Chapter 18 #2
Drops of blood splattered on my face–just like the priest’s had.
I recoiled as if scalded, flinching away from the memory and Orion. He slumped to the ground, a writhing mess.
His arm still clung to my neck, but it was no longer attached to his body. It had been cut clean from his shoulder. Blood oozed out of his wound; it looked as red as mine, but smelled rotten. Like his entire insides were decomposing, even as he shuddered and roared.
In a blink, the Commander appeared in front of me, shining like a star descended from the sky. Thunder and vengeance flashed in his eyes.
I swayed from the relief and shock of him.
He clenched and unclenched his fists to the same furious rhythm of his tightening jaw, tense and coiled.
“You came after me,” I breathed–as a thank you, as a reproach, as every emotion swirling inside of me–as my body leaned into him, looking for comfort and support after this disgusting night.
The Commander's arm coiled around my waist, steading me against him with a gentleness so at odds with the fierceness contorting his face.
We stared at each other, unblinking, as if trapped in another world. His warmth soothed the coldness which had seeped into me. My knees wobbled, but he stood still against me.
Safe.
Sturdy.
Unbreakable.
Slowly, he disentangled Orion’s fingers from my neck, gaze never leaving my face. I nodded instead of a thank you. Words were beyond me.
He’d saved me.
My so-called enemy had come after me and saved me against my own allies.
“Can you stand?” His hot breath ghosted across my forehead. My body relaxed deeper into the safety of his arms.
Gods, it felt so good to have someone else hold me upright right now.
I nodded and braced my hand against the rock.
The Commander’s arm lingered around me, sliding away slowly. Reluctantly. We stared at each other for another breath.
Then he became a flash once more.
He yanked the dagger out of the rock before I could even look at it and see how it had slashed through stone and crouched above Orion menacingly.
“I’m curious, Orion,” the Commander said calmly, like he was discussing the sudden gall of wind.
But I heard the ice underneath it and shuddered.
“What made you think that after I threatened Silas, a Clan leader, for simply speaking to my future wife in a way I didn’t like, I wouldn’t gut you where you stood for touching her? ”
He slowly drew the tip of his dagger over Orion’s wound, who flailed out of his reach, backing against the rock.
Bile rose in my throat.
“Stop,” I said.
He did, retracting the dagger.
My mind and soul couldn’t wrap around the betrayal, even as Orion scowled at me and I held onto his severed hand.
But the rage…the rage burned hot.
“I trusted you,” I seethed. “I would have given my life to protect yours, you son of a bitch.”
I moved quicker than I thought I could in this state. I held onto the bleeding end of Orion’s hand and swung. The back of his palm slapped him straight across the cheek, leaving behind a red mark of shame as his entire head jerked.
“Never attack a Protectorate member again in your miserable life,” I hissed, dropping his arm next to his twitching body as I staggered back.
What had we both become?
The mark on his face did nothing to soothe the rampage inside me.
It wasn’t the unstoppable storm I was used to.
It was a simmering of something vile which was about to spill over.
“Don’t kill him,” I said, surprising all three of us.
They both turned to look at me, Orion still with hatred in his eyes. Hatred I did not deserve.
“He would have killed you,” the Commander said, the calm in his tone now barely leashed. “Would have done worse.”
“I know.” But I still couldn’t bring myself to bring death upon Orion.
My powers had passed him while it had decimated the masked figures.
“He deserves the worst. But I don’t deserve to carry the weight of his life on my shoulders and his children don’t need to grow up in a world where he doesn’t exist.”
The Commander sighed and rose, coming to stand in front of me. “We need whatever information he has. He won’t give it willingly.”
“That’s what truth serums are for.”
“You know someone who’s been trained can give only grains of truth while hiding the real secrets. He is in my territory and he attacked my future wife. If you wish, I will not kill him. But he won’t go unpunished as–”
A terrible scream broke us apart.
“No, no, no!”
Right in front of my terrified eyes, Orion grabbed my fallen knife from the ground.
The Commander stuck out his hand and twitched his fingers, but his powers didn’t stop Orion, who looked to be fighting the movement with all his might, as if a force greater than all of us controlled him.
I rushed to Orion, but he slashed his own throat right as I fell upon him, pure terror in his eyes. Once again, his blood splattered on my face.
I recoiled back and froze.
Orion’s body thumped to the ground, his terrified gaze still on me, both accusing and apologetic.
The wind blew ash around me as I stared, disbelieving, at the gushing blood.
Something inside of me cracked.
The whirlwind of emotions finally spilled over.
But instead of crying, roaring, or fighting, a numbness took over me.
Too much loss.
Too much violence.
Too much death.
I’d finally reached my limit.
Not as Allie.
As The Huntress.
I sat down on the dry, ashy ground, and pulled my knees up to my chin.
I was only aware I’d began to rock back and forth when the Commander kneeled beside me. He raised his hand toward my shoulder, hovering, unsure, as if he feared I might shatter. Then he touched me. His large palm was warm, but not enough to scare away the emptiness swallowing me whole.
“Huntress?” he asked, and I hated what I heard in it.
Apprehension.
As if he was afraid he might frighten me further. But nothing he could do now could be worse than what had already happened.
“My power didn’t work on him either.” The words tumbled out of my mouth, but I wasn’t aware of speaking them. Not really.
I was moving through the motions, caught in a current I no longer controlled.
The real me had detached from my body and mind. It had curled up, no longer anchored.
“Look at me.” The Commander’s voice was the only thing that broke through the frozen wall quickly encasing me.
Only then did I notice the gash on his eyebrow, healing quickly, and the scrape against his neck.
It seemed the chat with the Serpents hadn’t gone as smoothly as he’d wanted me to believe. “What do you want to do now, Huntress?”
“Take me back.”
“Where?”
“To the only place I’m safe in now.” I turned and crumbled in his arms, finally spent. “Take me back to the crater.”