50. A Mere Mortal
A Mere Mortal
Aradia
Rocks slid from the walls, crumbling and burying a few people around her. Some ran for the moss-covered freedom, while others were entrapped behind her and the god of chaos.
Aradia jerked out of the way of Ukoron’s magic, and slammed into the wall with a bone-crunching crack. The air in her lungs squeezed out of her as she fell to the ground.
“This all could have been avoided if you would have simply given me what I desire.” Ukoron’s voice reverberated off the rocks and slithered into her ears. Like a depressed weight, his power settled in the pit of her soul, chaining her in place.
She was going to die here. Beneath the very foundation her mother had fought against. At the hands of a psychotic god who would rule their realm. An unmarked grave. A name forgotten and a legacy ended.
Tears streamed down her face, turning the dust into mud which clogged her nose, burned her eyes, and tasted of grit.
“We could have worked together.” Ukoron walked toward where she helplessly laid face down. “Your blood will open the Gates of Qualan, an action I would have gladly rewarded. Perhaps I would have let you live the rest of your miserable human life with that pathetic heir.”
Aradia tried to release a laugh, but it came out as a whimper of pain which turned into a cough of blood. “I want nothing from you.”
Kill him. Kill him. Kill him.
The dagger in her boot was cold against her skin as if a hard reminder she still had one last surprise. If she could just reach it.
Ukoron chuckled. A sound which made the dying wheezes of those around her a comforting alternative to hear.
Clammy fingers combed through her hair, latching onto the roots. Her head jerked upward to meet soulless eyes and a sinister smile. “That’s why I’m just going to kill you.”
“Get away from her!” Cahira’s voice shook as she appeared from the blackness behind Aradia.
A breathless Fintan and Kaiden followed. Kaiden’s skin was sallow and sweat dripped from his temples. His gaze found hers immediately and she almost cried at the unadulterated panic crippling his brows and shaking his right hand. He was too weak to fight, let alone be here. But he had come for her.
Ukoron dropped her head and stood slowly. “My stupid offspring and the boy who couldn’t even protect his own father.” A smirk of disgust cracking his wicked face. “Come for another lesson?”
Byron?
Aradia bit back her sob as she watched Fintan’s haunted face transform into a solid mask of vengeance. Ukoron stepped toward the trio and Aradia used the distraction to slide the dagger from her boot. With a hiss of pain, she rolled to her feet and lunged for Ukoron.
“Aradia, don’t!” Kaiden’s shout was lost in the roar of urgency drowning out her logic.
The dagger struck air and wisps of dark tendrils.
Ukoron’s speed was faster than a blink of an eye, leaving her off-kilter and falling forward.
A hand wrapped around her wrist like a vise and spun her against the very chest she had aimed for.
Ukoron’s grip shattered the bones in her arm while the other held her in a chokehold, lifting her feet in the air.
“You thought a mortal blade would be the end of me?” Ukoron hissed in her ear.
“Don’t do this.” Kaiden stepped forward, his hands shook but were encompassed in small orbs of fire.
Fintan and Cahira flanked him, yet they dared not move toward her.
Aradia’s vision blurred and spots formed at the corners as Ukoron’s cold laughter naturally squeezed his muscles tighter around her throat.
“You truly care for this girl, don’t you?” Ukoron murmured.
His breath raised the hair on the back of her neck.
“What would you give, Kaiden?” Ukoron asked. “What would any of you give?”
Aradia’s body stilled as Ukoron’s voice lowered to an unamused whisper. No heartbeat thumped behind her back, and only then did she finally allow herself to cry out loud.
“Run. Please run,” she choked out.
“Run?” Ukoron seethed. “Is that all you Damalis know how to do? Run from your responsibilities, run from the people left in your care, run from the very task you were assigned by my fellow brothers and sisters?”
Aradia whimpered as her arm was pulled against her own strength and the dagger turned and aimed at her stomach. Kaiden took a step closer at the movement, his chest heaved with his helplessness.
“Lucky for me the gods chose a weak line of priestesses to keep me locked in my eternal prison. So, allow me to repay you, Aradia Damali. Because of you, I am free and your useless days of running finally end.”
Aradia’s strangled cry was cut short at the slow, deadly protrusion of her blade slicing into her body.
A numbness spread from her stomach to her chest and into her brain like her nerves were on fire.
Chaos erupted around her as her body was dropped.
Her legs should have been strong enough to break her fall, but she crumpled to the ground like a wet reed.
The prickling sensation of being poked by a thousand needles wrapped around her hips and shot to her toes.
Each short breath was agonizing and her lungs filled with blood by each wheezing rattle escaping her lips.
Her vision was blinding and she could have sworn she was drowning.
The slow humming of footsteps and fighting were blocked by the throbbing reminder she was dying.
An echo of her name was being shouted again and again.
Sometimes it was right by her ear like a gentle caress, and sometimes it was as if the person stood on a distant shore screeching with panic and unable to help her.
Her limp hand trailed through her bloodstained vest and stopped at the protruding hilt of her own dagger wedged deep into her stomach. Her eyelids grew heavier with each blink. She barely felt her head lift as a blurry face came into view. Seconds; she had seconds before she was gone.
“I will not let you die.”
Kaiden?
A burning sensation rippled through her body, cocooning her like an embrace and steadying her heart.
It was familiar; gentle. She tried to focus on the feeling.
She inwardly gripped for her fading magic, pleading with her broken body to heal itself.
A shadowed emptiness spread from her frenzied mind to her weak heart, encompassing her soul.
There was so much unsaid and not enough time. She should rest for just a bit. She was so tired and Kaiden was here. She would be safe with him. He would fix everything. He had sworn it.
Aradia released a whisper of breath and closed her eyes, surrendering to the hungry darkness.