Chapter 23 Declan #2
I turned to see him on the altar, his hair askew, blood dripping down his forehead, glasses gone. His arm was wrapped around Wendy’s neck. Her bonds were gone, but she was still trapped.
“You belong to me now,” he cried, leveling a shaking finger at the massive writhing fire.
“Do you hear me? Mine. I’ll kill her and finish this ceremony.
Then you’ll see. You’ll give me what should have been mine all along.
These filthy cunts never deserved what you gave them.
Poor?” He sneered. “What do the poor have to give the world?” He shook Wendy for emphasis, and the girl whimpered under his grip. “My family is deserving. Not theirs.”
He yanked back on Wendy’s throat, choking her.
Veronica screamed and shook the cage. Her cry was nothing like Sucellus’s.
The god did more than scream, did more than shout.
The sound he made gave me a miniscule idea of what the creation of the universe might have sounded like.
The concrete crumbled and crashed beside the exit door.
The bolts on our metal cage doors snapped and fell away.
And with a billowing wind like a tornado born of Hell itself, he fell upon the altar.
The last thing I heard from Virgil as the god’s cry faded were three simple words, screamed with petulant rage.
“It’s not fair!”
Sucellus swept over him, dragging the man away from Wendy.
The girl fell to her knees, holding her throat and coughing, but she wasn’t hurt.
Virgil was borne into the air, the flames consuming him, muffling his cries.
This time, I watched without hesitation as his flesh melted away, and even when he’d become nothing but bones, some awful eldritch magic from Sucellus kept the man alive and his bony jaws opened and closed, soundlessly screaming in agony.
With one last crack like thunder, the living bones shattered into what must have been trillions of pieces, exploding into nothingness. Along with Virgil, Sucellus vanished, disappearing in a bright flash of light.
“Holy… fucking… shit,” Veronica said as she stumbled out of her cage.
“Yeah. Same,” I said, and followed her out.
Wendy rushed forward and leapt into Veronica’s arms. She sobbed into Veronica’s shoulder as she clung to her.
After a while, the girl climbed down. Veronica grabbed my shirt and yanked me toward her, pressing her lips to mine.
She kissed me hard, in a hungry way that told me she’d been pretty sure we wouldn’t survive.
She was apparently even more relieved than I was, and that was saying something.
Finally, she pulled away and looked at me in bewilderment. “How did you know that was going to happen?”
“What?” I said, my lips still tingling from her kiss.
She threw an arm out, gesturing to the disaster around us. “This. How did you know Sucellus was going to kill them and not us?”
I chuckled ruefully and shook my head. “If I said I was positive, I’d be lying.
That’s why I brought those coins. Those, and the prayer, were my attempt to keep us alive if he did try to kill us.
Though, with us in those cages, Virgil would have had his men kill us if the god didn’t.
It was nothing but a last-ditch emergency plan. ”
“But…” She shook her head, still confused. “Why did—”
“That,” I said, pointing to the paintings on the wall.
She and Wendy both turned to look at the half ruined mural. Most of the wall had cracked and paint had flaked away. The scene I pointed to was Sucellus rising above the Colosseum.
“I don’t get it,” Veronica said, turning to look at me again.
“I remembered what you said about that stupid book of yours. About how Sucellus had been co-opted by the Romans and made to be a part of their extended pantheon. He was a Celtic and Gaul deity first, though.”
Wendy stared up at me, and gasped, slapping her hands to her mouth. “Oh, holy cow.”
“Holy cow, what?” Veronica said, her tone exasperated.
“He means Mr. Smartypants-I-Know-More-Than-Everyone Virgil screwed up big time,” Wendy said.
“The Celtic calendar and the Roman calendar don’t line up,” I said.
“For Rome, at least later Rome, the new year started on January first. But for Celts, Samhain is the new year. Virgil was two months late with his ceremony. That was one of the main things that would make it work. Without the magic of the new year, Virgil’s ceremony would never bind Sucellus. ”
“Wow,” Veronica said. “I guess that book did have some important stuff in it after all.”
“Can we get out of here?” Wendy asked. “This place creeps me out.”
“Absolutely,” Veronica said.
“I don’t ever want to think about this again,” the young girl said.
I smiled sadly and patted her shoulder. “You’ll need to see Sucellus at least one more time.”
“Why?” Veronica and Wendy said in unison as we walked to the door.
“Because I managed to get more information from that dipshit priest who worked for Sucellus.” I gave Wendy a sad smile. “He is your family’s patron god. In exchange, you get brilliant minds, success, sometimes money and fame, but at a cost.”
“What cost?” Wendy said, eyeing me suspiciously.
“The blessing is fed by your life stream. I bet everyone in your family has died young, haven’t they? Grandparents? Balthazar? Uh…your parents?”
Heartbreaking realization washed over her face, and Veronica put her arm around the girl’s shoulders.
“That god guy got them killed?” Wendy said.
“Not really,” I said. “It sounds like when they come of age, Sucellus gives them a choice. Follow or don’t.
Once they choose to follow, they make the offerings and sacrifices.
I guess…they thought it was worth it. I have no idea if he told them the truth or what they were sacrificing, though.
They may never have known,” I said with a shrug. “I’m so sorry.”
She nodded, and tried to stay stoic, but I could see her lower lip tremble.
“But my mom wasn’t even a Freedman by blood,” she said, and my heart nearly shattered at how broken she sounded.
“She was… Well, she was collateral damage, I suppose.” It sounded trite, but there was nothing else to be said about it. Tragic and awful, but sometimes that was simply how life was.
“We need to break your bond to him,” I explained. “You’ll be free of the blessing as well as the curse.”
“Am I gonna be dumb when that happens?” Wendy asked.
I barked a laugh. “No. It shouldn’t be retroactive. You’ll be you, you just won’t get any extra help from here on out.”
“I’m cool with that,” she said.
“What happened to that priest, anyway?” Veronica asked.
“He’ll probably have a very bad time when Sucellus finds him. I’ll leave that to the vengeful god. Hey, you don’t happen to still have that chess piece totem, do you?”
Veronica frowned. “Uh, no, I think it’s actually still at the house. I got kidnapped, remember? If I’d had it, I would have used it.”
“Damn,” I muttered as we made our way into the concrete corridor. “I’m really tired. Don’t feel like driving. It would have been nice if we could just teleport back to The Shadow Streets.”
Veronica burst out laughing, the sound of it joyous and melodic as it echoed down the stone hallways.