Chapter Twenty-Three #2
This ended tonight. I’d lost to him before, but I wouldn’t lose again.
“Where’s that lunatic husband of yours now, Ava?” Deuce sneered. “Oh, that’s right. He’s getting the shit beat out of him by Naya. Too bad he won’t live long enough to save your crippled ass.”
It only took a moment to assess the scene with my Earth magic.
Oberi and Ava had landed in an area of the forest that had already seen a bloody battle earlier tonight.
Trees had toppled everywhere by Oberi’s landing, and large logs and branches scattered the forest floor.
Dozens of bodies lay in the wreckage, and the blood of all types of supernatural beings seeped into the soil.
Oberi lay whimpering in his wyvern form, appearing on the edge of consciousness and unable to defend Ava.
She’d been tossed from his back and trembled on the ground not far from him.
She used all her strength to pull herself over a log in an attempt to reach Oberi.
I didn’t know where her bow was. She must’ve lost it in the fall, which left her completely defenseless.
“Be sure to give Charlie my regards in the afterlife,” Deuce taunted. “That is, if you make it that far.”
He would not take Ava from me. I was already on the move. I conjured a powerful windstorm to buy me time, but Deuce’s demigod power broke my spell instantly, and the breeze merely drifted around him.
He laughed again, thrilled I’d arrived. “Looks like the Blind Bandit made it after all! Welcome to the party! I’ll have a great time making the Bandit my fucking pinata.”
I had a mere moment to calculate my attack.
I decided to forego magic, because it wouldn’t do any good, and unsheathed the sword on my hip.
I lifted it overhead, but Deuce blasted out a battle spell that collided with my blade.
The sword flew out of my grasp and landed in the dirt far away— too far to go searching for it while he had his sights set on Ava.
Only a second had passed, and she was still within reach of this fucker.
I had one last thing I could try, something I’d sworn off months ago, but we were out of options now.
I’d vowed to never use my illusion powers again because they’d led me down a dark path.
But I realized now it hadn’t been my powers that had caused me to turn bad.
It’d been my own choices, and this time, I’d make the choice to use these powers for good.
If I could form an illusion, it’d become real, and Deuce couldn’t break my spell once it was cast. Ava was in danger, so I’d do everything in my power to defend her.
In a split-second decision, I chose to unleash the pieces of myself I’d locked away. My illusion magic burst out of me. A hundred wooden stakes materialized in the air before Deuce noticed what I was doing, and they went spinning in his direction.
I didn’t think he could dodge so many coming at him all at once, but Deuce’s vampire speed was faster than I’d calculated. He was already gone by the time the stakes embedded into the nearby trees.
I bent down to grab one. Magic wouldn’t do the job? Fine. I’d carve his heart from his fucking chest the old-fashioned way.
I continued running toward the sound of Deuce’s amused laughter. “You thought you won when you sent me to Cellblock 9, but you still can’t beat me, can you?”
I didn’t entertain his taunts with an answer. I used my Earth magic to curl roots around his legs and hold him in place. He broke my spell, but the roots remained wrapped around his body as I charged forward with my stake held high.
Deuce yanked free of the roots with his vampire strength, snapping them into multiple pieces. My stake came down where he’d been standing, but it met nothing except air.
It happened in the blink of an eye. Deuce was already back where he started, looming over my wife. I ran faster than I thought possible to reach them.
I couldn’t kill Deuce. I’d tried what I could, but nothing I had in my arsenal would work. The only thing I could do was defend Ava from whatever he planned on doing to her.
Deuce let out a wild laugh at the same time I felt the blood on the battlefield begin to leech out of the mud.
Something whizzed through the air the moment I reached Ava, and without thinking, I threw myself on top of her.
I immediately drew her into my arms, covering her as I turned my back to Deuce.
I protected her from whatever blow he was sending her way, using my body as a shield over hers.
I heard the sound of a whip crack, along with the tear of fabric. A sweltering pain sliced across my back, and I gave a wretched scream, a sound emitting from my mouth that was like nothing I’d ever made before.
My first thought was that Deuce had somehow lit a fire upon me, until the whip cracked against my back again.
I felt the warmth of my blood seeping through deep wounds.
I realized with horror what he’d done, just how powerful his vampire magic had become.
Deuce had used his blood magic to control the blood on the battlefield, morphing it into a whip that sliced my back open with every strike.
He struck me again, and I yelled as loud as I could at the torture, though I did nothing to defend myself.
I only held Ava tighter, refusing to let her go.
“What are you doing?” Ava shoved at me, her cries desperate. “Why are you protecting me? I don’t deserve this!”
She didn’t think she was worthy of my love and protection, but she was. She was the most precious thing in the world to me, and I’d go down defending her. I’d put my body on the line for her, and I’d make the sacrifice freely, with no protest or objection.
There were consequences to everything in life. This was my consequence, and I loved every second of it, so long as it brought me closer to her.
Ava struggled to get out of my hold, but I was far stronger than she was, so she remained wrapped within my embrace even as the whip struck me, ripping open my back and splitting the muscle down to the bone.
Deuce laughed maniacally, clearly gaining pleasure out of my agony. “Come on, Bandit! I want to hear you scream.”
I needed to fucking do something. Deuce had broken every spell I tried and dodged any weapons I attacked with.
I tried the last thing I possibly could.
I attempted to shift. I knew it was the only way to end his attack.
His whip wouldn’t be able to slice through my strong wyvern scales, and then I’d simply bite his head off and be done with him.
Scales rippled across my skin, but I couldn’t gain hold of the magic, and they faded away. An aching horror twisted in my gut, because Deuce had caught on to what I was doing, and he ended my spell before it began. There was nothing else I could do but take this pain.
And I would. For her.
I gasped as he delivered another blow. It sliced so deep into my back I could swear the whip touched my spine, but I refused to give in.
Twin-flame mirroring. Ava’s spine had been ruined in the Infernal Underground.
And Deuce was wrecking my back now. She’d given up her body to protect all of us back then, so I would give up mine for her now.
I kept my focus on Ava, making sure my body curled around her and that none of the whip’s strikes touched a speck of her skin.
“Charlie!” Ava protested in a high-pitched wail. She shoved her arms against my chest once again, but she couldn’t make me move. “Let me die! Don’t do this for me! Please stop.”
Another crack of the whip, and I was left trembling.
Weakness overcame me, and it took all my strength just to shield Ava.
I tried to compartmentalize the pain, but the vicious assault caused my head to spin.
Blood poured from the deep cuts and dripped onto the ground.
The pools of blood were only there for only a moment before Deuce gathered them with his power, turning my own blood into more strands of the whip, which he used to beat me with.
A cry of pain erupted from my lungs as the next blow caused my back to arch.
My senses faded, and the battlefield ceased to exist entirely.
All I heard were my own screams. All I felt was the sharp, ungodly pain of the whip slicing through inches of muscle and tendons.
The one thing that kept me from passing out was the faint warmth I still felt from Ava’s body pressed against my front.
I held on to that sensation for dear life, though it was quickly fading as I teetered on the edge of consciousness.
“That’s it!” Deuce cheered. “Louder!”
Ava’s fist pounded against my chest as she sobbed, but I couldn’t move.
Deuce and I had been brawling for years— inside the ring and out of it— and I’d never won a match against him.
He’d always beaten me. I just couldn’t gain the upper hand on him.
This time, it looked like he was going to win for good.
The least I could do was make sure he didn’t take Ava out with me.
Because that’s all I lived for anymore. Her. I would die, and she would go on. She’d take care of Casey, and my family would be fine. Despite the brutal, bitter pain, Deuce couldn’t take anything from me anymore. I’d be okay.
A wild battle cry filled the air, and I was vaguely aware of footsteps approaching the area. Deuce drew back his whip to strike me again, and I braced for a blow that never came. Armor clanged as someone slammed into Deuce, knocking him off his feet.
“YOU WILL NOT STRIKE MY PRINCE!” a voice echoed across the battlefield, strong, noble and true.
Eddie. Despite our broken bond, our fragmented friendship… he’d come for me.