Chapter 45 #2
I couldn’t allow it. I slipped away from him before he could block me in.
I rushed to the opposite side of the room remembering every lesson Alaric had drilled into me.
Don't chase the kill. Don't overcommit.
Wait and watch and survive.
Thayden came after me and attacked again.
I parried, but his blade missed me by inches. He thought I was trying to fight to win.
Good. That’s exactly what I wanted him to believe. The more he believed that the less likely he was to notice that I was after the amulet.
But then I lost my footing when I turned, and tripped. Shit.
I fell flat on my ass and that gave him the advantage he’d been waiting for. He reached down and grabbed my neck. His fingers dug into my skin as he hoisted me in the air.
He was hurting me and he knew it.
“You are the one who was evil, Elariya. You. Evil bitch.” He shoved me into the wall and squeezed my neck.
“Do you know how many women who would have killed to be in your shoes? They all wanted me. But I wanted you. I saw your face in every woman I fucked. Do you have any idea what that feels like?”
“Let me go!”
“No. Not this time.”
I thrashed against him, kicking against the air.
“Why couldn’t you just love me? Look at me here in this fucking place. All for you, Elariya. All for the sake of you.” He squeezed my neck tighter and gods… I was losing air. I could barely keep the grip on my sword. “Why couldn’t you just love me? What the fuck made Wolfe Nightblade so special?”
“Everything,” I coughed. It was the worst thing I could say. But I couldn’t help it. The bastard needed that answer.
“Whore,” he spat, getting right into my face. “I should have fucked you when I had the chance. I was a fool to think you would see sense and love me.”
While he moved closer, I took the chance to grab his jacket. He’d placed the amulet in the inside pocket.
I reached down to grab it, but I wasn’t quick enough. My chance slipped away.
He knew exactly what I was doing.
With a sneer he rammed me into the wall. I dropped my sword. “You little bitch.”
He was about to do it again when the room changed. It shifted, all the furniture fading and restructuring itself to form… mirrors. Walls of mirrors.
Thayden seemed stunned by the change too. Like he hadn’t been expecting it.
I didn’t know how this place worked but whatever magic lay here seemed to change at will. Or perhaps that was either the Deathless or the necromancer playing their games.
As Thayden looked around with a deep frown, I saw another opening and dug my fingers into his neck.
He howled. I squeezed the skin, pressing in so hard blood seeped against my fingers.
He responded with a force that almost knocked me senseless.
Magic.
It felt like some sort of barrier. It pressed down on me, binding my body and becoming heavier the longer he stared. Fire blazed deep in his eyes and he was barely Thayden anymore.
“You are mine,” he grated out and slapped me across the face.
Blood spurted from my nose and I almost passed out. I would have but the wall behind me shifted again and he stumbled.
I kneed him hard in the groin with the last ounce of strength I had. It worked. He doubled over and his grasp around my neck loosened.
The moment my feet touched the ground I grabbed my sword and ran.
I took off down what had become a hallway with nothing but mirrors.
Not one continuous mirror like others I’d seen. This had several in one and caught different reflections of me, showing things I wasn’t even doing.
One even had me laughing. It was completely crazy. And it didn’t fucking matter because Thayden had recovered and was chasing me. He was fast and the only advantage I had were the few strides I had ahead of him. I turned the corner and down another losing him.
Around me, more normal reflections of myself shimmered in the mirrors. When Thayden rushed in, I realized he couldn’t tell which was the real me.
I seized advantage of that and sought to confuse him further.
I ran around, sound of my footsteps jarring him. One version of me ran past him and he tried to grab me only to smash into a mirror.
I thought the glass would crack but it simply warped around his fists.
Cursing, Thayden spun around when I went to the left. This time all the versions did the same thing.
He reached for me again, smashing into the mirror.
“Elariya, stop this now!” he shouted. “You need to come with me. You have no idea what these beings are capable of. I’ve been protecting you.”
“They only allowed you to believe that.” I called back. My voice echoed and more versions of me flashed around him.
It was so strange. I wasn’t actually that far from him, but he still couldn’t figure it out. The same way he never knew I’d never love him.
How ironic for him that this was the one situation he’d lost control over.
Bastard. I planned to get close alright. Just not the way he thought.
He turned the corner the same time I did, doing exactly what I thought he’d do. The versions of me on the mirror started doing different things again and I realized that was the enchantment. To show different aspects of a person’s reflection.
At this rate, he’d never catch me.
While he searched each reflection, I summoned courage and ran right up to him from behind. I raised my sword and rammed it straight into his back. The blade punctured right through his heart with a sickening pop, then his body began convulsing.
When he turned to face me and he looked like he’d aged by fifty years I knew exactly what punishment my sword had delivered. And it was fitting.
Entropy—aging. Stealing all the years he could have had right before his eyes.
He fell to his knees but he still gazed at me. “Elariya.” He reached one withered hand toward me as his hair turned white and started falling off. “What did you do to me?”
“What you deserve Thayden.”
“No… magic. The amulet blocked your magic.” He could barely talk.
“I am magic.”
His eyes held mine with pure disbelief before rolling back in his head. Then he crumpled to the ground in a pile of dust. Bone and flesh becoming nothing more than a memory.
The amulet clattered to the ground along with my sword.
I picked up the sword and stabbed the amulet in the center with it. A blood red substance leaked through and when I felt my magic again, I realized I was free.
And I’d killed Thayden.
I stared at the pile of dust that had once been him, my stomach lurching.
He was the first human that I’d killed.
That made me feel dirty. Even though he deserved it.
I shook my head and spared him no remorse. It was time to push him out of my mind forever. His death was justice. That was the man who would have had my family burnt at the stake just to spite me.
I looked around. I had to get out of here and find Wolfe. I had to leave before something or someone else came to find me.
Someone like Zyrra. I was no match for her.
Or any of the Deathless.
But who was?
We were losing. Only the gods knew what was happening outside.
Poor Garrick. I prayed he was okay. But I saw what happened, saw how hard he’d been struck by those loathsome creatures.
I had to find Wolfe.
I searched the bond. It felt whole again, but I couldn’t feel him anywhere.
I stared at the mirror, stared at my bloody face.
A million Elariyas gazed back at me, stretching into eternity and beyond. They moved on a loop of forever. I’d never be able to find every single one of them and it seemed like where one ended another took its place. Forever.
Something tingled in my heart. Not the bond. Something else.
I didn’t know what it was but an idea formed.
I looked ahead at the Elariya’s and the idea grew.
Another reckless idea.
But gods… it just might work.
I closed my eyes and thought of Laureth, trying to feel him through the bond. Would he come to me here?
Would he be allowed?
As soon as I had the thought, Laureth flew through a portal, smashing through the mirrors.
“My lady.” He bowed his head.
I was so thrilled to see him, I hugged him. “Oh Laureth. How did you find me?”
“My lady, you forget we walk through all paths of time. I simply found a path on a temporal plane that led me here.”
“Blessed Mother.” I lifted my head. “We have to find Wolfe.”
“And we will. Climb aboard.”
I did as he said.
As soon as I was on his back, he opened a portal.
Then we flew into darkness.