Chapter 35 #2
The glowing entity Orelia strained to see came into view as the light dimmed, revealing Marquin holding a gnarled staff with an orb of seidr light suspended atop it. Just looking at it felt wrong. Felt evil.
Vade knelt, panting like each breath physically pained him. His tattered wings had gone limp.
Marquin stalked toward him.
Orelia struggled in her bindings. “Vade, get up!”
He lifted his head, hair shielding his face, but he didn’t get up.
Orelia kept wiggling, but the magical binding was too tight. “Vade!”
Marquin reached over his shoulder and pulled an arrow out of the quiver on his back. A bow magically formed in his hand and he nocked the arrow, its tip swirling in white light.
Orelia thrashed.
The guard paid her no mind as he loosed the arrow.
Vade threw out a hand, his shadows catching the arrow, acting as an arm on his behalf. He groaned, body trembling. Vade threw the arrow to the side, and even from across the clearing, she could see burns on his hand.
He rose, darkness swirling around him as the batalin hurried to strike him again. Marquin was blasted back by a cloud of black, striking a tree and severing it in half.
Vade stalked closer, wincing. He frantically looked around like he was searching for her.
The look cost him.
“Watch out!” But her warning wasn’t quick enough.
Marquin tackled him and the two went tumbling. A swirl of light and shadow surrounded the two and she couldn’t see what was happening, just groans and the sounds of bones breaking.
Orelia tried again to get her arms free, but the seidr bindings wouldn’t budge. She gathered all her strength, but it wasn’t enough.
Marquin managed to roll away from Vade and she watched in horror as he loosed an arrow before falling to a knee.
The arrow struck Vade in the chest.
“No!” Tears lined her eyes as Vade groaned, sitting back on his heels. When he reached for the arrow, a flash of light burst from Marquin’s staff and tied Vade’s hands behind his back.
Orelia sobbed as the batalin stopped a few feet from the love of her life, looming over him. “Why are you doing this?” she asked between sobs.
Marquin finally acknowledged her. “You keep poor company, witch.” He panted, wiping blood from his mouth.
She didn’t know how he knew what she was, but all that mattered was Vade. And he hadn’t gotten off the ground.
“I’ve been following you for a long time, fae. And standing here now, I guess it is true what they say. ‘All good things come to those who wait’.”
Each of Vade’s breaths were gargled as he sat on his knees, hands tied behind his back, arrow sticking out of his chest. “Who—who are you?” he managed.
The guard knelt, forcing Vade to look at him. “I’m going to be the last thing you see.”
Orelia whimpered.
Vade spit a mouthful of blood in his face. Crimson painted his lips and dripped down his chin as he gave Marquin a bloody smile. “Fuck you.”
Marquin wiped at his face, then reared his arm back and punched Vade in the jaw so hard that she wasn’t sure how he didn’t fall over.
Orelia screamed through her tears.
Vade blinked a few times like he was seeing stars and more blood came out of his mouth when he coughed.
The batalin rose and gripped the handle of a weapon she recognized sitting on his belt.
Vade’s seidr axe grew and glowed in Marquin’s hand until the double-sided blades had fully formed. They looked even sharper than before, like Marquin had primed the weapon for this occasion.
He began circling Vade. “I’ve been tracking you ever since I found my half-brother in the woods.”
Orelia searched her mind for whatever in the hells he could be talking about.
“The Arbor,” Vade said breathlessly.
“I was on a mission and happened to stumble upon him. Carried his dead body until I found a necromancer. Foul vermin, those necromancers, but I was able to learn what you looked like from my brother’s speaking spirit.”
Vade took slow, labored breaths, blood dripping out of his mouth in thick lines. His wings slumped, holes in them everywhere. “Should have made sure I killed the fucker for good and beheaded him with that axe. Lesson learned.”
Marquin punched him again.
Orelia cried out as Vade fell to his side, groaning.
Marquin grabbed him by the collar and yanked him back to sitting. He hit him again, and again, and again. “You took my only family from me!” he yelled, spit flying.
“Stop it! Please!” Orelia pleaded.
He released Vade’s collar, the fae’s face a swollen, bloody mess. Defeated black eyes found Orelia’s. Whatever advanced magic was in the arrow was draining the life out of him. She could see it in the wan tone of his skin, the blue of his lips, the lifelessness creeping into his eyes.
“Please, let me heal him. I’ll give you anything you want, just let me heal him!”
Marquin scoffed. “This is what I want. To watch him die. To watch him pay for what he did. And you . . .” The batalin made his way to her.
“Don’t!” Vade tried to stand, but his legs gave out.
She tried to summon Marquin’s staff he’d left lying on the ground so she could turn it on him, but her magic wouldn’t come. The seidr bindings negated her power.
Marquin stopped in front of her and raised the axe. “I could kill you and make him watch as punishment.”
Her heart rate spiked.
“But even in my anger, I am not that barbaric. Not like this savage.” He pointed the axe at Vade. “I needed a way to get close to you, and it was easy enough to convince Aradonis to meet with you, seeing as how we were already in Axelton.” He chuckled. “And now, you’re mine, you bastard.”
Vade hung his head like he’d already lost.
Marquin glanced her way. “I will not punish an innocent for the deeds of the wicked, but you will have to watch, witch. So, sit back, and enjoy.”
Panic set in as he headed for Vade. She had to do something. Suddenly, she remembered she still had Vade’s seidr dagger on her belt.
Only magic can fight magic.
Her arms burned as Orelia pushed against the bindings as hard as she could, stretching her fingers to try and reach the hilt.
The closer he got to Vade, the taller Marquin seemed to grow. He gripped the battle axe with both hands, laughing darkly.
Orelia grunted, pushing down so hard on the bindings that her skin felt like it was on fire. Her fingers finally reached the hilt, and she freed the dagger, beginning to saw away at her bindings.
When Marquin reared the axe back, Orelia screamed louder than she ever had.
The blade landed right in the middle of Vade’s chest with a sickening crunch of bone.
Vade collapsed.
Orelia sobbed, sawing faster.
Marquin picked up his bow and nocked an arrow.
She roared as she cut through and the bindings fell away. Orelia dropped to the ground on steady legs, dagger clutched tight. She didn’t think, she just acted.
She ran and flung herself at Marquin who wasn’t able to turn his arrow on her fast enough.
Orelia struck hard and true, hitting him in the heart.
He scrambled to push her off him, but she squeezed her thighs tight around him and pushed on the knife with both hands, sinking the blade as far into his chest as it would go.
Marquin gasped for breath before his body slumped. His open eyes stared at the sky as blood poured out of his chest, soaking her hands. She didn’t care about the warm liquid dousing her clothes or the reality of what she’d just done.
She only cared about Vade. Orelia rushed over to him.
Marquin was dead and could no longer work the seidr staff, so Vade’s bindings had disappeared. He had pulled the axe out of his chest, but the arrow was still lodged.
She grabbed Vade’s shoulders and rolled him onto his back.
Blood spurted out of his mouth, lips blue and beaten face sallow. She wasn’t sure how he was still alive.
“Oh, gods.” His wings had so many tears in them she couldn’t count, but her focus went to the arrow. “I’ve got to get this out.”
Vade squeezed his eyes shut. “Do it.”
She yanked it out, and he howled up at the sky.
Tears blurred her vision, but she immediately pressed her palms to the deep gash from the axe that was spurting blood. “It’s okay, it’s okay,” she said. “I’ll fix you.”
Vade’s head lolled to the side.
“Stay with me,” she begged. “Stay with me!”
He blinked slowly, like he was trying to see her.
Orelia sobbed as she worked, letting her light come forth. Hurry hurry hurry.
“Orelia.”
She couldn’t bear the finality in his voice. “You aren’t dying on me.”
Blood pumped out of the gash, so much so that she couldn’t see if his wound was closing. Orelia kept her hands pressed firmly, sending a prayer to every god to save him.
Trembling fingers found her cheek. “It’s too much . . .poison . . .” Red lines had begun to creep into the whites of his eyes.
“No! I’ll heal you. It’ll all be okay.” Finally, part of the gash sealed, and she moved her hands to cover the rest.
Vade’s eyes closed. His chest rose and fell in slower motions.
“Don’t give up on me,” she pleaded. She glanced at his wings, wondering how in the hells she was going to have time to heal all the tears.
When she looked back at Vade, his chest was barely moving. Orelia shook him. “Stay awake!”
His eyes rolled back in his head, but he managed to look at her for a few seconds. A small smile grew on his face. “You’re so beautiful,” he rasped. Vade made a garbled sound and coughed up globs of blood. “I should have told you every day.”
Orelia shook from her cries. She willed her light to come forth faster, stronger, not knowing if it would work.
“I never told you how stunning you looked in that dress in Ravere.”
“Don’t do this. Don’t start talking to me like this is the end.” She wiped away her tears with her shoulder, not taking her hands off his wound.
“Or how you taking care of Bute was the most adorable thing I’d ever seen.” He spoke far too calmly for being on the edge of death.
She smiled through a sob.
Vade locked his wilting eyes onto hers. He reached up and cupped her cheek. Orelia leaned into him, trembling with him.
“Now I know why I survived falling off the mountain.” Blood trickled out of his half smiling mouth. “It was so I could know your love. No matter how short-lived the feeling was, it was worth it.” He coughed. “You were worth it.”
Her face crumbled.
His chest still leaked blood, his wings were too ruined, and from the paleness of his face, she knew he didn’t have long. Not even her healing could work against time, not with how much poison was in his blood. But she wouldn’t stop trying.
Vade gave her a bloody smile. “I love you.”
Orelia choked back her tears. “I love you, too, but you aren’t dying today.” The last part of his chest wound sealed, and she moved on to his left wing.
She squeezed her eyes shut, focusing entirely on her gift. She could feel the tears healing beneath her hands, moving more quickly, but not fast enough. Orelia panted, never having used this much of her power before.
He coughed again, and an idea came to her. She used her summoning power to pull every item from his pack. She laid them out, searching. “Where is the rest of your sana?”
Vade’s eyes fluttered. “Used it . . .all. On you.”
Panicking, she used her power to sift through his pack again but found nothing.
“No, no, no! You had more seidr sana in here. I know you did!”
His chest barely moved.
“Fuck!” Orelia went back to healing his wings. She cursed herself for not thinking to get more sana before they’d left Axelton.
A shaky hand cupped her face. “Orelia,” he whispered.
Her face bunched as she glanced at him.
Vade smiled, rubbing a trembling thumb against her cheek. “I would have liked having a home with you.”
Orelia sobbed as his hand slipped from her face and his eyes shut. She closed her eyes and put every ounce of strength into healing his wings. When she could feel that the two tears had closed, she opened her eyes and moved her palms down to the next injured area. She glanced at Vade and gasped.
His chest was still. Lips parted. Eyes open.
“Vade!” She shook him by the shoulders, but he didn’t stir.
Her heart felt like it had been ripped from her chest. She screamed his name over and over, but he never responded.
“No, no, no.” She looked from his eyes to her hands and back, but even as the wound sealed, Vade remained lifeless.
Orelia burst into a full-body sob. “You can’t die!” His wings were healing much faster now, and she worked her way across his left one until every wound was sealed.
“Wake up,” she begged. “Please wake up!”
He remained staring at the sky. His right wing was still a shredded mess, but she healed it anyway, bawling through the minutes that passed with him remaining unresponsive.
When the final tear had sealed, and all his wounds had been healed, Orelia sat back and looked him over. She stared at his chest, waiting for him to start breathing again.
“Come on,” she whispered. “You can do it.”
She wasn’t sure how long she sat there, one hand closed around his, waiting. Each second that passed tore a piece of her heart. More than her heart. Her soul was being shredded.
He wasn’t waking up.
Orelia collapsed onto his chest, cheek pressed against his bloody leathers. His skin had gone cold and the only movement of his body was from her sobs shaking him.
“Please . . .this can’t be it.” She looked back at him and brushed a strand of hair back from his frozen face.
Tears dripped onto her lips. “We made it so far. You can’t do this to me now.
” Orelia spoke to him, knowing he couldn’t hear her, but hoping somehow the gods would grant her mercy and bring him back.
Her tears dripped onto his leathers, and she thought of the life they could have had together. Of everything they would miss out on.
She thought of lying in bed until the morning sun woke them.
She thought of introducing him to Teegan and Morton.
She thought of loving him, day and night, and blessing him with a family if he wanted one.
She had failed. Her healing hadn’t been enough. Orelia screamed up at the sky, cursing the gods that had shown her happiness for taking it away so soon. She laid her head on Vade’s chest, refusing to leave him.
“Come back to me,” she whispered over and over.
But he didn’t.