by Emma Hamm
“Are we ready then?” Bones asked.
Lyra nodded.
At their go ahead, Bones began chanting. The runic language was not one she had ever learned, nor did she care to know what it meant. The words would never mean anything to Lyra. She stared down at Wolfgang to try and see if he so much as twitched.
He did not.
She leaned as close to the circle as she could and whispered, “Is it going to hurt?”
“Yes.”
“Badly?”
He cracked an eye open to look at her. “Immensely.”
“Oh.”
She waited a few moments to see whether the pain was going to happen in that instant. When a few heartbeats passed and Wolfgang had yet to show any reaction, she leaned closer once more.
He interrupted her immediately. “Don’t ask questions.”
“I just want to know what would happen if I let go.”
“I do not believe I would survive another failed attempt to be a Lich.”
“Right, so letting go is definitely off the table.” She nodded firmly.
Although, it certainly was going to make it more difficult for her. She was worried what would happen once he started using magic. If it was going to be painful even for him, she wondered what it was going to do to her. She hoped that what she had felt the few times he had used her for magic was only a fraction of what he felt.
Otherwise, she might let go and ruin everything. Wolfgang wasn’t the best thing in the world, but he was a start at a fuller life.
Her ears started ringing as soon as Bones stopped speaking. The words had created a soothing tone that she had instantly accepted. Now without them, the silence was deafening.
Wolfgang shifted then. His hand clenched hard onto hers as his body started to thrash. First it was a small twitch, then it was a great aching groan that electrified his body. He arched, and his spine bowed to nearly breaking.
“Wolfgang?” Lyra held onto him as best she could. “Wolfgang!”
The ashes began to glow blue. She could smell the acrid scent of burning flesh, and suddenly a wall of brightly colored magic rose from the edges of the circle. Only Wolfgang and her hand, from wrist to fingertips, was held within it. Her eyes burned as the sea colored wall danced with runes in front of her.
His arched spine snapped towards the ground and thumped his ribs against the floor. His eyes opened, and the mismatched colors stared into hers. He opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something but was in too much pain to do so.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. She lifted her other hand to press it against the shield that held them apart while simultaneously squeezing his. “You can do this.”
He nodded and turned his head to stare up at the ceiling. She watched as he let out a slow breath of air. The runes upon his body began to glow. The black tattoos of spells all began to shine with the electric blue of his magic. Moments passed, and then the scars upon his body began to open as well. Large gaping wounds split open. The floor quickly turned red inside the circle.
It was then that Lyra began to also feel the pain. The tips of her fingers were the first to feel the brunt of the magic. Though numb with electricity, she felt the soft slide of liquid down her palm.
When she managed to pull her gaze away from Wolfgang, she saw that her fingertips were turning black. The pain registered in her mind, and she gasped as magic began to burn the flesh from her hand.
She let out an angry sound but refused to drop his hand.
“Lyra!” Bones shouted from across the room. “It’s too much! Let go!”
“I can’t!”
“You can, and you will! That magic will destroy you both!”
She knew he was likely right. Wolfgang’s flesh was also disintegrating in front of her. Like ashes, small bits of him were drifting into the air. Slowly they lifted from his body and hovered above him. Gravity had no place inside that circle of pain.
“I won’t let him go,” Lyra said firmly.
“Do it now!” Bones was frantic. He was trying to reach her, and Lyra knew his plan before he laid hands on her.
“If you pull me away from him, I swear to you, I will kill you. I do not exist without him.”
“I raised you to be stronger than that.”
“I am! He has shown me how to be a better person,” Lyra shouted. “He deserves someone to be there for him. And I will remain until this is over!”
Bones hesitated when he heard the conviction in her voice. She hoped he realized that she was not the child he had brought to his home long ago. He nodded and stepped away from the two of them.
She didn’t want to look at the mangled mess of her hand, but she did. Her ring finger had lost all feeling, and her pinky was quickly following suit. Magic was eating away at her flesh. This was her price for Blood Magic. This was her price for aiding him in becoming a monster that could very well turn upon them all.
She would do it again in a heartbeat.
“Wolfgang,” she whispered as his mouth opened in a silent scream. His lips split and blood turned his teeth red. “I’m here with you. We can do this. Together. Together, remember?”
A tear slid down her cheek as the pain became overwhelming. They existed not in the room at the back of Bones’ house. They existed only through frayed nerve endings and tearing flesh.
She did not know how long she held onto him. She did not know what time was or even who she was. In those few remaining moments where the magic they used took and took and took, she ceased to exist entirely.
Then the pain came rushing back. Her eyes snapped open just in time to meet Wolfgang’s gaze once more. He followed the track of the tear down her cheek and slowly exhaled. His eyes burned an unnatural blue.
From between his lips, a fine blue mist crawled. It sparked in the light and moved through the great lightning strikes of magic inside the circle, through the shield itself. She recognized the light. It was the same blue light that had saved her in the swamp. The same blue light that had enchanted her with every piece of magic he had made.
Though she was in great pain, she managed a weak smile. “Hello, friend.”
The mist brushed against her lips, and she opened her mouth. Inhaling was easy to do. The mist was cold where she was burning hot. Her throat was soothed by its presence, and her heart eased as it settled against her soul.
Lyra thought she could hear it sigh. She felt something shift inside of her and wrap welcoming arms around the smallest bit that remained of Wolfgang’s soul.
His physical body stiffened and squeezed hard on the mess that used to be her hand. The magic inside the circle grew until her ears popped. She watched in fascinated horror as her pinky and ring finger turned to dust and blackened ash completely.
She screamed. Or perhaps it was Bones. She didn’t know what the horrid sound in her ears was until she fell back against the floor and scooted to the wall. Her hand was clutched to her chest.
No, not her hand. Lyra realized with horror. It wasn’t a complete hand anymore. There were important pieces missing from it now.
She couldn’t look at it. Instead, she watched as the circle disappeared. Lying on the ground was what remained of Wolfgang. Black ashes covered a charred skeleton.
“Bones.” Her voice was broken and didn’t sound as though it was hers at all. “Bones, please.”
She didn’t know what she asked of him but apparently he did. Stiffly, he walked over to check on the body. There wasn’t any flesh left on it. Not really. Wolfgang was gone. In his place was a skeleton that was black as night.
An ugly sob wrenched its way out of her. “Dead?”
She couldn’t hear the word right. He couldn’t be dead, he had been so certain this would work. Death wasn’t strong enough to take him. He wasn’t even supposed to exist!
Bones did not touch him. He leaned down to look at the skeleton were its eyes should have been and blew away some of the ashes.
“Not dead.”
She did not kn
ow what relief had truly meant until those words rung in her ears. She sagged against the wall as all the energy in her body disappeared. Weakness made her limbs heavy as the words echoed in her mind. Not dead. Not dead. Not dead.
“Then why isn’t he—”
The body moved. No, that wasn’t right. It wasn’t a body. The fingers of the skeleton crooked and curled in on itself. In a great movement, the skeleton cracked and groaned. It sat up and turned its head towards her.
Blue electric lights formed in the eye sockets. They were mesmerizing in beauty as they swirled inside the cavity.
“Lyra,” Bones said carefully. “You should leave.”
“You know I won’t.”
She shifted only to pause when the skeleton stared directly at her moving foot. Its hand flexed, and light sparked from its fingertips. The warning was received. She would not move.
“Wolfgang,” she said. The eyes were looking at her now. She saw no recognition of who she was. Or who he was. “Your name is Wolfgang.”
“Lyra, this is a bad idea. He does not recognize either of us.”
She wasn’t certain Bones was right. Wolfgang was staring at her, and she was the least threatening one in the room. Bones was easily twice her size and slowly inching up behind it. Yet it still stared at her.
“Your name is Wolfgang. I met you with one shoe on outside a magical shop. You didn’t like me at first, but you did later. You brought me to a tea shop and then down to your home underground.” Her voice became stronger as the eyes shifted to look her up and down. “You showed me how magical you were. You made me not frightened of the Lords of the Black Market. You saved me in a swamp, and you brought me here.”
A tear slid down her cheek. She was leaking from her ears too. She tried to not to think about her hand, which lifted to brush away the trickling water. She knew fingers were missing.
“You need to remember me,” Lyra said. “You wanted to help us. You wanted to save your people. You want to save me.”
The skeleton shivered. The blue light of its eyes began to glow, and its body changed. Tendrils of light grew and twisted along the bones like ivy growing upon tree limbs. A faint halo outlined him until they tangled with the beating heart glowing red inside the cage of his ribs.
Armor formed along his body. Bone-like armor that was grey and aged. Magic created something out of nothing, which none of them had ever seen before. No pain. No price. Just instant gratification.
When the magic was completed, a skeleton did not rise before them. The creature which slowly stood to its great height was no man. He was a Lich King. The tendrils of magic reached upwards, and a blue, glowing crown formed above his head.
The skeletal jaw shifted and moved. Teeth rattled against teeth as the Lich King shifted his jaw back and forth.
“Lyra.” The voice vibrated with power and electricity. But it was a voice she recognized.
Standing slowly, she walked towards him and reached out. “Yes, it’s me.”
He grumbled and looked over his shoulder. “Bones.”
“Yes, that’s Bones. We’re in Bones’ home; we needed his help.”
Another affirmative grumble was her answer as his unnatural eyes looked around them. Wherever his gaze landed, blue light would wash over the floor. Lyra shivered in fear.
She had never thought of Wolfgang with fear. He was a good man. Powerful, yes, but not intimidating in a way that would make her pause. Now, she understood what his subjects felt when they saw him. He was the true meaning of terrifying.
“Do you remember me?” Lyra had to ask him.
“I promised I would.” The blue eyes shifted once more and locked upon the hand she held curled against her chest. He said nothing. He held out his hand in a silent command.
She stared down where there had once been flesh. She hadn’t thought it was possible to miss something so simple as warm skin. She was almost afraid to touch it.
Would he be cold as all dead things were cold?
Waiting would only prolong the issue, so she reached out with her wounded hand. It hurt her to see the missing digits as she was a vain creature and relied upon her looks. Her body was now something to be ashamed of. She could see feel the missing fingers as though they were there, but the streaks of black veins that crawled from the stubs betrayed that sensation.
Her remaining three fingers slide along the length of his. She had thought he might be rough and jagged. But the bones she held onto were smooth as glass. Tiny pricks of magic danced upon her palm.
Wolfgang made another rumbling sound. “How?”
“It was my price to pay. As were the brands upon my body from before.”
Now was likely not the time to tell him. But she was in pain and frightened he might use more magic to heal her. She couldn’t take that now. She needed a few moments and then she would be ready to fight. Right now she needed a break.
What she wanted to do was curl up in a corner and forget that the world was falling down upon her ears. Wolfgang had not been an attractive man, but he had been a man. Now she didn’t know what he was. A dead thing that belonged in a grave, not her arms.
His hand made a soft clicking sound as he closed his fingers upon hers. “I cannot heal you.”
“I did not ask you to.”
He shook his skull. “I do not have the spells to fix this.”
“Is that supposed to be some kind of apology? Wolfgang, it is a small price to pay to save our people.” And they were her people just as much as they were his. The misfits. The outcasts. The oddities whose families had wanted them even less than hers had wanted her.
He lifted his other hand to touch her cheek but froze just before his hand touched her. He hadn’t seen himself yet, she realized. He rotated the hand as though it was not a part of him.
“What do I look like?” Wolfgang asked.
“You’re fine. You’re going to be fine.”
“What do I look like?” His powerful voice was amplified by magic.
She licked her lips but gave in. “You look like Charlie.”
“Charlie?” His head cocked slightly to the side in question.
“Mungus.”
He stilled for a moment in only the way a dead thing could pause. Every inch of him stopped moving. He became still as stone.
His ribs rattled against each other until he tossed back his horrifying skull and opened his mouth wide. A harsh gasping sound wheezed through the open maw. He shuddered with the force of the sound.
Laughter. Lyra realized he had found what she said amusing, and this new sound from Wolfgang was laughter. Her heart fell as even this mirthful sound had been destroyed by the magic he had used.
“Oh Lyra,” he said once he calmed down. “I look fearful, then. Powerful.”
“I did not expect you to react like that,” she responded through tears.
“I know. But we do not always get what we want in this world.”
Bones cleared his throat and stepped towards them. He only paused when blue strands of magic reached towards him like static electricity contained in a glass globe. “You did mention you may be short on time.”
“Are we?” Lyra asked.
Wolfgang slowly nodded. “We have an evil man to drive back to hell and a promise to keep.”
“I can call Jasper now to come get us.”
He let loose another round of ugly laughter. “We do not need him.”
She did not want to be frightened of him. She did not want to look upon this creature and be incapable of seeing the man she loved. He was meant to be soft and kind to her. Not this creature who laughed with darkness in his lungs. Not this dark creature who ordered her around as though she was not necessary for his existence.
The tears that desperately tried to trickle down her cheeks were held in check. She did not want him to know she was disturbed by his appearance. There was a fight to focus on. She could not lose herself now when there were people who needed her help.
Later. It was always lat
er when she could finally feel the way she wanted to feel.
“You go,” she found herself saying. “I will meet you there. I have a few things I need to speak with Bones about.”
He did not flinch or question if she were lying to him. Wolfgang nodded and disappeared from the room.
Lyra waited a few moments to see if she could feel him lingering. But all sense of magic had gone from the room with him. He was well and truly gone. And he had left her without argument.
“He’s not himself,” she whispered.
“No, I suppose he wouldn’t be,” Bones answered.
“Why?”
“He is the Lich King now.”
“Why does that change who he is?”
Bones stood before her and took her injured hand in his own. “Because he has no soul. For many years, he thought he did not have a soul at all. He took on the persona of an angry man who was dangerous and unpredictable. But underneath all of that blustering a good man remained.”
He covered her milky pale hand with his own. The warmth of his skin sank into her like the delicious sensation of a ray of sunshine. He squeezed for comfort while remaining gentle.
“And now?” She forced herself to ask.
“Without a soul, he may lose all that goodness. It will be difficult to bring him back. It will be difficult to see any of the man he once was.”
“And will he always be…” she stumbled over the words, “as he is now?”
“A skeleton?”
She nodded.
“I do not rightly know the answer to that.” Bones sadly smiled. “There are so few recollections of a Lich King. We are walking in uncharted territory.”
“I’m frightened of him.”
“You would be a fool if you were not.”
Lyra bit her lip and looked away so the tears did not fall. “A good friend told me the same thing once. I said I refused to be afraid of him.”
He let go of her hands. “Then you should remain unafraid.”
“I don’t know if I can do that.”
The words broke as they tumbled from her tongue. Her mouth felt dry and her body exhausted. A battle? Now? She did not think she could fight when she was bleeding from her own soul.
