11. Chapter 11 #4
He owed his people that. He only wished he could pass Levi to Grillo and Yentriss and keep him from having to be part of this too, but Levi was who Braxton was after.
“Hurry!” Ashmedai grabbed Levi, leaping through nearby shadows to ones at the edge of the wood, putting them farther ahead of Braxton, but still ensuring he saw them and would follow.
Follow he did, so Ashmedai started running again, keeping Levi close.
Braxton only had eyes for them, uncaring of the townsfolk, and barreled after them like a force of nature.
“He’s too fast,” Ashmedai lamented, “but if I shadow jump too many times, he might realize what we’re planning.”
“Then we’ll have to give him extra targets,” Levi said, his tears long dried, with a determination settling on his face that belied all fear before it, “because I am not letting him touch you either.”
With a brief squeeze of his eyes shut and a spread of his arms outward, suddenly there were a dozen more of Levi and Ashmedai all branching away and falling behind them to dart off into the trees.
Ashmedai stared in awe—only to spot a swarm of jackalopes headed toward them. He grabbed Levi by the shoulders and held him back so the jackalopes could dart past, thankful they were clearly more interested in escaping Braxton than ramming into passersby with their antlers.
Behind them, Braxton was distracted enough by the copies that he was swatting at any of them he could reach and punching through trees. Upon impact, the copies would disappear, and Braxton would howl and swipe at another. It wouldn’t be long before he spotted the real thing.
Renewing their run, Ashmedai urged Levi on beside him, sparing only an occasional glance back to track Braxton’s progress. The copies were many, but Braxton was no fool. He realized his prize had remained on the road, and he and Ashmedai locked eyes.
A rustle in the trees above made Ashmedai look skyward before he could look forward again.
Glider monkeys were also fleeing. With another glance back, Ashmedai even saw a family of gazellians running across the path, and they never ventured this close to town.
But then, even on the hunt, no one ever made as much noise as Braxton was now .
Braxton swung outward with two of his formidable gangling limbs, and the gazellians flew like rag dolls into trees before scampering back up and limping in a frenzy to get away.
“There!” Levi called, just as Ashmedai and Braxton locked eyes once more, and Braxton hurtled himself forward that much faster.
Ashmedai looked forward to gauge the distance to the barrier, waited until just the right moment, and then grabbed Levi about the waist and spun them, setting Levi directly behind him as he came to a stop.
“Enough!” Ashmedai held both hands outward with a surge of shadows like he’d used to destroy the Onyx. He stared Braxton down, daring him to continue coming. “Do you hate me so much for what I did that this is how you’re punishing me?”
Braxton’s anger flared visibly in his expression, but he brought himself to a stop, his spider limbs planting into the dirt to hold him up as tall as possible.
“What you did? You fool. You didn’t curse this land.
Don’t you understand that yet? Don’t you remember where I was when it happened?
I altered the spell Cullen tried to cast, not you. ”
“What?”
The townspeople had followed despite Ashmedai’s warning. They came running down the road after Braxton, wielding magic and weapons, like an army come to Ashmedai and Levi’s aid, but at those words they stopped and stared, just as Ashmedai was.
“My research into the gemstones back then was far from complete,” Braxton went on, “but I was able to manipulate what Cullen tried to do, so that instead of keeping a monster out after he discovered you were a demon….”
Ashmedai would have flinched at his secret being revealed for all to hear, but he couldn’t focus on the stunned faces of his people enough to care. “The Amethyst turned everyone into monsters and kept them in,” he finished breathlessly.
“Exactly. I was trying to protect you, to keep you here instead of letting Cullen banish you like some beast. Sacrificing him to complete the spell was a bonus.”
All this time, Ashmedai had been so certain it was his fault, certain Cullen being taken by the void was because he couldn’t control himself in his grief over being rejected. “But why? Why all this? Why murder and lie and try to take over Levi’s body?”
“Because he’s in love with you,” Levi said softly from behind him.
“What…?” Ashmedai sputtered again.
“Even now it is a surprise to you,” Braxton huffed, stomping with his stolen feet.
“I have always been the one who loved you. Me . But you never saw it. You only saw Cullen, which was why I knew you would see him.” He sneered over Ashmedai’s shoulder at Levi.
“I needed to manipulate enough parts to look like Cullen but still like me so you would forget whatever parts of me weren’t enough.
Then I simply needed to make Levi fall in love with you. ”
Now it was Levi who sputtered, “Make me? What do you mean?”
“Your draught wasn’t only to keep your memories at bay, silly boy.
It made you susceptible to suggestion. I knew you’d catch Ash’s attention—I’d made you for that purpose—but I had to be sure he would catch yours.
The first time you ever took that draught was when I told you about him.
Afterward, you just needed to see him. To know him.
I even knew he would be compelled to smooth your stitches.
You were bound to love him after that, as I do. ”
Love. All the pain and suffering these many years hadn’t been suffered by Ashmedai alone, but the cause was the same.
With them at a standstill, Ashmedai couldn’t help feeling sorry for his friend, and he owed him the truth.
“I do love you, Brax.”
A smile slipped into Braxton’s cold expression.
“But not the way you want, and this isn’t the way to change that.”
Braxton stomped again with several of his feet, his smile crumbling, as he readied to charge. “That is my body.”
“No, it isn’t.” Ashmedai kept Levi behind him.
“You would take this from me? You would reject me as you were rejected? His love for you isn’t even real! Mine is. My whole life was dedicated to becoming what you wanted.”
“I never asked that of you. Brax, please—”
“No.” Braxton shook his head. “I have waited too long. I am through being patient! I will find another way. I will show you.”
“Brax, don’t!”
He lunged, but Ashmedai was ready for it, waiting for a shadow to appear, cast by Braxton’s towering height, and then he dove with Levi out of harm’s way.
Braxton surged forward from the momentum, not stopping until he crossed the barrier, and as Ashmedai and Levi reappeared just inside the line of trees, where one of the taller trunks cast another shadow, they could only watch with bated breath to see what would happen next.
To Ashmedai’s honest relief, Braxton didn’t disintegrate. Whatever finishing the spell last night had accomplished, destroying the Onyx hadn’t undone its effects. Braxton’s added limbs faded and he fell, landing with a gasp on sturdy legs that held his weight for the first time in centuries.
He shifted on his feet in shocked silence. As he stared at himself with those first few tentative steps, he almost looked close to tears.
“There you are, old friend,” Ashmedai said, stepping onto the road with Levi beside him. “Please, still be my friend. You have done terrible things, but this doesn’t have to end with more loss. You cursed these lands, but you also freed them. Be free with us.”
Ashmedai took another step forward and outstretched his hand. All that stood between him and Braxton was the barrier, a nearly invisible wall separating man from monster.
Braxton turned to face him. He didn’t look all that different, other than not needing his chair, for he had always maintained most of his human appearance. The tears in his eyes didn’t fall, however, but held steady.
“A thousand years ago, that might have been enough. But I have waited too long.” He walked determinedly through the barrier, and the fierceness on his face made Ashmedai stutter backward, dropping his hand, for he knew it would not be taken.
As Braxton crossed over, his spider limbs regrew in the same breath that his real legs failed him, and he was raised back up to that menacing height.
“Brax, you can’t force me to love you,” Ashmedai tried once more. “Who knows better than I that you can’t force anyone to love you? But you can choose how you react when they don’t.”
Braxton winced at being told once more that Ashmedai would never love him the way he wanted.
“No. Nothing matters without you. You’re mine.
You were supposed to be mine! Not his.” His eyes fell to Levi, who had stepped parallel with Ashmedai.
Whatever love Braxton once had for his creation, there was no sign of it now.
He lunged for Levi like before, and Ashmedai knew in the scant seconds he had to act that he had been left with only one choice.
Moving with matching swiftness, he stepped between lover and friend and met Braxton in a clash that was far from equal, for Ashmedai became a deadly, shadowlike wave that flooded over Braxton to consume him.
Nothing would be left behind, because Ashmedai couldn’t bear seeing remains when he had already buried Braxton once.
One moment Ashmedai was shadows in ravenous motion, and the next he stood where Braxton had been. The usual satiation and instant desire for more flooded through Ashmedai, but as much as he hated this part of himself, he knew he could control it.