Chapter 18
Eighteen
Vale had never been more exhausted in his long existence.
His bones ached. His vision blurred. Even his skin throbbed, every beat of his heart bringing a new wave of agony as the wilderness void rotted.
But even a dying Skullstalker was lethal.
A mortal attempted to swing a sword at him.
Vale clawed his cheek open and threw him into a tree.
The next mortals ran at him with a net threaded with malblossom.
This was irritating, but Vale barely felt the burns as he clawed the net to pieces and slammed the mortals to the ground with one swipe of his huge hands.
Ahead of him, Christopher stuffed the vial into his robes pocket and raised his broken staff. “Circle of the Jeweled Fist! Back into formation, back to your glory—holy HELLS!”
That last shriek was well-earned. Zax had streaked past him, his one unburned eye blazing purple with delight as he chased down the latest unlucky mortal foolish enough to run from him.
He relished the chase more than the actual mauling, which was regrettable.
It meant there were more mortals for him to take down.
Another net flashed over Vale. He swiped at it, but a third net soon followed. Then another. Burning lines of malblossom trailed across his face and arms, tangling his limbs until he was forced to stop.
Christopher dropped his staff into an attack position. Fire glowed at the tip, ready to shoot at Vale.
A malblossom-tipped arrow struck Vale in the leg. He staggered, falling to one knee. The net dragged him to the ground, pinning him down.
Christopher let out a triumphant cry and leveled his staff at Vale’s face. Vale struggled, but he was too weak. The fire spell swelled—only to veer off into Christopher’s panicked followers as the staff jerked upward.
Vale raised his head against the malblossom nets. Christopher’s staff was bound to his arm, tangled in ivy. Vines climbed his robes, twisting around his limbs while he writhed.
“Help me,” he barked at the Circle. “Somebody get over here and help me!”
A sharp, clear voice rang out through the clearing. “Nobody goes near him.”
Despite the pain burning in his leg and the exhaustion threatening to overwhelm him, Vale smiled.
Ivy stood with her teeth bared and her arm outstretched, all of her trembling. Sweat streamed down her face, and blood trickled from her nose. But whatever toll the void magic was taking on her, she did not let it distract her from her goal.
Ivy’s fingers closed. The plants around Christopher tightened, and he cried out in pain.
“Somebody cut me free,” Christopher yelled. “And get back in formation so I can let us into the damned void!”
“Don’t,” Ivy snapped. “He’s fooling you, can’t you see? If you let him cast that spell, it will kill you all!”
The forest went silent. Even Zax stopped mauling his latest victim so he could watch the proceedings, his chin dripping with gore.
“He’s never cared about helping us,” Ivy cried, her arm shaking with the effort of keeping Christopher restrained. “I’m his last living family, and he threw me away as soon as it benefited him!”
A murmur went up through the surviving members of the Circle. Some of them reached for the symbol they had painted on their chests, as if remembering the feeling of having their life start to drain from them.
Christopher’s lip curled. “Don’t spew your lies, Ivy! You were always easily manipulated. What have these monsters told you?”
“I was easily manipulated,” Ivy yelled. “Manipulated by you! I tried so hard to make you happy, to prove I was useful! And you would have let me get eaten so you could take back your ‘rightful place’! You know what, Uncle? I think the king was right about you! You are a backstabbing, power-hungry wretch!”
Christopher scowled. “Enough of this! My loyal Circle of the Jeweled Fist, fulfill your promise!”
His hand flexed around his trapped staff. The forest lit up as the symbols on the Circle members’ chests started glowing once more, the campfire flaring so high they almost reached the tops of the trees.
“No!” Ivy cried. “Vale, help! Get up!”
Vale tried to stand. But none of the mortals lifted the malblossom net off him. Especially when they started bleeding from their nose and mouths, muffling their choked cries.
“Wipe them off,” Ivy yelled, turning her attention back to the mortals. “Damn it, wipe the symbols off!”
One freckled mortal’s hand worked feverishly at her chest. She broke the symbol, and it instantly stopped glowing. She fell to her knees, gasping, before pushing herself back up and wiping desperately at the symbol of the man next to her.
“No,” Christopher spat, gaunt and glowing in the campfire light. “No, don’t! We must get into the void!”
But the freckled mortal’s work was done: her husband’s symbol was broken. He staggered into her, his eyes full of shock as he stemmed the blood pouring from his nose. He grabbed his wife’s hand and tugged her away, stumbling into the trees.
“That’s it,” Ivy called. “Free each other! Free each other or die for him!”
Christopher let out an outraged cry as more mortals rubbed their symbols off. The only ones who did not free themselves from their symbols started to choke on their own blood, their eyes turning white and empty as the life left them.
“Zax,” Ivy yelled. “Free Vale!”
But Vale was busy chasing the mortals who were foolish enough to run. The freckled woman screamed as her husband was dragged to the ground, his neck torn open by Zax’s huge fangs.
The light from Christopher’s spell faded. The impossibly high campfire died. The few mortals who did not save themselves fell to the ground.
“NO,” Christopher bellowed as ivy trapped his now-useless staff against his chest. “It’s not enough!”
“You—you killed them,” someone yelled from the fringes of the group. “He killed them!”
“He did,” Ivy said, her lips covered in blood trickling from her nose. Nowhere near as much as Christopher had done to his victims, but enough for Vale to know she was nearing her limit. “Just as he would’ve killed you all. Now, can somebody please let Vale up?”
No one moved. Not until Zax loped through the corpses, his chin still dripping with blood from chasing down the ones who ran. The man’s freckled wife stood behind him, her face wet with tears and her husband’s lifeblood.
“It is not good to burn,” Zax said, inclining his scarred head at Vale. Then he began to cut the malblossom nets off Vale’s trapped body.
An older mortal backed away, clutching a dagger at his belt. “What are you doing? It will devour us all!”
“He won’t,” Ivy said, muffled through the blood. “Not unless you attack him first.”
“Or run,” Zax added as he sliced Vale free. “If something runs from me, I will chase it.”
He snapped the last rope. Vale stood, his knees wobbling underneath him. His vision blurred, the wilderness void a distant echo in his head.
He needed to get back. But he couldn’t do that without the vial. He turned to Christopher once more, stalking toward him.
Christopher pointed his staff threateningly at him. At least, he tried. The ivy was still creeping over his limbs, forcing his staff to point up at the trees.
“You think this monster deserves the void?” Christopher spat. “You think he will make use of its resources? Only I can do that! I will take back our rightful place in this kingdom!”
Ivy curled her hand into a fist. The plants around Christopher tightened, and he let out a hoarse scream.
Vale strode up to him, every muscle threatening to give way. He was visibly worn and covered in burns. But Christopher’s face still flickered with the appropriate amount of fear as he watched Vale approach.
“Come back to us, my beloved niece,” Christopher called across the dead campfire as smoke rose into the trees. “I see your power now. You are glorious, just like you always wanted!”
“I never wanted that,” Ivy said. “I only wanted a place that loved me. Something you could never provide.”
The plants around Christopher’s neck tightened. His eyes bulged and turned bloodshot, his face flushing dangerously red as he choked.
“You…” Christopher fixed his red-spotted eyes on Ivy. “Y-you can’t kill me. You don’t have it in you.”
Ivy’s jaw tensed, but her hand loosened.
“No,” she said softly as her uncle wheezed. “I don’t.”
Vale watched her expectantly. His body was withering along with his void. But he stayed on his feet, his claws ready. He had a promise to keep.
Sure enough, Ivy looked up at him, his once-timid offering turned otherworldly and fierce.
“But he can.”