Chapter 7 #2
I gripped the collar of Drake’s burned shirt and lifted him. “Do you see now? Do you see what your betrayal has cost me and the world?”
Logan grabbed my sleeve, stopping my tirade.
I finally looked at Drake. He was not fighting at all, burns marring his neck, the side of his face, and his torso.
He wasn’t healing. I placed him on his feet, my anger subsiding and dread taking its place.
His legs gave out when his feet touched the soil, his back hitting the tree next to him.
He coughed and groaned, holding his chest.
“We have to move,” I said, the ash, smoke, and embers making it nearly impossible to see or breathe.
Memories of Rashearim on fire flooded me.
I knew the true power of an Ig’Morruthen, and the damage they could cause.
They could reduce even the strongest worlds to ash and ruin.
I just never thought I’d see my Dianna succumb to the destructive urges.
My aching heart reached out to her, hoping for an answer, but none came.
I felt hollow and overwhelmed at the same time, unsure if it was me or if I was feeling her.
“I can’t.” Drake coughed, trying and failing to sit up.
“You have to,” I snapped, hauling him back up. “I don’t have time for this.” The alternative was Drake dying, and I did not want that. He was her last hope, the last flicker of life in her, and I needed him alive for her.
He pushed off my arm, catching me by surprise, sliding down the tree until he sat with a thump.
My hands went to my hips, my frustration growing. Logan stepped around me and leaned down to grab Drake, but he swatted him away. “We can rest when we get to Silver City. Now, get up.”
Drake gave me a bloody grin and removed his hand from his bleeding chest. “No, I really can’t.”
I saw it then, and my hope died. A half-broken forsaken blade protruded from the middle of his chest, wedged deep.
Dianna’s last-ditch effort because she knew I would try to save him, so she’d ensured he would die, regardless.
I was on my knees in an instant. One hand splayed on his chest while I tried to dig the piece out.
No, no, no!
“Dianna likes to keep tiny daggers on her.” Drake smiled, blood bubbling with every breath. His hand caught mine. “It’s too late, World Ender. I can feel it. The final death is what we call it. Not as bad as I thought, really.”
“No!” I bellowed, the silver lines running up my arm. If I could concentrate, I could remove it and repair as I went. I just needed to focus.
“I knew you liked me,” Drake said, his smile followed by a wet cough that only lodged the blade deeper. Fuck.
“I cannot lose you. You are my last hope.” My voice cracked as I lowered my head.
“Trust me. I’m not.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, my fingers slick from his blood and ash. Something in me snapped, tears stinging my eyes. “How am I supposed to get her back?”
“You don’t need me for that. I betrayed and lost my truest friend.” He shook his head, the effort causing him pain.
“I can’t lose her.” My voice broke this time.
“You won’t.”
I glanced up at him. “What do you mean?”
“I saw it when she first stepped out of the forest, a flicker in her eyes as if a part of her tried to crawl to the surface for you. I thought Gabby was the last tether, but you are. You are her only link to whatever mortality she has left. So don’t let Kaden win, no matter what she says or does.
Trust me. You are the only thing she cares about now. ”
He tried to sit up and winced in pain. The light from the flames behind us played shadows across his bloody and charred face as he looked at his ruined home. “I should’ve tried harder. You’re right. I wanted to help my family, but she was my family too. It sucks that I realized that too late.”
Drake’s yellow eyes gleamed with tears, one after the other, spilling down his cheeks. I knew he felt some remorse for what he’d done. Logan kneeled beside Drake, his face seeming to soften.
Drake turned back to me. “Dianna is stronger now. Every Otherworld creature felt it when Gabby died. The world shifted, but she is still Dianna . She is still the girl I saved in the desert who cared so much about others that she followed a stranger into a terrible world. She is still the girl who likes flowers and pretty gifts from overbearing god kings. She is sweet, kind, funny, and loves with her entire being. That’s why she is like this.
She’s hurt. She’s in pain. If you love her, truly love her, don’t give up.
True love is worth it. It’s worth fighting for. Remember that.”
I nodded, hearing the rhythmic beat of his heart stop for a moment too long. His amber eyes dimmed slightly. He was no longer the prankster vampire prince but a man who knew his actions were wrong.
He smiled, the tears running down his cheeks sizzling as lines of orange and gold cracked through the skin of his face. Pain twisted his features, the flesh of his arms splitting.
“Just don’t give up on her.” His voice was a broken wound now. “Gabby wouldn’t.”
“I won’t. I swear it.”
Drake struggled to turn his head and look at Logan. “I’m sorry about Neverra, but she is alive.” Something eased in Logan’s expression, and I realized he’d needed to hear it said out loud, even if the mark on his hand remained. “Kaden has her. You just have to find him. Look where the world opens.”
The words left his lips wrapped in a cracked whisper. It was the last thing he said before his body crumbled to ash, his remains joining those of his family and home on the wind.
* * *
“What the fuck happened?” Vincent’s voice was the first we heard amongst the chaos when the doors opened on the top floor of the guild.
Logan and I stepped out, covered from head to toe in soot and blood.
We headed toward the main conference room.
There was something I needed there. Celestials ran around in circles with phones held to their ears.
A red banner flashed across the many screens hung throughout the room, a distorted image of Dianna’s Ig’Morruthen form flying away from the devastation of a burning Zarall plastered on each one.
“Hey, I’m talking to both of you,” Vincent said, falling into step with Logan and me.
“I had to extinguish a forest fire,” I said.
“I don’t see what the problem is,” Logan said, jerking his head toward a screen as we passed. “You would be lying if you said you would protect them over someone you care about.”
“What?” Vincent practically yelled over the chaos of everyone talking at once. “What happened?”
“It’s insane to be upset with her. I’d do the same thing. I’d kill anyone who hurt Neverra. So why do we care if they live?”
I pushed the large doors open with a little more force than I meant to. “We don’t.”
“Who are we talking about? Why was all of Zarall on fire?” Vincent demanded.
I tuned them out as Logan filled Vincent in on the last few hours. We reached the main conference room, and I headed straight to the pile of books and scrolls on the table. I sighed and began digging for the one I wanted.
Vincent hovered at my side. “Samkiel, if she is killing—”
“I know.”
“Know what?” Logan said. “As I said, she is killing the bad guys. That’s what we want, right?”
My heart ached as I found the one text I wanted.
Cadros: The History of Many Wars . I opened it and flipped through, looking for what I needed.
“I do care about her, not them. But killing them will not be enough. You and I both know that. She will need more power, especially if she is going after Kaden. In our time together, she never fed on mortals or blood. She is now, and that will make her spiral even further. What happens when an Ig’Morruthen consumes too much? ”
They went quiet as the text suddenly flipped open, the pages expanding out in a diagonal line, exposing the words across the top. The First Rule of Pharthar. Created when the Ig’Morruthens first appeared, it depicted exactly what I feared may happen.
“Pure and absolute desolation. That’s what I fear. I may be the World Ender, but they were the first destroyers of worlds.”
I took a step back, my hand running over my eyes. My head throbbed, flashing back over the last hour, seeing her but not her, feeling her but not her.
“Okay, but this is Dianna, not a ravenous beast,” Logan said from behind me. Vincent made a low noise in his throat.
“I know, but there is a myth. One I remember from when my father and I first besieged Jurnagun. He told me I had the ability to feel Ig’Morruthens.
Although we may have our differences, we are all made from the same floating chaos of the universe.
When gods experience traumatic events, they petrify and turn to stone.
Every molecule hardens as if it wishes not to exist any further.
Ig’Morruthens are different. Blood lust can consume the cognitive function of the Ig’Morruthen brain.
They consume in more ways than one. Overindulgence in blood can lead to massacres, mood swings, and erratic behavior. ”
I ran my hand through my hair as I tried to remember every single bit of my training.
“It’s as if a switch gets flipped, anything mortal in them snuffed out like a flame, only the beast remaining.
My father said the truly nasty ones are starved of light and love, reeking of absolute havoc.
He said some of the oldest and most powerful even feared the sun.
There are stories of Ig’Morruthens being burned by sunlight as if the dark power used to create them despises it.
Dianna follows no one, but she is on the path Kaden set out for her.
I will not lose her because of a tyrant. I refuse.”
The room grew silent.
“From now on, you are completely with me, or you are not. And if you are not…” I said, holding their gazes.
“I am,” they both said without hesitation.
“The Council of Hadrameil remains oblivious to this subject. Blame Zarall on a rapid thunderstorm and terrible lightning. A slip of my power,” I said.
“Okay.” Vincent stood a fraction taller. “I’ll get all the guilds and ambassadors on the same page.”
I nodded.
Vincent left, his mission clear, and I knew he would accomplish it.
Logan stayed, as always. He glanced down at the mark on his finger.
“He released them.”
“What?” Logan asked
“Kaden released the ones responsible with no protection. He wants her to kill, to feed until she is no more, and then I feel his hope is she will have no one to turn to but him—another sick way to have her back. He is hoping I will be the king of legends. The slayer of monsters and beasts, protector of realms and worlds, but she is my…” I stopped, unable to say the words.
“I know.”
Of course, Logan knew. He knew me better than most and was the closest thing I would ever have to a brother.
“If you knew there was even a slim chance of saving the one you cared for, you’d take it too, correct? Any means necessary? Regardless of title?”
Logan glanced at me as if what I’d said was absurd. “Of course. No second thought.”
“Vincent may agree now, but… No matter what happens, what I dictate, you have my back, correct?”
“You never have to ask. Never.”
I nodded once more.
“If there were even a fraction of a chance to save Neverra, I would take it.”
I swallowed, placing my hand on my forehead, a headache growing behind my eyes. “We will. We can do both. Save Neverra, Dianna, and the world.”
Logan managed to force a smile, even if I could not.