Chapter 6 The Enemy Has a Name #2
So, as I allowed the vision to take me closer, I looked up to see that now only two riders remained on the ridge.
My confusion grew as that same instinct told me that Atlas was moving away, and fast. Seconds later, a deep rumble shook the entire hill, and my vision wavered, making the ghostly figure of me ripple like a skipping stone cast across the water.
I barely kept myself together as a crack ripped through the earth with a noise so loud it silenced the battlefield instantly.
Swords froze mid-swing. Shields lowered. All eyes turned to the ridge.
Then the ground began to move.
And as other soldiers fled past me, I remained rooted to the spot, seeing the horror unfold before me. Watching as the whole ridge split open with a final, thunderous crack. One of the riders was instantly swallowed by the earth, the other scrambling desperately to escape the collapsing ground.
A blur across the shifting earth caught my eye.
It was a lone soldier, and he ran as if the hill were perfectly still, weaving over tilting stone and rolling earth with unnatural balance.
He didn’t slow until he was beside the rider.
One who was almost completely buried under the dirt, except for the hand reaching up through the debris in hopes someone would somehow save him.
The soldier lunged and seized the man’s wrist just as the remainder of the ridge tore free with a deafening roar.
For a heartbeat, they hung suspended in empty air.
The soldier’s boots skidded over loose gravel, and the rider dangled helplessly beneath him.
Then the ground that had buried him continued to fall away like sand slipping through a giant’s hands.
However, when the ground shifted again, the soldier should have slipped, but he didn’t.
No, something kept him grounded, and I looked harder, searching for what I suspected it could be.
In the cloud of dirt clinging to the air, there they were, barely visible.
The tendrils of darkness curled like fingers, clasping his boots to the earth.
My breath caught.
He pulled the rider upward in a single lift of pure strength, bringing him backwards out of sight and away from what remained of the ridge edge.
This corporeal manifestation of me started sprinting toward them, but the fresh ground uncovered by the ridge began to collapse, now swallowing my feet and slowing me to a crawl.
But it was like there was my own war going on inside me.
As if two forces were fighting against what one wanted me to see and what the other didn’t.
The darkness was trying to put obstacles in my way, while the other side was forcing me to endure.
One second, my movements felt impossible, and the next, I was ploughing through the rumble as if I was breaking through the tide.
Until suddenly there I was, exactly where I needed to be.
Right at the top of what remained standing of the ridge.
Right next to the rider who lay on his back, breathing in thin, ragged gasps.
Gasps I mirrored when I realized who it was.
Lazaros.
And kneeling beside him, gripping his shoulders and urging him to open his eyes was none other than his brother.
The man who had stood by Lazaros’s side in the throne room. Younger by several years, but unmistakable. And Lazaros, even barely conscious, looked healthier here.
More alive. Unaffected. Untouched by the darkness.
More like Atlas.
I turned toward the ruined hillside, taking in the collapse of land as it was laid bare in its entirety. It showed a perfectly straight, impossibly clean break through the earth.
He had done this.
He had caused the disaster, and in doing so, it made Lazaros the victim.
A victim he could save in order to gain his trust. A trust that would forge a sense of loyalty.
Damn, he was clever, I would give him that.
This performance of his had been executed perfectly because to everyone on the battlefield below, and more importantly, to Lazaros, this man was a hero.
But I knew the truth.
A cough brought my attention back to Lazaros, who was looking at his savior with wide eyes.
“Th… thank… you,” Lazaros said after a shaking breath. “For… for saving me. The throne owes you a great debt.”
I noticed the twinkle in the man's eye, and I knew that was precisely what he wanted. But the twinkle faded, replaced with feigned seriousness in a heartbeat. After all, he still had a part to play.
“I am sure you would have done the same, your highness. There is no debt to repay,” he said, as if he were on a soap opera, ridiculously over the top. I scoffed at his words and wondered how Lazaros would interpret them, but he moved on without question.
“What… what is your name?”
The man opened his mouth, and every single one of my hairs stood on end. I was finally about to discover the name of the one who had started this whole thing. Something that may help us.
To put a name to the evil.
But then my ears began to ring, muffling the words, and the vision started to fade. I tried to fight against it, pleading for the ridge to appear once more.
I needed that name!
Just a couple more seconds, that’s all I needed, and I would get at least one answer to all of the questions in my head. But the pull was too strong, and the wire mesh of the cell came back into focus abruptly.
I stepped back, still expecting Riley’s fingers against mine.
But he was on the ground, knees and elbows bent as he rolled around the floor.
He looked like a madman, and it was terrifying to watch.
He was holding his head in his hands, his neck was strained, and his face was red as he gritted his teeth in what looked like pain.
A scream slipped from his mouth, but he bit down on his lip, silencing it as quickly as it started.
“Riley!” I slammed my hand against the mesh. “Riley, what’s wrong? What’s happening?!” I shouted in panic.
“Time’s up, sacred one!” It screamed through whatever pain it was enduring, the name it called me catching me off guard. Its voice cruel and demonic.
But then another sound tried to push through.
Something between a scream and a moan came out of him before he finally let go of his head.
I swallowed hard as he slowly crawled toward me.
His actions slow, desperate, and jarring.
As if he was making his way through solid air, or as if something unseen was trying to push him back.
Black fluid was pouring from the cuts around his eye again.
But he was too dangerous for anybody to administer any aid to him.
“Riley!” I shouted again, knowing that he was trying to break through.
Christ, but it looked excruciating. He reached out, his face bright red, the veins in his face, neck, and arms risen from his skin.
Like roots trying to consume his body as the black blood pumped through him at an alarming speed.
I was forced to watch the pain and agony of him being consumed, and I couldn’t help him, just like I couldn’t help my reaction at seeing him this way.
“Aster! Aster, help!” I screamed, my head snapping to the entrance before quickly back to the sight of Riley being dragged back to his prison of flesh.
The door swung open with a bang, and the whole block shuddered around us as Aster rushed in. His imposing figure was by my side within seconds.
“What the fuck?!”
“Something’s happening to him!” I said, looking to Riley, who was still crawling toward me, moving the tiniest distance, continuing to fight against an unknown force.
His breath, which he seemed to catch only every so often, was ragged, then silent, as he struggled.
His eyes bulged as he tried again to reach out to me.
I crouched down, trying to put my fingers between the mesh, desperate to reach him.
To comfort him somehow and help him get through it, but Aster grabbed me by the arm, pulling me back to standing.
“No!” he growled, alarmed.
“But I can help him, I need to help…” I began, but Aster interrupted my panicked cries.
“No, Alex, you can’t help him. No one can… We are leaving.”
I pulled my arm from his tight grip and threw myself against the mesh, but Aster pulled me back again, and I flailed against him.
“Let me help him, Aster! Open the door!”
“We have to go, Alex. We can’t do anything for him!
” Aster shouted over my cries as he pulled me toward the exit.
In my weakness, I allowed him to put distance between us, until a feeling overcame me.
Something inside that wouldn’t let me give up this chance.
A feeling so great that it had me acting on instinct.
So, with my own war cry, I threw myself forward with all my strength, wrenching myself free from his meaty grip.
It was something Aster was not expecting as I reared away from him before racing back to Riley’s cell.
I could see his fingertips just through the lattice of metal where he had finally made it to the door.
I skidded to the floor just in time to reach for him once more, and thankfully, it was just long enough to make contact.
Because I knew that the way Riley had crawled his way across the floor, there must have been a reason for his desperate actions.
Just like the way his fingers were gripping onto the bars now, like they were acting as the anchor he needed to hold on to in this violent storm.
A hurricane that would soon snatch him from me once more and keep him caught between worlds.
Good versus evil, fighting for supremacy within his own body.
And this right here was his last win.
Because as soon as my fingers made contact with his, it was enough for his eyes to snap open, and staring back at me was my friend.
Back if only for a second longer.
A mere whisper of time that only I could hear for long enough for him to grant me a single name…
“Demetrios.”