Chapter Forty
“Who the fuck shot me?” Eri screams, she turns and paws at her back for the arrow and pulls it out. “I liked this dress, you asshole! You,” she snaps her fingers at a robed figure, “find whoever did this and kill them. Bring me their head. I’m going to eat their eyes.”
“Yes, mistress.”
I almost laugh when I hear the voice. I know that fucking voice and suddenly it makes sense how there’s so many mages here. Dina was right. They were recruiting new members for their cult, or in this case, recycling them.
“What the fuck, Roy?” The figure freezes and I cross my arms. “Yeah, I know it's you, asshole. Who else is here with you? Lyle? My parents? Actually, don’t answer that, let me see for myself.” I bring my hands down and the hoods of every mage in the room vanishes.
A few of them yelp and try to hide their faces from me but I don’t give a shit who they are.
“Oh, so now you’re ashamed? Why are you hiding your faces if you’re not? Is demon worship suddenly not cool?” I mock them when they pull their robes up to duck behind. “Fucking losers,” I mutter and scan the faces until I see the ones I want.
My family.
“Hello mom. Hello dad. Fucking eat shit, Lyle,” I greet them, making sure I have the biggest frown anyone has ever seen on my face.
The three of them stare at me with open mouths. “Your smile…Meadow…you’re cursed,” my mom croaks.
“I’m cursed? You’re the one that’s joined another cult, a doomsday cult, might I add and I’m the cursed one because I’m not smiling?
I’d rather be cursed than fucking stupid, you weak-minded fools!
How could you join another cult? You couldn’t get a hobby like a normal person?
Knitting? Badminton? I don’t know, paint by number or bird watching? No? It just had to be this?!”
My mother shakes her head. “We had to fix what you broke. What you stole from us! We deserve to be honored, you selfish girl!”
“Are you shitting my dick right now?”
“Meadow, language!” My idiot father has the balls to look embarrassed. “You were raised better than this.”
Eleanor throws the arrow she pulled out of her chest on the ground. “As much as I hate to ruin this little reunion, did you all forget that I’m a god and that I’m about to fucking destroy your pathetic world?”
“You’re not destroying shit,” I tell her.
“Oh, I see why he married you. You’re a spitfire. I’m going to enjoy choking the life out of you while he watches.”
“Yeah?” I pull out my swords and point them at her. “Let’s dance, cunt.”
“Meadow!” My dad howls, horrified at my language. I hope Charlie shoots him next.
Jaak is at my side and he stirs when I step forward to meet Eleanor. He looks like he’s coming out of a daze, eyes glazed and unfocused.
“Meadow-” he starts but I shush him with a quick kiss.
“I’m going to gut her and set you free. Help Dina. I need you to keep the other mages off me.”
Jaak hesitates but only for a second. “As you wish, my heart. Fight well.”
I kiss him again. “Is there any other way? I learned from the best,” I remind him. It’s his memories coursing through me, his memories that give me the strength and skill to know I’m going to be the one walking out of this fight.
“Hey lovebirds! I’m kind of on a schedule.”
“Well in that case,” I tell her and make my first move, a doubled-handed slice at her neck. Is it a move made out of the purely selfish reason that I want to take a swing at Eleanor’s neck? Absolutely. Did I know she was going to dodge it? Totally. Would I do it again? Hells yeah.
She ducks and kicks at my legs but I jump over her. I bring a sword down as I move and catch her on her shoulder. A thin red line blooms across her perfect skin as I land on my feet.
“You ruined my dress!”
“It was already ruined when you put your sorry ass into it.”
She screams, the sound loud, discordant. I hear the screams of the souls she’s eaten, the ones whose planets and worlds she devoured whole. It’s their voices that scream at me but I’m not afraid of them the way Eleanor thinks I might be because I hear what she doesn’t.
Hope.
Every soul she extinguished, every being she forced into herself, all of that life didn’t vanish.
It remained deep down inside of her and it waited for the moment she would fail.
Centuries, millennia, eons, the time didn’t matter because they knew the day would arrive when she would finally calculate wrong.
That day is today. I’m the equation she can’t solve.
“He’s mine,” she tells me. “He always will be mine. He sold his soul fair and square, you can’t get out of a contract like that.”
“So long as my heart beats I will always be at your side, Meadow. Even if hell opened itself up to claim me again, I would fight my way back to you. I will always fight for you, my heart. I will never leave you. I swear this to you as a vow.”
I smile at her. “You might have his soul, but I have his heart. And speaking of hearts, I learned that even a World Eater can die if they lose their heart. God or not. Why don’t we see if I can’t take yours, too?
” I’m right, I know I am. It’s the only way to kill her according to Jaak’s memories.
She didn’t think I knew that. I can tell from the way she falters.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about, mortal. Every part of him belongs to me. He is my servant. His place is at my feet.”
“Let’s find out then.” I shrug and look her over. “But when I claim your heart, and I will fucking claim it, I’m going to cut it out of your chest while it’s still beating. I wanna see how long you survive without it.”
Eleanor’s eyes narrow. “You’re messing with ancient bonds, mortal. Jaakobah owes me his life. All of it. His devotion belongs to me. Me, do you hear me? For I am a jealous god and I will not allow another to have what is mine.”
“A dead World Eater can’t enforce a contract, now can she?”
She raises her hands and turns to look at the mages.
“Kill them. Every last one of them. Line their heads for me one-by-one but not him.” Eleanor points to Jaak.
He’s on his feet but he still has a faraway look on his face.
I don’t know where he is. Is it in the memories I saw? Is he somewhere in Eleanor’s thrall?
“I want him cleaned up and delivered to my chambers.”
I see red when she says that, but when I move so do the mages.
All hell breaks loose as my friends take on the mages.
Now that they’re hoodless, I see familiar faces.
It’s not just my parents that are here, there’s so many people that I thought were trying to build something better in Sweet Tooth with us.
To my left a mage raises their hands to cast a spell, but they never finish it because Dina cracks them across the back of the head with her staff.
An arrow flies over my head in a direct hit that lays out another mage and a tentacle grabs a casting mage off their feet and slams them into the ground.
Wherever Charlie and Mort are, I know Roy didn’t stop them.
It doesn’t matter if we’re outnumbered, we’re fighting back and I’m going to make sure we win.
A mage lunges for me, their hands raised in the air.
A blast of magic comes towards me but it’s weak, feeble.
I bat it aside with the edge of my sword and kick them square in the chest towards Eleanor.
She catches the mage in midair and throws them back at me with a frustrated scream.
I duck and the mage sails over my head. I’d almost feel bad for how hard he hits the wall if he wasn’t serving the army of fucking hell.
“You bitch! No one kicks a mage at me and gets away with it.”
She charges at me, fist raised and dodges the sword I try to run her through with.
She twists away from me, graceful as a ballerina and kicks me in the side.
There’s enough force in it to make me stagger but I keep my feet and throw a sword at her.
It just grazes her before it plants in the wall behind her.
The next kick Eleanor sends my way earns her a kick back.
My kick catches her in the ribs and the grunt she makes from the blow is music to my ears.
It’’s a drop in the bucket, though. I want more.
I swing and catch her in the jaw, her head pops back from the force. Better, but still not enough.
I need to decimate her. That’s the only way to end this. If I don’t, she’s going to keep coming and we’ll never be safe. But to end her, I need more. She’s too fast, but she’s not stronger than me. Not by a long shot. I have to get her closer if I want to do some real damage.
I motion for her to come closer. “For a god you sure are shy. Why don’t you come a little closer?”
She gives me a mean smile. “I’ll be plenty close when I remind Jaakobah who owns him. He always did like that. Do you know how many men I’ve burned through waiting for him? How many centuries I wasted while waiting for this day?”
“Just between us girls, I’m going to guess a long time. You are looking a little tired around the eyes.”
Eleanor laughs. “Petty, I like it. Not at all like the men around here. The men here are weak. One-by-one I tested them only to get bored. The last one my mages brought to me has promise—maybe I’ll get Jaakobah to show him a thing or two.
There was never anyone quite as devoted as him.
You know what I’m talking about, don’t you, mortal? ”
I do know what she means. I feel sick knowing it. Sick that she’s twisted something precious into death itself. I saw it briefly, buried deep in the memories that spilled into me and got under my skin. I know what Jaak really felt.
“You’re wrong. He hated it. You disgust him.”
There’s a drop in her smile that doesn’t make sense with how easily it comes. “Shut up.”
“He hates you.”
“Shut up! Shut up! He worships me!”
I drop my sword to the ground. “You’re never touching him again.” Another mage makes a run towards me and I deck them. They hit the ground so hard I see a tooth pop out. I’m not going to get Eleanor to come closer but I can take advantage of the mini-breakdown she’s having.
She’s not facing me anymore. She’s looking at Jaak.
“Tell her the truth. Tell her how you adore me.”
Jaak says nothing but he does look at me. The hazy look in his eyes is gone. He’s back.
“Tell this worthless mortal the truth. Jaakobah. I command you. Speak.”
Jaak speaks immediately. “When I made my bargain to save my world, I tied myself to Eri. I worshipped her my entire life. I gave her my life.”
She gives me a smirk. “See, what did I-”
Jaak smiles at me. “I thought I had no heart.” He puts his hand to his chest. “I thought that was my curse, my punishment, for all the wrong I had done to save my world. To save one, I destroyed countless others. The guilt burned away inside of me until there was nothing but the demon, no humanity, nothing lived in me for an eternity until you. I love you, Meadow. Only you. You are my heart.”
I smile back at him. “I love you,” I tell him, even though he knows. The bond between us comes to life, golden and bright, it shifts as we move towards one another. “We’ll finish this together.”
“Together,” Jaak agrees.
Eleanor screams, the discordant noise shakes the room.
“No!” I look away from Jaak to see her staring at the bond between us.
She shakes her head and laughs. “This is impossible. You don’t have a soul.
You can’t-you can’t have a soul-bond,” the last of her words comes out in a whisper and I see tears in her eyes. “You belong to me.”
“Never again, Eri.”
“You made me do this,” she whispers and raises her hands. I only have a half second to react before I realize what she’s about to do. Power sparks in her hands and then it’s moving faster than light. I know her target.
“Jaak!” I scream. I run for him but the god’s magic is faster. “Jaak, no please!” Who I’m begging, I don’t know but it’s me that my husband looks at when the magic strikes him and he falls.