low and quiet.
I was rewarded with a hand clamping over my mouth, and I only didn’t beat the shit out of him because I recognised his scent. Odd how he’d become so familiar after only a short amount of time. It was Aidan grabbing me.
“Get to the basement, get in the circle and draw it up. I’ll be right behind you.” He barked the order like a military commander, his voice brooking no argument. I wanted to argue, I did, but I also believed that he knew what to do. It was his house under attack, he had to have prepared for this before.
At least he wasn’t asking me to leave him to an unknown attacker, we were going to handle this together.
I nodded my head, he released me, and I headed for the basement door. I didn’t know the house well at all, my eyes hadn’t adjusted, and I was trying to move as quickly and quietly as possible. I didn’t want to give away my location if we were being hunted.
It felt like we were being hunted. How had my life come to this?
I opened the basement door, debated for a moment, and then shut it behind me as I entered. Aidan would be able to open it without a problem, and I didn’t want him to fall down the stairs groping for a doorknob.
I descended the stairs, quick and careful—now was not the time for me to fall either. I fumbled around at the bottom, trying to find a candle to light, when the solution became obvious to me.
Duh.
I closed my eyes, found the font of will in my centre, and pushed it up to my shoulder and down through my arm, visualising it as a guiding light, centred in the palm of my hand. I opened my eyes and jumped in excitement when I saw the fire burning around my hand, creeping a bit up my forearm.
I love when things work the way they’re supposed to.
Now that I could see, I resumed the hunt for candles one earnest. Aidan had told me how to draw up a circle—not too sure why—and I intended to do as I was told.
Funny, right?
We were amid an attack on his home, it kind of gave him the opportunity to tell me what to do. Just this once, and I’d make sure to make a joke about it later.
I found the candles at last and set them up around the circle laid in the ground, trying not to think about how long it was taking Aidan to get his arse down here. I would have thought he’d be down here by now…I pushed the thought out of my mind and concentrated on setting things up. After I had everything set up the way Aidan had before, I stood awkwardly for a moment, realising that I didn’t know the words Aidan had used to draw his circle. I guess that was OK, it wasn’t like I was trying to make a circle specifically for summoning something.
I didn’t know what I was trying to draw.
Then I felt Aidan’s presence in my mind. Let me. He barked the order, and I gave way to the command without putting up too much of a fight. I felt my mouth open and heard words come out of it, but I couldn’t tell what language it was in and what it meant at all. Truth be told, I was working too hard to make sure that certain memories from earlier that day were being kept guarded and not visible to him. This would be a truly awkward moment for him to find out what I’d done. He might even blame me for the attack that was happening.
Oh, God, was the attack my fault?
I shoved the thought abruptly from my mind and instead focussed on thinking absolutely nothing. It’s a lot harder than it sounds like.
At last my mouth closed, and Aidan’s presence was gone as abruptly as it had arrived. I frowned, wondering why he had set the circle that way instead of just coming down here and doing it, since that was what he was supposed to do…
I pushed away the nagging feeling in the back of my head and stepped into the circle, snapping it closed with a push of will. Now all I could do was wait for him to come down. I fidgeted nervously, pulling at the seams of my jeans with one hand and drumming on my thigh with the other. I hated this, hated waiting, wished that there was something that I could do.
He was going to be here soon. He was coming down and he’d be here and then he’d tell me what the game plan was.
This became my mantra over the next several minutes, I kept telling it to myself while I rocked slightly in place, my nerves threatening to eat me alive. Why was it taking so long? I chewed on my lip nervously, sparing one small thought for a concern that I might worry a hole through my lip, though it was fleeting. He should really be down here by now.
I knew I shouldn’t leave the circle, that would break whatever Aidan had set up, and then he’d have to do it all over again, but I was getting nervous. I decided to wait another two minutes.
Two minutes felt like an eternity, and I wanted to break everything in the basement as I waited for it to pass. Waited for Aidan to come down.
The two minutes went by and Aidan didn’t come down, and I couldn’t hear if anything at all was happening up there, and I thought I might lose my mind. I stepped forward to leave the circle at last—and smacked my face into an invisible barrier.
I felt the blood rush out of my face, cheeks going numb, as the horrible realisation dawned on me.
“No, no, no, don’t let this be true, don’t you have done this to me, damn you.” I started shouting, beating my fists on the invisible wall in front of me. Every blow felt like I was striking bricks, but I didn’t care. I didn’t care if I had to beat my way through concrete, I had to get out of this, had to run upstairs and save Aidan. “No, no, no!” I sobbed, hurling myself at the barrier again and again. It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair at all.
What was I going to do? I had to get out of here.
I stopped for a moment and glanced around me, a futile waste of time. There was nothing in the circle except for me. I couldn’t reach out of the circle or my problem would already be solved. There was nothing left to be done. Except for me to continue hurling myself at it, the snarky voice in my head said.
So, that’s what I did. I beat my hands against the barrier, slammed my head against it, kicked at it, flung my entire body at it. Nothing happened, nothing worked, but that didn’t stop me. I felt hopeless and I hated to feel hopeless. I think I must have been screaming at some point, because my throat felt raw. My hands had started bleeding at some point as well, because they were slippery and wet, but I didn’t feel the pain in them. They were numb, and I wanted to be numb like them.
Don’t let this be happening.
Don’t let this be my fault.
Don’t let me be stuck down here.
Don’t let him die.
I sobbed, frantic and terrified that there wasn’t going to be anything that I could do about this. The lack of noise coming from upstairs only served to whip my panic into a frenzy. I wanted to know what was happening, no I needed to know. I needed everything to be OK.
I kept hurling myself at the wall.
I would throw myself at it until the end of time if that was what it took.
Blood and tears ran down my cheeks together as I slammed against it for the thousandth time.
34
I LAID ON THE GROUND OF the circle, the sobs still heaving out of my body though they no longer had a sound. My voice had long since given out, but that didn’t mean that I had stopped breaking repeatedly. The strength in my body had given way after who knows how long—had I been there for minutes? Hours? Days? I’d lost track of time and didn’t know up from down.
The candles had burned out. Darkness surrounded me. The only light came when my weak fists hit the invisible barrier, creating little sparks.
Blood had dried and crusted on my hands. There were layers of it, as wounds had opened, caked and dried, and reopened again. I didn’t have a lot left in me, and that only made me hate myself more.
This was all my fault.
I had brought these people down on Aidan’s house—either Mal had sold me out or the
necromancers had tracked me down after I’d touched their ritual. Either way, this was my fault.
My fault.
My fault.
And I was too weak to do anything about it, caged down here like the rabid animal I’d become.
I lifted a shaky hand and slammed it at the barrier again.
I was determined. I would beat against it until I died, that was all I had left to do.
All at once, fully armoured legs came into my vision, and I struggled to bring my mind together again. To piece enough of it together to understand the information my eyes were transmitting.
I tilted my head back, trembling, breath coming in little broken pants.
I was looking at Joan of Arc.
No, wait, that wasn’t right. But I was looking at a Goddess of War, I had to be.
She was short, but that didn’t stop her from being intimidating. She wore plate armour as if it were the most natural thing in the world, as if it didn’t weigh a shit ton and looked like it had to be mere moments from breaking her back. In one hand was a bastard huge blade, the other had a light slowly receding back into her. Wild red hair floated around her, slashing green eyes gentle as they landed on me.
Emily. I was looking at the kind and gentle woman I met on the street before.
She did not look kind and gentle anymore.
“The Lord has sent me to help you, Blair.” Her words resonated in my bones, though she sounded just as she had at the monument.
I struggled to my knees, trying to summon the strength that I needed to get up and continue. I had to confront the obvious fact that if Emily were here, in this basement, without Aidan here, that meant that he was either dead or missing. I prayed he was missing. Missing meant there was still a chance that I could save him. Make up for the mistakes that I had made. I placed a hand on the barrier, not beating at it this time, simply letting her see the light flare out from the contact, though I remained mute. I could have spoken to her, possibly, but I couldn’t find the strength to do it.
My throat was so raw that I was afraid what would happen if I tried to speak.
