13. When the Blood Falls
Chapter 13
When the Blood Falls
“ L erna, I don’t know what to say,” I admitted after she had just dropped another bombshell. One that started to make sense because it didn’t take a genius to know that Garmr would have used her as leverage against me, as a way to get me to do whatever he wanted. The thought sickened me.
“There isn’t much to say, I went in search of you and found his assassin there waiting to kidnap me.”
I tensed at this, hating the idea of what I selfishly put her through all that time ago.
“So, he used you against me?” I guessed, making her nod silently.
“But what about our father? Surely when he found out, he did something to help us?”
Shaking her head a little she reminded me,
“We are known as the forsaken daughters for a reason.”
“So, he did nothing?!” I cried in outrage, knowing my own father would have risked his life to save me any day of the week.
“There is still so much you don’t understand,” she said dejectedly.
“Yeah, a lifetime of fuck ups and misery from the sounds of it,” I commented angrily. She flinched at this and instantly I felt like shit for saying it.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that,” I told her quickly, reaching for her hand before giving her slim, pale fingers a squeeze.
“I wish I could correct you but unfortunately, I cannot. A bird may be able to stretch its wings in a gilded cage, but it will never be free enough to fly.”
“You don’t blame me?” I asked, making her shake her head.
“For finding a way to fly? No, I do not.”
Despite appreciating her selflessness, I released a heavy sigh.
“Well, I didn’t exactly get the chance to fly very far, did I?” I commented bitterly, making her eyes widen before she came to face me. Then she took me by the shoulders and told me,
“But don’t you see? You did. You flew higher than you ever even dreamed possible. For you lived a mortal life, one not tainted by the memory of what we endured… well, not until now,” she added, looking around us because clearly, we were both back in that gilded cage.
Which meant it was time to choose once again…
To fight for our right to fly.
Which is why I told her, “We have to leave.”
Her panicked face said it all. But it was clear now, after everything I had heard, that Garmr would stop at nothing to get me back and use me in some way to start this ‘end of the world’ war. If I was also honest, my brain hurt by all I had learned in such a small amount of time. So many names and twisted love affairs, it was like some ancient mythological soap opera.
“But if we leave here, then we will be left exposed, just like last time,” she replied. I could see that this was her biggest fear and understandably so, but we needed to get out… and I needed to get to Jared.
“I will try and create a portal out of here.”
At this she stood up quickly and told me, “You can’t!”
“Why not?”
“Because he will sense it and try to pull us through to where he wants us. No, we can’t risk it, just as we can’t risk him finding a way inside of this place. Not when he needs you to use your powers, as they are linked to him.”
I frowned at this before asking,
“But how, I don’t understand?”
“Look, I can’t explain it right now, but you have to trust me.”
It was in this moment that the pieces weren’t exactly lining up.
“Wait, how did I even end up here…? Why did the portal bring me here, Lerna?” I asked when she quickly looked away. I then watched her shoulders slump before she admitted,
“I was the one who brought you here.” I gasped at that, because I had thought that I had somehow unknowingly done this.
“But how?” I asked, unable to prevent my suspicious tone.
“Your blood,” she said, and instantly it transported me right back to that moment, something that now felt like another person’s lifetime ago.
We had been in the kitchen, Jared and I, when I had cut myself. I had cut myself the second a lifechanging thought had washed over me. But by that time, it was too late. Because I knew the only way to save him was to leave, and that meant jumping into the portal my spilled blood had created.
But I had totally forgotten until now why I had cut myself in the first place.
The realization I’d had that I knew was true with every fiber of my being…
I was pregnant.
The second the thought hit me I nearly gave myself away by putting my hands to my belly, as if I was able to cradle the life that I knew was growing inside me.
The life Jared had put there.
His baby.
“Gods,” I whispered, unable to stop myself.
“What? What is it, Anástasi?”
I looked up at her when hearing this, feeling sick to my stomach at the mention of that name. Because as much as I had appreciated all she had told me, all she had shown me, I knew that wasn’t me anymore. Anástasi wasn’t the girl who was in love with Jared; she only loved part of him. Anástasi wasn’t the girl who had said yes to him on that rooftop and wanted more than anything in the world to be his wife.
She wasn’t the one carrying his baby.
I was and my name was Ella.
Which is why I told her,
“Please, Lerna… I know this might be hard and I am sorry but I am no longer that girl you knew. I am Ella, not Anástasi.” At this a pained expression crept over her features before she forced herself to mask it, telling me,
“Of course, forgive me. It’s just that I have never known you any other way.”
I placed a hand on her shoulder and told her,
“I get it, I do. But it’s like you said, I had a chance to spread my wings and fly and well, this is who I am now because of it.”
“I understand… Ella,” she said using my name, despite how difficult it was for her, which made me appreciate it all the more.
“Thank you. Now, about this portal, I need to get back to, Jared,” I told her, making her shake her head at the same time she said,
“Even if that was a good idea, you cannot create a portal out of here.”
“Then how did I get here?” I asked, circling back to this question.
“I received word from a friend that Garmr had found a way to get to you, that he had a spell created, one that would activate the moment a single drop of your blood was spilled.”
“My blood?” she nodded at the question.
“It would alert him to where you were. He had his own portal linked to your destination so you could be taken. The spell would open up a portal, allowing an army of his Hellhounds to come for you,” she said, prompting me to ask,
“And you?”
“I also had my own portal cast, linking it in the same way so as it would give you an escape and a way to get away to safety.”
Well, I couldn’t say I was mad about that part. Because I didn’t know how long these new powers of mine would have worked, and I was kind of relying on guess work with no clue on how to be a Summoner.
I just knew at the time that Jared wouldn’t have survived fighting an entire army by himself, and one that wouldn’t have stopped coming. Which was why I could only feel grateful for what Lerna had done. But the biggest question now was…
How was I ever to get home?
Because here I was, stuck somewhere Garmr couldn’t ever get to me, but that also meant Jared couldn’t find me either. I was caught between keeping war from breaking out, and keeping all those I cared for safe and never seeing any of them ever again. Were those really the only two choices I had? And if I really was pregnant like I truly believed I was, what about my baby?
“Can Garmr really not reach us here?” At this she shook her head, telling me no.
“No one but Hades knows that this place exists,” she added, making me understand that I had no choice, because I really would be putting all those I loved at risk if I left here. Which was when I realized that played right, this might actually give us a chance at beating him. A way to have it all.
“I know that look, what are you thinking?” she asked, bringing my focus back to her and not the endless water I had been staring at.
“Well, if I was to stay here, then it would save everyone, because Garmr would never become powerful enough to bring about this Ragnarok… right?” I asked, provoking a compassionate look from her before she told me,
“You would be giving your life for all you love, but yes, if you were to remain here, then it is likely he would never find you, preventing him from ever achieving his goal.”
At this I finally decided it was time to be honest, because I knew I would have to tell her now that I had another life to think about. So, I placed my hand at my belly and asked,
“And what about bringing a new life into this world? Would a baby survive here?” I asked, making her eyes grow wide as she gasped into her hands the second they covered her lips. She looked down at my belly and asked,
“You are with child?”
Hearing it said aloud brought tears to my eyes because I really wished that Jared had been the first person I shared this news with. However, I knew I couldn’t take the risk, not if I was to sacrifice my life for everyone else’s by staying here.
Just the thought of it brought a deep and agonizing pain to my chest, as though my heart were being ripped in two. The idea of never seeing him again and knowing what he would miss out on ever seeing our child enter this world was even harder to bare. But I couldn’t take the risk if it meant the end of the world, knowing his life would be included in that destruction and death. I also couldn’t live with myself knowing that my own selfishness had been the cause.
But it wasn’t just my life I had to consider.
So, I nodded, telling her,
“Yes, I think so.”
She suddenly pulled me into her arms and embraced me as the first of my tears started to fall. The feel of her there in my arms filled me with a moment of longing as well as the comfort I felt in my heart. One burning from a lost memory. It felt as foreign as it did familiar. But right now, I chose to focus on the latter, because I needed it like I needed my next breath.
“Oh Ella,” she whispered, her breath stirring my drying curls. But it was the way she said it that made me pull back, because it wasn’t surprise or comfort, but instead… it was pain.
An emotion that was written all over her face, making me ask,
“Tell me.”
“I’m so sorry, but I am not sure a baby would survive here, as you are still mortal and only here now thanks to claiming the Summoner’s book. I don’t know if the baby would be human, HellBeast, or something else that stems from our own family tree… I just don’t know.”
I gasped, again cradling my stomach as if I had already grown so attached that I would die to save the life I felt was growing inside me.
“Then I have to get word to Jared,” I told her, my tone absolute.
“To tell him what?”
“To tell him that he needs to find Garmr, he needs to stop him and kill him once and for all, or I have no way of ever getting home. Because I am not sure if it came to it, I would risk my child’s life by staying here, not even if it meant…” I couldn’t finish that sentence as I turned away from her, wiping angrily at my tears.
“I might know a way,” she told me, and my hope quickly built as I whipped my head back around to face her.
“How?” I asked, my voice back to being hopeful.
“I managed to reach out to Jared once before,” she admitted, taking me back to when he had freaked out at seeing her when we were outside the cabin.
“The lake… I remember, but how?” I pressed.
“It wasn’t without its risks, but I needed a way to warn him. I needed him to listen, to let him know to take care of you. I wanted to tell him so much more, but I faced my own dangers when doing so.”
“Your own dangers?” I prompted, because I didn’t like the sound of that.
“The Gates of the Underworld, they are directly linked to him and always will be. I managed to get a message to him that way.”
“And the risk is leaving here?” I guessed, making her nod before adding,
“That and something else.”
“What?” I asked, knowing from the look on her face that it wasn’t good. A proven fact when she told me…
“A new guardian stands in his place.”