Chapter 28 #3
“Well, once we knew who you were, we remembered you’d been fighting with this one for the little human bitch.
” Beserkir shook Fenrir hard enough for his head to loll forwards.
“So, it wasn’t too much of a leap to work out that you were probably coming for him.
I admit I perhaps let my temper get the better of me a little whilst we waited for you, but in my defence, you did royally piss me off. ”
“Not used to not getting your way?” Aelia tilted her head to one side and pouted. “Poor baby.”
Beserkir paused, surveying her with cold, hard eyes.
“No, I’m not, nor do I ever intend to be.
You see, I’m lucky enough to have the King’s authority to do exactly what I love doing.
He wants the humans rounded up and shipped off, and I’m all too happy to oblige.
All I ask for in return is a little freedom, a little room to play. ”
Beserkir drew his sword with his free hand and held it to Fenrir’s neck, his eyes never leaving Aelia’s face. He watched her closely, his lips curling in a smile as he saw the dread fall over her.
“You like games?” Aelia tried to control her breathing, to keep the fear from her voice. “Then come play with me instead. I’m the one you’re angry with, not him.”
“Oh, but I am playing with you.” Beserkir touched the edge of his blade to Fenrir’s throat, just enough to break the skin. The pain caused Fenrir to stir, his head raising on his unsteady neck to peer at Aelia through his one good eye.
“Aelia?” he managed to say, his jaw moving at an awkward angle where they’d broken it.
The light in his eye when he recognised her broke her heart, a glimpse of the man she knew.
She’d done this to him. In trying to get him out, she’d made everything ten times worse.
Time seemed to slow as Aelia watched the blood drip from Fenrir’s throat onto the floor.
She tore her eyes from the red droplets that beaded down the edge of the steel to look at the man responsible.
“Let him go, and I’ll do anything for you.
I’ll walk right onto one of those ships to Ideolanthea, I’ll let you punish me however you see fit, but please, let him go.
Please.” She had no power here, and she knew it.
She had nothing to bargain with, but if there was even the slightest chance she could save Fenrir, she was prepared to beg.
“No, Aelia,” Fenrir mumbled, wincing at the effort of talking.
“Anything?” Beserkir asked, taking her by surprise.
“Anything,” she agreed, knowing it to be true. She had nothing left to lose, this man had taken it all from her. There was nothing she wouldn’t do to save Fenrir from him.
“And you won’t fight me?” Beserkir narrowed his eyes at her, sceptically.
“Not if you let him go.”
Beserkir pressed his lips into a line, watching her closely as he considered it.
“I prefer my first plan,” he said with a shrug, and drew the blade clean against Fenrir’s throat.
Blood poured out from the wide gash in his neck, bubbling out from his mouth to pour down his chin. Beserkir still held him upright by his collar, keeping him in place for Aelia to watch every agonising moment of his death. Her last friend on this earth, the last person she loved.
Something raw and vicious sparked inside of her, alien and yet inherent.
Her rage was its kindling, her grief igniting a power in her she didn’t know she possessed.
Aelia sank to her knees and screamed, unleashing every pent-up emotion she’d been carrying with her since Callodosis.
They exploded out of her in a torrent of anguish and agony, of loss and confusion, of heartbreak and fury.
They burst out of her, throwing her head and arms back with the violence of their release, erupting from her in a blinding flash of silver light.
It channelled out of her with a mind of its own, destructive and beautiful and hateful.
The light faded as quickly as it had appeared, withdrawing back into her, and her scream died with it.
She dropped forwards onto her hands, with hardly enough strength to look at where Fenrir’s body lay abandoned before her.
Gasping for breath, she could barely process the destruction that lay around her.
Half the warehouse was gone, the Astraea and artemians flung away from her in assorted heaps, some struggling to move, some obviously never going to move again.
Some of the cages had burst open, and the artemians took their opportunity to run, stumbling through the rubble to the gaping hole in the side of the warehouse.
A pile of stone in front of her shifted and, to her dismay, Beserkir appeared from beneath it, struggling to push free from the debris. His eyes landed on her with a hunger she couldn’t understand.
“You…” he said, laughing manically. “Oh, they’ll be thrilled if I send them you. A hundred gold coins to the artemian who secures her.”
Beserkir waved his dust-covered hand in her direction, grinning at her like a man possessed.
Aelia twisted her neck to see a fresh wave of Astraea flooding into the building, and her heart sank.
She tried to push herself to her feet, but whatever had just happened had wiped her out, draining her of every drop of energy.
She didn’t understand what had happened, and there wasn’t time to think about it.
She pushed herself back on her heels and, with the last of her strength, pulled her dagger free.
She would not allow them to take her alive, not if it benefited Beserkir, and she’d rather die than let them ship her off to Ideolanthea.
She pressed the tip of the dagger to her chest, took one last look at Fenrir, and closed her eyes.
“Aelia,” Keeran’s voice ricocheted around her skull, and her eyes flicked open in shock. “Don’t you dare.”
There, emerging from the hole in the warehouse, like a warrior of legend, was Keeran. He moved through the Astraea like a god, his blade singing as he whirled it through the air, and her broken heart stuttered to life at the sight of him.
He’d come for her.
Her arms were too weak to hold the dagger aloft any longer, her muscles trembling with the effort of staying seated, but she couldn’t take her eyes off him.
Blood sprayed from his sword in arcs as he cleaved his way through the Astraea to get to her, the controlled fury in his jet-black eyes triggering something deep inside of her.
He’d been in her head; she’d heard him, loud and clear. Her thoughts jumped to the night before, but were whisked quickly away again as Keeran skidded to his knees beside her.
“Can you walk?” he asked, peering deep into her eyes. Worry drew his brows together, despite the otherness looking at her from under them.
“Can you walk?” This time, he spoke right into her mind again, cupping his hand over her cheek. She shook her head, her tongue too thick and heavy to obey her.
He swept her into his arms, standing as if she weighed nothing, and carried her from the building. She clung to him with what little strength she had as he moved to hold her with just one arm, freeing the other to swing at the remaining Astraea, clearing their path.
Once they were outside, he hugged her close and ran.
She bounced against him as they sped past the dark buildings lining the streets.
Keeran dove down little side alleys she would never have spotted, taking them on a convoluted route through the city, but it made no difference.
She could still hear the baying of Guard Dogs hot on their tails.
Keeran slammed his shoulder into a wrought iron gate, forcing his way into the courtyard garden that lay behind it.
Trees filled it, their heavy branches forming a dense canopy overhead, with flowerbeds and benches tucked between the dark trunks.
In any other situation, it would have been beautiful.
With her arms still wrapped around Keeran’s neck, he sank onto the grass, hiding them behind the heavy foliage of the garden.
“You need to drink this,” he said, using the edge of his sword to cut his palm before raising it towards her.
“No,” she pulled away, disgust curling at her lips.
“Don’t argue with me, we don’t have time for me to explain.” His eyes flashed black, and although it didn’t scare her, the urgency in them made her listen. She looked down at the red line of welling blood that glistened on his skin. “Please.”
He held it closer to her, and she sighed, finding enough strength to glare at him. It earnt her a small smile, cracking through what little remained of her animosity towards him. With a grimace, she lowered her head to his hand and placed her mouth over the cut.
The moment his blood touched her lips, she groaned, grabbing his wrist and pressing it harder to her mouth.
She’d never felt anything like it, never tasted anything like it.
Warmth coursed through her, the power in it making her skin tingle and her bones hum.
The space in her mind seemed to expand, exposing a filament of light that felt wholly and unmistakably of Keeran.
He was there, in her mind, tethered to her via a connection she’d never even known she’d been missing, and yet now couldn’t fathom being without.
“That’s enough,” he said, huskily, gently teasing his hand from her. She let him pull away, but her tongue followed, stroking the length of the cut once more. She felt him groan, rather than heard him, the vibration travelling through him and into her.
Aelia blinked, amazed by the strength coursing through her, her brain suddenly clear again.
“Give me your jacket.” Keeran slid back to give her room to move, his arm outstretched and waiting.
“Why?” she asked as she pulled it off and handed it to him.
“To confuse the Guard Dogs.” He wrapped the jacket around his waist and stood. Aelia was on her feet beside him in an instant. She felt like she could run laps around Llmera. “You need to stay here.”
The baying was getting closer, the Dogs leading the Astraea to where they were hiding.
“As if that’s something I’d ever agree to,” she snorted, shaking her head, but Keeran grabbed her by the shoulders.
“We don’t have time, Aelia. I need to get them away from you. If they catch me, I can get myself out if I have to, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to get you out, too.” He peered through the dense greenery to the street beyond. “You need to leave the city, as soon as the tide changes. Promise me?”
Aelia opened her mouth to argue, but Keeran's eyes blazed black.
“Promise me?” The words burned down that tether in her mind, and the desperation in them made her shut her mouth.
She looked up at him with wide eyes as the pair bond stretched between them, weak and flickering, but undeniable.
Before she could say anything else, Keeran crushed his mouth against hers and gravity shifted, the whole axis of her world seeming to veer towards Keeran with that one, hurried kiss.
The baying of dogs was nearly on them, so loud it sounded like they could have been in the garden. He tore his mouth from hers, ducked out of the gate, pulled it shut behind him, and was gone. She stood there staring after him, feeling like the most useless wretch to have ever wasted oxygen.