Chapter 36
“We can destroy him now,” Rook breathed, the mating bond sizzling between them. It was then Rook noticed his armor, along with the Oculus, were gone, and Soren’s hope fell.
“We have to get it back,” Soren said, trying to get to her feet.
Rook had found another healing draught from a nearby med kit for her leg, but it was still weak.
“I’ll get it and come back to you,” Rook said, standing and moving out of her reach.
“No!” Soren cried. “I just got you back.”
He leaned forward and held her chin gently. “You can’t walk, little bird,” he said softly.
“No”—Soren smirked—“but I can fly.”
* * *
Soren lifted her bow,providing cover fire for the Anisteran rebellion. She nocked an arrow that was stolen from a dead man’s quiver and let it fly. The feathered shaft cut through the air, whistling softly, before embedding through the side of Adriel’s beast.
Soren cursed and readjusted her aim. She had hit her target, but not where she had wanted to.
Bows from Nuraka were designed to be used with a thumb draw. It was an archery style unfamiliar to her. That, mixed with the fact that she was flying bareback on a winged horse, hindered her accuracy further.
“Come on; let’s circle again,” she said sternly, nocking another arrow. This one met its mark, striking one of Adriel’s followers through the chest.
She cheered silently and continued assisting from above while Rook darted from one enemy to the next, zigzagging a path toward his father. She squeezed her eyes shut, sending a prayer to the Maker to watch over him.
She had realized weeks ago that her prayers were unfounded, considering that Adriel was now the Architect of Anistera, the new god they were expected to worship, but she sent her hopes skyward, anyway. Maybe the previous leader of Anistera would somehow hear her prayers and provide assistance.
Enara was standing over Baz’s body, surrounded by a ring of carnage. She was a woman possessed, and anyone who dared to get close to her was cut down with such force it made Soren flinch.
She could make out the sheen of Baz’s armor from her vantage point in the clouds, and her chest felt hollow. She did now allow herself to think of all the things she would miss about the silly, sweet boy who had snuck his way into her and Enara’s lives. The big guy with the even bigger heart would hold a permanent place in hers.
She pressed her eyes together, and when she opened them again, she refocused her sights on the man who had killed one of her best friends in this life and let another arrow fly.
* * *
Enara bathedin the blood of her enemies, her armor a deep shade of crimson, veined with the ichor of the beasts, made her look like a goddess of death. She snarled as wave after wave tried to get between her and Baz. Bodies already created a line in the ashes, a dark caricature of the sparring ring she had fought in only days ago.
The majority of the warriors from Xian-Dao had their blades set on her now. They saw Baz as a betrayer to them and wanted to string him up as a warning to those who did not follow Bao-Ren. Their loyalty to their leader was unwavering, and as one body fell, another took its place.
Blood and ash filled Enara’s eyes, and her arms strained with every swing of Coraxis’s blade. She could feel her body giving out, but she couldn’t let them have him.
His body was hers to love, hers to mourn, and hers to burn and bury. Thoughts of his mothers and how she would have to break their hearts by telling them their son was lost fueled her fight. She would bring him back to them.
As metal cut into flesh and beak met bone, her heart tore itself from her chest. Breathing was laborious, and grief was clawing at the back of her throat like a demon trying to escape from hell.
There was a beauty in grief that people often overlooked. For grief only came to those who had loved and lost. To those whose hearts beat for another. To those who had been met with a benevolent hand and a warm embrace. Those who, against all odds, had found a kindred soul to whom they would be forever connected. Grief did not belong to those with hatred in their hearts, but to those who had the capacity to love and be loved in return.
Enara’s shoulders screamed as Coraxis took down another body, and she clenched her teeth, the muscles in her legs straining from the effort. She did not have much more in her. She was only human, after all, and the adrenaline in her body would give out soon.
There were few Xian-Dao warriors left. Most had been killed in the first wave of the attack, being the easier targets than their Celestial allies. A few traitors had run when the rebellion had arrived. The fifteen or so left stalked around the circle of bodies, waiting for Enara to fall.
Two more jumped in, but one fell to the ground at her feet, an arrow protruding from his skull, the metal of his helmet crushing into his face on impact.
Enara flicked her eyes to the sky, tracing the arrow’s trajectory. She smiled thankfully to Soren who held up her bow triumphantly from above.
She wiped the dead warrior’s fresh blood from her mouth and let out a cry before slamming Coraxis into the second soldier’s chest.
She was winded from the kill and took a knee, her lungs struggling to oxygenate her blood. I can do this, she thought. I can finish them. In the time it took her to struggle back to her feet, three more warriors had entered the ring, one of them sneering at her.
“The battlefield is no place for a woman,” he said, his eastern accent lacing his discriminatory words. From the insignia emblazoned on his armor, she guessed he was the major general. His armor had barely a scratch. He had clearly been watching from the sidelines.
“That’s an odd thing to say when it’s your men’s bodies at my feet,” she spat.
The general’s eyes darkened as he lifted his double-edge sword, his brows pressed together angrily. “And you shall join them,” he threatened, lunging toward her.
His men stood by, knowing better than to join the fight when their leader was trying to prove a point.
Enara struggled against the blows of his sword, her feet catching on a hunk of severed flesh, making her trip backward, landing hard beside Baz’s body. She lifted Coraxis to defend another blow, but the weapon fell from her hands, skittering to the side. Her body finally gave out.
“I will carve your tongue from your mouth so no one will hear you scream when we hang your lover’s body from our leader’s walls. You will beg for death, and only when his body is nothing but rotting flesh, hanging from bone, will you find your end. You will be buried on opposite sides of this earth so your souls may never be reunited in the after.”
“Torture me, kill me, remove my tongue if you wish. You may be able to stop my heart from beating, but the love we have for each other can never be taken from us!”
The general did not even grace her with a response before arcing his blade down toward her, his bloodlust taking over. She welcomed it with open arms, her thoughts drifting to Baz. I’ll see you soon.
Enara felt heat coat her skin, and her heart warmed knowing she would soon be with him. She could almost hear his voice calling to her.
“Enara,” it whispered, and she smiled when she felt his strong hands on her shoulders.
“Enara,” the voice said louder this time, the grip on her arms tightening. “Sister, get up.”
Rook’s voice rang clear in her ears, and her lids shot open. His blue eyes assessed her, and she realized he looked just like their grandmother on her mother’s side. She had passed away when Enara was just a child. She had forgotten she’d had white hair before her day, as well. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed it before.
“Enara, are you okay?” he asked more sternly now.
She mentally gave her body a once-over and realized that the warmth she felt was the general’s blood. She grimaced.
“Yeah, thanks,” she replied, letting him assist her to her feet.
She looked around and noticed the last of Bao-Ren’s men had been slain; a few from Soren’s arrows and the rest by Rook’s blade.
“We need to get to my father,” Rook said, his mind back in battle mode.
“I can’t leave him,” Enara choked out. She turned to look at Baz’s body. If she tricked her mind long enough, she could pretend he was sleeping.
Her eyes traveled over his still frame and stopped when she noticed something sticking out from the thigh plate of his armor. It was made of a metal not found in Entheas. She recognized it immediately.
She bent down and kissed his forehead, reaching a shaky hand forward to grasp the artifact. “It seems,” she said, turning and handing the object to Rook with a smile, “that even in death, he had one last part to play in our story.”
Rook took the Oculus into his hand, feeling the power emanating from it. The buzz that normally surrounded the artifact was gone, the mating call diminished. His grip tightened on the object, and his lips curled into the hint of a smirk.
“Please tell me you and Soren can do something of use with this,” Enara said.
A true smile graced his lips now. “I think we just might.”
* * *
Adriel could feelthe shift in the air, the telltale sign of a mating bond clicking into place. The field was vast, but his eyes found his son and the vile girl, Soren, across the field. He hated to admit that his heart lurched slightly at the sight. For a moment, he could remember how it felt to be back in the Architect’s quarters, Celandine wrapped in his arms, their mating bond tingling between them.
The sight of his son finding his mate made him feel ill. No matter how many lifetimes he had left, he would never find that again. Celandine had effectively ruined him, and he had forsaken all others.
He brushed off the isolating thoughts and chuckled to himself. Mating bond or not, they were useless without the Oculus.
He reached down to touch the artifact for reassurance, and when he found his hand empty, he let out an angry, “No!”
His sword came up as two of his sisters sprinted forward on the offensive. He cut them down without even blinking, their blood joining the burned field of red.
He stared down at their faces and spat on their remains. They were traitors, and even though he had known them for centuries, he felt nothing.
This is all Luscinia’s doing, he thought. He had seen her come through the gate, standing side-by-side with Abraxos, and it had made his blood boil.
He vowed in that moment to destroy all of his betrayers, and when his sword was coated in their blood, then he would kill Luscinia. She would watch each of them fall to the after before joining them, knowing that their lives had been cut short due to her treacherous actions.
She was on the ground, unmoving, and he couldn’t help but feel disappointed, his thirst for revenge unquenched.
The creature to his side took an arrow to the head and slumped to the ground. He ripped it out, and the beast made a wailing sound before the wound on its head healed and it rose to its feet.
“Leave none alive,” Adriel ordered, and the beast roared before charging into a group of Celestials, impaling two upon its knife-like appendages.
Adriel smirked, enjoying the bloodshed. It would be over soon, and then the rest of Entheas would burn. But he did not wish to celebrate preemptively. He would not enjoy his success until the Oculus was in his hands and his traitorous son was dead.
He could see Rook across the field, his snowy hair streaked with red and black, giving him away like a white flag demanding a ceasefire. Adriel could also see a girl with brown hair surrounded by bodies, one of which was the boy whose neck he had snapped like dried kindling. It had been a long time since he had killed with his bare hands, and he had reveled in it.
Something caught his eye, and that was when he noticed the sun glinting off an object that Rook was holding his hand over. To his disbelief, Adriel realized it was the Oculus. He watched as his son bled into the artifact, and then both him and the girl waved their hands to the sky. It was then he noticed Soren riding Obsidian.
His anger intensified as he plowed his way through the field toward his son. If Soren reached him, they could use the Oculus against him, and he couldn’t have that.
He ran, his body a blur, flying across the field, fury driving him. He thought the stupid beast had died along with Celandine, but it seemed the horse’s life force had connected to her daughter’s upon her death.
No matter. I can amend that, he thought, using all his strength to thrust his sword toward the sky.
* * *
Soren caughtthe flash of Adriel’s blade just before it sank into Obsidian’s side. He let out a strained whinny and began to fall.
Soren screamed as he struggled to keep them aloft, his wings flapping erratically. Blood was seeping from where the sword had embedded between the horse’s eighth and ninth rib, and his chuffs were labored.
“Come on, boy; almost there,” Soren coaxed as the ground grew close.
Obsidian tried to land gently, but his legs crumpled below him as he skidded to a stop, his wings disappearing into his sides.
Soren jumped off, wincing as her leg twinged. “No, no, no!” she cried when she pressed her hands to the horse’s black coat only for them to come back covered in red. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around the horse’s neck.
The creature let out a soft whinny, straining to hug her back.
When Soren pulled away, she swore she could see tears in his eyes.
“I’ll come back for you,” she whispered.
His ears twitched, and he huffed in response as Soren wiped her eyes and ran toward the Oculus.
She pulled Vane from its sheath and wrapped her fist around the blade, slicing her hand in one swift movement. She then stopped as she reached Rook and Enara, who had met her halfway, and resisted the urge to look past them at Baztien’s body.
Rook thrust the Oculus into Soren’s hand, and she let her lifeblood flow into it.
“We have to imagine exactly what we want for it to work properly,” Rook reiterated.
Soren had studied the lore of the Oculus in Rook’s library but was happy for the refresher.
“Destroy all enemies?” she asked as they placed their fingers on the metal edges.
“Too vague,” Rook responded.
“Let’s start with your father then,” Soren suggested.
Rook grimaced at the title but responded with a sharp, “Fine. Then close your eyes, little bird.”
Soren pressed her eyes together tightly, putting the thought at the forefront of her mind. Unmake Adriel. But before the thought was fully formed, she felt a sharp impact and found her body flying sideways onto the burned ground. She struggled to regain her breath as her ribs smarted from the blow.
She turned to see what had struck them and was horrified to find Adriel standing over Enara. He held a plain blade in his hand, obviously stolen from a fallen soldier, and arced the blade down toward her friend.
Coraxis struggled against the strength of his blows, but Enara had rested for a few moments and swung back with renewed vigor. Finally, she was face-to-face with Baztien’s killer.
She would show no mercy.
* * *
Jai ran toward Adriel,hoping to catch him off guard again. He raised his sword out to his side like a bird’s wing and swiped toward the god’s legs. Before his blade could hit its mark, however, Adriel turned to block the blow, his weaponless hand coming up and catching Jai hard in the face. He could feel bones crunch, and the sick metallic taste of blood filled his mouth.
He willed himself to push up from the ground, trying to clear the stars from his eyes. The edges of his vision were inky black, and he could barely see the fuzzy figure of Enara’s bladed staff clanging against Adriel’s sword.
He could just make out Rook’s white hair, his arms dragging his body toward something in the dirt.
Jai pushed himself off the ground, spitting crimson from his mouth, and made his way toward where Adriel and Enara were still fighting.
Another Celestial had his eyes set on them, and Jai made to cut him off until he realized they had the same target. Hope creeped into his veins as he watched Adriel’s brother join Enara in battle.
Adriel’s chest was all but bare, strips of fabric from his tunic dangling from his shoulders. He was covered head to toe in dried blood, the flakes lifting off of his body to be carried away in the autumn breeze. Sweat slicked his skin, and his blue eyes were as sharp as the icicles that hung off the eaves of Thorncrest Manor. The red scar on his face seemed to pulse as his anger grew.
“Traitor!” Adriel roared as Abraxos’s sword sliced deep into his bicep. “How dare you attack your leader?”
“You are no leader of mine,” Abraxos ground out, continuing his assault.
Enara grunted and swung along with him, hacking and slicing until Adriel’s chest was coated in a fresh layer of red.
“Insolent girl!” Adriel yelled as Enara sliced down his pretty face. She did so with a smile, her teeth flashing.
“Now you have another one to match.”
This angered him even more, and he began swinging wildly, not caring where he landed his blows. His aggression won out, and all three fighters fell to the ground at his feet, bruised, broken, and bleeding.
A smug smile cut through his already damaged features as he cracked his neck from side to side and strode past Jai, Enara, and Abraxos, his sights set on Soren and Rook.
Soren had reached the Oculus first, struggling on her wounded leg. Rook was almost there, his body as heavy as lead. He reached forward, his fingertips stretching toward the artifact, but Adriel snatched it up from between them.
“I think we’ve outgrown the need for silly toys,” he sneered, snapping the Oculus in half and throwing the pieces to opposite sides of the field.
“No!” Soren screamed, her hope cracking like a clay vase falling from a great height.
Adriel kicked her in her already damaged ribs, and she cried out.
“Do not touch her!” Rook croaked, reaching his hand toward Soren.
Adriel pressed his armored boot against it, crushing his fingers into the ground. Rook refused to voice his pain and clenched his teeth together.
“You could have been so much more than this,” Adriel scolded. “I gave you everything you could ever need to succeed in this world, and you threw it all away for a stupid human.”
“If you haven’t noticed, Father,”Rook said, the word as caustic as acid, “I am human.”
Adriel’s features screwed up at the comment, and he shifted his blade to Rook’s neck. “You could have been a god.”
“And yet, I know true happiness where you do not,” Rook replied, scowling. His eyes flicked to the blade as it pressed into his neck.
“You could have lived forever,” Adriel scoffed. “All these years, honing your healing abilities, and what do you have to show for it?”
“Invisible scars and internal trauma,” Soren interjected, stabbing Vane into Adriel’s ankle.
He roared and smacked her head to the side, her body crumpling next to Rook, who laced his arm around her waist, pulling her closer.
Adriel grabbed the dagger and ripped it from his ankle, pointing it in Soren’s face. “Stupid girl, that little scratch will heal before your body hits the ground. Your efforts are wasted.”
“Were they, though?” Soren asked, her face stretching into a large grin, eyes flicking past him.
He turned just as Coraxis’s blade hooked around his neck and removed his head from his body.
As blood spurted from the wound, Adriel’s head rolled to the side. The last image he saw was Enara’s satisfied smile before his soul faded into oblivion.