23. Chapter Twenty-three
For the first time, Linorra didn’t know how to do the right thing. All her options felt wrong. Confusion bubbled up in her mind, threatening to rob her of her resolve.
There was no time to think about saving the house. As soon as I heard Axel’s kill order, I dropped the shield and the world transformed into a thunderous waterfall.
Aaron sprang toward the über-zombie holding Axel’s umbrella. He slipped a little in the mud, but they must have been expecting Aaron to jump at Ellis first because they were surprised when he instead pushed the umbrella man forcefully into Axel, knocking them both down. Axel squealed like a toddler and landed on his butt in the mud with his servant on top of him. The umbrella flew out of reach, and the rain engulfed them both.
I jumped toward Ellis, who still held a crossbow at Ward’s head, his hand shaking. I had a very similar idea to Aaron’s, except that I couldn’t push Ellis down. He was eight feet tall and had at least sixty pounds on me, but I was able to thrust his arm out of the way so the shot went wide and hit the side of the house. I grabbed his wounded hand and forced Connection into him as deeply as I could, screaming his name through the link.
Ellis! Stop!
Ellis did stop, and his eyes locked with mine. He struggled against me, pulling his hand back. I hung on for dear life, a difficult task given that we were both soaking wet. My link to him told me that he was confused and desperate and that his hand was broken and in excruciating pain.
Somewhere in his mind, he must have known that he’d been ordered to murder his own brother. His grip on the crossbow was shaky, as if he tried to make himself drop it. Perhaps he fought to take back control and was making progress, but it wasn’t quickly enough.
Ellis! Listen to me! I’m trying to help you!
Ellis wrenched his hand away, but his feet slipped in the mud and he fell backward, taking me with him. I landed on top of him, trying desperately to hang on. It would be mere moments before his superior strength overcame my efforts. Then he would kill me.
Aaron was busy with the other four überzombies and couldn’t help. He’d managed to shoot three of them in the upper thigh, downing them neatly, but the fourth über-zombie, the largest, was on top of him. He had gotten his hands around Aaron’s throat.
Axel shouted behind me, but I couldn’t hear what he said over the storm. I wanted to get through to Ellis first, but it wasn’t working. Desperate now, I rammed Protection into him as fast as I could, focusing on his broken hand.
This healing was nothing like that first time I’d healed Aaron. I had been weak and unpracticed then. I hadn’t known how to quickly mobilize the fragment and direct it with precision. I still had a long way to go, especially with flow regulation, but I had been using the Protection fragment daily for the better part of two months and was now stronger and more skilled.
I was still ignorant as a baby, though. I hadn’t understood how much the mutual attraction between Aaron and me had influenced how Protection actually manifested for us. The pleasure of it was always intensely sexual in nature. Even Ward, who had been expecting Protection to feel like sex because that’s what he was always told, had experienced it that way.
It isn’t that way for everyone, though. Ellis, for example, was vehemently opposed to any kind of forced sexual encounter due to his time spent with Axel. So, for him, Protection felt more like getting jabbed with a syringe full of narcotics. And while Aaron had grown accustomed to receiving the Protection fragment and had built up a tolerance, Ellis had no such defenses. He immediately let out a brief, high-pitched wail, then went rigid with what looked like a seizure but probably felt more like an overdose of heroin. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he dropped the crossbow into the mud.
Oops. That might have been a bit much. Sorry, Ellis. That’s two fragments. Halfway there. Don’t let go!
I called to the Conjuration fragment from the reservoir I knew to be lurking in the back of my head. It filled my body with its misty presence, and I sent it into the stream of fragments flowing into Ellis. His body stopped convulsing and tensed, then shivered violently as Conjuration caused my blended fragment link to latch on to his very soul. His mouth opened in a silent scream, letting water pour in from the sky. He choked and coughed violently, nearly throwing me off.
Shit. That’s three. Here comes the tricky part.
I had been right about Ward. He did, indeed, have a bit of his Transformation reservoir left in him, and he had donated some to me when I was sucked into his nightmare. Its golden light had appeared within my shield like a beacon of hope. My consciousness had delved so deep inside of him that we had literally intertwined our spirits. In doing so, we had mixed reservoirs, and I had come out with the exact thing I needed to break his brother free. That is, if I could figure out how to use it.
Ward told me once that Transformation was a fragment that could bring your body into alignment with your spirit. It brought your physical being closer to how you envisioned yourself. Ward had imagined himself to be a dog. Ellis had envisioned a future in the Metalworkers Guild. Aaron had seen himself as a dragon, lurking in the mountains. But what was I?
“A warrior,” Spirit said.
What? No, I’m not! I’m a freaking office manager, a clumsy jackass who cries and falls down.
“You,” Spirit said sternly, “are the woman who was thrown onto an alien planet and within a day outwitted an enemy that had a hundred years of experience. You’re the woman who, within a summer, read nearly an entire library and learned skills it should take decades to master. You’re the woman who convinced a dragon to abandon his dream and help you fight a war against an oppressive theocracy. You’re the woman who puts one blistered foot in front of the other and keeps fucking going. You’re a warrior, Lina!”
Her words stunned me. I had never heard Spirit speak like that before. She said “fuck” and everything. And it was all true. I had done all those things.
“I am a warrior,” I said to myself.
Axel shouted directions at the one minion he had left as Aaron wrestled the giant überzombie. Though he’d gotten out of the chokehold, he was still occupied. I had seconds before Axel came for me.
I reached for Transformation, imagining myself as a warrior. The only thing I could think of was Xena: Warrior Princess, which I had loved as a kid.
“I’m a warrior!” I screeched to no one. I solidified that image in my brain, and it glowed with a radiant golden light. I imagined myself scooping up that golden light with my hands, and when I did, it injected a feeling of pure exhilarated inspiration into my body.
The world became a glorious city of gold, ripe for the taking. I could do anything I set my mind to. I was a goddess. I was invincible. Forget Xena,I thought, I’m freaking Captain Marvel! I didn’t want to let the feeling go, but I had a goal, and I had no doubt whatsoever that I would be successful. I was the key to unlocking Ellis’s mind.
My Transformation reservoir was sparse, and I had trouble grabbing it, but I added the meager amount of fragment I could manipulate into the stream flowing into Ellis. My Connection carried it the rest of the way for me. His eyes flew open, and he screamed in agony, shocking me out of my manic confidence. I’d felt so good that I hadn’t considered that forcing Transformation into another person might be painful.
I gripped Ellis’s hands as he squirmed away from me with everything he had. His wet hands slipped out of my grip, and he finally bucked me off. I landed on my back in the mud, right at Axel’s feet.
“Enough!” Axel bellowed. He held the umbrella over himself now.
I froze. Axel brandished his golden dagger, shoved it at my throat, and pressed down. It broke my skin with a sharp sting. Drenched and muddy, Axel leaned in close enough that I could clearly feel a familiar resonance. He was protected.
The rain had lessened a bit but still came down steadily around the perimeter of the umbrella.
I glanced in Aaron’s direction to see him standing over the prostrate body of the giant über-zombie. The unconscious man’s face was covered in burns, his brown potato-sack tunic smoldering.
Aaron’s tunic had been torn almost off and was only held in place by his belt. He’d lost his crossbow somewhere as well as his vest. It looked like the other three had gotten back up to fight him at some point, but they now lay around him, unconscious, faces bloodied. One of the men had a bolt sticking out of his left shoulder, and he panted like a dog.
Axel glared at Aaron with unrestrained hatred. Aaron stared right back.
“Take one step and I will slide this dagger so far into her neck that no amount of Protection will save her,” Axel growled.
“Do that,” Aaron responded, “and I will kill you before you have the chance to pull it out again. I told you six wasn’t enough. You should have fled while you had the chance.” His voice was steady, controlled, but little wisps of steam fluttered off his bare chest and shoulders. His bracelet was gone. He looked like a man about to commit murder for sport. He was terrifying, and I saw that terror reflected in Axel’s eyes.
Ellis rolled over and sat up. He looked around, then spotted his crossbow lying on the ground. With some effort, he got to his feet and retrieved it from the mud.
Axel watched Ellis retrieve the weapon and he visibly relaxed, his face regaining that crazed expression. It was more clenched teeth than smile. He spoke directly to me for the first time. “You see, you ignorant child? Ellis is mine. Did you really think you could heal the Projection fragment out of him? It doesn’t work like that. All you did was strengthen him so he could hold you down while I teach you your first lesson.”
Axel tossed the umbrella aside and grabbed a fistful of my hair. The rain had turned to sleet, and it pelted my face and stung my eyes. He pulled my face up to his mouth with gleeful malice. I winced but ground my teeth against the pain of ripping hair. “The first lesson is always the hardest,” he purred, “and the most fun.” He sensuously tipped his head and took my earlobe into his mouth, a low sigh of pleasure in his chest. Then he bit down and ripped my earring out with his teeth, tearing through my earlobe.
I screamed, instinctively grabbing Axel’s hand to pull it away from my throat, but he was too strong. I used the contact to push Protection into him even harder than I had for Ellis. Nothing happened. He spit my own blood back into my face.
Aaron moved toward us, but Axel drew his dagger tightly against my throat, slicing into me.
“Don’t move, traitor!” Axel screamed at Aaron. He held me by my hair, squeezing so hard that I thought he would pull my scalp clean off. I cried out again as the blood streamed out of the wound in my neck, mingling with rain and blood from my ripped earlobe and spilling onto my wet clothing. I shook from the stress, the pain, and the cold sleet.
“I will kill her,” Axel said. “I swear it. I only need one of them and I already have the dog, so you’ll either watch me take her or you’ll watch her die. Your choice. Ellis, point your crossbow at the traitor.”
Ellis didn’t move. He blinked a few times, then lifted a hand to wipe mud off his face.
Spirit! What do I do?
“Ellis!” yelled Axel again, his voice cracking. His dagger shook when he spoke, digging deeper into my neck.
I squeezed my eyes shut. Spirit! Help me!
“You’ve already beaten him,” Spirit said calmly. Her voice cut through the storm as if it were directed into my ears through earbuds. “He just doesn’t know it yet.”
Axel’s eyebrows knit together, realizing he’d missed something. “Ellis, kill the traitor!” he shrieked.
Ellis no longer appeared confused. He lifted his eyes to meet Axel’s gaze, and they glowed brightly with that same beautiful amber color Ward’s had. That’s how I could see, even in the darkness, that Spirit was right. He had come back to himself, and he had only one thing on his mind: revenge.
Ellis lifted his crossbow to Axel’s chest and pulled the trigger twice.
The impact knocked Axel back a few feet and onto his back with a squish. The dagger flung away from my neck, slicing me again in the process.
“Lee!” Aaron yelled. He ran to me and held his hand to my neck to apply pressure. “Hang on, I’ve got you,” he said. I bled profusely and the whole world spun around me, but I could already feel Protection healing my wounds. Now that I had a sense of it, I could push it along to speed up the process.
“I’ll be okay,” I rasped. “Help me over to Axel before he dies and we lose our chance.” My teeth chattered and my words slurred.
“I’m more worried about losing you,” he said. “Your lips are blue.”
“I’ll be okay,” I insisted. I tasted blood in my mouth, but I would not be distracted. “Help me.”
Aaron picked me up and carried me over to Axel. He held me against his bare chest, and I soaked in his body heat like a sponge. The sleet, which had briefly fallen with a painful vengeance, had become a soft, quietly drifting snow.
Axel stared up at the sky, stunned. His reflective eyes blinked against the snowflakes that caught in his eyelashes. He held his hands up as we approached him, as if he could push us away. He was already weak, though, and his arms were floppy and uncoordinated. His beautiful golden dagger lay several feet away.
“Heal me,” he mumbled. “Heal me. I’ll help you fight her. I’ll help you.” He exhaled and closed his eyes as his arms dropped to the ground.
Aaron cautiously set me down next to Axel but stayed pressed up against my back for warmth. Blood, black in the dim light, spurted around one of the bolts in Axel’s chest in rhythmic pulses. It had hit him just above his heart, entering between the ribs. He’d be dead in seconds.
Must have been lesser Protection, I thought.
I stared down at him, watching his lifeblood drain from his body. I could have healed him then and saved his life. I could’ve said that I didn’t want to be like Eve and Seleca, that I wanted to do something different, to be a good person and not let someone die who I had the ability to save. But the truth is, Evilina isn’t some demon trapped inside of me.
She’s me.
I wrapped my trembling hand around Axel’s neck and delved into him, searching for his Teleportation reservoir. It was there, hovering around his solar plexus. I couldn’t see it, exactly, but I could feel the Absorption fragment within me trying to stick to it like Velcro.
I let it happen. His Protection reservoir was still there, too, but strained in trying to save him from death. I pushed Absorption past Axel’s weakened barrier and wrapped it around his reservoir like a mother swaddling a newborn.
I couldn’t see his soul leave his body. Perhaps, I speculated, it was because I hadn’t yet ascended my Conjuration. Or maybe I didn’t want to see the ghost of a man I’d let die so I could steal his reservoir.
I could feel it, though, the way you feel a change in air pressure. I couldn’t sense his soul with any of the five basic senses, but there was something in my brain that actively pinged like sonar. I shivered as his spirit fled, and I felt the Teleportation reservoir pull away from me. I hung on and visualized pulling that reservoir out of Axel’s chest into my own. It tugged, then came loose.
I had it.
Then, it had me. The instant the Teleportation reservoir snapped free from Axel, it surged into me just as I’d surged back into my body after drifting out, or maybe like Ward when his soul had rushed back into his body, pulling my Protection fragment with it. It felt like the Connection spike, but instead of pain, I was hit with extreme vertigo reminiscent of the feeling you get on a roller coaster rocketing downhill.
I gasped and almost fell, but Aaron caught me. I felt his warm embrace and let him support me entirely, closing my eyes against the dizzying sensation. The vertigo dissipated, only to be replaced by an exhaustion so heavy that it brought to mind my experience in the hospital when they’d pumped me full of drugs. I opened my eyes again, struggling to stay awake, but blackness crept into the corners of my vision.
“Aaron,” I muttered, “I’m so tired.”
I heard Ellis talking to Aaron, but I couldn’t make it out. Aaron responded, “Absorption fatigue” and then something about reliving bad memories.
Great. Thanks for the heads-up.