Chapter Thirty-Seven
Despite the scraps of life brought to the Curselands, the scent of death lingered. At that moment, Aidan was awash in blood and death.
Now sweet scents of grass, dirt, and the dampness after rain overwhelmed the stench.
The unnatural stillness and unearthly noises of the Curselands had vanished. Sounds of hell were replaced by the gentle breeze of wind, the crunch of fallen leaves, and the light babbling of a stream.
A baby's cry was the only discordant sound.
Aidan's body ached as he scrambled up. He rubbed his eyes, trying to readjust to the faint natural light. A bit away stood Mona, rocking her baby, staring up at the sky.
Instinctively glancing up, his eyes watered at the golden light streaming through heavy gray clouds. He had almost forgotten the stunning sight of a rising sun. Distracted by the beauty, he almost fell into the Jumping Portal.
His heart pounded as he backed away from the churning vortex. One wrong step and he would have been buried alive. He kept a careful distance as he approached Mona.
"I've never seen such a thing," Mona whispered.
"Aye, I never realized it was so beautiful," he said in hushed reverence.
His hands shook as he blinked away tears, confused that a sunrise affected him so much.
It wasn't just the sunrise, but everything. He came so close to condemning Carys and Bella to death by challenging Kieran with Curse Magic. Kieran's man, who approached them, had lost his life. Why didn't Aidan care enough to stop Spiky?
The beautiful scenery distorted, and all Aidan could see was the headless man.
Unable to fight the burning sensation in his throat, he leaned down and expelled everything foul from the Curselands. A terrible black shade tinted his vomit, and the grass almost seemed to wither from the contact.
He finished in an unprincely display of coughing and spit. Wiping his mouth, he forced himself back to his feet. "Beg pardon. I felt ill all of a sudden. All of these feelings just came at me..."
"You were controlling the Curse Creature?" Mona didn't look back at him. "The connection is still there, but the shock of travel probably severed your use of Curse Magic. That would bring your natural feelings back."
He hated the horror overwhelming him but was more disturbed by the lack of natural feeling engendered by Curse Magic. "You aren't that way. You love your son."
"I've used Curse Magic all my life and achieved something akin to a balance," she said quietly. "Not enough. I don't think...I don't think I love my son as much as I should. I want him to survive. But I also want to run back into that Jumping Portal before it disappears so that I can survive."
"How long will the Jumping Portal remain?"
"Only a few more moments," she said, still unable to tear her gaze away from the sky. "So what sort of mother does that make me?"
He let out a shaky sigh. "It's not wrong to want to live."
Bitterness threaded her laugh. "That isn't really living down there. It's waiting for death. If I go back down there, my father will tear my heart out."
"No." He shook his head. "I think...I think Meical will find a way to end his life."
Mona ripped her gaze from the sky, settling her dark eyes on him. "You think a lot of Meical."
"I think Meical is not a man to ever cross. But Kieran? He intended to kill Carys by sending me here. The Curse has bound us together, and she'll die without me there."
Carys just wanted to see the sun. So why wasn't she there? Why not dive through the Jumping Portal to bring him back? A risk to her life, but she was already at risk.
Perhaps someone prevented her from diving into the Jumping Portal.
"Why didn't Kieran close the Jumping Portal?" Aidan asked, his calm close to collapsing.
"He wants to weaken Meical's position. Perhaps my father shan't be able to kill him, but he will show everyone that you were never loyal to Meical."
"Because he knows I won't go back," Aidan said, his heart sinking.
"Just as he knows I won't stay." Mona's face trembled. "I will throw myself back down to perdition to live and my father will tear my heart out."
"Why would you do that?"
"Selfishness is too much a part of my soul." She shuddered. "I asked your friend Gil to risk more than I was willing to risk. Too much time in the Curselands rots us all."
"Then have I been in the Curselands too long?" Aidan whispered. "Is that why I won't go back?"
"No..." She rocked her baby. "But you are no different than all of your Starlands brethren. Maybe a bit different. Once you've tasted hell, you know the worth of this land. You won't go back."
Aidan shivered.
Mona clutched her child. "I don't merit a boon, but will you take my babe if you stay? I just can't leave him out for the elements."
"I have to go back," he said, even as every inch of his spirit rebelled.
"Are you mad?"
"Quite possibly." He kicked the ground. "I read once that love was regarded as a form of madness. I think I finally understand..."
"You'd go back all to save the woman that you love?" Disgust twisted her face. "You're free! You aren't cursed to hell yet, if you go back, soon you shan't be able to leave. The curse will be too deep."
He raised his chin. "If I don't go back, the taint is already too deep."
The wind rustling through the falling leaves sang for his attention, reminding Aidan of the horrible trees that kept the Curselands alive. Starlands trees would blossom again, and the Curse Trees would continue feeding that hellish realm.
Nothing would ever change.
He took a step forward. "I have to go."
"So do I." She curled her lip. "Would you have me just leave the babe?"
He shook his head. "Don't put that on me. Do a summoning spell if you must. Summon people to the babe. But more people will die if I stay here."
"You'll destroy yourself," she said, viciousness reverberating through each word.
"True." He inclined his head. "But a good man has already died to help you."
He took a step to the portal.
Her body quivered. "Please!"
"Is that what you want, in truth?" he asked. "I don't think it's what you want. Or you would have already jumped down there."
She shuddered. "I...I'd rather die and let the last sight be of my babe and the sun."
"That is your choice," he said with the uneasy feeling that he was echoing Meical.
She nodded. "Is this your choice?"
"Aye..."
She clutched her baby tighter. "Then why haven't you jumped?"
He looked at the sky. The sun would soon be high, brightening the dreary autumn day.
Mona sighed. "Too late..."
He whirled around, finding green grass had replaced the Jumping Portal. It was as if the wind had been knocked out of him. "No!"
He grew up hearing so many tales about the dangers of lingering too long. How had he made the same mistake? Did he delay because he wanted to stay? Was he that cursed with selfishness?
"It is probably better..." Mona began.
He shook his head. "It isn't! So many will suffer because of me. And I can't let her die..."
She slumped. "There is another way."
She shifted her babe and pulled a necklace off her head, a simple chain with a leather pouch. He accepted it from her and opened the pouch, pulling out a small glass bottle filled with an inky substance. Something about the contents was disconcerting, and the bottle felt far too cold.
The autumn breeze didn't bring that kind of cold. "What is it?" he asked with a shiver.
"Deadheart." The breeze whipped her hair around. "My father intended to give this potion to you. It will break the curse of losing a loved one."
"It will take away my ability to love?"
"Not forever." She pursed her lips. "Just long enough to free you from Meical's sister. Within an hour, you will feel the effect of the Deadheart."
"That isn't fast enough to save Princess Bella," Aidan said flatly. "I've been apart from Carys for so long...she could already be dead."
He stared at the earth, as though it would open up another Jumping Portal. His trance broke when Mona shoved her baby toward him. "I can summon a Jumping Portal."
Aidan winced as the baby burst into tears. "You would do that for me?"
"May I?" Mona reached for his sheathed dagger, and he nodded. "I assume you can put aside your Starlands scruples towards Sacrifice Magic if you truly want to return to the Curselands. I must sacrifice a Star Beast if I'm to summon a Jumping Portal."
"Star Beast?" He held the baby tighter. "Do you mean an animal?"
"Precisely."
A terrible sound ripped from Mona's throat, indecipherable words resembling a lament.
Her voice, so raw and anguished, made her baby cry louder.
She sliced herself with the dagger. Aidan jolted as a series of swift slashes followed while Mona allowed blood drops to fall in a semicircle.
He gingerly held the baby, watching in horror.
Mona fell prostrate before smearing a scarlet splotch at the edge of the semicircle.
As soon as Mona's bone-chilling cries ceased, something appeared in the distance.
"That stag will be the price back to perdition." Mona smiled. "I never thought I'd see a true stag in my life."
Aidan tried to convince himself that it wasn't wrong. No different than hunting. "How do you know it's a stag if you've never seen one?" he asked, trying to distract himself from fear that the curse already killed someone he loved.
Mona looked back at him with an almost condescending smile. "Have you ever seen a true dragon?"
"No."
"Would you recognize one if it appeared in that beautiful sky?"
"Aye..."
"There you go." The stag delicately approached Mona. She reached out to stroke the noble beast with such gentleness, then tore the heart out.
Aidan's eyes stung. It wasn't the hapless stag. He kept seeing the headless man.
Mona dripped the bloody heart over the semicircle and gestured to him.
"I need some of your blood. Jumping Portals are notoriously difficult to control.
My father has a technique with blood magic.
You control that dragon Curse Creature, right?
The connection should, theoretically, summon a Jumping Portal near the Curse Creature that you control. But I need your blood."
He held out his hand and barely reacted to the cut. His blood mixed with Mona's blood and the poor stag. Everything remained too still. Then the ground started churning violently, opening up another portal.
"I shouldn't waste my time if I were you." Mona took the baby back. "But I also wouldn't go."
"Thank you." Aidan's shoulders tightened. "What of you? How long do you have?"
"Scare a day..."
He shuffled his feet. "I'm sorry,"
"You should be," Mona said with rancor. "None of this would have ever happened if your people hadn't forced us to live in that infernal underworld."
"Do you really think people like your father deserve all of this?" he asked, taking one final look at his birth land.
"Perhaps not," she whispered. "Perhaps things would be different if men like my father never existed. But I did you this boon, so I ask for a boon from you."
"Gil's sacrifice wasn't enough?" he asked, bitterness creeping in as he crept closer to the Curselands.
"Think of it as a boon for Gil then," Mona said. "Kill my father."
"Easily accomplished," Aidan said sarcastically. "The Doom Ball's protective spell and your father's considerable conniving shouldn't get in the way."
"The Curselands will be better off without him. You know it to be true."
He didn't have time to argue, nor wanted his last look at the Starlands to be of Mona. The golden light of the sun emerging from clouds filled his eyes, and he dove into the portal.
He wasn't sure where he would end up. Possibly in the main hall or somewhere near Spiky. What he didn't expect was a red sky above and a scarlet sea below. Suspended in the air for seconds, everything became a blur of red as he plummeted to the sea.
Lukewarm water cut into his skin, occupying his mouth and nose as he landed. Red water crushed all his senses as he sank. His lungs stung, and he started splashing like mad, desperately attempting to reach the surface.
Stale air greeted him when he surfaced. He choked out water and blinked the bloody water from his eyes. Scarlet sea surrounded him, stretching far into the distance. He splashed around until a great, craggy cliff came into focus.
Cinder Fortress. He had landed outside of Cinder Fortress. Possibly too far from the fortress to make a difference.
Too far from Carys.
Spiky. Aidan did his best to focus on Spiky. As he called the dragon, dark magic filled him, pushing aside some of his fears. Spiky's rage filled Aidan, so overwhelming that he couldn't sense anything else.
Not even Carys.
"Bring me Carys!" Aidan commanded, forgetting it was unnecessary to speak the words out loud, desperate to discover if he was too late.
A splash in the water distracted from any attempts to sense Carys through Spiky. He whirled around to find a dark shape moving below the bloody sea.
He attempted swimming away, fearing a shark would track his wounded, bleeding body. Then he realized that reaction was ridiculous. The entire sea smelled like blood.
The dark shape grew closer and closer. All of his energy was consumed in his struggle to summon Spiky, and he couldn't ward off the approaching creature.
Red drops sprinkled everywhere as it surfaced. At first, only a mass of tangled seaweed was visible. It took Aidan a moment to realize what was emerging from the sea.
A mermaid.
Mermaids in the Starlands were supposed to be the most beautiful creature to grace the sea.
This creature was the opposite. Seaweed served as hair, and gnarled, water damaged shoulders were the first hint of a body.
Sagging, rotting breasts surfaced. The Curse Mermaid thrust out a hand of gray, peeling skin with yellowed fingernails.
Red water veiled her tail, but Aidan could tell it was decaying.
The worst part was the stench. Rotting fish and vomited rotting fish.
She opened her mouth, and a beautiful voice rang out. An unfamiliar language, but her words seemed to reach his soul, and he no longer saw a monster.
He saw the woman that he loved.
As sweet singing filled the air, she gestured to herself with a delicate hand. In a daze, Aidan swam to the majestic being. While she sang, she somehow spoke to him.
"My poor prince..." she whispered. "How you have suffered."
He stared at the face that he couldn't resist loving. "I would die a thousand deaths for you," he choked out.
She touched her exquisite lips. "I would never ask that of you," she told him sweetly. "One death shall be more than enough."
He allowed her to grasp his hand and pull him closer. With slow, sensual movements, she leaned down and kissed his forehead. Then she pulled him closer and kissed him. Her lips and tongue had a velvety sensation, and everything disappeared.
An image invaded his mind. He saw himself from a distance, a monster eating his face. The image grew closer and more vivid until he pushed himself away from the mermaid. Her beauty shattered, revealing an unnaturally wide open mouth with jagged, bloody teeth.
Certain the mermaid would lunge at him, he tensed as a cloud darkened the area.
But there were no natural clouds in the Curselands.
He looked up as the massive form of Spiky descended. The mermaid let out a horrible, ear-piercing shriek and dove back under the bloody waves.
"Do you intend to drown in that sea of death?"
Carys held onto Spiky as the massive beast came to rest in the water. Aidan struggled to stay steady as the moving waters pushed him. Enough of Spiky's body submerged that Carys was able to lower her hand for Aidan to reach.
Before he could take her hand, a creature tore out of the sea. Carys held up her hand, sending a fierce repelling spell. Aidan only had a brief glimpse as it was flung away, a rotting, red-eyed demonic dolphin.
He reached for Carys' cold hand and allowed her to hoist him up. When they were both safely on the top, he fell in exhaustion, staring up at the bloody sky.
"You are back," Carys said, a hesitant note in her voice. "The Jumping Portal disappeared, so how...?"
"Mona," Aidan said breathlessly. "She hates her father dearly."
"I don't understand." She sighed. "How could you possibly choose to return?"
"The curse..."
"Oh." She stayed silent for a moment. "I thought perhaps you realized what truly mattered."
"I did." He sat up and reached for her hand. She stiffened but allowed him to keep holding her hand. "I've made my choices, Carys. I can't go back on them."
"The curse won't let you."
"Indeed," he agreed. "But if I'm to be cursed and damned for the rest of my life, I won't allow my enemies to take anything more from me.
I was sitting under the dawn sky, knowing that someone I loved was going to die for my peace.
I'm not allowed peace in my life. The only ones with peace are the ones with no heart. "
He gripped the small bottle of Deadheart. He could have had his peace, but it wouldn't have lasted. If he ever wanted true peace, he would have to embrace the Law of the Beasts.