8. Barrett #2
I twisted around to find a group of males surrounding us, two standing back a safe distance with bows drawn.
“I knew you’d lead us right to her.” My heart stilled at the sound of Atticus’ voice, and the flames flared beneath my skin as he stepped from the shadows of the trees, greeting me with a sickening smile.
Realization dawned on me. They would have spent all their time searching the village, would never have thought to search elsewhere.
Calliope and Vesa had been hidden, had been out of Father’s reach…
And I’d fucking lead Atticus and his men right to them.
“You two get out of here!” I yelled, placing myself in front of Calliope and Vesa.
“I can’t leave you!” Calliope sobbed, and I spared a moment to look back, finding Vesa pushing Calliope behind her.
“Get her to safety!” I hadn’t met the king, but if Vesa trusted him, I had no option but to trust her word. I turned to the guards stalking toward me, weapons drawn. “Get her to Lord Damien!”
“Come on,” Vesa said, her voice pained.
“No, please,” Calliope begged. “We can’t leave. They’ll kill him!”
Vesa grunted, and I looked over my shoulder to find her falling back to her knees, sweat beading on her brow. Her skin had turned sickly, and she panted, clutching the arrow in her shoulder.
“Vesa?” Calliope crouched next to her, eyes full of worry. “What’s wrong? Look at me.”
“She won’t be getting far,” the bowman said with a cocky grin, “Not with Aethersbane in her system.”
My heart shuddered. Fuck. Aethersbane was a toxic plant native to the Godsrealm, the toxin harvested and used as a poison to render fae and other magical beings of Elythias powerless.
I didn’t even think it was legal to harvest and use.
She would be cut off from her magic, weak, unable to fight back.
“Fucking bastard!” I yelled and charged at the bowman.
Atticus stepped back as more guards swarmed us, cutting off my path to the male nocking another arrow. “Take them.”
I slammed my fist into one guard’s face before another crashed into me, arms wrapped around my waist. We hit the ground, and I grunted before fighting to get out from under him.
We rolled, grappling with one another until I managed to wedge him beneath me.
I punched him again and again until his blood splattered my fist, my face.
Hands grabbed my arms, halting my assault.
I fought their hold as they hoisted me off the bloodied male on the ground. “Let me go!”
Calliope’s scream drew my attention to them as guards tore Calliope and Vesa apart.
“Lord Damien won’t stand for this!” Vesa shouted weakly as she fought the hold of her captors. The guard twisted the shaft of the arrow protruding from her shoulder, and she cried out .
“Lord Damien will know nothing of tonight,” Atticus said lowly as he stalked toward her, and he nodded to the guard at her back.
The guard drew a dagger and ran it across her throat, crimson spilling down the front of her armor, and my heart plummeted.
“No!” Calliope screamed. “No! Please, Gods, no!”
My knees gave out as the guards forced me to the ground, the world going silent as Calliope tried to get to Vesa who grabbed at her throat, blood bubbling from the wound as she gasped for air. Then her arms fell slack at her sides, the light dying out in her pale violet eyes.
The guard tossed her lifeless body to the ground, her mouth moving but no sound coming forth before she went still.
Calliope screamed Vesa’s name, tears coating her cheeks.
“Leave her for the darklings,” Atticus said, turning to walk toward the tree line once more. “No one will search for a deserter.”
A deserter? Would that be the story they’d fucking spin when they realized Vesa was missing? It wasn’t enough that they would fucking murder her for defending someone she loved, they’d dishonor her memory by naming her a deserter?
“You fucking bastards!” I shouted. “I’ll kill you!”
Calliope crumbled, her cries filling the clearing as she was dragged off back toward town, toward Father and whatever awaited us.
“Get your hands off her!” I shouted, and Atticus stepped in front of me, blocking my view as they dragged Calliope away. “You fucking bastard! I’ll rip your throat out!”
Atticus smiled cruelly at me before leaning down to pat my cheek. “Oh, I don’t think you will.”
“Barrett?” Lucia said, and I looked to find her face full of worry. Something deep in my chest twisted at the concern. I hated that I felt anything, that, despite everything I’d endured, despite everyone who had betrayed me, I still wanted to believe there might be good in her.
“Sometimes, no matter how much you fight it, the Fates have other plans,” I said, my voice eerily calm despite my clenched fists.
“You may be important, but the Fates deemed me disposable. That’s all I’ll ever be: a means to someone’s end.
” Her lips parted, but I didn’t give her the room to argue.
“We don’t all have the blessings of a goddess, Your Majesty . ”
“What did you do now?” Micah’s voice reached my ears over the sea of voices in the pub. It was a busy night, full of warriors and trainees winding down from the day’s training .
“Why do you think I did anything?” I grumbled and took a swig of the Ambrosia liquor in my glass. I grimaced at the way it burned a path down my throat, but I relished in the pain.
Pain drowned everything else out.
“What’ll it be tonight, Micah?” the pub owner, Semele, asked as she grabbed a glass, the torchlight dancing off her dark skin.
“Make it strong, Semele,” he said.
“You got it!” she called back and got to work preparing him a drink.
“Lucia looked a little defeated when I saw her earlier,” he said without looking at me. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”
Another sigh crawled out of my lungs, and I looked down at my half-empty glass. No matter how much I tried to ignore the guilt that had nagged at me, I couldn’t. I had avoided her ever since our conversation, hiding out here all evening.
“She doesn’t know what she’s getting involved in,” I said, knocking back the last of my drink and setting the glass down. “It’s better if she stays out of it.”
Micah huffed a laugh. “Clearly, you haven’t learned how hard-headed that female is.”
Semele slid a glass of something in front of Micah before taking my empty one.
“She doesn’t know how to give up,” he said, his voice softening. “And she won’t if she sees your worth.”
I rose from my stool, setting down a heavier than necessary amount of coin to make up for the troubles I’d caused Semele my first night out.
Lucia might not have liked how I was spending the money she’d given me, but I didn’t care.
She should have thought of that before she pulled me out of that cell and given me the means of getting into trouble on her watch.
Semele’s brows rose at the money before she looked at me. I dipped my head, hoping she got the message, and turned toward the doorway. “Well she can give up. I’m not some fucking charity case.”
“Oh, no, you don’t,” Micah said, downing his drink and jumping up from his stool. He coughed harshly. “Fuck, that shit’s strong.”
“That’s what you asked for!” Semele said with a chuckle.
I stormed out of the pub and onto the street, unable to stand the mass of conversations overtaking the pub any longer—or perhaps I was simply running away again.
Irritation swelled in my chest as Micah stumbled out behind me. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“Getting away from you,” I grumbled, walking blindly down the street with no clear destination.
It was too early to head for the barracks, and I wasn’t ready to face Lucia again, not with the way I’d shut her out earlier.
Not with the pained look she’d given me before I had left her alone in that hallway .
Micah followed after me, and I was about ready to slug the stubborn bastard. “Look, I know she put you in charge of me. I promise I won’t get into a fight, so you can scurry off to wherever you’d like and enjoy your evening.”
“Nope, we’re gonna get to the bottom of this,” he said with a smile, and I rolled my eyes.
I rounded the corner of an alley, not caring where we ended up. “What is with you fucking people?”
“We don’t give up on our family,” he said, meeting my long strides.
“Oh, and I’m family? You don’t even know me.”
“The moment you joined The Order, you became part of our family,” he said. “Lucia sees it, and I do too. You’re a good guy, Barrett, no matter how much you deny it.”
I was so over this optimistic bullshit. “ Shit . You’ve opened my eyes. Why don’t you get Lucia? Get the other members of The Order while you’re at it. Let’s have a bonfire and celebrate my rehabilitation from dungeon scum to upstanding citizen.”
Micah arched a brow. “You’re not fooling anyone with the attitude.”
I didn’t stop, didn’t slow my pace as we continued aimlessly through the streets. “Then what will it take to get you guys off my back?”
“Just let us in.” Micah placed his hand on my shoulder. “Let us help you.”
“What makes you think you can help me? It won’t change anything.” I hated how his words tore at me, how a part of me wanted to give in. “It’s too late for help.”
His voice softened. “It’s never too late.”
Tell that to her.
“What happened to you?” he pressed. “You are so hellbent on shutting all of us out. Why?”
I don’t know why I bothered responding, but the words came without my permission.
“Because when someone puts their trust in me…” My words fell short as my feet came to a halt. I hadn’t realized exactly where they had led me, and something fractured in my chest at the painful reminder of the truth, of why I could never allow anyone inside again.
Burned remains stood before us. Even the stone hadn’t been spared from the flame’s wrath. I hadn’t come to this place since I’d been released, hadn’t wanted to see it. It was as if time had stopped that night, what little remained of our home abandoned, nearly untouched.
“...I fail them.”