Chapter 32
Aeric Maren thought he knew death and knew it well.
He would have crawled his way toward it if it meant ensuring the book was destroyed and Anelize was safe. And if not, well, he would have crawled to her if only to hold her once more before taking his final breath.
Screams filled the throne room as the first rebels began to pour into the castle. Unleashing fire and ice and death onto any they crossed paths with.
“Protect the king!” Aeric bellowed at the Watchmen as they all gathered around King Amaranth, drawing their swords as they prepared to lay down their lives for Elvir’s monarch.
He unsheathed his sword, finding himself flanked by two masked rebels glaring at him as though they did not know him at all.
As if he were truly the enemy. They didn’t give him a chance to hesitate as they launched themselves toward him, their blades raised to strike.
He moved faster than they could anticipate as he parried the first sword that came his way, forcing it over his head as he ducked and sliced through the rebel’s abdomen.
He disarmed the next rebel as he blocked his attack by trapping his arm beneath his and applying pressure to the bone, snapping it in two.
The rebel cried out, only to be silenced as Aeric took his own sword and ran him through.
Idris and Adan were near the entrance of the throne room, battling with an ox of a man who could hardly keep up with their quick feet and jabs as they sliced at his legs and arms until he toppled to the ground. Adan dealing the finishing blow as he sank his blade into the back of his neck.
When they saw him, they held the same expressions of rage as he felt inside himself. They pushed their way past the nobles all running out of the Great Hall, seeking to flee from the rebels who had invaded Castle Rime and were now bringing nothing but destruction wherever their swords met flesh.
This had not been part of the plan.
Far from it.
Rebels filled the courtyard and bailey as they cut down Watchmen and nobles.
With their blades and their powers, they appeared to relish in the bloodshed as they claimed the lives of men and women alike.
Most of who were unarmed and begging for their lives.
Horses ran out of their stalls as fires blazed upon the tables, nearly running him down as he entered in another fight with more rebels.
Ending in more bloodshed as Aeric walked away without a scratch upon him.
“To the tunnels. Now,” Aeric ordered the twins as they nodded and ran ahead toward the courtyard on the eastern side. They were about to pass through the archway when a wall of blazing fire surged before them, nearly burning them all.
Adan and Idris dodged the next attack that came as a woman with short blonde hair who sauntered toward them, swirling red flames in her hands as she smirked.
“Going somewhere, Watchmen?”
“What do you think you’re doing?” Adan sneered as she came to stand before her flames, effectively blocking their path.
If he could conjure without risking all of their lives, he would have had those flames obey him and roll over her like a great big wave. But there were too many Watchmen fighting along the bailey to risk it. No matter how desperate he was to get to Anelize.
“Get out of my way,” Aeric said darkly. “Or you will find no mercy from me.”
The woman laughed, the sound seeming to spur the flames on. “Mercy? You think I want mercy from the king’s mutts? I do not want your mercy. I want you all to die.”
As she sent a surge of flames toward him, Aeric rolled out of the way as the twins rushed her.
She parried their attacks before unleashing more flames upon them.
Aeric rose and stalked toward her as she released a cackling laugh of enjoyment.
“You will never rule this city. It is ours for the taking. Once we have that book, we will own you.”
“I’m tired of your yammering,” Adan snapped as he unsheathed another blade behind his back, crouching low before he shot forward.
His barrage of attacks had her dancing on her feet, her short sword clashing with his blades which sent sparks through the air.
When Idris and Aeric moved in on her, she sent a swirl of fire around them, spinning it around like a whirlwind that burned Aeric’s skin until it encased him in their fiery depths.
Idris dodged the wave of fire and used his advantage with Adan distracting her to land a kick to her side and sending her careening across the gravel.
The woman snarled at the twins as they closed in on her.
She rose to her feet, bringing the flames back and raised her hands, willing them to grow higher and higher.
“I will burn ash before I let you get past me. And then I’ll be the one who becomes Henry’s favorite. ”
“Then, by all means, be the first,” Aeric said as he emerged from the flames behind her.
She gasped, whirling to face him before he sliced his sword across her neck, sending her head toppling mere feet away from Idris’s boots.
“Aeric…” Adan said through gritted teeth, glaring at his arm.
He glanced down, to where the Vedran’s flames must have caught him. To the bloodied patch of skin she had seared, that now slowly knitted itself closed. Leaving behind a network of black veins beneath his scarred skin.
“What in saint’s name…” Idris murmured, looking to his brother.
Aeric’s jaw clenched as a sinking feeling started to take root within his chest.
Spinning on his heel toward the slowly dying fires along the archway, he said, “Let’s go.”
Dead Watchmen lined the tunnels.
So many bodies that Aeric wondered how long they’d been there.
Aeric’s heart had sunk when he’d seen the sliced throat of the Watchman laying on the snow before the entrance, and he knew Anelize had nothing to do with it.
Some part of him that only belonged to her screamed as much in his mind.
Only proving to leave him more unsettled, pressed for time to find her.
They used the lights along the walls for guidance through the darkness as they hurried into one of the first chambers that would lead them toward the book. The entire time, his eyes scanned the floors. The bodies. Any sign that Anelize had come through this way.
There was a single body that laid on the ground, covered in gathering snow that fell from the crack in the ceiling.
“Saints,” Idris murmured as he knelt beside the body that he discerned was a boy with red hair. A boy they all knew. Wellyn Dobrin. Shaking his head, Idris looked to Aeric with a grim expression. “He’s dead.”
A piercing scream filled the tunnels, coming from every direction. Sending them all to stand on edge.
He knew that voice.
Heard that agonizing scream only once before when he was lost to the darkness that she’d pulled him free from.
“Anya.”
Aeric ran toward the sound, ignoring Idris and Adan as they warned him to be careful.
But the screams continued, on and on until he was sure he’d lose himself to the madness of hearing her pain.
Then, a sudden flash of light swept over them, so blinding he had to shield his eyes from it as a surge of power filled the air around him.
Crackling embers and the roar of flames filled his mind, thrummed through his body.
Making him feel as alive as he had when Anelize called to his heart.
“What was that?” Adan murmured as he looked at the fading streaks of light that seemed to dance around them.
“You felt it, too?” Idris asked, sounding winded.
Aeric pressed on, ignoring the flames that roiled within him. He was out of breath by the time they reached the opened doorway of the chamber where the book was kept.
Blood was all he saw as he stepped into the room. A large pool of crimson sat at the base of the platform before it appeared as though someone had been dragged through it, leading to his right, where he saw Enid Yarrow laying, covered in her own blood.
Adan cursed as he rushed over, kneeling beside her as he inspected her wound, the stillness of her body.
The surge of power he’d felt echoed once more, making him turn where he spotted the book in the center of the platform.
The pages blank…
Across the room, along the wall, Henry was standing with wide eyes as he stared into the deepest part of the room, covered in shadows, save for one flickering light that pulsed before him.
The power grew again, swelled, as the light grew brighter before dimming.
As if it were a living, breathing entity.
At his feet, Gabriel was laying on the ground.
His head bent at an odd angle, his expression petrified.
The rest of his body twisted into painful directions as if someone had gone and pulled him apart.
Aeric gritted his teeth as he made to cross the room and demand answers.
Then he saw her as he followed Henry’s line of sight. Anelize was standing with her back to them in the shadows before the pulsing light dispelled them once more. She was covered in blood, a large gash on her side where it continued to bleed.
His eyes shot to Henry with murderous intent, eyeing the bloodied blade in his hand. He would kill him; with his own bare hands, if he had been the one who did this to her. He’d kill him regardless, for the betrayal he sowed on this night.
“Incredible,” Henry gasped as he stumbled toward her. “I’ve never seen such power. Do you know what this means, Anya? For Vedrans, for us? We could rule everything the world has to offer.”
“Everything?” Anelize murmured.
Aeric scowled at the sound of her voice. Both new and old, familiar, and not at all, it sounded as though there were hundreds of voices intertwining with her own.
“Yes, everything! With you by my side, we would be unstoppable. More powerful than any king. The entire world itself would come to fear us, bow down before us.”
Anelize did not move. The stillness he sensed from her was so unlike her that it made him want to cross the room and shake her shoulders, rid her of that strange lifeless voice with which she’d spoken moments ago.
Henry took another step toward her, reaching his hand out.
The moment his fingers brushed over the exposed skin on her neck and shoulder, his body tensed.
An agonizing scream spilled from his lips as he fell to his knees, his fingers twisting in odd angles before the same happened to his arm, his bones snapping.
Henry sobbed as he fell to the ground, staring up at Anelize in horror.
“Anya, please! I know I’ve done you wrong, I know I have, but it was all to save us from this curse,” Henry screamed as hoarfrost suddenly began to crackle through the air, forming on his hands, stretching down to his arms and up his throat.
“No, no! Please, I’ll do anything. Think about Zara, what this will do to her! ”
Suddenly, the ice crackled, and like a flint to stone, sparks flew, and fire burst from his hands in a roaring swirl. It wrapped around him and consumed his cries for mercy until there was nothing left. Not even the ashes by the time they slowly went out.
Not once had Anelize moved the entire time she destroyed Henry Dobrin. She had conjured without a second thought, barely moved.
Aeric made to take a step toward her, to have her look at him. To have her tell him what had happened to her to make her this way.
“Magnificent,” King Amaranth breathed out from behind them.
Aeric and the twins spun to find the King of Elvir and a group of Watchmen all entering the chamber. The king’s gaze fixed solely upon Anelize and the shifting hues of light crackling around her.
“I have never seen such power, not since she shared it with me all those years ago.”
Hearing the king’s voice, Anelize slowly turned to face them.
The lights glancing off the darkened walls around her as she aimed her pale blue gaze on the king, her eyes shimmering with power.
Where she granted him a cruel, twisted smile that sent a chill down Aeric’s spine.
“It’s been a long time, hasn’t it, old friend? ”