by LJ Swallow
Alaric sneers. “What do you think will happen to your family and friends if this is discovered? This would be more than a rebellion, they’d take down the Enclave, bring us to so-called justice. More people will die—witches and your family will die.”
“You’re wrong,” growls Ty.
“And you!” He gestures at his brother. “A Hyland. They’ll be baying for your blood when they hear your family’s history.” He laughs to himself. “Did you see what I did there? His blood?”
How the hell can he find this funny? “You asshole,” I mutter.
“Ty, we need to be strong to stop the witches losing the sector. It wouldn’t even exist if it wasn’t for our intervention. The humans owe us,” presses Alaric. “We unite. You need to accept the blood happens and allow it to continue.”
“You mean without access to blood, you can’t maintain your control,” replies Ty.
“Exactly! So how will you keep control, if you replace me?”
“That’s the point! I don’t want to maintain control, and I’m damn sure if others in the Enclave knew, they’d want it stopped too.”
“Bullshit! They never ask the question because they’re scared of the answer. I’m doing the right thing.”
“No, you’re not! This is wrong. I never accepted this once I found out. You know that. I won’t change my mind now.”
Alaric sticks his bottom lip out. “Poor Ty couldn’t be Regent when he should be. Daddy didn’t love you because you wouldn’t do what you were told and gave the sector to me. That’s what this is about, isn’t it, all this posturing and pretending I’m the bad guy?”
“No. I don’t want to rule. Never did.”
Alaric shakes his head and sighs. “If I’m gone and Ty refuses to rule, the world goes to shit. Am I right, Cora?”
“I’ll lead, but I won’t have this cruelty happen,” interrupts Ty.
“You’re pathetic. You won’t last long. Think about it.” Alaric holds up his hand. “One, your stored magic will be used up in controlling the upheaval. Two, you refuse to refuel your magic because you value life too much. Three, the sector will want witches destroyed.” He folds down a finger with each sentence. “You won’t survive. Cora won’t survive.”
I turn to look down at the aberration below, nausea growing as I watch the slow drip of blood. Stolen people, stolen lives.
“We’ll try,” I whisper. “I don’t care if I die. We’ll make a start and a change. People already help us and believe in us.”
“Us? Sounds like you’re giving a bit too much of yourself away there, Ty. She might not realise what’s happening here, but I do. You can’t pretend you don’t give a shit about what I do to Cora. You’re using her to play for time, but after everything you’ve done for her, I know you love Cora. Why else would you be here now, unprepared?” He pulls a disgusted face. “And we both know what happens to the things you love, Ty.”
Alaric seizes me and slams my back against the metal barrier, knocking air from me in a gasp. I fight against calling Ty’s name. Will Ty make his move now? Alaric pulls out a pocketknife and flips the blade out. “You’re going to watch me slit your lover’s throat,” he calls to Ty.
No response. I’m stuck. If I move, Alaric may let me go, and I’d fall and hit my head on the stone. Alaric’s grip tightens as he leans over me, his face close to mine. I grip the barrier with both hands, back digging in as I grasp my legs around the lower bar. The curve to his mouth smacks enjoyment across his face, but I refuse to shout out or scream. His legs press against mine, body pinning me to the barrier.
Twisting my head, I throw a desperate look at the man who told me he loved me, who’s standing watching his brother hurt me. “Ty.”
My skin stings as the knife nicks the edge of my neck, and Alaric pauses, holding the point in place. “Yes, Ty? Thoughts?”
“Let her go,” he says in a flat voice.
“Stop me. Come on. Try.” Alaric removes the point and twirls the knife in his hand.
My mouth dries, panic morphing with anger that Ty’s standing back while someone threatens to kill me and could so do in seconds. I gag as Alaric leans closer, pressing his body against mine. When his arousal presses against my stomach, I come seconds away from vomiting through fear and disgust.
“How would you explain her death?” asks Ty. “Your beloved fiancée comes back, and you kill her?”
“My evil brother slaughters her in front of me and attempts to kill me too. Almost succeeds, but he’s too weak.”
I dizzy from my position hanging backwards, waiting for the knife back against my skin. “Really?” I whisper. “You’ll tell people that the powerful Alaric couldn’t save the woman he loves? How weak. How pathetic. His love wasn’t strong enough to take down his brother?”
My neck hurts, whiplashed as he jolts my head up, then drops it again, the pain tripping lights behind my eyes.
“And neither is Ty’s. He’s a failure when it comes to helping those he loves when they’re in need. Aren’t you?” He releases my sleeve with a laugh, allowing me to slip far enough backwards to panic, then pulls me out of danger again.
“Shut the fuck up,” says Ty in a warning tone.
Why? Why is he standing there? Not helping? Tears prick my eyes at the realisation I really am a pawn between the two; that he doesn’t care enough.
“I killed someone he loved before. Did he tell you that?” asks Alaric.
“Yes.”
“Did he tell you who?” I shake my head. With a sigh, Alaric pulls me away from the barrier and holds my back against his chest, knife still in place. “Because our mother died, we had a lovely lady look after us as kids. What was her name? Hmm.”
“Judith.”
“Ah, yes. Judith was like a mother to us I suppose. She was with us for about eight years. Or was it ten, Ty?”
“Stop pretending you can’t remember.”
“Well, poor Ty. He turned sixteen and our father wanted him to demonstrate his loyalty, because he’d started avoiding any magic. Ty didn’t like getting his hands dirty.”
My pulse trips higher, throbbing against the cool metal against my neck. I know what’s coming. “Our father told Ty he needed to kill Judith, and of course soft-hearted Ty refused. Well, he did more than refuse, the stupid bastard tried to help her escape. Told her what would happen.”
Ty stares at his feet.
“I bet you can’t guess what I did?” he whispers, leaning in my ear, holding an arm firmly across my chest.
“I bet I can.”
The knife nicks my throat again, and I freeze as the tip scrapes further across the skin. “I slit her throat. In front of Ty. Man, she bled out a lot and all over my clothes. I’d never killed anybody that… personally before but it was amazing. To feel somebody’s life ebbing, choosing whether they live or die makes you feel like a god.”
He rests his lip on my cheek. “Ty did nothing. He watched. I presumed he was paralysed but really, deep down, I think he harbours the same desire for blood I do.”
“I don’t,” he snaps. “I am nothing like you. I loved her. She was all I had, and you fucking murdered her! You didn’t need to, she could’ve left.”
“With our secrets? Be sensible, Ty.”
“You did it to punish me for being older, from your jealousy. You always had to claw for his attention, we both did, and you were determined to be the one who got it!”
“No, I killed her because I enjoyed it.” He flicks open my top shirt buttons with the knife and pain seers across my chest as he scrapes the blade downwards. I hold my breath against crying out as he begins to carve a pattern on my exposed skin.
“Come on, Ty. Help the girl out. Stop holding back.”
I’m dizzy as the pain grows with each cut and Ty’s yell joins the encroaching blackness as he throws himself at Alaric. Alaric drops me, and I put both hands to my chest, stemming the blood as I sink to the floor. Blood slides between my fingers as I press against the wound, the shock pu
shing me towards blacking out. A crack, the sound sickening, the silence. I look up and Ty holds Alaric against the back wall, the bloodied knife in his hand. “Don’t lower yourself, Ty. You can do better than this.”
I never imagined a physical fight between the two. I was certain this would end quickly in a powerful magical battle.
“I intend to.” He rips Alaric’s white shirt to one side and drags the knife across his chest, blood seeping to the surface as he imitates what Alaric began to do to me.
Alaric struggles but laughs at him. “Not gonna work, big brother. I’m warded against you so tightly you could cover my body with runes, and your magic wouldn’t work. Game over, no magic for you.”
He seizes Ty’s wrist and bites. Ty drops the knife in shock and Alaric smacks his head against Ty’s, who stumbles backwards. He steadies himself, but Alaric’s on him in seconds.
“You lose!” shouts Alaric and flicks his fingers at his brother. Ty’s thrown backwards several feet and flattens against the wall at the opposite end of the room, immobile, as if all his limbs are glued in place. Alaric storms over, rips Ty’s shirt open too and lifts the knife. In deep, deliberate moves, Alaric carves a shape onto his brother’s chest. My fear switches to terror when Ty doesn’t fight back, pain wrenching his face as he struggles to move his arms.
No. This isn’t right.
Alaric wipes blood from his own chest and slams his palm against Ty’s, the action jolting him as if electrocuted.
“Pathetic, deluded man,” snarls Alaric. “You spend too much time helping others and not protecting yourself.”
Not once did I doubt Ty would win, convinced his strength would supersede his brother. Alaric hasn’t pushed the knife into the rune carved on his chest, but when he steps away, Ty remains pinned to the wall. The energy in the room, the brother’s weird mix of dark and light I always sense when they’re around changes as the shadows grow.
28
“What did you do?” I yell. “Stop!”
Alaric spins around and his smile grows as I fix my eyes in horror at Ty’s weakening struggle. “Next.”
I’m slammed backwards against the barrier again, frozen the way Ty is and Alaric approaches, looking down at my immobile figure. “What should I do with you?”
He tiptoes and looks over the barrier at the circular block below, resting his arms on the metal next to me.
“You know what I think would be fitting? Your blood and his mingling until the last, protecting the sector.” He looks back at Ty, whose head’s slumped, life ebbing with his magic. “He doesn’t want humans fuelling the barrier. Hyland blood would do the trick for many years, longer than you or I would be around.”
The fear inside bubbles, twisting fury into my head and around my heart.
“Well, me anyway since you won’t be around much longer.”
I wait for Ty’s reaction to Alaric’s threats, for him to snap out of the hold Alaric has on him, but he doesn’t move or react.
“Have you killed him?” I yell.
“Almost. I want him alive and you dying the last thing he sees.”
My mind races with possibilities—impossibilities. “Let me say goodbye,” I whisper. “I want to say goodbye.” Alaric wrinkles his nose and looks at his prone brother. “Please,” I beg, the word sickening me. “Alaric.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, you’re a pathetic pair. If you’d spent less time with the ‘I love you’ bullshit, he’d be more prepared. This is your fault.” I drop forward on my knees as Alaric releases his magical hold on me. Ty can’t die. He can’t leave the world to this sadistic man.
My eyes water as Alaric yanks my head up by the hair. “Go on. This should be amusing.”
I stumble to my feet and holding Ty’s head up, tears I’ve held back spilling, saying his name over and over, but he doesn’t respond. I hold him, desperate, filled with a maelstrom of thoughts and feelings building to a crescendo in my head when I place my head against his chest, his heartbeat barely audible.
This can’t happen. The raw wound on Ty’s chest heats my face and I tiptoe to place my mouth on his, tears mingling with blood, and streaking his face.
Ty slides his mouth away and hope springs. He reaches a hand to touch my hair, and moves his my ear to his mouth. He can’t hold his grip, and I hold him to me instead. “Let go of your control. It’s holding back what you can do.”
The maelstrom swells, as grief blinds, the emotion I refused to show Alaric. The macabre pattern on Ty’s chest rests against my half-formed one, our blood merging and a familiar surge courses through.
When Ty’s grip drops and he slides to the floor, eyes closed, my fury unleashes, and I turn back to Alaric. “You don’t do this and live!” I scream.
The amusement on Alaric’s face serves the opposite purpose to hurting me, and a light behind my eye blinds me, the pain hitting like an ice pick gouging inside. I’m aware of Alaric’s hands on mine, grabbing, invading, trying to move me.
“No!” The word echoes around the room and a wave ripples between us, pulsing forward, and knocking Alaric backwards.
“What the fuck?”
I focus on every thought crossing my mind—Ty’s dying body, pain I might lose him, and Alaric’s sadistic enjoyment, all mingle with the terror what he’ll do next.
“You don’t touch me!” I shout.
Alaric focuses on me, eyes dark as he points at me with the knife. “Nice try, Scion. Has he taught you some tiny magic?”
“Fuck you!” I scream. “Nobody taught me anything. I took it. I’ll take yours. I’ll finish this.”
“As if,” he sneers.
“I know your Hyland secret,” I snarl. “I know why you killed those girls. This ends now.”
He manages to move from the invisible force, and steps forward. “Takes more than fucking him a few times to get any real power from a Hyland, didn’t he tell you that?”
“And did any Hyland love?” I hiss. “Did any Hyland ever care enough for a human to save her? No!”
With the word, energy pulses forward and slams him to the floor. Fear flickers across his features. “You might be warded against him, but you have nothing against me.”
“You’re delusional!” laughs Alaric but his eyes betray his doubts. “Your temper tantrum can keep me off you for a few minutes, but I’m going to bleed you onto that tablet like so many more humans before you. You’re nothing.”
Over and over the pain pulses through me with the power surges and I shake as my limbs fill with magic I shouldn’t contain. How? What do I do? An argument with Ty triggering magic is one thing, but this?
But I’ve never had my body course with emotion that gripped me like this, as strong and as painful as the grief tearing at my heart, and I’ve never wanted to hurt somebody this badly my whole life.
The human blood above the monolith drips from the ceiling and I inhale, focusing on pushing away the pain and concentrating on controlling the power. I press my hands to my eyes, tensing in case Alaric touches me again, but he doesn’t.
“What do I do, Ty?” I ask hoarsely, talking to myself. “What can I do?”
He doesn’t respond. I sense Alaric move closer and hold out a palm. His chest connects and he jolts backwards again. In my mind’s eye, I see the servant lying on the floor, eyes bleeding, struggling to breathe.
I launch myself at him, and he falls to the floor, back thudding against the concrete as surprise crosses his features. He attempts to grab my arms and fails. “You bastard!” I yell. “You fucking bastard!”
I close my hands around his neck, pushing my thumbs into the skin, but I have no idea how to strangle somebody. His mouth curls into the familiar smile, and he reaches out to my skin where he started drawing the rune.
I fall backwards as a new pain hits with his palm, spreading across my chest like fire, and Alaric rolls onto me, sitting on my hips, so I can’t move. The pain in my head grows, different this time and I swipe at my eyes as my vision blurs.
&nbs
p; Blood.
He’s right.
I won’t win.
Alaric reaches over my head for the knife close by and I scrabble on the floor to take hold first. He pinches my wrist, the bones crushing together, and I bite down on my arm to stop screaming. He’s stronger than me physically, without using magic.
“Ty, please don’t be dead,” I whisper, “Tell me what to do. I don’t want to die.”
I knock the knife backwards, and it skids across the floor, landing close to Ty. His eyes flicker open, and he reaches out with a shaking hand. Alaric freezes as he watches Ty take hold, and I stare in horror as he holds the point to his chest. He drags the knife through the rune, cutting through the skin, obliterating the mark.
“No!” shouts Alaric and climbs off me to tackle his weakened brother.
“Let her go,” he growls.
I kick out, feet colliding with the side of Alaric’s head, and he reels for a second. Ty’s breathing grows deeper, and he closes his eyes, speaking words I can’t hear under his breath.
“Don’t you fucking dare!” snarls Alaric. “You don’t get to do that.”
Ty looks up, irises obliterated, blackening his eyes, and slides up the wall to his feet. “I always warned you,” he says. “If you ever hurt anybody I loved again, I promised I’d fucking kill you.”
“Go ahead. Try me.”
Ty looks down to where I sit trembling on the floor. “I don’t need runes, Alaric. I’ve more power in me than you have in your little finger.”
“Bullshit, you gave some to her. Or she stole it or whatever the fuck is happening here. Are you going to let a human become powerful enough to finish the Hylands?” His breath comes in shorter bursts, face reddening as Alaric extends a hand and makes a twisting motion in the space between them.
“Yeah, we’ll finish the Hylands and create a different line ourselves, one with respect for everybody.” He steps forward and Alaric backs up, attempting to move towards the door. “So fucking arrogant, Alaric, that you thought you could face me alone. You said I pretended not to care about Cora? I needed her to break through your defences so I could finish the job. You could never kill me.”
