Chapter 28 #2
“You are a part of it,” Father sneered. “You’re the reason we defeated Avanis. You’re why all these people are here. You can’t wash your hands of that. You’re a Rake through and through; it’s time you embraced it.”
I shuddered, glowering at him for branding me that way. “I would never have assisted you if I knew it would end in this needless bloodshed,” I snarled.
“Needless?” Rake barked a hollow laugh. “These rats deserve to feel the wrath of Cascada upon their bones. Their pain will echo down through their bloodlines and strike fear into the hearts of all who come against us. We torture them to bathe in the victory of our great people. Our better people. It’s an offering to Pisces, Scorpio and Cancer themselves.
I’ll paint myself in the blood of my enemies, man, woman and child until all of them are crushed and gone.
This world will be won soon enough. And when it is, they will all perish.
No babe shall be born outside of our superior water element and we’ll cast any mistaken ones into the ocean! ”
The Fae in the room cheered loudly, a roar of assent at such a vile statement.
My mother’s voice echoed inside me, but I heard something different in it this time.
Never rest, Everest.
She’d wanted me to pursue all the rioting wants of my heart.
She’d encouraged me through every step I’d taken to become a warrior but she’d also taught me mercy, love and compassion.
This man, no, this monster, had taught me nothing except that brutality was the mark of a great Fae.
But he was so wrong about that and I’d been an eskindo lidenti – fucking idiot – to ever believe it.
I’d sought the approval of a man I’d placed on a pedestal, this so-called exceptional warrior who was revered across our land.
But if this was who they revered then they either didn’t know the truth of him or they were as despicable as he was.
And I was done being his puppet. Done standing at his side and done being his latest trophy.
I was tired of the limelight and tired of being celebrated.
And most of all, I was tired of ignoring the call of my innermost desires.
Ransom was watching me with riveted attention but no one else in the room seemed to notice the shift in me.
Father turned his back on me, prowling into another cell and dragging a woman out by her red hair. She had magical blocking cuffs on her wrists and was caked in mud. Her screams were met with more cheers and something twisted inside my skull as she let out a terrified cry.
“Wait, stop,” the woman begged and I noticed she struggled to walk, like she was injured already.
A snarl peeled my lips back as my father tossed her onto a wooden bench and pinned her there by the throat.
“I like it when they fight,” Father purred as the woman clawed at his arm uselessly, his dark eyes gleaming with menacing cravings.
He took pleasure from her fear and the stars only knew what he’d do to her if I walked away.
He didn’t even ask a single question of her before he carved a blade down her cheek and she screamed as blood poured.
My mind quieted as my decision locked into place.
It was like I’d taken a dose of battle stims, my fears gone, my mind set. I was done denying who I truly was and there was a freedom in that which I’d never tasted before.
“Watch and learn, children of mine. This is what it is to be a Rake. We punish all who are not of our land, for they are nothing but maggots for us to crush beneath our heels.” Father tossed the woman to the floor and caught her wrist, slamming her arm down on the bench and raising a knife from his hip to cut her hand off.
She tried to fight free, shoving him, struggling with all her might as panic took over.
But her movements were pained, jolted like she was in agony and I was done watching her suffer.
I struck like a viper. Fast, efficient, unstoppable. My dagger cut through flesh and bone as I lunged, the name Kaiser Brimtheon kissing the skin of my palm upon my dagger’s hilt as if thanking me for this act against his family’s killer.
My father’s right arm fell onto the bench with a wet thump, fingers unlatching from the woman’s arm. His scream was a roar that filled every space in that terrible room and the hairs on the back of my neck stood to attention.
Shock staggered through the brig for all of two seconds then bellows of ‘traitor!’ came from all sides. Magic crackled in the air as Father’s warriors turned on me and I stifled it with nothing but a thought, the Void making quick work of muting their power.
“No more,” I spat at Abraham Rake as he stumbled away from me, clutching at the gaping wound on his shoulder.
“Get her!” he roared, his voice riddled with agony.
Warriors came at me from all sides and I turned to my right, blasting three vicious balls of jagged ice at the Fae running my way.
They were thrown backwards from the force, chests ripped open and screams tainting the night as they hit the far wall and shattered the wooden hull. They flew out into the canal beyond but I had no more focus to give them as two more lunged from behind me.
I twisted around with the litheness of my Leopard form, capturing a woman in a dome of water and snaring the man in sharpened ice chains.
Goshart had been my second victim, the man who was one of Father’s favoured warriors.
The woman began to drown but Goshart didn’t have as long left in this world as the chains sliced through his body and cut him apart in a display of bloodshed that made Father roar again.
He made for the door in a flash of movement and I sent an ice blade flying into his back so he slammed to his knees with another cry of anguish. Ransom stared on from across the room, shock written into his face, but he made no move to stop me.
Four more warriors came at me in a blur and I leapt onto a table to avoid the swipe of their knives.
I wielded the element of water, the beauty of it singing in my veins as it poured from me in a crushing weight of ice, spilling down on top of the four Fae, snapping bones as they crumpled to the floor beneath it.
I took on the final wave of warriors, using whips of water to hurl torture devices at them, slicing through flesh, causing a riot of screams. There was so much blood and death and I relished in it all, making them pay while their victims watched on in shocked delight.
I made it hurt right up until the end, then I sent them into violent deaths and silence fell like nightfall.
Then there was only Father. His whimpers puncturing the quiet. Voices rose too, calling out to me from among the tortured Stonebreakers, encouraging me on.
I didn’t walk toward him though, instead I turned for Kaiser, untethering him from the rack so he fell heavily to his feet beside me. I offered him my dagger but he shook his head.
“Together, silka la vin,” he growled, his voice a dark river that bled into the most secret places inside me. He caught my chin between his finger and thumb and turned my face toward my father as he whispered in my ear. “Yon kiden shriveed haset raya, nord o sil oceania.”
The use of my language sent a shiver rolling down my spine. You have earned his death, warrior of the ocean.
I was so caught up in the rush of the bloodlust, I didn’t think twice about offering my back to Kaiser and stalking toward my father. I could feel him close behind me like a brutish wraith and it felt so terribly right to seek out death as one.
Father dragged himself away from us, cursing and shouting out for help. Not even Ransom offered it, my brother silent as he watched on.
There were yells going up on the hillside beyond the White Mare but I couldn’t turn from Abraham Rake.
The man who had crushed me beneath his heel too many times to count.
The one who had declared me useless, a runt, a worthless daughter.
But here I stood above him with all the power in the world in my grip and he could finally see how wrong he’d been to brand me those things.
“Who’s worthless now, Father?” I hissed venomously before I stuck my dagger into his chest.
Kaiser grabbed an axe from a rack of torture implements, heaved it above his head and yelled, “For my mother, for my father, for my brother – they await you in death and I send you into their arms now where only torment awaits!” He swung the axe down, Father’s shriek of terror cut off for good as he cut his head from his body.
The cheers of the captives rang out, emphasizing my betrayal against my own people.
I met Kaiser’s gaze, the spell between us breaking now this act of solidarity was done and wariness took its place once more.
The word traitor cut through the air, bellows of my name sweeping from the hillside as the Cascadian warriors camping there stared in through the hole I’d blasted in the side of the ship.
Ransom walked toward me with wide eyes and I took a step back from him, half expecting an attack, unsure where we stood with each other now.
“You’ve done it now,” he said shakily, looking to father’s dead body then to the hoard of angry warriors baying my name.
“I have to run. I’ll push you into the river to cover for you.” I reached for him but he shook his head, grasping my hand instead. “I want out of this fucking life. Wherever you go, I’m going too.”
“Ransom no–” I gasped but Kaiser cut in.
“There’s no fucking time for this. Void them, Everest.”
I looked to the hill as magic came blasting our way and I guttered it out, letting my Void sweep over my own people in an act of certain treason.
I looked to the Avanis captors, making a firm decision and using whips of water magic to rip the doors off their cages and tethers to free them all.
Then I blasted a hole beneath our feet, grabbed the arms of the two people who had long been branded as my enemies and dragged them down into the embracing water below, tugging the Avanis captives with us.
The White Mare began to sink while we were swept away within the canal, guided by my magic as my mind scattered into a million pieces. I was a traitor to my land. I had nowhere to go. Nowhere to run. But I had never felt freer in all my life.