Chapter 47
Chapter Forty-Seven
V ictor pounced on Arthur, landing on his back. Arthur stumbled. Falling straight in Maaier’s waiting grasp. His gloved hands held his neck.
I fell to my knees, bending over my father. His blood trickled out around the blade lodged in his chest.
“No.” The word fell from my lips. Hot tears filled my eyes. Stupid fool. I cursed myself. His eyes gleamed with emotion. Blood pooling in the corners of his mouth. A torn sob broke through my blubbering lips. This can’t be happening.
“You can’t leave me.” I choked out. My father stared at me. I took my hands in one of his. The blood mingled with the wound still burning. A cold burst of air filled the room. A pale hand took his other.
“Please.” I pleaded. I had just gotten him back. The man who raised me. The man who held me when all was fearful in the world. He can’t leave me. Not like this. He can’t be stuck to the manor like this. This wasn’t how it was meant to end.
“My darling Theodore.” My mother said softly. Her hand brushed the flop of curls from his forehead. His head lolled as he looked at her. Eyes seemed to widen as if he could see her.
“You’ve done so well,” She said, her eyes watering as she gazed down at her husband on the floor. Arthur’s grunts filled the remaining silence. My own shattered sobs filling the other.
“You’ve come home. I always knew you would come home to me.” She lowered her lips to his hand in hers. His eyelids slowly closing. His chest falling softly as his breathing lessened.
“He can’t go. It isn’t his time.” I pleaded. My eyes fell to Maaier in the corner. His saddened gaze told me all I needed to know.
“Please.” I pleaded. Calling out to the death god to hear me. To grant me this one wish. To save him just as he did Maaier. Only to receive no response.
“Let him go, Vespera. You can’t save him.” Mother urged but didn’t take her soft eyes from fathers.
I squeaked as I withheld my sob at the sight.
“But I can.” Pleaded with her, begging for her to understand.
“Let him come home to me. Let him come home to us.” She pleaded. Her fingers grazed his hand, drawing circles as her tears fell on his cheeks. A sad smile on her beautiful face.
I shook my head. This can’t be right. It can’t be. With one final sob, I let him go. Allowed him that one last breath. His eyes fell to mine before looking up at my mother. Whose lips pressed against his forehead. His eyelids fluttered closed as she brought him home. Back to her loving arms.
The grief and despair heated inside of me. Boiling its way into a rage in my veins. He did this. He needs retribution. He tore my family apart. He tore me apart and now, he would tear nothing apart again.
I shook my head. Pulling hand from Father’s grip as his breathing stopped.
Maaier had loosened his hold on Arthur. Instead tearing his attention to me. His gaze was concerned as I stood.
“If I accept your offer, Maaier. Do I get to see them again?”
He opened his mouth only to close it. I shot him a withering look. He nodded.
That was all I needed. He stood beside me. Cupping my cheek with his hand as he turned back to Arthur.
“His soul is yours to reap,” He whispered in my ear. Pulling his gloves off and taking my hand in his.
Victor grunted as he held back Arthur who was screeching in his arms. Dorian and Grandmother, nowhere to be seen. Good, I didn't need her to witness me killing her son and myself in the process.
“Then I choose you, Maaier. I always choose you,” I announced to the room.
A warmth tangled up my skin.
“You need to accept yourself, my soul. You need to accept that you are darkness and you are light. You need to accept that love within yourself.”
And I did. I accepted that life could not exist without death. That I would not be here without the death surrounding the manor. That I was both light and darkness. Colour and grey.
The warmth spread through me. Stoking the rage within but heating me to the bone. As if truly bringing me back to life.
My eyes drifted close as I embraced the warmth. Embraced the love the darkness brought.
My eyes fluttered open. The grey of my surroundings flickering like a wave. Colour spread through the ripples. Like a curtain in the breeze. Hues of a world unseen brought to life. The beauty in darkness was now present. The sight was disorienting. The colour shone through the bleak. The wooden floor deepening with the books on the walls beaming to life in all shades. The glow of the lanterns were almost like how I imagined the sun. The night sky beyond the windows now the darkest shade of colour I had ever seen.
Arthur screamed as he realised the change. Knowing he had lost.
“His soul is yours to reap,” Maaier purred in my ear again. Pride swelled in my chest. This is what I was created for. This was my journey. This life was my colour.
“Victor. I need you to find Dorian.” I kept my order clear. He loosened his grip on a cowering Arthur.
“I need you to keep her away from here. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” He nodded. Confused by the outcome of the situation.
“Good.” I smiled despite my sadness of never seeing him again. “Take care of her for me.”
Victor smiled sadly before leaving the room. Closing the doors after him.
I turned to face Arthur. Letting all my rage seem into my face.
“You brought this on yourself.” I hissed, balling my trembling hands into fists. The wound now healed with my sight restored.
“No. You can’t do this to me!” He squealed as I drew close. My hands like claws beside me, longing for his soul.
“I can. And I will,” I sneered, “ You will answer for taking the lives of those girls.” As if on cue, the girls entered slowly, hand in hand, staring at Arthur with hostile intent. The maid with a feral gleam in her eyes. And Magdelena. Her fire blazed around her as she looked upon her brother.
They surrounded my mother. Still holding Father in her arms as his soul was yet to come free. She held him close but her eyes remained on me. The ghosts of Florian’s past all drifted through circling the man as I neared. I willed him to see them to see the women taken by his hand that hadn’t yet crossed. Their souls, not knowing peace until he was six feet under.
I towered over him. Kneeling down as he blubbered with disgusting fear. Taking in the faces of the spirits around him. My hands met his face. I willed his soul to break free. An ancient feeling deep in bones waiting to be awoken. Blood trickled up through his eyes. The man roared with pain. His anguished screams filled the night as the women watched in silence. I willed my hands down. Thrusting them through his ribs to his still beating heart. Warm blood pooled around them before I found what I wanted. A shred of smoke so dark it tainted the air. The stench of decay rife as I tugged it free. Arthur stilled beneath me. The light slowly left his terrified wide eyes.
I held the soul in my bloodied hands. Marvelled at how dark it was. Were all souls like this? I hoped not. This one reeked of death and decay.
A hand touched my back. Maaier pulled me into him. A familiar warmth flooded through me as his lips met my hair.
“Well done, my soul. They can all rest now.” I could hear his smile in his voice, pride swelling from him.
The women in the room each looked upon the corpse before fading. A faceless man appeared over him. His hand extended to each of the women. The two young girls smiled as they looked back at me before taking his hands. Fading into the darkness of the room until all that was left were my aunt, mother and father. Whose soul had still not risen.
“You did it,” Magdelena said softly, her voice thick with emotion.
I tilted my head smiling at her. Her flames died down to reveal the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen. A shade so vibrant. So blue. A shade I was told I shared but yet to see.
She clung to Mother’s shoulders.
“Come.” She ordered gently. Mother stayed put. Her focus solely on the wound in Father’s chest.
She wouldn’t leave without him. Without us. She had said so herself. I lowered myself beside her. Hovering my hands over where she still clutched his. I closed my eyes. Willing the soul to come to me as if I had been doing this my entire life.
His soul was tangled. Knotted around the shadow in his heart. In my mind, I unwound the thread of his soul, like a knot of mattered rope. My hands weaving in and out, pulling it free. A brilliant white light emitted from his body.
The shred of Arthur’s soul discarded on the floor. The God of Death returned to take it before lingering to watch the sight unfold.
The light of Father’s soul beamed before stilling over his body. He awoke at once. His spirit floating over the corpse. He met my mother’s waiting arms with no hesitation. Holding each other close for the first time in years. A love so longing and pure radiating from them.
Never once did their souls part again.