Chapter 12
Rosabel La Rouge
That man made my skin crawl even when I couldn’t see his face. He could make me want to close my ears just to keep his voice out of my mind.
I breathed like I’d been climbing for days while I struggled to make it to my feet and help Taland to stand, and we were close, so close.
Not close enough, though.
His voice echoed in my head. The words of the spell he was chanting didn’t sound like Iridian words at all, and he still had those pieces of paper with him right there on the smooth, flat surface of the landing. Those pieces of paper that remained in place, didn’t move with the breeze at all, like he’d frozen them there with his magic as well—and the eggs…
My Goddess, the eggs were all cracked open, and inside them was light. Small white lights like enlarged fireflies were slowly rising from the broken eggshells as Hill held his arms up and chanted furiously.
“Taland!” I screamed because I was trying to get closer, to call for my magic, but I couldn’t. Fucking hell, the magic radiating from Hill was keeping me perfectly motionless, and it was pushing me back!
Taland as well. I couldn’t turn my head to the side at all because whatever spell Hill was doing, it was keeping me frozen while it pushed me to the wall of the mountain, all the way to the sharp edges that were trying to dig into my back.
“I can’t…break…through…” Taland said, his voice strained as he tried to push the magic back but couldn’t.
I couldn’t move.
David Hill was right there, not even twenty feet away from me at the edge of that landing looking out at the valley beneath him, with his arms spread and those lights rising all around them, defying the light of the sun—and I couldn’t fucking move.
Panic squeezed my throat and stopped what little air had been going down to my lungs completely. The magic pushed me back, tried to make me one with the rocks behind me. Hill continued to chant as his voice rose, and those lights…
Those fucking lights were buzzing, vibrating in place like they contained the energy of the entire world and they were about to burst open any second.
I wanted to call Taland’s name again, but I couldn’t. My magic raged inside me, and I tried to force my jaws to move, to chant, to do something other than just stand there, but I couldn’t.
I could do nothing but watch as my bracelet heated to a point that I thought it would scorch my skin, and my magic raged but couldn’t come out of me, and Hill chanted and chanted and looked up at the sky and those lights buzzed and buzzed and became brighter—until they moved.
For a second, just as Hill stopped chanting abruptly, the lights stopped vibrating, suspended in air, frozen just like I was. Then they shot toward the ground, below the landing to where we couldn’t see, fast as lightning.
David Hill laughed.
The magic that had been holding us against the rocks let go and we both fell to our knees.
Screams somewhere below and I had to-had to-had to see. That’s why I was already crawling toward the edge on all fours, until my limbs gave up and I fell on my stomach again, but I could see the valley now just fine. I could see the people screaming—Helen and Flora and Radock, too.
I could see why .
The lights had stopped right over the skeletons, and I still couldn’t see all of them, but I saw plenty. I saw how the lights slowly descended onto their helmets, and how the others were being kept back just like Taland and I a moment ago. I saw how they tried to get through the magic, to stop whatever was about to happen, but couldn’t.
It was too late, indeed.
The small lights that had come from those eggs slipped into the helmets of the skeletons. The ground underneath their leather-covered feet moved. I could have been looking at a fucking movie because no way was this real—yet it was happening. The lights must have traveled down the skulls because now they were shining in the middle of their ribcages. Right in front of my eyes, in front of all our eyes, pink flesh was appearing out of thin air and wrapping itself around the skeletons. Blood—all that blood was just sprouting into existence over them, and layers of skin were stretching from under their armor plates, up and down their whole bodies. Making them whole. Making them alive.
While the rest of us watched.
Somewhere below us, the sound of the Devil’s laughter reached our ears, but there was no time to fear him. Those skeletons were no longer skeletons—they were men dressed in armor, but…
They weren’t moving. They were still as the rocks to their side, and though I couldn’t see their eyes, I was willing to bet anything that they were closed.
The soldiers of the Delaetus Army had gained flesh and blood and skin, but they were still not fully alive.
I confirmed that when Hill, no longer chanting or spreading his arms around, turned to me. Our eyes locked. His were bloodshot, sunken in, like he’d lost a lot of weight since we last met in the Regah chamber.
His smile sent shivers up and down my body when he raised his hand toward me and said, “I’m going to need my bracelet now.”
Ice-cold chills ran down my back and it felt like a flame ignited in my core that was threatening to melt me at the same time. The image of those skeletons gaining flesh and blood and skin remained in front of my mind’s eye as Hill continued to smile with his hand outstretched, as if he really thought that I would give him the bracelet, just like that.
A hand over my leg.
My heart jumped until I remembered that I wasn’t alone up here with Hill. I remembered that Taland was right behind me, and he was pulling me toward himself with all his strength while he tried to make it to his feet at the same time.
At the sight of him struggling, a brand-new energy came over me, enough to help me reach for the rocks for support and stand when he did. My heart beat a mile a minute. I was breathing heavily, black dots still in my vision here and there, but I was moving. I could chant and I could fight and I could use my bracelet now—nothing stopped me. Nothing held me against the rocks.
And Taland was the same.
“Don’t tell me you’re going to make me come and get it,” Hill said, lowering his hand again, putting both in the pockets of his white pants. He wore all white—even his boots were made of white leather, and his hair had grown longer than I’d ever seen it, and the hollows of his cheeks made him look sick.
His eyes, though. His eyes were still as wide and as alert as ever. As greedy. As empty. They say eyes are the windows to the soul, and his would make you think that there was nothing in there. No soul to speak of. Just pure, raw malice.
“We won’t let you get away with this,” I said through gritted teeth because I couldn’t help myself, and I couldn’t help the fear or this voice in my head that insisted that he couldn’t be beaten. He was far too powerful now—and the Delaetus Army was complete, the skeletons turned to people.
Though nobody was screaming yet, so I hoped that they were still not moving.
“And how do you plan to stop me, Rosabel? With your Council? With your pathetic soldiers?” Another laughter. “I have an army of undead.”
And I have the bracelet, I thought. “Nobody’s invincible,” I said—only because Taland was chanting under his breath, and I was foolish enough to think I could keep Hill distracted so he didn’t see it coming.
“Except me ,” he calmly said. “You’ve come a long way, Rosabel. When I ordered your superior to kill you, my heart wasn’t in it, really, and I didn’t even mind that much that you survived, and he didn’t. I’ll be the first to admit I ended up slightly regretting that.”
The way he spoke, so calmly. I’d known all along since Taland told me about Hill being in Selem that he had been the one to order Michael to kill me that day in the catfairie forest, but even so, I was shocked for a moment. Even so, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Michael now, knowing that it was Hill who’d probably threatened him, told him that he’d kill him, if Michael didn’t agree to kill me.
“You’re pure evil, aren’t you,” I said, despite my better judgment. “Erid was my friend. You almost killed Taland—you’re fucking evil. ”
His brows shot up. Here I was, completely worked up and shaking, while he acted like he had the whole day ahead of him and he took his time in looking around as if to make sure I wasn’t talking to someone else.
“Is that supposed to make me feel bad, Rosabel?” he asked. “Goddess, you’re worse than your grandmother.” Shivers ran down my arms. “Imagine my surprise when I saw the video of you stealing my bracelet. You of all people.” His head fell back, and he laughed, but this time it was bitter. “I should have definitely tried harder when your superior failed. I should have done it myself when you came back from the Roe.”
Superior, he said. And I wondered if he even knew Michael’s name, but did it matter?
Because Taland had finished his fourth-degree spell, and he raised his hand the same moment his Blackfire shot for Hill.
I thought I’d kept Hill well enough distracted, that he hadn’t noticed.
He had. He’d probably been perfectly aware of it the whole time, and when the Blackfire reached him, he simply raised a hand and whatever ward he had about him swallowed Taland’s magic whole, made it disappear as if it had never existed in the first place.
Hill sighed then. I looked at Taland, tried to find courage in the dark of his eyes, but he knew just as well as I did that we were screwed.
Even so, he smiled for me.
Even so he winked to try to calm me down.
I love you, I thought . “Through summer breezes,” I said.
“Through fucking hurricanes, baby,” he said.
Then we began to chant at the same time.
We knew very well who we were up against. We knew that the chances of us making it out of this fight alive were slimmer than ever before, but we still tried with our everything. Just like in the Iris Roe and in the Regah chamber, we fought with every ounce of strength we had, and the magic coming out of us spread around the entire landing, wrapped us in a cocoon.
Hill didn’t spare himself, either. He pushed back the Blackfire magic and the colorful one that came out of me constantly, then hit us with his Whitefire as many times as he could. I called up a new ward on Taland and me first, just as an added layer of protection while Taland attacked Hill, but that didn’t hold for long, and I didn’t get the chance to call for another. Hill was relentless, and he still managed to push us back until we almost reached the side of the mountain again, even though we never stopped chanting. I threw at him every possible spell I knew, short and long, third- and fourth-degree—whatever I had the time to summon. And I wasn’t tired, couldn’t even tell you if my body was weak, because my magic was still buzzing, far from spent, but I thought it wouldn’t be enough. I thought we wouldn’t be able to even put a dent in Hill’s ward.
We did more than that, though.
When he hit us with his magic and slammed us against the rocks, and then to the ground, I had been chanting a spell on the longer side, a magic blast almost as powerful as that with which I’d ruined the Regah screen. There was simply no time to do the same, but I unleashed this one at him when I was still on the ground, and he was on his way to us.
Maybe I finally caught him by surprise because my magic slammed onto his ward and I heard it when it cracked open, fell to pieces all around him, invisible to the eye. The magic vanished into thin air, and Hill hit the smooth rock on one knee.
Our eyes locked. Blood trickled from his nostrils. His jaws were locked tightly as he held it in—the pain. He had to be in pain.
A tiny bit of that hope I lost came back to me in that moment, and it never left my side again. I stood up, already chanting, and when his magic came at me, Taland’s blocked it by slamming onto him.
It worked. The Blackfire almost knocked him down all the way, something it wasn’t able to do at all until now. Hill’s wards were gone, all of them, and this was our chance.
Taland and I exchanged a quick look, but we both knew what to do next. My bracelet, my magic through it would make the biggest difference here, and if we had a chance against Hill, as crazy as that sounded, we needed to hit him with that magic. So Taland jumped forward and he kept calling for second- and third-degree spells because they were faster, giving me enough time to chant a proper fourth-degree blast like the one I’d used in the Regah chamber.
It didn’t work right away. Hill overthrew Taland’s spells and hit us both with his own, and I ended up on my back another two times. I had to start the spell over for the fourth, and now I was getting pissed off. My magic was getting pissed off, too.
Except the spell was really long—longer still when we were fighting face-to-face with someone who kept throwing magic at us like he didn’t even need to chant at all. And Taland was tired, too. Even though he never stopped moving, never stopped whispering, I could tell he’d gotten just a bit slower, his Blackfire just a bit weaker.
And when I was almost ready to finish that spell for the fourth time, Hill dodged Taland’s spell and was able to hit us both, again, with his own magic.
I ended up on the ground on my side, ready to fucking scream my guts out at the world.
Instead, I forced myself to continue chanting because even though Hill was coming, Taland could keep him away for another moment. Just until I was done chanting. Just until I was fucking done.
Taland did jump in front of him when he aimed his Whitefire at me, with a shield that was so fresh black flames were still dancing on the transparent surface, but the Whitefire shattered it at once. And when Taland fell to his knees for a second, I did make it to my feet as I continued to whisper under my breath, and I ran for him, too.
Maybe I’d lost my fucking mind, and maybe being thrown against rocks had already gotten the last of my patience. Or maybe it was just because he was looking at Taland as he whispered. I had no clue, but I ran for Hill, knowing I still had two whole sentences of my spell to whisper with these jaws that seemed more reluctant to move by the second.
But I was already operating on instinct, and my body knew how to move even if I sometimes forgot that I could fight. That I’d been trained by the best of the IDD. That I’d worked on missions for a year and a half. By some miracle, before Hill could finish whatever spell he had coming next, I managed to spin around with my leg raised and catch him on the jaw with the heel of my boot.
Maybe it was luck. Or maybe Hill didn’t see it coming. Or maybe he was tired— finally —from using all that magic for Goddess knew how long, but he moved to the side and lost his footing and fell on one knee again.
“ Move! ” Taland called from behind me, and I stepped aside just as his Blackfire flew past me and slammed onto Hill’s chest, taking his breath away.
My bracelet heated, and colorful magic started to slowly appear on my skin. Hill launched himself toward me, and this time I was too slow to stop him, too surprised.
His fingers were on my bracelet, trying to pry it from my wrist.
The last word of my spell left my lips in a whisper. I put my hand on his shoulder and screamed.
Colors burst out of me so fast that the energy threw me back. I hit the ragged edges of the rocks at the mountain’s side once more, then slid to the ground on my back. The blast had thrown me at least five feet in the air, and it had done the same to Taland. He was on the ground right next to me, and he was breathing just as heavily, face a mess of blood and bruises, probably similar to mine.
But we were both still alive and aware.
We raised our heads as well as we could to see Hill, moaning in pain, clothes torn and bloody and dirty as he tried to make it to his feet.
He was going to make it if we gave him enough time.
“Rose,” Taland choked, but he wasn’t looking at me. He was looking at my wrist, where my bracelet barely hung on my finger. Hill had almost taken it off me completely.
Goddess, everything hurt, but I prayed that my ribs were only bruised, not broken. I prayed that I had enough energy in me for one last spell.
Tears in my eyes as I looked at Taland. “Together?” I whispered, and the moment I raised my hand, the bracelet fell from me completely. Taland grabbed it on one side and held it between us. I touched the other.
“Together,” he said, as Hill spewed curse words at us, still not steady on his feet but pissed. And weak.
And ready to fucking die.
“Cheining?” I asked in barely any voice, and Taland nodded.
We both knew the spell. We were both Mud. The bracelet would channel magic from both of us.
Goddess, please, let it work…
Together, we chanted the words at the same time, much slower than we ought to, but we were getting faster. The more we breathed, the better control of our jaws we had, and eventually, I even managed to sit up and pull Taland with me. The bracelet was in both our hands, and Hill was bleeding, pissed off like a rabid fucking dog as he came for us. Except that spell I did on him must have damaged him more than he was willing to accept because he was holding his right shoulder with his hand and he was dragging his foot behind, almost like my magic had completely paralyzed his entire side.
That sliver of hope I felt before now turned brighter and grew bigger and gave more voice to the words of my spell until I was shouting them. He was only halfway to us, and Taland was already on his feet, pulling me by the arm, his other hand still on the bracelet.
Hill’s bloodshot eyes were open wide. His teeth were gritted, and he was growling like a beast as he kept trying to get to us, even though he could see that it was no use. Even though he knew the spell would be long finished, and he didn’t even have the strength to turn to his magic anymore.
Colorful flames shot from both Taland’s and my hands. The bracelet had released both our magics, indeed.
The killing spell was on its way to Hill.
Though it moved fast, so fast, to me it felt like ages until it hit home. Until it fell on Hill’s chest, slipped under his skin, and cut off his breath completely, leaving his eyes wide open.
Even my heart stood still for a good moment, waiting to see…
The asshole still didn’t go down. His hand was still moving, rising toward us slowly.
Taland fell to his knees beside me, exhausted.
I lost my fucking mind for real.
I didn’t look at Taland at all, afraid it would somehow stop me when I had such little energy left. I just dropped the bracelet and ran forward, wrapped my arms around David Hill and took him to the fucking ground.
“ Die, die, die,” I said, or maybe I just thought it, but I was planning to wrap my arm around his neck and cut off his breathing completely until he died for real, except…
It was a mistake.
Goddess, I should have waited. I should have given the spell a little bit of time to work. I should have stayed put, shouldn’t have gone to him at all.
Because the spell did work, and by the time I realized that his heart was indeed going to explode, it was too late.
All that magic we’d put in him released itself from his body when not only his heart, but every organ inside Hill exploded like he’d had dynamite under his flesh. Taland called my name but I couldn’t answer, couldn’t even look at him, couldn’t stop the magic that made Hill’s body explode from throwing me up in the air.
Too close. I was too close to the edge.
I should have waited.
Blood everywhere, on my face and mouth and eyes—and hands. Magic pushed me back violently and I tried in vain to grab the smooth surface of the rock.
I slipped.
I fell.
No voice left me. The scream got stuck in my throat and paralysis came over me as if from a spell. Taland called my name again, but I was falling so fast…
Then—“ Grab my hand! ”
The voice came out of nowhere. My instincts must have still been working because I reached out both hands toward where the sound came from, even though I had no idea who’d spoken or where I was or how the hell I was going to grab anybody’s hand while I was falling.
But I did.
Two strong hands grabbed me by the arm and stopped my fall, but it felt like they tore my arm off my shoulder completely. Zach’s face was looming somewhere over me, and the pain sent live flames all over my body.
Goddess, I couldn’t fucking breathe. I couldn’t tell him to let go, that he was tearing me apart!
But maybe I should have been thankful that he caught me, that I didn’t fall all the way into the valley from that altitude because I’d have died. And there was a good chance that I would die, after all, because Zachary was wounded himself, and he couldn’t hold onto me. I was too heavy, and he was too bloody, too weak.
“Hold on—just hold on!” said Aurelia, who was dragging herself by her arms over that rock where she and her brother had fought the Devil. They had won, apparently, but they were both just as messed up as I was.
And my leather jacket was covered in blood— Hill’s blood —so it slipped from Zachary’s hands. He couldn’t stop it. It slipped fast, so fast.
They called my name, screamed it.
I fell again, but this time not for long. Maybe mere seconds before I hit the ground on that same shoulder that didn’t feel like my own at all. Then I rolled and rolled and there was dirt in my nose and mouth and eyes, and Hill’s blood was all over me, and I just wanted to burn. I wanted flames to eat at me, cleanse my skin from any stain of him. I wanted to scrub any sign of him off my body forever.
Instead, when I stopped spinning, I found I couldn’t even open my eyes. The best I could do was lie there in whatever position I was in and focus on breathing.
Sound came from somewhere far away—a voice, but I couldn’t understand a single word it said. Darkness pulled at me harder and faster with every new breath until I heard nothing at all anymore. Until even the thoughts in my head, the terror, the panic, the hope faded away into nothing.
I let go.