Chapter 18
Sage
“V on?” I breathed his name, my body trembling like a frostbitten leaf, shaken from its branch and captured by his wind.
Real or not real?
Could I believe what my eyes were telling me? Was he truly standing before me?
I wanted to believe it, even if it was just a beautiful, dark lie.
He looked different . His eyes were an endless onyx, his skin etched with bolts of black—had he gotten more tattoos? And he had . . . horns. They were sinister things, and yet, they sort of suited him.
My beloved Death knelt before me.
“Little Goddess,” he said, gentle hands clasping my cheeks, thumbs brushing away my tears. His masculine scent washed over me, and I breathed him in. I realized in that moment that I wasn’t just grieving the loss of our child, I was grieving the loss of him.
“I’m going to get you back,” he vowed to me in such a way that I believed him.
“How?” I breathed, placing my hands over his, savoring every second of this moment. His touch. His words. Being near him again. All of it felt so right. So real.
I chose to believe it was.
“I’m figuring that out,” he answered, his voice as tender as his touch. “You just stay alive until I can get to you. Okay?”
I nodded, choking back a sob. “Okay.”
He pressed his forehead to mine and whispered, “I love you, Sage. We will be together again. I promise you.”
And then he was gone.
But his words remained— You just stay alive until I can get to you.
For the first time since I awoke in these unfamiliar lands, I felt that small, sacred spark within—the one we all had burning inside of us, the one that made life worth living. The one that made it all worth fighting for.
That voice within me said, Get up .
“Let the battle begin!” the blonde woman standing on the balcony announced, and the spectators cheered and clapped.
Get up , that inner voice said again, this time a bit more urgently.
The giant charged at me, and the ground trembled.
Get up! the voice roared, filling my veins with adrenaline.
My heart leapt into my throat, and I spurred into action. I scrambled onto my feet, my muscles firing, trying to recall what they once were capable of. I flung my hand to my side, searching for my powers, but—
Nothing . They didn’t respond.
The giant brought her ax down, and I narrowly missed being cleaved in two as I dove out of the way. I slid across the ground, the sand scrubbing at the top layer of my skin, causing ichor to brim in the small, rash-like wounds.
“Ugh,” I growled as I came to a stop.
Roaring, the giant tugged on her ax stuck in the ground. Freeing it, she spun toward me, coming for me again.
I jerked upright, back onto my feet. I jumped as high as my weary muscles would allow, tucking my feet in. The ax sailed right underneath me, the current so powerful, it nearly sucked me to the side.
Collectively, the audience roared in astonishment, cheering at the blow that nearly chopped my legs off.
Adrenaline shot through my veins, filling me with strength. I darted to my left, fumbling for my powers. Still, they would not answer my call.
“Damn it,” I hissed under my breath.
What was stopping them? I wore no iron, and there was nothing on my person to suppress my powers, so why wouldn’t they answer?
In the Spirit Realm, Von had wards placed around his castle preventing people from light walking in and out.
My eyes darted to my left, then to my right, scanning the perimeter of the arena, high and low, as my legs carried me, my feet churning up sand.
There! I internally cried out in victory when I spotted them.
Where the lower and upper sections of the amphitheater were separated, four mounted statues sat on pedestals overlooking the arena below. They were spaced evenly apart, each one different—a bear, a wolf, a fish, and a cougar.
For a brief second, I was transported back to the Cursed Lands, to when the elders had met in Valenthia to decide what to do to fight Aurelius and his army of Demi Gods.
Ezra had sat upon a table, a table she’d struck with her cane when the room erupted into chaos, a table with the exact same animal carvings on its legs as I was seeing now.
The words she had spoken back then as she’d gestured to me repeated in my mind— Behold. Your savior.
I didn’t know it back then, but Ezra hadn’t just been speaking to the rest of the room—she had been speaking to me. Future me. The one who needed her powers more than ever.
And now I knew what was stopping them.
I eyed the statues, my mind churning out a quick plan.
“I’m listening, Ezra,” I wheezed under my breath as I came to a swift halt, facing the giant. I was done running.
I charged straight for her.
Reaching the center of the arena, she swung her ax.
I dodged to the side of it, feeling the weapon sail past me, biting into the ground and spraying sand, some of which pelted my back. As she worked on tugging it free, I raced as fast as my legs could carry me, running beside the length of her handle.
With a mighty roar, I hurtled into the air, landing on the giant’s wrist.
“Get off of me, you maggot,” her booming voice roared as she tugged her ax free, swinging it upwards in an attempt to fling me off. She didn’t have to try very hard because when I was above her head, I let go.
I sailed through the air like an awkwardly Sage-shaped arrow loosed from a bow. The faces of the people in the crowd, which had looked so small before, became a whole lot bigger as I flew straight for them. They scattered, like a stepped-on hill of ants, racing this way and that, right before—
Crash!
I smashed into the stands, snapping a wood bench in two, causing a plume of dust and an explosion of wood.
I wheezed, the wind knocked out of my lungs.
Fuck me . That might not have been one of my best ideas, but it worked.
Rolling over, I did a quick mental check on my body.
Apart from some bumps, bruises, and cuts, miraculously, nothing felt broken.
Perhaps my immortality was finally kicking in.
“About damn time,” I panted under my breath.
As soon as the dust settled, someone yelled, “Get her!”
I didn’t care to find out who it was.
Grimacing, I shoved myself back onto my feet and locked my gaze on the ward that was closest to me. Then, I moved, albeit rather sloppily. I felt like milk in a butter churn, because my whole world was swirling.
“Come here,” a guard snarled as she jumped into my path, fists raised. She fired a punch, hoping to connect.
Somehow, my forearm caught hers, blocking her swing. I thrust the heel of my palm into her chest, knocking her back onto her ass.
I stumbled like a newborn fawn around her, pressing forward. I was so close to the ward, almost there, almost—
A spectator grabbed me, her arms wrapping around me like a python, squeezing me tight. As if my lungs weren’t desperate for air enough—the last thing I needed was this.
“I’ve got her!” she screamed victoriously in my ear.
Fighting my disorientation, I rammed the back of my skull into her face, and her arms immediately released me.
“My nose!” she cried out, the sound garbled, telling me I’d probably broken it.
Stars peppered my vision, blinking in and out. I shook my head, and they cleared somewhat, then I moved.
I reached the ward, and I pressed my hands against the cold stone. My teeth cut steel as I shoved with all my might, forcing it ahead. The statue began to move.
Holy shit , I was doing it—
My scalp screamed in agony as a hand grabbed my hair, wrenching me backwards, pulling me against my attacker. I sent my elbow into their abdomen, an audible oof sounding from her, and she wobbled backwards. The hand let go and I shot toward the ward.
Roaring, I collided with it, shoving it over the edge. The fish statue fell from its pedestal, rotating in the air until it smashed into the ground, breaking into hundreds of pieces.
I grinned in victory.
The moment was short-lived.
Hands shoved me forward, back into the arena.
The wind tugged at my hair as I fell toward the ground, spiraling faster and faster.
Frantically, I reached deep down, searching for my powers.
A breath before I turned into a silver splatter upon the sands, my water beast came roaring to life.
My hands shot out as a hurricane of water swirled from my palms, blasting against the ground beneath me, against the remnants of the shattered ward.
The force of it was so strong I was released from gravity’s pull.
I landed on my feet, on the drenched sands, water dissolving from my hands.
I was given less than a second to think, because the giant was already coming for me, her ax swinging back behind her head, ready to deliver that final blow—
But I would not let her have it.
An animalistic roar tore through me as I harnessed my power. Like a runaway horse, it came stampeding to the surface, and I unleashed it.
Fire erupted from my hands, blasting toward her.
She dropped her ax and crossed her arms, trying to shield herself from my flames, but it was of little use.
Fire chewed into her exposed skin, and she let out a horrific scream that shook the entire amphitheater.
Her metal armor began to glow orange, as hot as a pyre, searing into her skin.
The scent of burning flesh, like meat cooked in a pan, permeated the air.
She tore her chest plate from her torso, ripping off bits of cloth and skin with it, revealing a gruesome truth—
What my fire had done to her butchered, charcoaled chest.
My flames cut off, and I dropped my hands. I peered down at my palms, mortified at what I had done.
I realized at that moment, I had lost a piece of the person I used to be. There had been a time when the girl from Edenvale would stand amongst the crowd, watching as the Cursed were burnt at the pyre. It had made my stomach heavy, like an undigested meal.
Now, here I was, doing the exact same thing I had once despised—burning someone alive. Was this the price of—
No. She was going to kill us , the goddess within argued.
But the noble part of me, the hero part, was having a hard time listening.
People yelled and screamed, darting out of the way as the giant stumbled back into the stands.
She fell into one of the sections, crushing the platforms, benches, and stairs underneath her.
A second passed, maybe two, and they started to catch fire.
The wood benches were so old that the moment the fire touched them, they lit like a torch soaked in oil.
I watched as my flames engulfed the amphitheater.
Piercing cries sounded from above, the noises unnatural and distorted, haunting and chilling. They were hard to explain, forged from high-pitched screams that seemed to echo around me. But they weren’t just sounds, they were a warning—
I jerked my face skyward, eyes stretching wide.
A wraithlike creature, double my size, descended from the sky like a nightmare come to collect screams. Its talons, the color of pale milk, stretched out toward me, the curved nails as sharp as knives.
Underneath a hood, cut from shadow, it possessed a bird-like skeletal face.
A vulture, perhaps. Where its eyes should have been, there was nothing—only bottomless, empty holes.
And yet, they bore into me.
I forged an azure blade, pointing it at the creature. With a snarl on my lips, I warned, “Get back.”
“I mean you no harm,” the creature screeched, her voice about as pleasant as metal against tooth. It slid across my bones in the most eerie and unnatural of ways, causing a shiver to race down the length of my back.
Hundreds of others, just like it, began to emerge all around the blazing amphitheater.
They seemed completely unbothered by the flames as their fearsome beaks picked at the dead giant, snapping her charcoaled skin from her bones and gobbling it down.
Others attacked those who were trying to find their way through the flames, toward the exit—grabbing hold of them with their talons and carrying them off.
“What are you?” I asked, my voice breathless.
“I am a vuleerie. My kind is loyal to Nockrythiam and by extension, you,” she answered, floating above me.
I did not lower my blade, keeping it firmly pointed at her. “Why are you here? ”
“We received a message from an unknown source, written on a scroll with information about you, that you had returned and the empress was sending you to this arena to have your soul crushed. A white hair was wound around the scroll. My niece tasted it and confirmed that it did indeed belong to you. And so, we have come to rescue you,” she replied.
Avriel. That’s why she’d needed my hair. She must have been the one to send the scroll to them. And somehow, it had worked. The priestess seemed to believe that the vuleeries would help me. I took a breath, hoping she was right.
I dissolved my sword, and asked, “How do I get out of here?”
“I’ll take you,” she said, flying over top of me.
With surprising gentleness, her talons clutched onto my shoulders. My hands wrapped around her scaly legs as she lifted me. She flew us out of the blazing arena, high up into the azure sky.