Chapter 34 #2
Caesar dove again, this time at me. I threw myself backward, and Rafael came with me, the chain between our ankles pulling us into a coordinated retreat.
The eagle's talons grazed my upper arm, but it was enough to tear open the skin and muscle. I didn't want to think about how bad it'd be if he got his talons on my head.
Constantine moved left to give Caesar a better angle, and we shifted right, keeping distance. The chamber was huge, but we were running out of room. Our backs would hit the wall soon.
"We need to split them up," I said.
"Can't. Chain won't reach."
"Not split. Separate." I met Rafael's eye. "You take Constantine; I'll handle the bird."
"Your arm—"
"Is fine." My hand clamped over the wound. Blood soaked between my fingers. "It's just a scratch. And we'll both be dead if we don't finish this quickly."
Rafael's jaw clenched. Then he nodded once.
Constantine came forward, and Rafael met him head-on, bludgeon raised. Wood cracked against wood in a series of rapid strikes that drove Constantine back two steps.
Caesar dove at Rafael's exposed back.
I was already moving. I swung my bludgeon in a wide arc and connected with Caesar's wing. Feathers exploded, and the bird shrieked, tumbling sideways in the air.
The chain between Caesar and Constantine jerked Constantine's ankle, and he stumbled mid-swing.
Rafael's bludgeon cracked across Constantine's jaw.
Blood sprayed. Constantine reeled backward, his hand coming up to his split lip.
That pleasant mask never slipped.
"Clever." Constantine wiped the blood from his lip and examined it. "Tell me, Lorenzo, does Rafael know what you are? Really know?"
I didn't answer. Rafael and I circled right, keeping distance.
"About the cage?" Constantine's tone stayed pleasant. Conversational. "About watching your mother split open on the floor of that favela shack? Did you tell him you don't remember? Oh, but you do, don't you? You remember everything."
My jaw clenched so hard my teeth ached.
"Shut up," Rafael said.
"You couldn't save her." That smile widened. "Couldn't save yourself. In fact, you were completely useless until Dionysus found you, weren't you? Completely feral. You've never been human. The best you could ever hope for was to become a decent weapon."
Caesar dove. I swung and missed. The bird's talons raked across my shoulder, tearing the wound deeper. Blood ran hot down my arm.
Constantine pressed forward. "And you, Rafael. So desperate to believe your suffering meant something. That God had a plan. That your mother's cancer and Gabriel's drowning were part of some divine design."
Rafael blocked Constantine's strike, but the force drove him back a step.
"It's easier, isn't it?" Constantine circled left, and Caesar adjusted his position overhead. "Easier to believe pain has a purpose than to accept that bad things happen to good people for absolutely no reason at all. Easier to be a good dog who sits and stays and kills on command."
"I'm not—" Rafael started.
"You are." Constantine's bludgeon came down hard.
Rafael barely got his own up in time. Wood cracked.
"You spent your entire life begging for meaning.
For someone to tell you what to do. Azevedo.
The Church. Even Lorenzo, in his way. You've never made a single choice that wasn't someone else's command dressed up as faith. "
Rafael's face went white.
Constantine turned his attention back to me. "Did they make your mother scream? I imagine they did. All that suffering over fifteen hundred reais. About what, three hundred American dollars?" He tilted his head. "Your entire childhood destroyed over the cost of a nice dinner."
My vision tunneled. Red crept in at the edges.
"There it is." His expression brightened. "That rage. That beautiful animal rage. You want to kill me so badly you can taste it. But you won't. You know why?"
Caesar dove at Rafael's blind side. Rafael swung and his bludgeon clipped Caesar's left wing. The bird shrieked and pulled up awkwardly, favoring the injured wing.
"Because you're a weapon," Constantine continued. "And weapons don't get to choose their targets."
"You're wrong." The words came out of me rough and raw.
"Am I?" Constantine lunged forward, bludgeon aimed at my ribs. I blocked, but the impact drove me back into Rafael. We stumbled, the chain tangling.
Caesar dove again, this time at me. I ducked, and the bird's talons grazed my already torn shoulder. Fresh blood ran hot down my arm.
"We can't outlast them," Rafael gasped. His ribs were clearly hurting him.
Constantine circled us, that pleasant smile never faltering. Caesar wheeled overhead, preparing for another dive.
Then I saw it. Constantine had to step backward when Caesar needed altitude. The way the chain jerked Constantine's ankle when the bird changed direction. They weren't just connected. They were dependent.
"The bird," I said quietly. "We break the bird."
Rafael's eye met mine. "It'll panic."
"Yeah." I watched Caesar circle. "And when animals panic, they attack whatever's closest."
"Constantine is chained to it."
"I know."
Understanding flickered across Rafael's face. It was brutal. Tactical. Exactly the kind of decision Constantine had taught us to make.
Rafael's jaw clenched. Then he nodded once. "On three. You break the wing. I'll drive it toward Constantine."
Constantine advanced, bludgeon raised. Caesar dove with him, talons extended toward Rafael's blind side.
"Three," Rafael said.
Rafael dropped to the ground, and I swung up hard with everything I had left. My bludgeon connected with Caesar's left wing mid-dive.
Bone crunched.
The eagle screamed in pain and fury. The broken wing hung at a wrong angle. Caesar thrashed in the air, unable to gain altitude, unable to fly, unable to escape the thing chaining him to the ground.
Rafael was already moving. He scrambled to his feet and swung his bludgeon low, not at Constantine, but at the stone floor beside the eagle. The crack of wood against stone was deafening in the chamber.
Caesar whipped around toward the sound, wings beating frantically. The bird was trapped between Rafael's advancing bludgeon and Constantine, who stood frozen, still holding his weapon.
Rafael swung again, closer to the bird. Then again. Driving it backward with each strike against the stone.
Toward Constantine.
The eagle did what any cornered, injured animal would do.
It attacked the nearest threat.
Constantine's ankle.
Constantine screamed.
Caesar tore at the chain binding them together, ripping through fabric and skin to get at the metal. His good wing beat frantically against the stone. Blood sprayed across white feathers. Constantine’s blood.
"Caesar, nein! Ruhig, mein Junge, ruhig!"
The eagle didn't stop. He bit down harder, beak punching through Constantine's calf, trying to sever his own chain at the source.
Rafael and I backed up, bludgeons raised, watching.
Constantine reached for the bird like he was trying to calm a frightened child. "Schh, schh. It's alright. I'm here. Caesar, please—"
The bird tore deeper into its master. Constantine's leg buckled, and he went down on one knee. His hand was still outstretched, reaching for the eagle's head.
Caesar released the calf and lunged for Constantine's face.
Constantine threw his arms up, but not fast enough. The beak caught his forearm and tore through to the bone. He screamed, and the sound was pure devastation.
"Please," Constantine gasped. "Caesar, bitte, it's me—"
The eagle's talons dug into his chest for purchase, and Constantine stopped trying to fight. His free hand came up to touch the bird's wing, gentle even as Caesar tore chunks from his arm.
Caesar's beak struck his throat.
Constantine's eyes went wide. His hand was still on the eagle's wing when the beak tore through his windpipe. The eagle didn't notice. Couldn't notice. He was just a wild animal trying to escape the thing trapping him.
Constantine's mouth worked. No sound came out except the wet whistle of air through the hole in his throat. His hand fell from Caesar's wing and reached toward the bird's head one last time.
Caesar pecked at the reaching fingers and tore out a fingernail.
I walked forward. Rafael's hand tightened in mine, but he didn't stop me.
Constantine's lips moved. Blood poured from his mouth, from his throat, from everywhere.
I raised my club and crouched down so he could see my face. "I might not have had a choice before," I said, "but I do now."
I brought the club down. Bone cracked. Constantine's body went limp. His hand fell away from Caesar and hit the floor, fingers twitching once before going still.
Caesar looked up at me, feathers matted in blood and still chained to his master's corpse. The eagle let out a terrifying cry and went immediately back to feeding.
"He'll starve eventually," Rafael said quietly. "If shock and dehydration don't get him first."
The bird had settled on Constantine's chest, still tearing away strips of meat. The broken wing dragged across the white suit, staining it red.
"Yeah," I said, throat tight.
Rafael stepped forward. The chain between our ankles pulled me with him.
Caesar's head snapped up. The bird screeched, wings spreading in warning. The broken one barely lifted.
"Lord, grant this creature peace. Amen." Rafael's bludgeon came down fast, hard and sure. It took only one strike, and then the eagle joined his master in death.
Then, the only sound was the guttering of the torches and our haggard breathing.
Rafael lowered his bludgeon and stared at the two bodies chained together. "He loved that bird."
"Yeah. But it didn't matter. They could never be equals. In the end, Caesar was just an animal, capable only of doing what he was taught."
"You're different." Rafael looked at me. His remaining eye was red-rimmed. Blood still dripped from the wound on his scalp where Caesar had raked him.
I swallowed and nodded, but the doubt nagged at me. I'd chosen this path, chosen to fight, to kill. But now that was all over.
Now what?
"Come on." Rafael squeezed my hand. "Let's get out of here."
I nodded and limped over to the pedestal. It held a single red button. I slammed my fist down on it and stepped back to wait.
The floor beneath our feet shuddered, and Rafael stepped closer to take my hand as it began to rise toward the surface.
I put my hand in his, because I knew one thing for certain. Whatever I did next, I wanted to do it with Rafael by my side.