Chapter 3
How was this all going so wrong?
Elric didn’t understand it. They had planned everything down to the last detail.
Leon was exactly where he was supposed to be.
Ten coven members had dealt with the priestesses, keeping them busy so they had not joined Leon at the time they were supposed to.
He’d had to carve out the spell on his own, considering high noon was such an important time for the God King. Everything had gone right.
And yet, here he was. Standing with Leon’s wrist in his hand, seeing blood dripping down the neck of the woman he loved yet again.
He hated seeing Jessamine hurt, even though he knew she didn’t care that she was injured.
Blood didn’t bother her, nor did pain at this point.
She’d died and come back more times than she ever should have, and that angered him.
She didn’t deserve to have died so much.
Now he was staring down at the man who had started it all. Leon was tall, but Elric was taller. He could loom over this small-minded king who thought people could be tossed aside whenever he wished.
Elric wanted to reach for Leon’s head and tear it off his shoulders. This puny mortal had no idea how easy that would be. But this wasn’t his kill. It was Jessamine who deserved to murder this man and finally get her revenge. It was what he had promised her, after all.
Still, he bent Leon’s hand, perhaps a little too hard, away from Jessamine’s neck. With a quick nod, he guided her back to his side so they could stand together before he dropped Leon’s wrist.
The king before them apparently found this amusing. He tilted his head back and burst into laughter that was so loud it filled the clearing with the sound of his mirth. “You think you can stop me? With your pet god?”
“I know I can kill you, Leon,” Jessamine snarled. “I just want to look at you one last time before I send you to your grave and get my kingdom back.”
There was a low quiet as Leon seemed to think about her words. He nodded. “Right, you believe that because you have been watching me, you know everything?”
“I suspected the priestesses were here to give you the remains of their goddess. Clearly, some kind of magic is needed to cast this spell, but you are surrounded by a coven of witches.” Jessamine gestured around them, and to the witches that slowly stepped into the clearing.
Ten of them. Each with plenty of magic at their fingertips.
Elric had to add, “In case you were wondering, they have been sacrificing to me for months on end. We are all bloated with power.”
“You’re bloated with something,” Leon replied.
“Arrogance, most likely. I have already been convening with the God King. He knew you would come here. All of you with a hero complex and dreams of saving the world. You think too highly of yourselves and too little of the God King. But then again, you always did. Didn’t you, Elric? ”
A shiver traveled down his spine at the sound of his name. Leon Bishop should not know his name.
He only had a moment to realize something was wrong before the world exploded in front of them.
Little bombs of invisible force, pushing everyone into different areas of the clearing.
Jessamine was laid out flat against the stones, struggling as the other witches were tangled up in a spell that made them sit on the stones like spectators.
Then more spells. All the coven members they had brought were dragged into the amphitheater as though invisible guards held on to their arms and forced them to sit.
All that remained was Elric and Leon, staring at each other as a challenge was silently issued.
Leon circled him. Measured steps that were not made by a hunter. This was a man who had been pampered his entire life. Every step was too loud, his shoulders too far back, his balance off. It would take so very little for Elric to shove him onto his ass in front of everyone.
But then there was a flicker in Leon’s gaze. A golden light that hadn’t been there before. A light that was familiar, and it made every hair on Elric’s body rise.
“You’ve already started the spell,” he observed. “We anticipated that you might. From what I already know, you need the blood of an unwilling participant.”
Leon held up the knife. “Acquired.”
“I never knew the rest of the spell. I only know that they plunged that blade into my heart before I became a god.” Elric held out his hand. “If you need someone to do that part for you, I would relish the chance.”
“Oh, I’m not going to hand a knife over to you, friend.”
“Friend?” Elric barked the word. “I am not your friend.”
“You will be soon enough. Gods are all friendly to each other, are they not? Unless you wish to wage war against your God King, that is.” A wind kicked up behind Leon.
It pushed the scent of Leon’s cologne along with it, a surprisingly floral smell that didn’t match the rage in the man’s eyes.
“But don’t worry. You’ll be here to see all of this come together.
The God King is certainly not without his mercy. ”
“Mercy? My brother does not know the meaning of the word. If you believe that he does, then he has already wrapped you in his web of lies. I never thought you were all that smart, though, so I suppose it isn’t surprising.”
Leon flicked the blade, and drops of Jessamine’s blood landed in the center of the spell he’d etched onto the ground. He tilted his head to the side, and then his shoulders straightened, unnaturally so.
One moment, Elric was looking at a rather dandy man who wanted to be a king, and then… a warrior stood before him. Leon opened his eyes, and his blue gaze turned to yellow.
A low wheeze rattled through his chest as the God King took a breath for the first time in centuries. Elric knew without a doubt that his brother had not yet been fully resurrected. This wasn’t how a god was born. Not yet, at least.
But still, he was pinned in place with fear as the God King looked him in the eyes and said, “Hello, Elric.”
The harsh sound at the end of his name came as a click as his brother worked saliva onto a tongue he hadn’t used in a very long time. Spirits often forgot how to use a physical form.
“Ajax,” Elric said, embarrassed that his voice shook. “I can’t say I’m pleased to see you again.”
“No, I’m sure you’re not.” His brother lifted a hand, looking down at the blade in it. “But I am glad you are here.”
Elric ducked as that blade was thrown at his head. He should have known there would be some trick here. Rolling, he ran for Jessamine as Ajax laughed behind him. Elric cursed himself for thinking they could prepare themselves for this. How could they? Leon himself didn’t know the entire plan.
The God King had told his disciple to wait for him to be in his body, and then he would take over the rest of the ceremony. He was resurrecting himself.
Elric stooped beside Jessamine, unraveling the spell as quickly as he could. He got the top half of her body done fairly easily, and she sat up to help him. “What’s going on?”
“Ajax is here.”
“Who is Ajax?”
“My brother.” Why were her thighs so difficult? Elric’s magic flared as deep as an abyss. He yanked hard, freeing one of her legs. “The God King. Damn it, I should have known this was too easy to turn into a trap. We need to get everyone out of here.”
An explosion of fire cast them apart. Elric was thrown halfway across the amphitheater, his back striking the stones so hard that all the air was knocked out of his lungs. But Jessamine was right where he’d left her, one leg still stuck to the ground as the God King took Elric’s place.
“I can see why you like this one,” Ajax murmured, his hand framing her jaw. “She’s got fire in her.”
Jessamine spat in his face.
Every muscle in Elric’s body tensed, preparing himself to launch at his brother, who he knew would strike her for such an offense. But Ajax just chuckled, wiping the spittle from his cheek as he released her. “I’ll deal with you later, little spitfire. But for now… I have a ceremony to finish.”
Elric struggled to his feet, trying desperately to pull in enough air to fill his empty lungs. He wouldn’t let his brother do this. Not to her. Not to them. There was still time to get all of this back on track, and all he had to do was disrupt the ceremony that was still taking place.
The runes on the floor. Those were what he had to target. He could send out his shadows and smudge them. All he had to do was remove them from the ground. Burn it, perhaps, and that would do it. But even as he started to send out shadows, he could feel the bones in his hands bending.
His fingers snapped. Each of them, one by one. He watched his thumb break last, listening to the crack as it folded toward the back of his hand and all the magic he had summoned disappeared. Pain followed shortly after the shock wore off.
He was ashamed to admit he lay there as his brother walked right up to him and grabbed him by the throat.
Yes, this man wore Leon’s face, but it wasn’t him.
He could see the God King beyond that mortal form.
And all he saw was the man who had tormented him for his entire immortal life. He’d made Elric feel lesser.
Because he was. Elric was simply weaker than this god, and he knew that once he regained his true form, Ajax could crush him into dust.
“Elric, I need you to understand this isn’t personal.
I need to come back. Your witches made it difficult for me, but they aren’t capable of preventing the inevitable.
It’s admirable that you tried to stop me.
I even respect that a little, and I’ve never respected you or your sniveling life. You should be proud of that.”
A knife plunged into his belly and then sliced.
Elric gasped at the zinging ache, his hands already scrabbling to hold his intestines in where they should be. This body was still new, still fragile. He refused to lose it already, not when Jessamine had gone through so much trouble to get it for him.
Healing magic. That’s all he needed. He knew how to heal bodies, how to hold them together with shadows. He could do that. All he had to do was focus.
The knife twisted in his guts, and he let out a grunt of pain. Ajax held him a little tighter around the throat, cutting off all oxygen, and Elric could do nothing to stop him.
Ajax ripped the blade out of his stomach, making sure to cut a much larger line that sprayed blood all throughout the ceremony site.
“The blood of another god. Did you know that’s the last bit they need to turn you into what we are?
A shame you weren’t aware of that. But I don’t think you remember.
You were already so weak when those first witches dragged you into that cave. ”
“I remember little of that night,” he wheezed, staggering over to a stone pedestal with a potted plant on top of it. He used that for balance as he held his guts in.
“I know. Because if you did remember anything at all, you would have remembered that I was there.” Ajax lifted the blade up to the sun, staring at the light reflected on it. “I was the one who gave you my blood, and it seems so fitting that you should give me yours. Full circle and all that.”
Then he sank the blade underneath his breastbone, right into Leon’s heart.
Time seemed to stand still. It all came rushing back to Elric.
The white-hot heat. How he had been just a simple farmer.
A handsome man who many of the women had wanted to marry in his town, but he’d also been a raging drunk, and that had thrown a lot of wrinkles into their plans.
The witches had found him outside of a tavern one night.
He’d been piss drunk, literally, with soaking-wet pants.
He’d followed them because they were pretty. Not a care in the world about his own safety, he’d staggered with them into the cave and then lay down on the altar with a comment about how the beautiful women were always the ones who liked it weird.
And then the blade. The shimmering blade with blood that hadn’t been his, pressed against his flesh a hundred times.
He staggered forward, catching Leon as the man fell to his knees. Just as Ajax had done to him.
He remembered waking up and staring into a face similar to Leon’s.
Blond with a strong jaw and eyes the color of coins.
He’d looked up into Ajax’s gaze and known something was different, just as Leon was realizing now.
And that was the last thing Elric thought he had remembered as himself.
The person he was now wasn’t the drunk who had fallen apart at the hands of witches.
Someone else had stepped in and taken his place.
Leon’s eyes went from blue to gold, shifting continuously as the young man wheezed. “What is happening to me?” Leon asked.
“You’re turning into a god. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
There was still time. He could still end this. Elric wrapped his hands around Leon’s neck and went to break it, but found that the god inside of him prevented any injury during the change. The wheels of time had already turned, shifting and rearranging themselves so that a god could awaken again.
They had failed. And he wasn’t sure what Ajax would do the moment he finally had all of his magic back.
His brother’s gold eyes looked up at him, and suddenly every muscle in his body seized.
Elric tried to breathe, but couldn’t. It took so little effort for his brother to roll them so that their positions were swapped.
Elric was suddenly on the ground. Ajax loomed over him, his blood dripping onto his younger brother’s stomach.
“Ah, Deathless One. You always were the weakest of us,” Ajax murmured before patting his cheek.
An unseen force pressed down upon him. Ajax’s gifts were in manipulation of the human body, along with a few elemental gifts, such as fire. But right now, he used only his physical gift as he made Elric’s head feel like it was going to explode.
Vaguely, he could hear all the other witches screaming as well.
Their pain would only fuel the God King’s power.
As Ajax walked away, Elric crawled after him.
First, he would get Jessamine. Then he would find his coven.
They needed him. He was their god. He was meant to take care of them when they were in pain, and that was what he was going to do.
But his hands only found cold ground where Jessamine had once been. As darkness pressed down upon him, he lifted his head just in time to see Ajax walking away with Jessamine’s limp body dangling in his arms.