42. Chapter 42
H er skin crawled as Eden stood in front of the basement door. Every word Armaros had said swirled inside her mind like a broken record. The dark circles under her eyes showed her lack of sleep as various scenarios played in her mind’s eye of Wyatt finding out she had killed them. Her eyes fell on the mahogany stain as behind it she could hear the two voices of her captees as they bickered about something she couldn’t make out. A set of hands found their way to her shoulders in the stillness of the house. She drew in a shaky breath and felt the muscles in her legs already begging her to turn and walk out and never look back.
“You’re so close, Eden. You’ve been so patient and now is the time to do what we came here to do.” Eloise’s monotone voice hinted at excitement as the grip on her shoulders tightened.
You can still go to him. Lennox’s voice fought with her mothers. “You mean you’re so close… To get what you wanted.”
“What we both wanted. Did you not want to show Richard you are exactly what this family needs?”
“I told you what I wanted Mother, instead you let me believe I could just maybe-” Her voice caught in her throat as Eloise turned her around.
“Maybe what? Have the family and the demon?” She raised an eyebrow, her lips turned into a thin line. “You are a Miller, are you not? You go with him, you’ll be a Cade. Is he really someone you would give your humanity up for? Become everything she did?”
Eloise bent slightly to be at Eden’s levels, her chestnut eyes locked on her. The same question she had been asking herself all night was now thrown at her and stabbed like the knife she shoved into the demons below.
“He could be…”
Instantly rage filled the woman’s eyes as she took a step back. “If you want to be his little pet, go ahead. I won’t stop you this time. You want to be done with The Salavamari? Step out the door and see what that will really be like but don’t come back here when he doesn’t want you anymore. Look at what you’ve done already. You’ve killed his best friends and you have two more of them downstairs. Do you think he’s going to forgive you for all of that? Or did you already start lying to him again about the deaths of Felix and Rue?”
In a matter of moments the light Lennox had opened to her, extinguished. Eloise’s words struck her right where they needed to as her vision blurred slightly. Quickly Eden forced the emotions down and remained locked eyes with her mother.
“You’ve made your choices and it’s time to follow through.” She motioned to the door. “I promise no matter what comes next you will always have us and soon you’ll have Holden or Chase. I think if you gave them a chance you could be happier than with some demon. You’re worth so much more than what he can offer you in a Matriarchal family.”
Eloise stepped forward and cupped Eden’s face gently, her hardened features softened as she spoke. She was right, her path had officially come to a crossroads and as she looked down both one was full of uncertainty. The other was something she was brought up to know like the back of her hand, however, the vision of an older, unfulfilled version of herself Xemos had shown her still lingered in the back of her mind.
He hadn’t shown her what her life could be with Wyatt, if they made it past this point, if she ever got away. Maybe he didn’t show me because it would have led to his death? Eloise would never let me go; she's proved that over and over again. She’d kill him if I ran off-
“What do you decide, Eden?”
She glanced down at her wrist, the bracelet Wyatt had given her once again felt heavy. I’ll just lead to his demise… Maybe this is how it’s supposed to be. This way he can live. Once again, Eden fell into the world Eloise laid out to her. She turned to face the door once more and put a hand on the knob with a pause before opening it.
“Good girl, I’ll be right behind you.” Eloise followed her down the stairs.
The daggers in her belt felt heavy as both Lennox and Aron looked up at her. Holden stood between them with a sickle in one hand and a gun in the other pointed at Aron, his attention on the pink haired demon as he tilted the blade under her chin around around the opposite side of her face using the flat part to direct her attention to him.
“It’s been fun, what did I hear him call you? Lenny-boo.” His next words were directed to the Matriarch and Heiress by the stairs. “Unfortunately the two headed one still wouldn’t talk.”
Holden dragged the tip along Lennox’s jaw which left the thinnest line, almost like a papercut. A low growl came from Aron as he did which caused a muffled shot to be discharged from Holden’s gun right into the demon’s hip, the sound dulled by the silencer he had fitted to the weapon. The demon let out a deep grunt of pain and gritted his teeth as the hunter stepped away. He turned and as usual locked eyes with Eden who didn’t react as he returned the gun to his right hip. He ambled over to the two women and as Holden stepped closer to her, his eyes searched her for something.
As he passed her right side she felt his hand brush against her hip. He paused and looked down as the two kept their eyes on the other. Wyatt’s face filled her minds eye and she stepped away from his hand and broke eye contact first. Quietly, there was a smug sound of confirmation as he found what he was looking for. Eden ignored him for now and turned to Lennox and Aron who watched the exchange closely. Eloise and Holden stepped away over to the weapons table and started to talk quietly, their words a low hum in the background as she brought out the fire enchanted dagger.
With every slow step she took forward, Eden could feel the adrenaline filling every muscle in her body. A switch flipped inside her mind, the one she had formed when she was new to the family. The images of Wyatt faded as all the years of training took over as she stalked her prey. Her eyes traced over the cuts and bruises Holden had left on them during the night, most of them half healed and had dried over the hours.
“I think it’s time to find out what demon boy won’t tell us.”
Eden smirked as she stopped just in front of the pink haired demon. Lennox tried to move herself back but Eden grabbed her foot. With her left hand she pinned it to the floor by the ankle and leaned toward her. When she caught her gaze she could see the terror in her eyes and relished in the fact Lennox was scared of her. She returned her eyes to Aron, she bent her elbow and with all her strength pressed down and heard the crack of bones. Curiosity sparked inside of her as the other demon flinched.
Lennox’s scream echoed on the stone walls of the basement as her chains rattled. Her gaze snapped back to her as she tried to pull away again. As she shook her head, Eden raised the hand with the spelled dagger and forced it into her inner thigh. Again she could hear Aron suppress another grunt as the smell of burning skin filled her nose.
Between the sounds of Lennox’s screams the voice of Chase and Bastien as they yelled upstairs drew her attention. Within seconds the door at the top of the stairs flew open and someone came running down the stairs. Eden stood and spun on her heels to face whoever had come down so abruptly. Wyatt stood frozen at the bottom of the stairs staring directly at her. His electric eyes were alight with anger as they darted around and assessed the situation.
At the sight of him, the cloud of anger seemed to break up ever so slightly. No one in the basement moved for what felt like an eternity as he looked between Aron and Lennox chained up. To Eden with a dagger in her hand and the very two that would end their lives strapped to her and finally to Holden and Eloise in the corner. His gaze finally rested back onto Eden who saw the disappointment in his face which almost made her heart stop. He’ll never forgive me…
“Eden, what have you done?” His voice cracked a bit as he looked at her. He took a step toward her and only stopped once he stood between her and Lennox.
“I told you… I was protecting Bastien and Corvus.” She managed to choke out, the pain of what was about to happen hit her in a devastating blow.
“By hurting them! Eloise already killed Felix and Rue and you- You’re helping her kill them!”
“Wyatt-”
“No, Eden! If you told me I would have taken you and Bastien as far as we could have gotten but instead this is what you do?” He motioned behind him. “I can understand protecting your family but this is mine. I thought you wanted to be part of it.”
“She’ll never be one of you, I made sure of that.” Eloise interjected.
“Clearly…” He turned to Eden with betrayal in his eyes. “I tried to help you get out, all you would have had to do was bring that bag to Kappa and we could have been gone with a single word. I loved you, Eden with everything I am… I would have done anything for you even after everything.” He turned his back on Eden and moved toward his friends.
“I didn’t ask for you to try to save me that day. I warned you from the very beginning that you didn’t want to pursue me.” She reminded and started toward him.
He turned back to her and took two long steps to stop right in her face. “I guess I should have listened but as I told you, I’m a stubborn man.”
His eyes darkened down at her. The sight made her want to scream, to throw all the daggers down and fall to her knees for his forgiveness. However, the hope that would have caused her to do so had been squashed so tightly that she didn’t dare. She stared into his eyes as if trying to memorize them, she would never see the way he looked at her as if she was the only person who existed again. He would never wrap her into his arms and help return the air to her lungs. That was all gone, replaced by rage and pain that reflected in its place.
“Fuck!” He turned away once more and bent down to the base of the chains. “I can’t look at you right now.”
“What are you doing?” Eden stepped forward with the fire dagger still in her hand, though she knew she would never use it on him.
“You chose your family, I’m choosing mine.”
“I can’t let you do that, Wyatt. I’m sorry.”
The man swiftly turned back to face her as sparks lit his eyes as they stared each other down. For a moment she saw the side of Wyatt her mother had warned her about and for once she didn’t know if Wyatt wouldn’t lash out at her. Both were squatted down, Lennox’s chains in one of his hands.
“Are you going to stop me, Viper?” He spat out the nickname.
“Only if you make me.”
They stayed frozen for a moment to see who would make the first move. Wyatt’s hand slowly went to the base where the chains were hooked but stopped when he saw the tip of a raised dagger pointed right at him. Internally, Eden begged him to stop, not to make her do what she was about to. As his fingers went to undo the base she launched herself forward, her left hand pulled behind her. His arm came up and blocked the knife as he let go of the chains. With his right hand he reached in front of her but her left hand grabbed his wrist.
Suddenly, both of his hands held hers tightly and he pulled her onto her back. Eden used the momentum to return to her knees and forced his arms to cross. As their hands collided the knife slipped from her grip. She reached up and grabbed it from the air and caught it in her right hand that forced it forward about an inch from his stomach. Wyatt grabbed her shoulders at the same time which made both of them stop as they locked eyes for a final time.
“I’m sorry.” She whispered to him in hopes that in the two words she could convey the entirety of her guilt. “ I’m their pawn and there’s no way out of this game.”
“Me too, we could have won but you decided to let them win instead.”
His eyes lit up and she felt a pulse of electricity flow through her causing her muscles to lock up where she was knelt down. She could only move her eyes as he moved around her to Aron and quickly undid the chains from their base. Eden tried to make herself move but watched as Eloise stormed past her. Without hesitation The Matriarch pulled the demon up by the shoulder and pushed him face first into the wall. Her fingers gripped his hair and she shoved his head as hard as she could, just as she had done to Lennox the day before, Wyatt fell to the ground motionless. Her eyes followed his body down and Eden watched in horror as Eloise with her left hand already had Holden’s sickle poised under his chin.
“You will not terrorize my family any more, Steele.”
She tried to yell out, but her jaw wouldn’t move. She could do nothing to stop what was about to happen, no matter what she did she would be the one to lead him to his death. At least that’s what she thought until Aron whipped his chains under Eloise’s chin and pulled her off Wyatt. The demon dragged the woman back toward the weapons table, his wings unfurled fully behind him as Holden attempted to step in. With a single motion one of the wings sent the man back into the opposite wall and he fell on the stairs a fair distance away with a thud and grunt.
The tingle in her muscles that held her there slowly faded, however not enough. Her body still refused to move more than her head. Aron pulled Eloise all the way over to the metal table still littered with various weapons and reached at random to pick up a saí. The man turned his whole body and pulled Eloise up so she stood and struggled to breathe. Eden watched her mother kick behind herself as annoyed anger drifted across his face. He simply moved and shifted the light woman around. The sounds of the chains echoed as they fell to the floor was followed by a gasp of air quickly cut off once more by his hand as he pulled her to him.
Eden struggled against the spell that had rendered her motionless, her gaze drifted to Eloise’s hand which had stopped reaching toward Armaros. Instead, the two women met each other’s eyes as she slipped off the Matriarch ring with acceptance in her eyes. Eden’s heart dropped as her mothers hand clutched the ring, Eloise knew . Just as she felt her legs start to move again she watched the flash of silver as the saí was plunged into the center of Eloise’s torso and pulled down. A scream of pain ripped from her throat as he dropped her to let the woman land uncontrolled with a thud, her head bounced on the floor. Eden’s own screams filled the basement as the spell was released. She ran to her mothers side and completely ignored the demon that loomed over them.
The life of the Matriarch faded fast as the two women looked into each other’s eyes. Eden’s vision blurred as she watched her mother fight to stay awake. Something shifted in her eyes as blood dripped from her nose. The rigid mask the woman held constantly suddenly dropped and she looked at Eden in a way she had never seen before. Pure pride and sadness.
“I always knew how amazing you would be, Eden. From… From the moment I saw you sitting by yourself in that orphanage I knew you were… Extraordinary.”
“Don’t do that, You’re going to be okay.” Eden's voice choked out and broke as she called for the others. “Bastien! Chase! Stacey!”
“They can’t hear you,” Aron’s demonic voice combined with Armaros echoed in the silence as he pointed to the shield around the stairs that blocked Holden from getting to them. Eden looked up and saw one eye was black and the other was Aron’s usual green eye. “You wanted the monsters you thought we were- You got them because you trapped us like animals.”
Every word stabbed like the ones she inflicted on him. The knot in her throat tightened as Eloise struggled to breathe and she pulled her mother into her lap as she moved her hair from her face. A tear fell and she saw her hands shake as life continued to fade from her mother’s eyes. Blood stained hers and Eden’s clothes, the red covered her hands as she tried to keep pressure somewhere, anywhere she could.
“You will make one hell of a Matriarch, Eden. I pass my… Responsibilities to you Eden Olivia Miller, may you guide us into a better world.”
Those words crushed Eden’s very soul. It was only said when a Matriarch passed the title to their heir. As a long breath was released the light from her eyes dulled and Eden’s eyes slammed shut as her whole world changed in an instant. No longer an Heiress, but in a matter of seconds, the youngest Matriarch in four generations. Softly, she reached into Eloise’s palm and took the ring from her hand, her gaze locked on the empty eyes of her mother.
Her heart sank into her stomach as she tried to imagine a life without her. Sure, they had their bad times with the good moments. However as often as she had tried to, she couldn’t imagine her world without Eloise, she couldn’t do it. Her head snapped up to the two men in one body, who still seemed to be trying to decide if she was next. Eden’s next words spilled out as she remembered he was still a Crossroad Demon.
“I- I want to make a deal.”
“Excuse me, Child?” Armaros’s voice returned, now a growl as she spoke.
“Hell no!” Lennox yelled from her spot against the wall which caused him to peer at her momentarily. A look of regret filled the green eye of Aron, but Armaros held steady as he looked at Eden like she was nothing more than a thorn in his side.
“Bring her back and I’ll never hurt you or Lennox again… Take my soul if I ever do.” She reached into her belt and held both Lennox and his daggers towards him, hilts first.
His eyebrow rose as he considered her proposal silently. Her hand shook as she kept them extended to him. “She wouldn’t be human, are you sure it’s worth it?”
“Yes, I can’t lead the family without her. Please Aron… Armaros, bring her back. I’ll give you anything. I already lost Wyatt, I just want her back.”
“Eden, don't you dare!” Holden yelled from the stairs still trapped while he banged on the wards that kept him locked in place.
“Aron- Armaros.” Lennox pleaded with him, her voice strained.
The demon smirked, like he had won the game they had played all along. Confidence radiated from him as if he knew this is where they would have ended up. As if she had walked right into some sort of trap, however, at this very moment she didn’t care. He reached out and took both daggers from her hands and pocketed them. It was another ten seconds while the man allowed the loudest silence Eden had ever heard to fill the room. He moved toward her cold and calculated until they were less than three feet apart. Fear attempted to bubble to the surface, but Eden swallowed it back down her hands now empty- She was utterly defenseless and her life was in his hands.
“Kneel and beg.”
“What?” Eden blinked, she had thought he would take her down for even daring to ask.
“I told you… On your knees and ask me.” It wasn’t a suggestion. “If I let you live you will never harm Lennox, Wyatt, Rosalyn, or myself again. Anyone within the grounds of this school, you make a move to kill us. You’re mine.”
Kneeling isn’t necessary for deals. Eden quickly went over her studies of Crossroad Deals.
“It’s not necessary, Child.” His voice deepened with anger. “However, you will kneel.”
Eden’s mouth dropped a little, she had never heard of his abilities for mind reading. She regained herself before she spoke, his night sky eye glared daggers into her. “If I don’t?”
“I’ll house the very dagger you were going to kill me with in your chest.”
Eden’s gaze drifted to Eloise’s body then to Wyatt who was still motionless. Her heart fell further into her stomach as regret filled every part of her being. It’s too late… Maybe one day if I become one of them I’ll be able to apologize. To the left of Wyatt was Lennox who looked between herself and Aron in horror. For the first time she saw the guilt and something that reminded her of the way Eloise watched her when she was scared she would be hurt. I… I never thought she actually cared.
Movement from the man in front of her caught her attention once more as he extended his hand and lowered it in a silent command. Eden’s jaw tightened and red flushed her face as she ever so slowly knelt down in front of him. Armaros crouched and his elbows rested on his knees as he met her eyes for a final time.
“Take this deal and you’re mine if you break it, you fully understand this, correct?”
“I do.”
Armaros held out a hand to her which she took. A spark sprang to life inside their palms and she could feel the heat form. “Your mothers life… To keep the lives of the people on these grounds safe. Any attacks spearheaded by you will break our covenant, do you agree to these terms?”
“I do.”
His grip was tight and burned hot as his veins were orange under his skin. Smoke rose from their hands and for a few seconds she felt her palm burn which caused her to wince and lock her jaw. When he let go there was a small ‘x’ at the base of her thumb as if branded into her skin.
“Step back.” He commanded as he placed his hand over the wound.
Eden did so and watched him closely as a silver dim light appeared under his hands. The light slowly flowed into Eloise’s body and she seemed to fade from the room. Eden went to speak but Aron shook his head as her body dissipated in a glow of light.
“Where-”
“She’ll wake up in her room in a few days. She’ll be confined to Romania for five years. As to what she is now, I believe a discussion with Mort about her new personal hell would be recommended.”
Eden stood there for a moment now unsure of what to say to them as she looked between Aron, Lennox and a still motionless Wyatt. She knew there was no apology that could make up for any of this. There was no way Lennox or Aron were going to help her fix things between her and Wyatt. I’m a Matarach now… I can’t leave. Sadness welled up in her chest.
“I know you probably won’t but… Tell him I’ve never cared about anyone the way I cared about him… And in another life I hope we can start again… In five minutes you all will have the evening to leave without anyone stopping you.”
Eden stood to her full height and turned her back to the demons inside the basement and made her way over to the stairs. The shield that was holding Holden back was finally dropped as she reached it. Within seconds she was wrapped into his arms and swiftly pulled up the stairs. She let him as she couldn’t feel any of her limbs, her hand burned still and her mind reeling.
“I’ve got you, don’t worry Little Bird.” He whispered to her as they went up the stairs. “I’ll be right beside you and you will rise stronger than before.”