Chapter 39
Awaken and let the birds fly. The sky is the lid to an eye that the Gods oversee. Each day it views the lives of all within it.
My feet do not drag down the familiar gold hall. They do not falter, they do not pause. I keep myself upright and think.
Think. Think. Think.
Rolan is seated upon his throne, waiting like an asp as they shove me to the ground. The cess metal bites but I pull myself up onto my knees to meet my enemy.
In court finery, his youth screams here. Still, a line creases in his brow. “Elivienne, what did you do?”
The emphasis on his last word rattles me. “What did I do? Look at what you have done. Good luck. Lux is no doubt arming forces against this as we speak.”
Footsteps trail past my body and I recoil at the sight of Sawyer. His lips pull a tight line but he does not look at me. Rolan motions him over with a flick of his fingers, the two exchanging a silent conversation.
“Tell me, how did you escape the cairn?” Rolan muses, crossing his leg. He’s stalling. For what, I do not know. “How did she do it, Sawyer?”
Sawyer opens his mouth to reply but I do it for him. “Impressed that I outran it?” I smile. A chain whips into my left hip and I fall forward, my bound hands beneath me. Blood trickles from my mouth but I smile again, sharper.
Walking over to a young vampyr stationed by the dais, Rolan runs a hand through his tawny locks. “My pretty soldiers almost lost more than their rank when they told me you escaped. You’re very good at that, I have to say. But you couldn’t find a way to escape the curse, could you?”
I don’t have a response to that and he reads my face carefully, studying me.
“Your prince was on a tight leash.” His lips tighten.
“We had to wake you, but it turns out you were spending your time elsewhere. Where I thought you were simply asleep, awaiting our call, you were trapped like human trash.” He looks over to Sawyer and points his hand to him.
Sawyer’s back bends awkwardly and he screams, dropping to his knees in unseen pain.
Rolan laughs and releases his hold instantly.
Vampyr don’t possess powers like this.
“I never did punish you or that damn cess for that.” He winks before turning back to me and bending to my level. My head spins.
“What did you do to me?” I rasp, looking at Sawyer’s twitching body as he tries to sit up. Pain laces his eyes and I can’t discern if it’s physical or emotional. I don’t care.
“Do you know how much you are worth?” Rolan’s question snaps me back to reality.
“I—”
The doors blast open again and I scent them before they come into my view.
“Nothing. I am worth nothing,” I scratch, eyeing the bloody humans a guard is dragging in by their hair. He yanks them around to face me and I jump forward, my chains biting my skin.
The cottage. The party in the forest with Cedric. They were the ones being celebrated. A wedding. Their faces were a blur from the mead and largely forgotten but here they are. In Duresden.
The two males’ clothes hang in tatters with new wounds and old blood flaking onto the shining floors. They keep trying to lean into each other but the vampyr guard pulls them apart.
“Two Nyxian rebels who lived not too far from Demis, am I correct?” Rolan steps over the dark flakes on the floor. “Right under your king’s nose,” he sneers.
“Let them go.”
“Is your life worth more than theirs?” he asks this time, inhaling their scent.
“No.”
Rolan looks at me and laughs, deeply. “She’s clever, my friend. Did you know that?” He looks over his shoulder to Sawyer, who stands unmoving at his spot, hands clenched by his side. “Ah, but yes. Of course you know that.”
He turns back. “Elivienne, you are worth more than this mistreatment. I will admit, I was wrong to attempt to take your life two years ago.” He brings a hand to his heart.
“That was cruel, unkind. So much taken so young. But now I offer you that choice again. My soldiers gear up for a full throttle assault on Lux as we speak. The land issue with Krue was only the beginning, you see. We needed access to what lies beneath.” He bends over me then. “The cairn, to start.”
“You monster,” I whisper because I can’t conjure a plan that will save us.
“Your betrothed’s brother was equally instrumental in this.” He crouches before the men now, like a child. “The precise time, location and numbers we’d face in taking you out was gifted to Duresden by the prince of Lux.”
My head snaps up at that and I sway, floating in fear and something else.
“But again, the ailment of your mind. Useful while we figured out the right cure ourselves, pesky thing. Now you will bend to me.”
“Please,” I cry, tears flowing.
I didn’t sense, didn’t see the guard approaching until the first whip of the metallic chain brought the first male’s body down. By the time I could scream, his partner was beaten behind the head.
And again.
And again.
Rolan is laughing somewhere in the distance. Someone is yelling.
My throat turns raw from screaming.
Over and over and over again.
Desperate pleas to stop.
Their dead bodies slump over at the tenth or eleventh swing, their shackled hands left forever reaching for one another. Rolan stopped the whipping a few minutes ago and a definite silence vacuums the space.
My heart pinches and begs me to fight out of my own magical restraints. My blurred, shaking vision focuses not on the golden king before me but the prince who now sports a bloodied lip and eye, his shirt torn in half. A guard flanks him and nudges him behind Rolan’s throne.
“You choose this?” I seethe, baring my teeth at Rolan. “The slaughter of humans, the sullying of the Nyxian rising. You will disband the entire continent if you go through with this.”
Without looking at me, Rolan croons, “The Nyxians. When I discovered sects of their line still existed, I couldn’t help but look deeper. I was shocked to learn I grew up with one.”
“Only by blood.”
“Their cause was one I could easily taint. With a few upset rebels wanting change faster than ever, I gave them an in. Their people will thank me.” He rolls his shoulders back as if to ease tension.
The restraints on my hands pull as I try to lunge. “You’re using them. You have a choice, Rolan. Spare your people, spare the rebel cause, spare the carnage.”
Rolan’s hand grips the armrest of his throne as he leans forward. He stares at me quizzically, as if I just spoke in riddles. I meet his gaze, flipping my hair out of my bloody eyes despite the pain wringing down the back of my neck.
“Elivienne, I find it hilarious that you are choosing this fate. You have another option, mind you. Work with me, lead the Nyxians, and I will spare you and your betrothed. In fact, I also think it is godsdamned hilarious that Cedric thinks I am acting without reason. His line –” he rolls his neck – “is the one who started this. He slighted you and you defend him! My biological father, the man he was, was too pathetic to challenge Lux for the stolen land.”
“So, that’s the plan. Enlist the Nyxians to get you Krue and the Rhydian Range back?”
Rolan snaps and a group of guards enter the space, eyes trained on me. “No, it is more than that. More than the humans too, those mangy leeches,” he drawls. “But trust in this, there will be plenty of humans to spare when we’re through.”
“Who is we, Rolan?” I question, a darkening look in his face making my stomach squirm.
The guards part and a creature enters the room, larger than a bear but feline in features.
Its eyes glow green as it scans us, the metal chain yanking it towards the dais.
Its furry coat black and green shifting in the light.
The thing prowls slowly, growling as it approaches Rolan.
Its handler prods it with a magicked staff, sparks flying as the animal yelps.
“A wicken,” Sawyer stammers. “This is impossible. Wickens are extinct.”
“So were cairns,” Rolan beams.
The wicken seats itself next to the throne. The green swirls as if its eyes are alive with magic. Fear beckons me to run far away from this animal, this creature that could easily shred the entire room from the look of its claws.
Orvynn. Krue. The Rhydian Range. The cairn. This beast.
He plans to conquer with far more than brute force.
“Martine’s lust for power started this mess and the rest of Lux’s line continued the tradition. Alas, finally, someone in my family has the strength to do what is right and reclaim our land and reinstate our position in the royal hierarchy.” Each word is clipped and firm.
A guard whips the dead humans again, their flayed and sour flesh flying. The wicken makes a move towards their corpses but his handler yanks back. This is an untamed weapon. How many more does Rolan have?
Sawyer takes a step forward now, eyes checking the animal. “Your plan has gone too far, Rol. This is beyond our agreement. I can’t, no, I won’t stand by this slaughter.” He looks to me and nods briefly. “I stand with Lux. I stand with my brother.”
“Do not mock him,” I bite.
Rolan snaps his fingers and two guards move to restrain Sawyer. “Admittedly, I was getting tired of your duplicity, Sawyer. You cannot have a foot in both doors. Do understand.”
Sawyer whips his head at me and mouths “Forgive me” before the guard on the left stabs him in the ribs.
Once, twice, three times, twisting the cess blade.
The right guard catches Sawyer before he tries to flee, bunting the side of his skull and rendering him unconscious.
They shackle him to the wall across from me.
Tears begin to flow uncontrollably – tears I don’t know how I’m still producing.
A servant comes forward and delivers Rolan a piece of parchment on a gold platter. He examines the words before smiling and tucking it within his coat.
“Well, it seems that our forces have successfully made it past the border into the Caspian Pass. Lux is tricky, mighty even. But we will prevail. One last chance, dear Elivienne. Do you submit? Do not make me force you. The curse was already devastating. Do you willingly submit your magic and loyalty to Duresden? Forsake your holy lands, your allegiance to a failing kingdom and worship something more valuable: power.”
“Hell would have to freeze,” I growl.
“Thought so. We will reclaim our land, the Nyxian forces will reclaim the rest of Lux with the help of my forces and every member of the cess will fall. This is on your hands,” Rolan states, absolute coldness laced through every word.
Sawyer fights against his injury, calling upon whatever strength he has. The blade is still lodged in his body.
It’s useless. He knows my choice is absolute. I was a pawn that failed. I am the breaking point for Cedric. Rolan doesn’t realize he will never submit, even after my death. It’s not what I would have wanted.
Rolan settles into his throne and nods at the male cess hiding in the corner.
Short dreads adorned with beads clink together as he approaches and I startle at his resemblance.
No, I remember him, the one who healed me my first night here.
His nearly night-blue hair is unmistakable.
Blurred moments of peace when I was allowed a healer.
A shadow falls upon his face as he walks forward timidly, rubbing his hands together nervously.
My life has always hung on an edge, a precipice. From the moment I awoke from my dream state, to the threats I faced in Lux. Though I do not recall my life before the past few months, I know that Elivienne was never safe. There is more to this story, her bloodline. If only…
Too many ifs.
Sweat beads down my brow as I prepare to die.
To cease my existence permanently here. Perhaps I will rejoin Ma at the farm.
The cess’s robes swish across the floor of the throne room and time begins to slow.
He looks at me and I make sure to look at the face of my executioner.
I will be dead in mind and soul after this.
I pray it is swift.
With a deep breath, I ready myself for the kill.
The job that was never completed. This moment is one I have imagined for quite some time.
The moment when I finally leave this world, my soul ascending to the Gods.
In many ways, this realization is met with peace.
But in many more ways, this will be the moment my soul shreds itself apart.
With whatever magic I have strengthened over the last three months, I will my bond to reach Cedric.
If this be the last time we feel each other…
if this is the last time I can assure him that no amount of time with him would have ever been enough.
That my soul, both Liv and Elivienne’s soul, is wholly attached to his beyond a doubt. As innate as one’s self, I know this.
Ced—
Searing white light erupts and cuts through my vision. I feel bones in my body bend and expand, muscles tearing and repairing under the spell. He’s trying to tear me apart.
I’m screaming. The sound doesn’t reach my ears because of the pain. Oh, Gods, the pain. My body lifts off the floor – at least I think so. I can’t feel but I can also feel everything. Every nerve fires from my toes to fingertips.
They’re flaying me internally.
Darkness and extreme light ebbs and flows around me. Breathing is like knives driving in my sternum. This is not where I end. It can’t be.
But I can’t fight.
This is too much. I have more to do. We have a purpose. What about my purpose!
In this moment, all I can do is force my will to focus on my bond with Cedric. I have to try. It takes everything in me to dig deep and find that tether to him one last time. Every will in me blasts a fool’s call.
I choose the most important memories. I show him the lake where we swam together under the stars.
I show him our dancing in Duresden. When we drank.
Our first kiss. Our last kiss. I show him the moments when we draped over one another in bed, whispering our deepest wants and wishes.
And I finally show him the first time I saw him within my dreams during the coma.
His warm smile and how affected I was in that moment.
And hopefully, through all of this, I have shown him the deep well of love for this man, this king, that could never run dry.
The regret of never saying those words aloud washes over me as I feel my lifeforce shift. It’s strange, to feel one’s self sway.
As if I was ever whole.
Sound shatters all around and my body shakes violently as the spell wreaks its final havoc on my entire being.
Everything is shaking. I feel like I’m leaving my body and being dragged back in violently.
I don’t have the strength to fight, to survive.
The light ripples and shifts into a deep red, and then purple and finally black. Warm, enveloping black.
I take my final breath as that scream fills the back of my mind.