Chapter Forty One
For a second, I think I black out. That the bond between Jaak and I just took us both out when Eleanor attacked him. I don’t black out, it’s the bond that goes out. He watched me until the end.
I run for Jaak all the while reaching for the bond. “No!” I reach for it and try to pull it in but there’s nothing there. I fall to my knees beside my husband and grab his shoulders.
I shake him. “Jaak! Wake up. Open your eyes.” He doesn’t move. He doesn’t open his eyes. Jaak lays there still and quiet. The place where Eleanor’s magic hit him shines silver but there’s no blood, no bruises, no broken bones to show me that my husband is gone.
I smooth my hands over his face, his hair. “Please, everything’s going to be okay. It’s okay, please. Please.” He’s not breathing. I throw myself down on top of him, press my ear to his chest but there’s silence. No heartbeat.
“So long as my heart beats I will always be at your side, Meadow.”
“You promised,” I whisper.
“Even if hell opened itself up to claim me again, I would fight my way back to you.”
“Fight! You promised me. Come back!” I sob. “Come back. Come back to me. Please!”
Everything slows down as I scream. I scream so loud and so long that I don’t hear anything else. My throat goes raw from grief. I double over my husband and pull at his shirt. I try to bring him closer, but I can’t. Jaak is dead. He’s gone. I’ve lost him. My true love.
“See,” a voice says, “he was never yours. He was mine in the end.”
Something in me snaps when I hear that voice.
That evil, fucking, voice. The part of me that always wanted to be good, to find the happily-ever-after, the rainbow at the end of all this suffering goes quiet.
Vengeance has no place for mercy and that part of me would give mercy, the light in me, dies.
It goes to the grave beside my still husband and I lift my head from Jaak’s silent chest. He’s still warm.
If I didn’t know better I’d think he was sleeping.
Eleanor, Eri, whatever the fuck ass goddess she is, stands right where she was when she killed Jaak.
I raise my hand when she opens her mouth to speak.
I never let her get a word out. My magic moves quick as a snake and lashes across her face.
It hits her again before she can move, this time across her chest and then wraps around her throat.
I stand up. “You killed him.” I squeeze my hand tighter and my magic does the same.
Eri, I decide on Eri…she’s not a person.
She’s old and ancient, fickle, selfish, a nightmare.
I want her to die with the name Jaak called her by ringing in her ears.
I want to be the last voice she hears before no one ever says her name again.
Eri claws at my magic but she can’t break it. “Release me!”
“Make me, Eri,” I snarl and send her slamming into the wall behind her.
“You killed him!” I throw both hands out and force her back into the stone.
It cracks and breaks, pieces falling down around her.
Eri tries to free herself but it doesn't work. I’m too strong.
She screams in rage, and I smile because I know that feeling.
I savor the sound and fling her across the room.
She hits a pew and splits it in half and the rest of the pews in the aisle fall and scatter.
Two mages run towards me with knives in their hands. All it takes is a snap of my fingers before they turn to dust. Nothing at all, just a pair of dusty robes at my feet.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” I sing as I walk towards Eri. I want her to know I’m coming. I want her fear. She’s crawling, trying to hide from me in the pews. I hear her hands on the stone.
“Back off, Meadow!” Someone hits me across the back with a chair. It falls to pieces when it hits me. I didn’t feel it at all. There’s nothing this world can do to me anymore. There’s nothing left in me to hurt. I turn my head and see it’s Roy but it’s also not Roy.
He’s staring at me with an open mouth and wide eyes. He looks terrified. It’s beautiful.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“You scared?” I ask and grab him by his robes, pulling him to me. The material shreds beneath my grip.
Roy whimpers and tries to push me away. “Y-you’re a monster.”
Power pulses through me. Roy’s right, I am a monster but so is he.
“Takes one to know one,” I whisper in his ear and snap his neck. I let his body go and continue on towards Eri.
“Bitch, if you don’t get the fuck up!” I scream and sweep the pews aside. I throw them left and right looking for her. “Where are you? Come out and fight me.”
“Meadow! Help!” It’s Charlie. I scan the room and see him cornered by a handful of mages.
He’s trying to climb down a tapestry but it’s rough going with his bow.
His quiver is empty. Mort’s close by fighting off a group of mages but he’s not close enough to help in time.
I grab the pew closest to me, it’s heavy.
Perfect. I lift it over my head and take aim.
You would think it would be hard to aim a pew built for twelve with accuracy but you would be wrong.
I hurl the pew at the mages with a scream and watch with satisfaction as it hits the lot of them length-wise.
They fall down like a bunch of bowling pins.
The pew is solid, it doesn’t break but it does pin the mages to the back wall.
“Thanks, Meadow!” Charlie gives me a thumbs up and a smile. There’s no way he’s realized what happened to Jaak. I fill his quiver with fresh arrows and a second later he slides safely to the floor.
“Where is she?” I ask him. Eri is nowhere in the pews.
Somehow she got away but she’s here. I can feel her.
She’s like the soot from a fire you can’t get off your hands, the bullshit smear of lipstick you accidentally get on your fingers because you’re in a rush.
She’s here. Trash like her doesn’t just vanish.
“Where’s who?”
“The Bitch God. I’ve got unfinished business.”
Dina kicks a mage in the ass and sends them sprawling at my feet. “She went through there,” she says, pointing her staff at the back of the room to the door near the podium. It’s the door the first mage came through when this all began. I’d forgotten all about it. Of course she ran through there.
I move to go after Eri but the mage at my feet grabs my leg.
“Spare me, spare me, please-”
I don’t let him finish. I don’t care. I’m bored of his pleas. No one listened to my husband. No one gave him mercy. I bring my hands together and pull them apart. The mage splits in two, his plea dying with him.
“Holy shit!” Charlie leaps back and jumps on Dina.
She catches him and stares at me in shock. “Meadow…”
“I’m going after her. Get out of here. I’m going to bring this whole place down on us.”
Dina drops Charlie. “Meadow, no. It doesn’t have to be like this.”
“Doesn’t have to be like what?”
“If you do that you’re not getting out of here,” Charlie says.
I look at my friend and smile. “I know. I don’t want to. I’m ending this and I’m taking her with me.”
He shakes his head and moves to get in front of me. “What do you mean you don’t want to? Jaak will-”
Dina grabs his arm. “Charlie.”
“What? I-”
“Jaak’s gone,” Dina whispers and then looks at me. “I’m so sorry, Meadow.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry for. I’m going to save the world.
I’m going to kill her.” It feels like I’m speaking on autopilot.
I’m going to save the world for who? I look to my right where I know Jaak still lays.
Mort’s there now, he’s kneeling beside Jaak.
No doubt trying to see if he can help him.
I almost tell Mort there’s no point but I don’t.
If I do, I’ll break down, lay myself down beside him and give up.
I want to let Eri do whatever evil plan she has because then it would all be over, but I can’t do that.
“I can’t let her win. Get out, grab Mort. There’s nothing he can do for Jaak now.” I put my hands on Charlie’s shoulders when he tries to follow me. “Don’t follow me, Charlie. Don’t do it. I already lost my husband, I can’t lose one of my best friends, too.”
He shakes his head. “No, fuck this. I don’t-we can fix this. I'll use the book we found here. It’s a copy of mine, so I’ll bring him back.” Charlie starts to go for the book, it fell in all the fighting, it’s probably somewhere nearby but I don’t let him.
“He wouldn’t be the same. You can’t use that book. It’s evil.”
“There has to be a way. I’ll find it! You don’t have to do this.”
“I do have to. I’m sorry. Now go. I don’t know how much longer this place is going to be in one piece.” I nudge him back towards Dina. “If I find Clyde, I’ll make sure he gets out,” I tell her. I have a feeling wherever Eri ran, Clyde will be there too.
“The men here are so weak. One-by-one I tested them just 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.”
I’m almost certain Clyde is the man Eri mentioned. I’ll save him. I’m not going to let Dina feel this dead. Not like me.
Dina nods. “Thank you. I-I’m going to tell everyone about you. About him.”
I smile, my eyes sting but I don’t let the tears come. “Thank you.”
“Meadow, no! You can’t do this!” Charlie yells and grabs for me but I stop him with a spell. He runs forward and bounces off the invisible wall I just shielded myself with. It hurts to leave him behind but he can't go where I have to because it’s the only place left for me and me alone.
I take off running for the door. I’ve wasted enough time. I have a god to see. I rip the door off its hinges. Ahead of me the tunnel vanishes into the dark. There’s no light here, not even torches. That’s fine. I don’t need light to see anymore. The darkness suits me just fine.
“I’m fucking coming for you,” I scream as I run down the hallway, my voice echoes into the dark before it dies, so I scream again. I want her to know I’m coming.
“Do you hear me? I’m coming for you, Eri!”