Chapter 43
Forty-Three
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. Mavyn has continuously stated and made it apparent that she does not want me. This fate between us does not mean anything to her.
I should listen. I should let her go. I am not worthy.
Except I am a masochist out for my own destruction.
And I can’t help but love her.
I have been able to break out of Varian’s holds too many times to count, but right now I don’t have the strength. My body is depleted and even with all the aura and magic and power I still would not be able to break the hold he has on me.
Percius is lifting Mavyn and my vision wavers as my true form roars at him.
She had been standing just a second ago.
Her aura dominating and the poison and bullets she was shot with not affecting her.
Then Percius slammed a blunt force of his shadow flame against the side of Mavyn’s head and she dropped like a bag of rocks.
“Breathe,” Varian strains in my ear. “She’s alright, she’s alive, just breathe. You are alright, you are alive, I’ve got you.”
Lies.
“She told Alexandros no!” I try to scream. It comes out choked and broken instead. I am still so tired from Friday night. My throat still aches and I can still taste the blue belladon from the blade in the back of my throat.
Percius picks her limp body up and then shadow twists. It makes my true form go wild and Varian tightens his arms around me. “Breathe, Callahan. I’ll take you to her, I just need you to calm down because they’ll see your true form.”
It doesn’t matter. None of it matters. She doesn’t want me.
“She does,” he mourns. “She just can’t accept it right now.”
“No,” I whimper. I shake my head and he curls his body over mine as I tremble. Everything inside feels like it’s being ripped apart. “I’m not worthy. I am nothing. She knows that and that’s why she wants nothing to do with me.”
He holds me impossibly tighter and I wish she didn’t stop me Friday night. I wish she didn’t hate me that much to force me to continue living. I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t care about any of it anymore.
“It’s not your fault,” he whispers to me. Continues to whisper over and over again. As if that’ll make me believe it. As if he can change the facts.
He can’t.
She should have let me die that night.
I think I might just hate her for that. For making me live. That’s the cruelest thing she could have ever done to me.
Varian continues holding me as he shadow twists. His scent of smoke mixed with something else. Something clean and fresh and exactly the opposite of me. Didn’t she say that? Varian smells like life.
The sun beats down on me now. We must not be close to the school because those storm clouds had covered the sky for miles. We’re still slouched on the ground so I just tip my head back and feel the warmth. Then Varian starts screaming.
“SHE’S BURNING! GET HER OUT OF THE SUNLIGHT! SHE CAN’T BE UNDER THE SUN!”
I snap my head towards where Varian is now running and forget everything as I stumble over the ground trying to push myself up and running to them. To where Percius is holding my fated with her head right under the rays of the sun burning.
A sheet or blanket gets thrown over her and Varian rips her out of his brother’s arms. Clutching her to his chest as someone else fists the collar of Percius’s shirt and slams their aura into him.
“How fucking dare you, you piece of shit!” Thorne seethes. “We said we would bring her ourselves! And you shot her four times with blue belladon while your piece of shit leader taunted her.”
Thorne shoves Percius and whorls around on Varian before pointing a finger at him and letting his shadow forms roam.
“And you!” he spits. “You just let him shoot her! You said we’d talk about everything after the fucking exams!”
Minor chaos erupts as Darian and Castiel show up and voices get muddied because I can only focus on her. Body covered in a cloak, I realize, feeling nearly nonexistent with her aura hidden and her scent so muted I can only get hints of sweetness.
I wipe my hand down my face and take a step back from all of them. All their words talking about a plan I was not a part of. Rovan shows up next with Scorn behind him and Matthiaus. The angel and demon that have been sticking as close as possible to Mavyn to spy what they can for Alexandros.
So much commotion and I hear Jullia and Asher’s name and the Willow of Lore before a voice quietly says, “Enough.” And they all listen.
I’ve never seen Alexandros, but staring at him right now I know I never really needed to. Aside from his stormy ocean colored eyes, his features match Castiel’s near perfectly. I would assume as much, even though he’s Castiel’s younger half-brother.
Alexandros D’etrenomas. A full shifting demigod with a blood art. Leader of the Rebellion.
Everyone is quiet as he walks through the group and turns to Rovan first. “The willow?”
The mage who can control all thirteen elements shakes his head.
“Asher Rowsan Ruleten has a runic shield imbued with her aura.” He nods towards where Mavyn is covered up in Varian’s arms. “He has three mages and an apakiko shifter with him. A lightning mage and two water mages. One of the water mages, I believe, processes frost of the starlight.”
Alexandros looks around at all of us and when he meets my glare he pauses. “Callahan Armani,” he greets. “We have yet to properly meet. I am – “
“Mavyn told you not to destroy the willow,” I state coldly.
“Mavyn does not know – “
“She knows everything,” I cut off. That’s probably a lie, but from what I’ve heard and seen she knows more than any of us.
And she may not want anything to do with me, but like the masochist that I am, I will be on her side until I am allowed to die.
If she wishes for me to continue living, keeping me from death, then so be it.
“She warned you, but you must be an even bigger bastard than your older brother.”
I can feel Castiel glaring at me, but I’ve made it apparent I do not like him. He is not good for Mavyn, he is especially not worthy of her, and even if she does cement the bond between him and her I will never like him. There’s something off about him. Something twisted inside – I can feel it.
Alexandros looks at Mavyn and his stare hardens. “It seems, then, that we will have to wait for her to wake and explain. The Willow of Lore is protected now, no matter how many times we breech the school that shield won’t break. So let’s all just take a breath, and calm down.”
He gestures to Varian and towards a tent. I finally notice my surroundings and the field we’re on. Larger than the eastern field at the school with hundreds of tents and camps spread out. At my back is a thick forest, and from its aura I can tell where we are.
Not exactly, since the Hinterwood Forest extends further than what you could ever guess, but this field is within it. And somewhere near the middle, barely a wink that I can see here from this vantage point, I can see another tree. A similar form to the Willow of Lore, but this one is different.
“The Bleeding Tree,” Alexandros explains, though I don’t look at him. “The first thing that was created on this world by powers higher than the primordials. And this place. . . welcome to Syngenia, the First Land of Magic.”
Then he leads us into his rebellion, and we wait for my fated to wake up.