I reached towards him, feeling sure that he was the one I had to convince if I was truly going to stop this.
I cupped his cheek in my hand, the mess of blood which lined his skin wet beneath my fingertips. The ring throbbed with heat as it brushed against his flesh, like it could sense the writhing power which filled him.
“Magnar?” I whispered, drawing his eyes to me as he finally looked away from Erik. That act alone felt like crossing some immense barrier, like he’d overcome the first hurdle in containing his hatred. “This fight has gone far enough. We can’t keep allowing the gods to drive our fates.”
His jaw was tense beneath my touch but deep within the golden depths of his eyes, something softened.
“They’ve taken too much from us already,” he growled in acceptance and I knew his animosity had found a new target in the warring deities.
I looked back at Erik, hoping he felt the same. Though a thousand years of hatred burned between them, the gods had been the ones to invoke it They were responsible for every foul thing that had befallen each of us.
Erik’s eyes slipped to the ring on my finger and his mouth fell open as if he’d realised something critical. “They were searching for a ring,” he whispered.
I glanced down at the golden piece of jewellery, wondering who he was talking about just as a faint scream reached my ears.
Ice slipped through my body as I turned to search for its source.
My heart throbbed with a terrible surge of dread as if my other half were screaming out for help. I knew with no uncertainty that my sister needed me. She was in desperate trouble somewhere and I had to get to her.
“Higher,” Andvari urged and I gazed up at the head of the statue, panting from exertion.
A fan of sharp points shot out from the crown she wore. I pulled myself up the side of her head, a squeal of terror escaping me as Andvari encouraged me toward the huge spikes protruding from the headpiece. I reached out for one of them and my fingers grazed the freezing metal.
“Andvari, stop!” I screamed, my stomach spinning as the drop below gazed back at me, tempting me toward death.
“Up,” he purred and I reached out again, catching hold of the crown and dragging myself onto the flat space atop the spike.
Andvari moved my body, making me stand and I raised my arms to balance myself, terrified of falling.
The wind was battering and I tried to crouch down again to hold on, but Andvari wouldn't allow it.
He appeared at the very tip of the platform the crown created as it reached out over the endless drop blow. The god flexed his index finger to draw me closer and the action was a command, impossible to ignore.
“No, please,” I pleaded, shaking my head.
My hands curled up and I managed to clutch them to my chest, trembling all over as I resisted the force of the wind.
“Come, Moon Child,” he whispered and my feet moved at his words, carrying me toward him, right to the edge of the sharp point.
Andvari took hold of my arm and I snatched his robes, desperate for something to keep me from falling.
“You see them?” Andvari pointed down to the ground below and I spotted the others.
They’d fallen still, their fight seemingly paused. My heart soared upwards. They were all alive, even Magnar was on his feet.
I screamed in fright as the whole structure suddenly buckled forward several yards.
I flailed, gripping onto Andvari but he disappeared into thin air.
I fell. My stomach soared and my heart turned to ash.
I caught the edge of the spike, hanging on by the tips of my fingers. Fear snaked through me as my legs kicked wildly and I fought to hold on.
Andvari laughed, lending me his power to right myself. With shaking arms, I hauled myself up onto the tip of the platform, my heart quaking in my chest.
I gasped my relief as I stood, my toes feeling welded to the platform as I found my balance.
Andvari reappeared, standing on nothing but air several feet ahead of me.
Terror clawed at my insides. “Please stop this.”
“Only you can stop this,” he said with a dark grin. “You would do anything to save your beloved, would you not?”
I gazed down at Erik below, spying Magnar and Callie turning toward him. Fear fractured my heart. He was outnumbered. They’d kill him together.
“O-of course,” I stuttered as icy tears slid down my cheeks. “Anything.”
“Then jump,” he breathed and his command dripped through me, encouraging me to obey.
My breath stalled in my lungs. “You want me to die?” Terror took root in my chest like a tangle of thorns.
Andvari chuckled and the wind blew against my back, forcing me toward the fate he'd decided for me. My heart slammed into my throat as I teetered on the edge, waving my arms as I managed to stay upright.
“Would you die for him?” Andvari asked, his expression suddenly soft.
I took a breath as more tears rolled down my cheeks, falling to the dark ground below. “If it would save him. If it would end this curse.”
“A debt paid perhaps?” Andvari growled and fear blossomed in my chest.
“This is your debt?” I murmured.
He didn't answer, but his smile broadened.
“Jump,” he growled and I felt a hand press into my spine.
My stomach rolled. My heart stopped beating.
Fear held me in place, but the god was pushing me, forcing me.
I shut my eyes, stealing a moment of silence and the urge to jump released me.
Death was staring me in the face and it was the cruellest thing. But if this could end the curse, I would do it. For Erik. For my sister. For all of them.
I only wished I could have had a second longer in Erik's arms. We'd been offered so little time. But each moment was precious and wrapped in my heart, unable to be touched by anyone. Not even the gods could take him from me.
I stole a look up at the stars. The fight had raged on so long that night had claimed the sky. My tears turned to ice against my cheeks and a strange calm fell over me. My dad had told us about the constellations. The stories that clung to them, recounted by humans through all the years they'd watched the heavens. Generation after generation had lived and died under these stars. Were my parents up there somewhere, laying in the sky’s arms and waiting to welcome me home?
A breath of resolution rolled past my lips as I turned my gaze to the dizzying drop beneath me. I spotted Magnar moving toward Erik and panic gripped me.
My heart beat with every second that passed. Every moment of hesitation could lead to his death.
“I love you,” I whispered, wishing he could hear the words. But even if he couldn't, I needed to say them. I needed the world to lay witness to how deeply, fiercely and immovably I loved him.
I shifted my gaze to Andvari and my upper lip curled back as a hatred coursed through me like nothing I'd ever known. This was his doing. His divine ruling.
“Even in death I'll love him more profoundly than you could ever love anything. You'll never know what that's like and you don't deserve to know. The people down there will mourn my death, but no one would ever mourn yours.”
Andvari bared his sharpened teeth. He clutched his nails together before me and my heart squeezed hard in response. “I have your heart if I want it.”
“No,” I breathed, a strange sense of peace flooding over me. “You can't have that. It's the one thing you can't control.”
He swung an arm back as if to knock me from the statue, but I refused to let him force this upon me. The choice would be my own. The last choice I ever made.
With a ragged breath, I jumped, throwing myself forward with my arms outstretched, the wind sailing through my hair, pulling my dress out like a white flag.
The momentum caused me to roll and I lost sight of the world below, finding the night sky stretching above me in a million pricks of light.
I have lived a life as a slave.
I have escaped that life as I promised my father I would.
I have been one half of a whole to my beloved twin.
I have loved Erik as a monster. And I have loved him as a man.
So I have been free, I have had a place in this world and I have known the deepest kind of love my heart ever had to offer.
What have you done with your eternal existence, Andvari?
We raced back towards the statue with panic clutching at my heart. I looked about desperately, trying to seek Montana out amongst the ruins of the island. As I glanced towards the statue, a flutter of white caught my eye and my breath stilled in my throat as I spotted her stepping straight off of the crown high above us.
My mouth parted in a desperate scream as Montana plunged from the top of the statue. She tumbled over and over, racing towards the Earth at a tremendous pace.
My heart seized in my chest, my lungs collapsed and I was caught in this endless, eternal moment of pain as her life sped to an unavoidable end.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I couldn’t understand what was happening. How had she gotten up there? Why would she have put herself in that position?
She hit the ground and I felt the impact deep within my bones.
I tried to run to her but Magnar caught my arm, holding me back with a fearful look in his eye. I wrenched my arm out of his grasp and sprinted towards my twin. My other half. The one love I had in this world which was as constant as the turning of the Earth. She couldn’t be gone. There was no me without her. Like there was no day without night. We were one and the same. We weren’t always together but we were never apart.
I closed the distance between us but Erik got there first.
He reached for her hand but I shoved him aside, my enhanced muscles knocking him away from her.
“Don’t you touch her,” I snarled as I dropped down beside my sister.
She looked so peaceful. Like she was sleeping. Except that there was blood pooling beneath her, soaking through my dress as I pressed my forehead to hers.
Tears spilled down my cheeks as I begged her to come back to me.
I dragged her into my arms, her body limp but still so warm. She couldn’t be gone. She just couldn’t.
I could feel the gods drawing closer to us, their immense power brushing up against the bubble of safety the ring hid us in. They’d lost sight of all of us and I could tell it confused and enraged them in equal measures. Was this the gods' punishment for wearing my mother's ring? Did they throw my sister from that statue? I could feel their realisation and anger brimming around us as they desperately tried to find a way around the ring’s power but were thwarted.
I released a scream filled with all the horror of my grief and forced my will into the ring, throwing them away from us and casting them aside. The deities disappeared back into whatever realm of pain and torment they called home and we were left alone at last. Safe from them and their twisted games, at least for now.
Erik crawled closer and I glared at him. This was more than the gods' doing, it was his fault. Whatever had driven her up there, it had started with him. When he stole her from me, or even before that when his family created the Realms. None of it would have happened without him.
“Please,” he said, his voice cracking with emotion as he stared at her body. “I have to... I need to-.”
I glared at him, clutching her closer to me. My heart pounded as I refused to release her and the most wonderful sensation brushed over my cheek.
I gasped, shifting my grip on her as I pressed my ear to her chest and hope blossomed deep within the pit of my stomach.
“She’s alive,” I whispered, so faintly that I wasn’t sure anyone heard me.
I wanted to believe it so badly that I wasn’t sure I could trust my own senses but I was almost convinced I could hear her heart still beating softly, the faintest flutter of breath dancing between her lips. Or could I? I wanted it so desperately that I didn’t even know. Maybe it was the aching pounding of my own heart that I could hear. She was so pale, so empty of all the things that had filled her with life. How could she have survived that fall? Tears prickled my eyes as a sob caught in my throat.
Erik met my gaze as he tilted his head to listen too and his eyes widened with hope.
“Maybe I can save her,” he said, reaching for her again.
My heart leapt at the prospect and I almost smiled before I realised what he meant.
I shook my head, unable to accept that option. “She’ll still be dead. She needs to live.”
But I could feel the blood pooling beneath me, I could see the twisted positions of her limbs. She couldn’t survive this. At least not as she was. But how could I agree to her becoming one of them? We’d hated them our whole lives. They were everything we feared and despised. Would she even still be herself if she was one of them?
I expected the slayers to object but they stayed silent, leaving this impossible decision to me.
“We don’t have long,” Erik pleaded and all of the protests I wanted to voice fell away.
I couldn’t live in a world without her. If this was the only way, I had to take it, even if she ended up hating me for it.
I pressed a kiss to my sister’s cheek, whispering a final goodbye to the human girl who I loved more than life itself as the vampire pulled her from my arms.
I didn’t know if I was doing the right thing. But in that moment, it was the only choice I could make.
“I love you, Monty. I’m so sorry.”
In the past few hours, my body had been battered, broken, bruised, but no physical pain would ever come close to this.
A thousand gods couldn't have held me back from Montana right then. Callie may have been allowing this, but I would never have let her sister die when I had the ability to save her. It had come down to an agreement or a fight and thankfully this time, it was the former.
I pulled Montana from her sister's arms, laying her gently on the ground.
If I couldn't bring her back, my life was already over. I was a ghost about to depart this world. I wouldn't cling to it a fraction longer than I needed to. Wherever she went, I was going too.
Fuck, why had she jumped? Or had she been forced? Had Andvari done this to her as another cruel punishment for me?
I knelt at her side, her body twisted by her shattered bones as blood spread out beneath her. Pain scorched through me at the sight of her and guilt formed a solid lump in my throat. She was here because of me. Because of a fight she should never have been caught up in. It all seemed so pointless now. What was hate when compared to love?
Montana's lips were rose red, flecked with blood. My heart became charred and blackened, consumed in the fire I'd known our love would cause. This was the reason we never should have been together. Because mortals die when they keep the company of beasts.
I slit my arm open with my fangs, resting the wound against her soft mouth.
“Drink Rebel, please.” She needed enough life to remain in her body for this to work. If she could swallow my blood, it would start the process. But if she was already gone...
I took hold of her wrist, running my thumb across the place a pulse should have thrummed.
Nothing.
Panic threatened to overwhelm me but I held it at bay, forcing myself to focus. I had to finish this. I couldn't give up.
I dipped my head, squeezing my eyes shut as the scent of her blood called to me from her veins.
“I'm sorry,” I breathed, then slid my fangs into her velvet skin as gently as I could manage. I released the venom into her bloodstream, desperate for it to be enough. I let the curse pour into her more and more, despising myself for it but knowing it was the only way.
When it was done, I pulled back, searching her face for any signs of immortal life. Her skin was near-translucent in death, so pale she resembled my kind already.
I rested my ear to her heart and a dull thump reached my ears.
Once. Twice. Silence.
T
he quiet stretched on. She needed to die to turn, but it was too much to bear to know in these few seconds she was no longer here, reaching toward the afterlife. But I couldn't let her go. She wasn't done living. She had so much more to give. I thought of all the things I'd show her, all that I'd give her, all that I'd be for her. I'd build a new world she'd be proud of. One she'd long to live in. If only she'd come back.
“Don't leave me,” I begged, taking her hand in mine. “Please stay. I hate to place this curse on you but I swear by all the stars in the sky I will break it. I've never wanted it as much as I do now. I won't stop until it's done. I'll tear the gods from the heavens and kill them one by one until they rid it from your body. Just come back to me.”
I cupped her icy cheek, despair drilling into my chest.
I can't lose you.
I shook her gently and her sister's sobs filled the air. I couldn't turn to face Callie's grief. If I accepted it, it would be true. Montana would be gone. My saviour. My life. And I couldn't let go.
“Your heart is stronger than iron,” I growled, suddenly furious with my wife. She was my rebel. She fought harder than anyone I'd ever known. And she was giving up. Leaving me. She wasn't fighting.
My voice cracked as I continued, praying my words would guide her back to me. “Your heart is fortified, eternal, invincible. You will not die here, do you hear me? That's my final order to you, Rebel. Don't you dare disobey me this time.”
It was the longest moment of my life. An eternity on earth would have felt like a blink in comparison to these few seconds. And our future balanced on each of their razor sharp edges.
I pressed my forehead to hers, determined not to give up. Her body was so badly damaged. I'd never turned someone with so many injuries. But maybe...just maybe...
Her hand twitched in mine, so slightly, I half thought I'd imagined it, but then her fingers flexed again and I released a raspy laugh, squeezing her hand in response.
I glanced over at her sister in Magnar's arms, her eyes brightening as I nodded. She dove from his lap, crawling to Montana's side and reaching out with a shaky hand to touch her twin's face.
Age of Vampires- The Complete Series Page 103
