Chapter 22 His Name
I ’m flung back into brightness, warmth.
The surroundings of the Council’s court filter back into place. Bodies scatter the room, two clad in silver robes and the others are all slumped in their wooden chairs.
I rush towards Javier, gripping his shoulders and violently shaking as I shout, “Wake up! Wake up, Javier!”
He does, instantly, his markings alight and his body tense until he sees me.
“Jas... What happened?” His gaze travels the room and, when he notes the unconscious bodies, he looks at me with utter fear. “Did you do this?”
“Yes, I think? I’m not sure?” I ramble, gripping him once more to gain his attention. “We need to leave, now.” He nods, though still in a daze of confusion, and allows me to pull him from the chair.
“This really isn’t good Jas,” he murmurs, peering over at the lumps of silver fabric. "Fucking hell."
“No time. We need to go, now!” My voice sinks back into its darkness and causes his eyes to lock with mine. “Get Amelia, we don’t have time to talk about this.”
I can sense Javier’s deep concern but also a small flicker of hope, hope that maybe we still had a chance to escape, to save Amelia and ourselves from whatever hell we were about to enter. One quick shake of his head and then he’s scooping an unconscious Amelia into his arms.
I cast a wary glance at the support witch.
“She’ll be fine, she’s passed their questioning,” Javier confirms my thoughts, nudging his head in the direction of the wide, open doors. “Let’s go, who knows how long you’ve given us.”
We’re quick to leave the room but as we enter the long corridor, our steps are cautious. The silence is utterly unnerving and I can feel nothing but Javier’s determination tinged with fear. When we reach the end, and step into a large, open room, there’s two more bodies slumped to the ground, both dressed in similar uniforms as the receptionist I saw when we first entered.
I stare down at the inky creature marring my skin, how far does its power reach ?
“Jas!” Javier’s voice pulls me back as he opens another door and I quickly follow.
When we reach the entrance room, the towering, glass doors are no longer rotating and we have to forcibly push them open. When we're outside, the sight of a crumpled crowd surrounding the tall, golden gates greets us.
“What the fuck did you do, Jas?” Javier asks, his voice filled with shock and concern.
“There’s no time,” I mutter, pushing past him and moving towards the gates. “We need to get up there; do you think you can flit that far?”
I point to the very peak of a hill in the distance, the one I remembered being stood upon when I surveyed the district. If we can get to the cave, we can get through the barrier, we can get home .
Without responding, I feel his hand grip my shoulder and instantly, my power bursts. It repels his touch, pushing him away and causing him to almost drop Amelia.
“That’s a ‘no’ then,” he grunts, flexing the fingers like they’d been burnt.
“Shit, I’m sorry, I don’t know what that was…” I stare at my own hand, now encased in an inky black with seems to be spreading.
“I can’t flit us if I can’t touch you,” he says, placing both arms back beneath Amelia.
I always worked well under pressure. At the club, I was always strategic and pragmatic when it came to sudden changes, I always had an alternative.
Thoughts fill my mind, scaling the gates being, albeit, a stretch, until then there’s a tremor beneath my feet.
My eyes slowly rise to meet Javier’s and he sees my fear there. The realisation that our time has run out.
We turn towards the main entrance, seeing the glass doors now slowly rotating and, through them, we see two distinct figures which make my skin burn.
Without thinking, I clutch Javier’s arm and envision the cave.
Black dots bleed into my vision, my head throbs and I fall to my knees. I force myself to inhale sharp, painful breaths which sting with every swallow, like I’m inhaling thorns. Coughing soon follows as I clutch my ribs in attemp t to soothe the b urning in my lungs.
“You did it, Jas, you fucking did it!” Javier is jubilantly celebrating above me, unaware of the agony wracking my body as I continue choking on the very air. “We’re at the barrier, come on! ”
A new agony courses through my veins in remembrance, igniting the raw wounds that had barely healed from my last encounter with the barrier but the creature sliding beneath my skin is alive once more, reforming, coiling and somehow feeding on some of the pain.
Thuds and distant steps filter through the cave and the fear around me spikes.
“You need to get up, now!” Javier shouts. I grab onto his desperation, use it to ease myself up against the stony wall, watching as my creature slithers to life, seamlessly erupting from my skin and dangling upon my forearm.
When I’m fully stood, a group of five guards enter the cavernous space with weapons pointing directly at us, more specifically— me. I move to stand in front of Javier.
Guns and elements are all aimed.
“Put your hands in the air and do not resist!” one of the guards shouts, his face obscured by the black visor of his helmet. The rest of his team falls into place around him, blocking the exit from where we had just entered.
I feel the heat pulsing from Javier’s markings as he steps closer so his chest almost touches my back. It causes my own power to pulse in response. It doesn’t harm him this time however, but it surrounds us both in a mist of darkness.
At the same time, the guards' bodies tense and a thick tension engulfs the dark, desolate space. My gaze flickers to the elements forming in their hands, the fingers resting upon triggers. Whilst the snake slides up my arm, readjusting to rest across the back of my neck and shoulders, beady, eye sockets studying the men before us.
From the very shadows, the brothers appear.
Morphing instantly between us and the guards in a barricade of shadowy mist. A thick coolness sweeps along my skin, soothing the ache caused by the barrier, as their eyes seek mine.
“Lord Ezekial,” one of the guards quickly utters to the man with moonlight for eyes. All of the guards then stoop into a bowed position before the brothers.
But the brothers don’t respond, their sights are still fixed on me and I refuse to look away.
The snake slithers along my skin, its scales glittering under the light cast by the small paraffin lanterns hanging from the ceiling. I feel its small head butt against my cheek. The action is comforting, somehow, even as the brothers track it cautiously.
“Put down your weapons,” Lord Ezekial, the Council member who flung me into the darkness, the demon’s brother, commands. The guards do as the Lord says, their hands and guns slowly lowering, all except one.
“But Lord Prospero ordered us to—”
“Are you refusing my order?”
Collective gasps of terror cling to the air in response and, instantly, the guards all distance themselves from the black sheep amongst them. He, Ezekial, still doesn’t turn to look at them. He keeps focused on me.
I try not to linger upon the ease his name causes the small creature latched onto me, its tongue licking my cheek in a quick flick.
“I will trap you inside your mind until you are nothing but a husk, if you do not fuck off this instant.” Ezekial’s silver gaze flares with the threat and the fear within the room amplifies to an unbearable degree, causing my eyes to bleed.
The guard who spoke immediately leaves. The sound of his steps quickening the moment he is out of sight and piercing the otherwise tense silence. The other guards remain trapped in their spots, terrified to make the wrong move, their legs tremble, I see hands begin to shake.
“No one will harm you,” Ezekial suddenly states but he isn’t addressing the guards, no.
He’s directly addressing me .
I stare at him. The glow of his gaze making it difficult to look anywhere else as I try to understand his words. I find them almost laughable, impossible to believe after the scenes I’d just witnessed and caused.
The way Javier’s warmth increases behind me only confirms he’s also struggling to believe him too.
“Jas, we can’t trust them,” Javier murmurs beside my ear. I can feel the concern radiating in thick waves from him, concern mixed with a bitter hatred. A strange combination which makes my serpent hiss.
Javier flinches back at the action. “And what the fuck is that thing?”
“I have no idea,” I whisper quickly in response, ensuring my eyes do not leave the two brothers, the two threats, before us. “But I think it’s helping us, I mean, it got us this far.”
From my peripheral, I see Javier nod and then he takes a small step back, a step closer to the barrier behind us, and I tentatively copy .
“Don’t,” the demon finally speaks, the black void of his gaze staring into mine. “You won’t make it.”
I frown, narrowing my eyes in speculation as I search his controlled expression. Not a single emotion emits from him.
“You barely made it through the first time.” His voice is cold and level, the tone I’m used to. “You won’t survive a second.”
“What’s he talking about, Jas?” Javier’s voice is filled with worry which causes his markings to pulse.
I wince, a sharp pain clawing into my hand and when I look down, I see inky tendrils now completely covering my fingers and crawling up my forearm.
“You need to trust me,” the demon says, the coldness of his tone fracturing slightly when our eyes lock again.
But those words fuel the bitter anger I’d been building, it sparks as I spit back a reply, “Trust you? You expect me to trust you?” I practically snarl, my power locking onto the strong emotion and spiking suddenly.
My spine burns.
The room becomes encased in a thick darkness, all light is smudged out besides the dull glow from Javier’s chest and Ezekial’s gaze.
My teeth are gritted and bared at the constant hum of pain running through me. The darkness spreads, sweeping up my arm and flushing upwards along the side of my neck, the shadowy snake now coiling around my throat and hissing at the brothers furiously.
“After everything you have put me through, after the things you have all done to me and my family, you want me to trust you?” The voice filling this cave is detached from my own, filled with venom and fury which has my body shaking. “I don’t even know your fucking name, demon !”
The final sentence is almost a scream, it echoes around the cave and causes the ground to rumble in response. Pieces of rock chip away from the ceiling and clatter to the ground before silence engulfs us again.
I’m panting from the fury filling my veins now, the icy darkness cloaking one side of my body is helping with the heat of anger somewhat but also draining me.
My body continues to tremble. This power, this darkness, it’s too much. I feel it physically eating away at me as it continues to pulse out with every deep exhale .
“Jas, you’re kinda freaking me out…” Javier’s voice is barely audible now, I’m consumed by the darkness surrounding me. “What does he mean you won’t make it through?”
I scrunch my eyes shut, force myself to feel Javier’s heat, the soft breathing from Amelia’s unconscious body, the painful buzz emitting from the barrier just behind us.
“Nothing, it’s fine.” But the words are brittle and I stumble slightly on my feet, my body sinking back and into Javier. Fortunately, it doesn’t make my power react this time and Javier quickly supports me with his chest.
“She’ll die,” the demon states, speaking directly to Javier whose markings pulse at his words.
“Bullshit,” Javier scoffs, but when he looks down at me, my eyes opening to meet his, I can see the realisation dawning upon his bright features. “Fuck.” He shakes his head as he looks to the barrier behind.
“I need to remove the shadow from you, now.” Ezekial’s voice is a gentle breeze, urging me to listen as my eyes fall back to him. “It’s consuming you.”
The viper hisses in response, tightening its coil around my throat which only increases the pain shooting through my body. My knees tremble and Javier has to quickly adjust Amelia to wrap one arm around me.
With his grip on my waist, he begins to move backwards and, with each step, the fire of the barrier melts my skin.
I release a guttural scream and Javier instantly stops moving.
They’re also closer now, the brothers’ darkness seeping into me and somehow easing some of the unbearable pain.
“Could really do with your help right now, Jas,” Javier quickly whispers, I feel him pull me against him again and I groan. “Like, where’s the crazy, freaky dark power you had a minute ago? That would be super helpful.”
I somehow manage to laugh, then wince. “It’s a bit temperamental, sorry about that.”
He manages a small laugh too but his concern instantly filters back and I realise my options, realise that in this state I can’t do anything, except …
I force the last remnants of power into my consumed arm, the snake following my lead, sliding down and coiling around my hand, between my dark fingers in a tight embrace. I slowly raise it to Javier’s chest.
“If you can’t go through, I won’t leave you.” His intense gaze, like the morning sun, stares at my small movement as though I’m seeking comfort.
But he’s wrong, and the slight lines forming across his forehead, before the widening of his eyes, are the only indication he’s realised my intent just a moment too late.
“Don’t you fucking—”
Tears fall from my scrunched eyes as the dark pulse pushes him through the barrier, his words abruptly cutting off the second he’s fully emerged.
He’s gone, and I collapse to the floor.
“Return.”
Scalding heat rushes through the left side of my body.
With watery eyes, I stare down to check my fingers are still intact when I realise the creature has been fully removed and the darkness cloaking my skin has begun to dissipate. It sinks back into my skin and cools into its original paleness.
The cold ground is softer than I expected.
My gaze flickers in and out of focus as I stare into the darkness I’d created, watching as it disperses. Small pieces of light now piercing through.
When the cool numbness begins to soothe my body, wrapping around me and slowly rocking, I realise I’m in his arms.
I don’t even attempt to fight.
I’m lingering somewhere between life and death, swimming in the spirit world as I hear a whispered conversation filling my blurry mind.
“Kane.” The name echoes in my head. “My name is Kane.”
They’re the last words I hear.