62. Damage Mitigation
62
Damage Mitigation
Aliza
B lood streaked down Maelgwyn’s blade, forming dark rivulets that gathered at its tip, dripping steadily onto Idris’ back as the king poised to strike again.
“No! No, please, don’t hurt him.” My legs gave out completely, and I slumped in Jacques’ arms. “Please, I’ll do anything. I’ll—I’ll make a bargain with you, just don’t hurt him .”
“No, Aliza,” Pansy moaned from somewhere behind me, but I blocked out her protests, focusing all my attention on the male who had burnt me alive.
Maelgwyn hesitated, the tendons in his sinewy wrist protruding as his fingers flexed around the hilt. His free hand gave an airy wave.
My eyes followed the gesture, darting to the king’s prowling shadow soldiers. At his unspoken command, they slunk back, their wafting, coiling forms merged with the smoke I’d created. They made no move to attack, even in the absence of Idris’ lightning.
I couldn’t bring myself to consider what that absence might mean.
A sob jolted through my body. “Please.”
“You have my attention, my dear. State your terms.”
Hope and feverish panic billowed in my chest, swirling together into a noxious potion. This was my chance to fix this mess, if only I could think straight. The only bargain I’d ever made had been with the vampire king, and it was too soon to know if my terms had proven binding, but Idris was still and silent, blood sliding over the glass on which he lay. He was running out of time. I had to end this, somehow.
Jacques’ arms tightened again, as though he could squeeze the foolishness out of me, but this was my fault. I’d brought them here. I had to fix it.
I took a deep, wobbling breath, and then another. And another. Each one grew steadier. I could do this. It wasn’t the first time a life had hung in the balance, waiting to tip in either direction, based solely on my choices. My actions. It might not be emergency surgery, but I knew how to smother my panic with layers of forced calm and straightforward logic.
I took one last breath, blowing it out slowly. Calm. I could be calm. “Before I do, let me go to him?”
Distrust shadowed the king’s eyes. His lips thinned, but after a moment’s pondering, he stepped back from Idris, gesturing to the space he had vacated. He did not go far, and his bony knuckles whitened around the dagger. One wrong move, and I’d join Idris. I didn’t care. It was a small victory. The first step. I could do this.
No sooner had Jacques’ slackened his grip than I was moving, staggering and stumbling over broken glass on legs that miraculously remembered how to work, despite their complete lack of feeling. I thudded to my knees, my hands hovering over Idris’ shredded and bleeding form, unsure of where to touch without causing him further pain.
His back rose and fell in short, infrequent breaths. Alive. He was alive, at least. Even if his face, turned slightly to one side and half hidden beneath his tumble of dark hair, was too pale. His lips were entirely bloodless. Even if his eyelids barely flickered at my presence.
Why had fate laughed in my face? I should have been able to heal him. That should have been my power, that was who I was supposed to be. Instead, I’d been twisted into a monster.
Crunching, clinking footsteps sounded beside me, and I glanced up to find my companions surrounding me. All but Pansy. Anwir crouched at his twin’s head, reaching out a hand.
“Don’t touch him!” I barely recognised my own voice, infused as it was with the deadliest venom. I smacked Anwir’s hand away as tears tumbled down my cheeks. “Don’t you dare touch him.”
What little colour remained in Anwir’s face drained away, but he made no further effort to reach his brother. He was as good as a murderer, and he was unworthy to breathe the same air as Idris. How was it fair that he was whole and uninjured, while Idris… I dropped my eyes.
“Idris?”
His bloodied brow twitched, then he pulled in a deeper breath, screwing his face up with pain. The one eye I could see flickered part way open, a glimpse of jewel-bright colour. So beautiful, even now. My lip trembled. It was instinct to lay down beside him, cupping a relatively uninjured hand in both of mine.
That yellow-green eye, glazed with agony, fought to focus on my face. Through the shadows, I glimpsed a flicker of light. Life. Hope . He could survive this. He could fight. This didn’t have to be his end.
“I love you,” I whispered. “And I’m so sorry. I’m going to fix this, I promise. ”
Idris shifted, his muscles bunching as he fought to rise, but he shuddered, his face screwing up, and fell still again. His breath came faster, sweat beading his skin. The sight hardened my resolve.
“Let them all go,” I said, raising my voice as I sat up, clinging desperately to Idris’ hand while I still could. I sought Maelgwyn’s gaze. Triumph simmered in their pale depths. He had won, and he knew it. “Bring my parents to us, and let them all leave freely. Bryn too, and his family.”
Idris’ limp fingers twitched.
The king narrowed his eyes in amusement. “And why would I do that?”
My throat dried up, as gritty as sand. My pulse roared in my ears. “I’ll stay.”
Something stilled inside me, soothing the storm. Not calm, exactly, but something like it. Something like certainty. Like the knowledge that this was the only way. That it was right.
“No…” Idris all but sighed the word, as soft as a whisper. His fingers flexed, curling weakly around mine.
“No, Aliza, you can’t!” Pansy’s panicked shout echoed around the observatory. She alone hadn’t joined me at Idris’ side, hindered by the flesh I’d burnt away. Sage could fix that, back at Nairsgarth. She’d mix up one of her potions and she’d fix Pansy and Idris. I had to believe that. I did .
Maelgwyn tipped his head to the side like a curious dog, but said nothing as he weighed my offer.
“You still need me, don’t you? That’s why you lured me here. Well, I’ll stay, but you have to let my friends and family go. You can’t harm them anymore. ”
The bribe passed through numb lips. My body, the room, the world seemed to drift further away with every word I drudged up from the darkening pit inside me. Whatever lit me guttered and dimmed and died.
There was only one reason Maelgwyn would have gone to the trouble of reeling me in like this; the throne still answered to me, even after my mortal death. He needed me. He could not rule without me. I was invaluable to him. My friends weren’t. This was the only way, and if it killed me… so be it.
With a low groan, Idris stirred again. Panic tightened around my throat as he half rolled onto his side, horribly slowly, revealing the crimson blood that had pooled beneath him. A chill ran down my spine at the sight. How did he have any left inside?
“Don’t,” he croaked. “Please…”
I dropped my lips to his hand, laying a fervent kiss against it. My brow knotted with all the love I would be unable to give him after tonight. It gathered in my eyes, leaking from beneath my lashes. It bled from every cut and slice peppering my body. “I’m not going to watch you die, Idris.”
We’d known this was a trap. We’d known the risk, but with Bryn on our side, I had never imagined that things would end like this. Would never have risked all these lives. I should have left them behind. I should have come alone and struck this deal without the collateral damage.
I lifted my eyes to Maelgwyn. “Do you accept?”
The sorcerer held my stare. “You know what I require from you? ”
I dipped my head. Marriage. The contract that would, through my claim, give him the power to rule unchecked. I’d chosen death, once, but this time I chose life. Idris’ life. “I do.”
“Then come to me.” Maelgwyn extended a gnarled, claw-like hand.
Fear bloomed in my chest, spreading like the bloody pool around Idris, growing inch by inch. Time was almost up. “Prove it. Bring my parents. Let us open a portal. Let them leave.”
“The portal will not open until the deal is struck,” Maelgwyn snapped, but he nodded at a shade, which faded into nothing, its eyes disappearing. It returned mere seconds later, with two figures kneeling in the pool of shadow surrounding it. My heart flipped. Mum and Dad.
Tendrils of shadow coiled around them like restraints, but Mum looked up, her stricken face blanching as she beheld the scene before her, as her eyes found mine. “Aliza!”
I couldn’t summon a smile. “It’s going to be okay, Mum.”
“Collect the traitor.” Maelgwyn directed his order at Sage.
Anwir’s snarl was nothing short of vicious, but he made no attempt to leave his brother’s side as the little witch straightened her spine and picked her way through the debris, to where Bryn hunched on the far side of the observatory. Shades shifted as she passed, as though they hated the idea of letting her go free. As though they longed to override the command of their masters and devour her. She ignored them, as mighty as a queen as she sheathed her sword, bending low over Bryn’s quivering, twitching form. A moment later, Bryn struggled to his feet with Sage’s help. The fae towered over her, had to weigh three times what she did, but she braced her legs and held as steady as a rock as he slumped against her .
Pansy, halfway between me and Sage, bared her teeth as she finally forced herself to her feet. Her mutilated leg wobbled, but she limped and hopped to Sage, whimpering with every agonised step. Watching her go, knowing there would be no goodbye, had the crumbling edges of my heart falling away in a rain of dust. When her wide, stricken eyes found mine, held them, her farewell was plain to see.
The shade holding my parents drifted to the witches with Mum and Dad in tow. Pansy bristled as it grew closer, fighting for balance, but the shade made no move to attack, instead retracting its shadows from my parents. They stared at me across the carnage I’d created. I couldn’t hold their gaze, couldn’t face the stark truth that this would be the last time I’d ever see them. They would be safe, I reminded myself. This short spell of freedom Idris had given me had allowed me to go home, however briefly. That was my goodbye. Let them remember those moments, instead of this.
I turned my watery gaze on Anwir, and every crumbling, breaking place inside me hardened into glacial ice. I’d thought his lies to me, his attempts to use me, had been the worst of it, but now I saw the stagnant depths of his rotten soul.
My diatribe of reprimands turned to acid on my tongue, and instead, I snarled through clenched teeth, “You will carry him through the portal. You will do whatever it takes to save him, do you understand?”
Anwir’s skin was waxen, but there was sincerity in his eyes as he nodded. Another act?
“Aliza…” My name left Idris on the faintest of breaths. I squeezed his hand but kept my glare fixed on his brother .
“The witches have a potion to replenish blood. Make sure he gets it immediately.” My voice wobbled and gave out. Would I ever know the outcome? Would I spend the rest of my immortal life wondering if Idris had lived or died?
“Of course I will. I swear it.”
Anwir’s promises meant nothing, and I had wasted enough precious time on him. I lowered my head to Idris’ face, kissing his blood-flecked cheek. Emotion choked me as the scent of crisp, bright skies mingled with a metallic tang. A storm that promised to rain blood. I screwed my eyes shut, fighting against the lump in my throat. I only had seconds. Now was not the time to choke up.
When I had regained enough composure to draw a breath, I whispered, so Maelgwyn couldn’t hear, “I know what you are.”
Idris’ eyelids fluttered, and the weakness, the pain radiating from him, strangled my heart. He deserved better. He deserved something different. I continued, “This bond… It was here before I ever laid eyes on you. It brought me to Neath, it guided me to the tower. To you. It was your tomb I chose. Your lips I kissed. I’ve been drawn to you from the beginning without ever knowing why. Well, I finally figured it out. This bond doesn’t exist because you saved my life, it’s been here all along. I know you’re my mate, and that means everything .”
He shifted again, weaker than before, but I slid my fingers into his hair, brushing it back from his face. “Live for me, Idris. Come set me free.”
I kissed him again, for what couldn’t possibly be the last time, and when I forced myself to withdraw, to break the contact of my lips on his skin, I drudged up the strength to release his hand, to rise on shaking legs, to walk away. I managed all of five steps before a sob had my body buckling, and I stopped, pressing a hand to my sternum.
Behind me, glass cracked and shivered, and Idris let out a long, agonised groan. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t bring myself to look, the image of Anwir lifting Idris’ bleeding, broken body into his arms played out in my mind, as clearly as though it unfolded right in front of me.
Heavy, unsteady footsteps crossed the room, toward Sage, away from me. My tears spilt like blood, and there was no spell or potion or ancient magic that could heal my wounds. Idris, though… Idris had to live.
I opened my eyes. Of my companions, only Jacques remained by my side.
“I will not leave you, mon amie,” he said softly. “Do not ask it of me.”
He’d been my protector since my very first night in Neath. My loyal, slightly terrifying guard dog. The unlikeliest of friends. “Thank you for everything, Jacques.”
“Do not do that, Aliza, I told you, I will not—”
“Please, Jacques.” I grasped his cold hands, keeping my voice low. “There’s something I need you to do for me. Go to Nairsgarth. Make sure Anwir doesn’t…” I couldn’t bring myself to admit that the prince, however awful, was a kin-killer. Couldn’t voice my fears that he might finish what Maelgwyn had started, in case they came true. “Make sure Idris survives. Please. Who else can I trust?”
Not Sage, and Pansy was no match for a fae. If it came to it, if somebody had to fight for my mate, there was nobody else I could trust to take up arms on my behalf .
Jacques’ whisper was a chill, winter breeze, hissing over my skin. “He will kill you, Aliza.”
“He won’t.” The thought was reassuring and terrifying in equal measure. “He needs me alive. Go with them, and do whatever you need to do to make sure Idris doesn’t…”
Fear and grief strangled my words, rendering me mute.
“Oh, ma cherie.” The vampire’s gaze was stricken as he touched his pale fingers to my cheek. “I will see it done.” He kissed my forehead, his lip ring almost warm compared to his flesh. “Remember what I told you. You are not a breakable human anymore. Be brave and clever and stay alive . This is not goodbye.”
Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t, but as he dropped my hands and slunk away, as a dark void swirled to life behind Sage, as my eyes found Idris, unconscious and bloodless, his head and limbs lolling, it carried all the finality of forever.
My blood roared in my ears, my breath seared my lungs as, one by one, the people I counted as my own disappeared into that all-consuming darkness. Mum put up a fight, but her screams were lost in the storm eating me alive inside.
When Anwir carried Idris through, taking him far away, beyond my reach and knowledge, my knees gave out. If they hit the floor, I didn’t feel it. I was falling, endlessly, with nothing and nobody to catch me.
When I found the strength to lift my head, they were gone.
All of them.
Gone.
And the portal had closed.
No more roaring, only silence .
My eyes dropped to my hands, gripping the glass-strewn floor as though it could save me. Familiar, dark splatters stained my skin. Whose blood was it? My fingers flexed, grinding through the shards. If it cut me, my numb brain didn’t register the pain. Hands became trembling fists, and still… they were gone.
Dry, papery fingers touched my chin, tilting my head back. Maelgwyn gazed down at me. There was no pity on his sagging, ancient face, only mild interest. His eyes told a different story. They simmered and sparked with victory.
He’d won.
I, the so-called queen, the promised one, knelt at his feet.
It was over. There would be no more prophecy. No more bonds. No more hope. And I would do it all again if I had to. For Mum and Dad. For Idris.
For love.
The shades gathered at Maelgwyn’s back, and though their eyes were blank and staring, I could almost feel their hungry stares raking over me. The sorcerer-king smiled.
“Come, my dear. There is much to be done.”