Chapter 37
Kassiel
Her eyes roll back into her head as she passes out.
Caym panics and screams for Rune in the treeline while Leeson looks like she's about to jump out of the treelines safety if it meant giving Alora a better chance.
He yells at me, his voice shaking, “She’s losing too much blood and the damned arrow didn’t pierce all the way through.”
I had seen it enter her porcelain skin before she even realized it happened. My world had stopped right then.
Damn it, Euron would stop at nothing if it meant her going free. I had only recently learned more about his curse from Jessamine and Naaveen and the prophecy from the Oracles. Of course the fates would center Alora at it all, in a perverse sense of checks and balances.
And now, she suffers because of my love for her and the hatred Euron has towards me.
My eyes scan over the castle walls and see some of the best trained soldiers in their ranks. The fates really find humor in unfavorable situations.
“Caym,” I begin, letting the seriousness of what I’m about to say settle over him, “we’re not getting out of this, I assume you know by now.”
His gaze turns towards the castle, inventorying the amount of soldiers that still continue towards us. They return to mine before puzzling over Alora.
“I agree, it doesn’t look promising."
Sweat forms on his face as he searches the canopy line for his comrades.
Rune shouts in an effort to get my attention but I can’t make out what he says given the distance between us.
I focus on Caym, my mind rapidly forming a plan, “Did he find the leirunes?”
He eagerly nods. “Yes, he was able to locate his ward and The Nightmare’s but—”
He snaps his mouth closed and I shift Alora’s weight in my arms.
“Tell me,” I demand.
“Jessamine says that yours wasn’t there.” His voice is hushed, laced with suspicion.
Of course it wouldn’t be there, that would be too easy.
Hurriedly I answer, “It should have been. It’s been many turns since I’d seen them all, but it wouldn’t make sense for it to not be there.”
I close my eyes, deciding I can still make my idea work.
“Where are they Caym? The wards?”
He throws his hands in the air exasperatedly.
Deciding we don’t have enough time for arguments, I tell him most of the truth.
“To free Rune from his ward and his bond, you’re going to need some of my essence. I know that my blood will devour any link except my own, as I cannot harm the one who chained me to him, as much as I would love to.”
Caym’s brows draw up into an angry vee.
“You cannot harm him?” He asks with disbelief.
“Not while I am bound to him. My magic cannot be used on myself, so in turn it won’t work on him as he’s bound to me.”
His mouth falls open.
I murmur, “Yes, it’s rather inconvenient. But that’s not why I’m telling you. I need you to do me a favor, Caym.”
He huffs out, “Anything. You’re a friend and I know Alora would command it.”
An arrow whizzes by signaling the surge forward from King Euron’s small army.
I hold her closer to me, my heart knowing what’s about to happen might cleave me in two.
“Take her dagger. It’s tucked in her hand.”
Caym quickly does so and looks at me expectantly.
“Now what?” he calmly asks.
“You’ll need to slice my arm to get my blood on the blade.”
His face falls and stills as his eyes search mine.
“Do it, before you’re just as fucked as me.”
He quickly abides and his hand doesn’t falter as he knicks my arm.
I wince with the sting, though it isn’t very deep thankfully.
“I’m shocked you didn’t stick me harder with that. I’m sure I’d deserve it.” A false chuckle escapes my lips. I joke with him, trying to lighten his growing seriousness as he wraps the dagger in a handkerchief and tucks it into his vest.
“Kassiel,” he begins, “I don’t wish you to suffer more than you have. I can tell you’re going to try to be the hero. I beg you to just come with us, we’ll figure this out. For her sake, just come.”
Gravel fills my voice, almost enough for me to choke on, “I am doing this for her sake. You and Rune will do what you vowed to me. The goddess as our witness, you will make good on your promise.”
His head falls back in defeat and he shakes his head in disagreement.
“What will I tell her, Kassiel?”
I pause, looking over the woman in my arms as her blood begins to pool in my shirtsleeves. She’s too pale for my liking, presumably because of the ill treatment the last few days as well as the blood loss from the arrow.
I begin to move towards where Rune currently takes shelter, stopping along the large base of the tree that’s roots grow over some of the dilapidated wall ruins.
A loud shout from near the castle door grabs my attention. Orlin. He’s perched there at the exit with Euron, and they’re staring directly at me.
I bring Alora’s cheek to my lips and kiss the soft, delicate features of her face.
Her eyes flutter open. The adrenaline from her wound must be coursing through her veins.
“Now Caym.”
He grabs under my arms, and cradles Alora before I let go of her, allowing him to bear her weight.
“Kassiel!” King Euron’s voice booms across the courtyard. He’s halted the firing so far, but if I know him, he’s currently sending his best archers quietly until Caym and I are in better reach of their arrows.
“You must be moving, Caym, now!” I whisper shout at him, trying my best to not allow Orlin or Euron to hear.
Alora stirs, her eyes rolling around before her lids snap open.
She watches me and then looks to Caym, confusion etching in her skin when she realizes I’m no longer holding her.
My heart pounds in my chest as I watch her face twist with anguish.
She lifts her chin, eyes sliding to mine. All the armor in the world couldn’t save me from the devastation that crumbles any protection I once held.
“Little warrior, you’re going to have to be brave and fierce. This may not be our lifetime together, but the next will be ours, I swear it.”
She nearly jumps out of Caym’s arms when she registers my words.
“Caym, get her out of here now damnit!” I yell, knowing our time has come to an end.
Her eyes fill with panic, turning the blue orbs a brilliant shade that’s rimmed with unshed tears.
She screams. The sound is so guttural I physically flinch. I know this is the greatest pain I will ever cause her, because I’ve lived it for centuries.
“My love, you’re going to have to be strong. Now be brave.”
Caym wrestles her, turning his back to me and running towards the treeline with Rune. Her eyes bore into me, the look haunting. I allow myself one more moment to cement her beauty into my memory and then I turn my back to her. I face Orlin and Euron who have now begun to cross the courtyard.
King Euron screams, his eyes filling with hatred.
“Bring her back to me! Bring her BACK!” He repeats it over and over and soldiers peel from the castle walls and outskirts until they’ve all swarmed.
The next move will end up causing me to be punished more severely than I ever have. I begin to call my shadows, to bend them to my will. They begin to rise off my arms in smokey, inky tendrils.
The first soldiers that draw upon me are met with the snakey hold of the shadows. I quickly snap their necks or stab through them with the shadow spears.
King Euron’s face blanches when he witnesses the shadow magic being beckoned.
“I have a confession,” I yell to the man.
He snarls as I stalk closer to him, Alora’s desperate screams filling the quiet spaces between the clink of swords and twinge of bowstrings being released.
“I hope you burn in the depths of Haldir, even if I have to take you there myself!”
I release my shadows, all of them , and a wall of the shadowy magic forms. It quickly encases the courtyard, creating a barrier between her and the rest of us.
Cloaked by the umbra wall, where no one but the king and his men can see, I call out to the monsters of the veil, the ones that consume the wicked. Their corporeal forms push through the barrier like oily phantoms in this realm.
Soldiers stop in their tracks as the daemons saunter closer to them, the courtyard now silent except for a few prayers that won’t reach any gods.
One man, foolish enough to get closer, draws his sword on one of the primordial beings. With a slash, the phantom vanishes, momentarily causing the man to exclaim in amusement.
My lip quirks up, knowing what’s coming.
The soldier turns to boast to the other. Before he can even brandish his sword again, the daemon is on him again and outstretches its phantom tendril and touches the soldier’s forehead.
He shrieks before his body turns to ash instantly.
More soldiers scream witnessing my darkest magic unfurl.
Though my death touch is fatal, the summoning of the veil is far more terrifying.
Pandemonium unleashes and I’m quickly the target for many, including Orlin’s full toothed smile.
Amusement flashes in his eyes as he manically laughs watching more soldiers perish under the touch of the daemons.
King Euron stands there, wickedness frosting his entire appearance. His eyes harden on me as he pulls out a gem that’s onyx with crimson etchings from his breast pocket.
So that’s where that ran off to.
My leirune, specifically the ward that was created with my blood and ancient symbol of my magic.
All it takes is him whispering the ancient command and running his palm across the stone before my collar burns and seizes.
King Euron forces my shadows back under my skin, the daemons slowly fading to nothing but wisps of shadows, before he walks over and has me on my knees in front of him, all because he commanded it
He stares down upon me, smugness written on his face by the way he purses his lips.
“What a neat party trick, Kassiel.” His venomous words do nothing to me now that she is safe.
I glance back towards the treeline and see no inkling of where her and the rest of our group escaped to.
Good. Because what happens next would be enough to send her into a spiral.
Orlin closes in on me, a savagery promise threaded in his threatening gaze.
My blood runs cold knowing he’s entranced by my rarest magic, that he’s learned I can call the veil.
“Now, Kassiel,” his voice is sharp, quiet, laced with maliciousness, “it seems that you’ve left a significant amount of information out about what you really are.”
King Euron stalks towards me, his face lights up as I witness the clicking of gears in his mind.
Fuck.
I’ve held these secrets for too long. I knew the fates had cursed me by letting me be a keyhole between realms, but I hadn’t anticipated them handing me the fucking key.
King Euron’s mind must be coming to the same conclusion by the way his seedy smile swallows his face.
“Who would have thought that while saving her, you brought me an even better gift, Kassiel.”
His hand moves fast, striking my face with a heavy blow.
My skin splits with the force and the throb is immediate.
“I can’t believe that the gods would hide such a gift beneath my very nose all these turns. I guess I’ll need to thank them for their offering.”
He reaches for the onyx stone again, and a hum beneath my skin trickles to life.
I can’t stop what I know to be coming, after turns by his side, I’m well aware of how his punishment will end for me.
This time, knowing Alora is at least safe makes what’s about to happen a little easier to endure.
Euron whispers in the ancient language once more as his Helianate soldiers circle around us, eager to watch the spectacle of my magic forced from my veins.
Usually Euron would force me to take a soul by touch, reveling in the anguish on my face and their tormented memories that would pummel into my mind.
I’d done it before, one by one until entire villages were destroyed.
But this is different.
Now he knows that the daemons are an extension of my death touch.
So it shouldn’t be surprising when he looks around at his soldiers and his face twists with disappointment.
He inquires cooly, “Who was supposed to be stationed on this side of the castle?”
The words drip with disdain.
“You have lost me a treasure, a rarity. You have cost me what’s been promised to me through the beginning of time, my naymeih.”
I want to puke hearing him call Alora his betrothed.
A lone soldier makes his way from the back of the crowd, he’s young. The way he holds his sword at his side reveals he’s a new recruit by the inexperience of holding a broad sword. It’s a pity.
Orlin turns to the man and claps him on the shoulder before grabbing hold of him so he can’t run away from the king's rage.
From my knees I can see the king carefully slide out a hidden throwing knife from his shirt sleeve.
What I don’t expect is for him to command my shadows to come forward, filling the courtyard once again with the inky veil. And with it, the daemons.
Their shadowy ethereal forms force their way from the thick shroud.
They stand, the edges of their corporeal bodies moving with the wind, waiting for a command.
The king is quick with his slash across the young man’s throat. Crimson spews in a spray that lands across my face.
Beads of blood pool thickly in my lashes as I blink away the gore and witness an even bigger monstrosity in the background.
The daemons attack the soldiers in the courtyard, shrieks and screams meld into a horrific chorus that whips with each gust in the wind. Orlin holds the man upright, as blood still trickles down and soaks the clothes of the dying soldier.
The sudden rush of death and the multitude of loss due to the mors finalem causes me to double over. Fear, not of my own, washes over me as every soul departs through my magic.
Dozens of men are dead in an instant. It’s too much for me to handle, even as a conduit of death.
My forehead thuds to the hard ground and my vision slips away.
I’ve experienced Orlin’s magic before, but this? This is crushing.
And this is only the beginning.
Kassiel.
Her last plea for me echoes in my mind.
It might as well be perdition, my very own depths of Haldir.
We were damned to orbit one another for eternity, forced to remain on the cusp of a salvation that was just out of reach.