Chapter 26
He woke slowly, his body and magic taking time to stretch into a new being. It was always like this when he was sacrificed. It took some effort for his corporeal form to decide what it wanted to do.
The first few times he’d died, he’d turned into something monstrous.
He wasn’t even certain what to call that hulking form, something like the cross between a bear and a raven.
Massive and covered in black feathers, he had stretched out his arms that turned into great wings with talons at the end.
He’d existed as that monster for many years before finally returning to a shape that was less terrifying to wandering souls.
But this time, it was easy for him to choose what he wanted to look like.
Elric wanted to look like the man she loved.
All he could remember were the soft words she’d spoken in quiet moments between the two of them.
How she liked the shape of his nose. The way her fingers trailed over his shoulders like she couldn’t stop tracing the outline of him.
And that she’d kissed a scar on his collarbone more times than he could count.
All of these things were dear to him, and so he kept his form the same.
As he blinked his eyes open, he was shocked to find that he wasn’t in his realm. He had expected darkness, ink, hands reaching out of the water to grab onto him.
Not this. Not a golden city gleaming in sunlight that nearly burned his retinas, surrounded by lakes and waving grass. This was a whole new world for him, and none of it made sense.
Elric stood and dusted himself off. He glanced down his body, realizing that he was also wearing very familiar clothing.
It was the same outfit he’d been in when he first manifested himself to Jessamine.
The black obsidian buttons down his jacket were recognizable, as was the loose black shirt that billowed open to reveal his chest, and the tight dark pants fitting into his boots.
This was… him. Not an older version of himself, not a manifested creation of terror, but Elric.
“Something isn’t right,” he murmured to himself before heading out into the golden city.
Every step echoed as he wandered through the empty streets. There wasn’t a single soul, not a wandering spirit, nothing but silence that was so heavy it pressed against his ears and made his head ache.
Whatever this place was, it wasn’t filled with anyone who had once been alive. Nor did it have any signs that someone had lived here before. There was no dirt on the streets, no smudges on the golden walls of the city. Nothing but perfection as far as the eye could see.
Elric thought he’d been there a few hours when he heard the first sound. It was the smallest clink. Like a foot had brushed against something that wasn’t meant to be touched, and then the deafening silence again.
But this time, it felt different. Like someone was watching him.
The hairs on his arms stood on end, and he had the deep sense he knew this person. He just wasn’t certain how he knew that. Jessamine was gone. Fractured as she died and the magic inside of her ate its way out of her body, but… this felt like her.
Hope bloomed in his chest as he turned toward whatever was watching him. A smear of darkness ahead of him ducked into a building, but it was far too small.
Still, he followed that sight. Quietly. Until he stepped into the room and saw a small child curled up in the corner with her face hidden from him.
She was so small most people would have missed her.
She blended into the shadows so easily, he understood why she hid like this.
A few glances would never have revealed her location.
But then it struck him that he’d seen her before in Jessamine’s memories.
This was her. But younger, far younger than he had ever seen her.
Bending down, he waited until she looked at him. And when those big, dark eyes locked upon his, he felt something ease in his chest. “What are you doing here, little one?”
“Hiding,” she whispered.
“From who?”
“From the bad woman.” The tiny version of Jessamine broke his heart. She was so fragile. Her fear made him want to smash anything that had terrified her, and yet, he wasn’t certain what he was meant to kill.
“Who is the bad woman?” he asked.
“A goddess. Hide or run,” the little girl whispered. “That’s what we were told.”
“We?”
“All the pieces of me.” She shuffled a little closer to him, her entire body quaking as though she wanted someone to hug her. “Unless… Are you the shadow man?”
Brave, wonderful, loyal girl. Jessamine had known he would come for her. Some hope had still existed that even after death he would find her, and he damn well would.
She had known he wouldn’t let her go that easily. He would follow her to the very end of time itself.
Elric struggled to catch up with her plan. Pieces of her. Hunted. There had to be something here that Jessamine had wanted him to know, and of course he’d found the childlike version of her first. This was not someone who would know the entire plan. He was certain of that. But still, he had to try.
“I am the shadow man,” he said, holding out his hand for her to take. “How many more pieces of you are there?”
“Many.”
“Do you know where the others are?”
The girl reached for him, tucking her tiny hand into his, and he felt like his heart could shatter. “I know where one is.”
It was a start. He drew her up to her feet, watching as she gently smoothed down the skirt she wore.
It was a black dress. Prim and proper, with starched sleeves and a little flared skirt that fell just below her knees.
She’d been so adorable at this age. He wanted to wrap her up in his arms so nothing bad would ever happen to her.
How could anyone look at a child like this and not want to hide the world away? She didn’t deserve to face the horrors that awaited her as an adult. He bent, picking her up and holding her on his hip like he’d done so a hundred times in his life.
“All right, little Jessa, where is the next piece of you?”
She put her hand on his shoulder, so trusting and so limp in his grasp. Him. A man she had never met before, but someone she’d been told to trust. This girl had been so innocent and the world had broken her so much.
“That way,” she said. “Stay quiet, though. The bad woman might find us.”
He wasn’t sure who the bad woman was, but he didn’t want to stand around and find out.
Elric followed her directions, surprised one so young would know the area so well. Though he didn’t ask, he suspected that she was abnormally smart for her age. Or perhaps she’d had to run so many times that she knew how to get to where she was safe.
Finally, they walked around a corner of the city and it opened up into deep moors.
His feet sank into the mossy substrate that turned into muck.
He was grateful to be wearing boots, but even though they came up to his knees, they weren’t waterproof.
Soon enough, he was treading through knee-high water, with mud that tried to slow him down, and weeping willows that surrounded them.
The light here was dimmer, creating more darkness and shadows. But everything was still golden. Everything was still created out of magic that should not be.
He wasn’t certain he should even be here. But this child seemed adamant this was the right place.
“She was here,” little Jessamine said. “She was right here the last time I saw her. She told me to run into the city and hide the best I could. I’m a very good hider.”
“Yes, you are,” he murmured, ducking underneath the swaying limbs of a willow tree. But these leaves were metal. They clinked against his shoulder, tapping in sharp little spikes that might have broken skin if he wasn’t wearing his jacket.
This place was dangerous. He could see why some version of Jessamine had chosen to hide here.
“There,” the little girl said. “Do you see her? She’s like some fairy in a story.”
He looked where she was pointing, and at first, saw nothing.
There were only more trees there. More shadows that melded with gold, and more water that gleamed and glimmered.
But then he realized one of those shadows wasn’t from the tree.
It peeled away from the others, a dark swirling mass of a person.
He could see her from this distance. Sheer black fabric that clung to every shape of her form, even though her body was nearly made out of shadows as well. Horns sat atop her head, two small horns that he’d never seen before.
But then she turned to look at him, and he was struck silent with awe.
There was no face on her at all. Just a shadow.
Like the gravesingers he had trapped in his own realm.
She looked so much like them that for a moment, he thought he was back where he did not wish to be.
Until suddenly, eyes opened up in that dark.
White eyes that blinked a few times at him, and then a grin that spread through the shadows.
Was this the gravesinger part of her? Uncontrollable, raw magic that finally came to greet him?
Setting the little girl down on the ground, he pointed at another tree with significant shadows beneath it. “Hide there. If you come across any trouble, scream for me. I will come to you.”
She nodded and scampered away.
Elric straightened and turned his attention to the beast before him, who had not moved. She merely stared at him with those glowing white eyes and that gleeful grin.
“I came here for you,” he said, trying to appeal to what he hoped was a reasonable version of Jessamine.
“I know you did.”
“Then you know I need you to come with me. We have to save her.”
That mouth split even wider, revealing sharp, jagged teeth as this monstrous version of Jessamine laughed. “Don’t you think that’s what I’ve been doing for years? It’s my job, Deathless One. I save her.”
“Are you her magic?” Because her answer didn’t entirely make sense. Jessamine hadn’t had magic until he had appeared in her life.
“No.” With a twitch of her shapely hips, she turned back to the willow tree and started to walk away from him.
Like the puppet he was, Elric followed. He was enchanted by the round curve of her hips, by the sound of her voice, by the womanly figure that he had worshipped time and time again.
If there was ever a siren for him to be lured by, it was her.
This mystical witch had always captivated his heart, mind, and soul.
“Then who are you?” he asked as he rounded the willow tree.
She stood by the edge of the water now, her feet just barely touching the deep pool of the swamp spread out before them.
A dark figure in front of all that gold, she was hard to look away from.
“Every person is made up of parts. Some good, some bad. All of them were created out of necessity. We function together as a whole, but most people don’t even recognize that we exist. You have already found Jessamine as a child. ”
He watched as she stepped deeper into the water. The thin fabric of her clothing spread out around her, floating on the surface as she turned to look over her shoulder. And he saw her then.
His Jessamine.
The feral darkness that had always drawn him to her was this version of her. The madness, the force of will that had always said no one would stop her from getting what she wanted or she would make them beg at her feet.
Those curving horns made her look even more sinister as her shoulders reached the water.
Her hair spread out around her then, longer than it should have been, so long that he thought it likely went all the way to her waist. A simmering, bubbling emotion flickered around her, barely leashed, it was so powerful.
Now he understood.
“You are the protector,” he murmured. “Her rage.”
“Her anger at the world for not taking care of that child who should have had all the help and love that could be given. I am her justice.” The dark woman before him snarled the words as though they were poison on her tongue. “And I will have justice for her.”
He crouched at the edge of the water, watching her intently. “Then take care of the child. That is your role, is it not? You protect the innocence that is still in my Jessamine and you keep it whole.”
“It is not an easy role.”
“No, I don’t imagine that it is. But it is the one you were made to do.” He held out his hand, just as he had for the child version of Jessamine. “I need you to come back together, Jessamine. So that we can get out of here.”
She took a deep breath, and this time he swore there were features on her face. Nostrils that flared with anger, and righteous rage that flowed throughout her. “The child is frightened of me. She does not understand that I wish to keep her safe.”
“Then I will help. But you have to put your pieces back together, because there are more people who need you. More than just me.” His hand remained out before them, unwavering and unshaking.
“The closer we all are together, the more pieces who join as one will summon her to us. Our strength is a beacon to the one who stalks us. We are safer, far away from each other. Farther away from being hunted.” But this rage-filled form of Jessamine narrowed her eyes on him. “Unless you want to fight her.”
“Fight who?”
“The Huntress.” She said the words with so much venom it made his entire body stir with rage. “She hunts us. She wishes to destroy us so she can take our vacant body.”
So that was the ploy, then. That was what this entire thing had been leading up to. The Huntress was still here, still fighting to get back to what she believed was her right, and he… Well, he wasn’t going to let that happen.
With his voice low, he replied, “I will handle my sister. The Huntress is not nearly as intimidating as she would like to pretend. She’s still dead. And I promise you, Jessamine, I will keep her that way.”
The darkest part of his lover regarded him with a closed expression before finally nodding. She slid a soaking-wet hand into his and allowed him to draw her up to her feet. “I will take the child. I will keep her safe, as I always have.”
He walked with her to the tree where he had told the little girl to hide. And she was quite good at it. It took him a few minutes to find her before he realized she was already coming out to see them. Hesitantly, of course, but she stood there, brave and waiting.
Jessamine’s rage knelt and opened her arms. He watched the little girl approach this dark, shadowy creature and embrace it. For the first time, he realized this was why Jessamine had never questioned her adoration for him.
Because she had already embraced the darkest side of herself.
They melded together, child and protector, until there were features on this dark creature before him. Her horns slowly disappeared, dulling with time and innocence. It still wasn’t his Jessamine. There was plenty still off about her body and her shape, but… she was closer.
He nodded at the woman before him and said, “Now, where are the others?”