The mild, sweet aroma burns in my nose as I bring the poisoned onyx blade down and swiftly drag it across Rourne’s throat, spilling his blood in a splatter of crimson. I hold my breath as his eyes fling open, panicked gurgles sounding as his bloodshot stare widens.
Seconds feel like minutes as I watch him die, but it is unlike the stories I have been told. He is still alive, but suffering.
Ari covers her mouth and looks away with a quaking sob. I exhale shakily, the anticipation crawling through me, swirling the building nausea in my stomach. I press the dagger to his throat once more, this time applying enough pressure to hack through his vocal cords, each thrust straining the muscles in my arms, the motion spattering more blood over my face and chest.
Rourne’s eyes shut, his chest caving as he goes limp at last, his breaths falling silent.
“Good gods,” Drake states. The horrified edge in his voice only makes this harder.
“He’s dead now,” I whisper, closing my eyes briefly, refusing to stop and think of Rourne as a person. I shake my head, strengthening my resolve, aware that people may be closer than we know, hidden in the trees. “We need to go. Now.”
Ari stands over Rourne, her legs wobbly as she holds her trembling fingers over her lips. She lifts her gaze to my face, her eyes bulging as she takes in the blood. I look down at my feet, then crouch, replacing the dagger into the holder strapped to my thigh.
The moment I stand straight, my legs suddenly buckle, and I collapse to my knees.
“Cali!” Drake’s hands are on my shoulders as I struggle for breath. A suffocating darkness engulfs my vision, plunging into blindness.
Rourne’s essence lingers on the fringes of his magic, and I clutch the sides of my head, squeezing as my brain throbs against my skull. I wince as a sharp pain pulsates through my temples, intensifying with each beat of my heart.
A small shriek escapes Arabella’s lips, but it is hastily smothered by Drake’s hand.
Time stretches into what feels like an eternity until the tight band of his powers dissipates, and my sight returns. I take in my surroundings through a blurred haze, and slowly, as if a veil has been lifted, the world comes into focus, materializing clearly before my eyes.
I inhale sharply, and Drake removes his hand from Arabella’s mouth, his eyes locked onto mine. “Rourne’s magic?”
I nod, and Ari’s expression shifts, a quiver over her lips. “Your eyes turned dark green. Even the white parts. Then the blood…”
“Thanks for that horrifying image.”
Shame consumes me as we stand, evaluating the perimeter.
Drake’s expression is unreadable, but we have no time to ponder on things that cannot be undone. All that matters now is their survival. Otherwise, everything I did was for nothing.
I take off into the cover of trees, and they follow. My thoughts turn to Death as we race over the uneven, vine-stricken ground, wondering if he somehow took my powers away, now that I am in his domain.
I flex my fingers as we hurry through the eerily quiet forest, knowing that without my powers, I cannot save them. Perhaps this was Death’s plan all along. He’s probably laughing at my fate wherever he may be.
TWENTY-TWOAzkiel
This is not the first time I have been buried alive. Essentria has a penchant for dragging her siblings into the ground and covering us with fucking soil and insects.
Slowly, I peel back my eyelids as the frosty breath of night caresses my face. Above the high walls of dirt, the crimson moon hangs low in the sky.
I lie still for a moment, the sound of worms burrowing in the mud beneath me scratches deep in my ears, enhancing my agitation. When I get my sister’s body out of her tomb, I’m going to drag her to the deepest part of the Black Sea, where my dead can torture her in the darkness until the vibrance left in her soul is extinguished. Despite her comatose state, Essentria’s spirit remains strong. Her magic pulsates in every damaged leaf and twig around me, still fighting.
“Fuck.” I splutter and push my palm against the vines covering the ground.
My fingers carve into the hard mud as I force myself to sit upright. I cast my gaze up the inside of the large, rectangular hole. It has to be at least six feet deep. Cursing Essentria’s name under my breath, I climb up and grip the edge, hoisting myself out of the hole, then landing on my stomach.
I should have expected this, but I deceived myself into believing that the physical consequences would not be so severe once my siblings’ powers abandoned me.
Once I am back on solid ground, I spit out the remaining leaves and dirt from my mouth and examine my arms and hands.
My skin is marred with bruises, the blues, blacks and browns covering most of my exposed flesh. Fantastic. Not only do I feel weak, but I also bear the evidence that my mortal body can take a beating, or at least, only at the hands of the other gods, or their magic.
I cast my eyes to the sky. The horizon ombres from the inky depths of night, into a deep, ocean green. Down below, broken branches litter the shore, reclaimed by the forest creeping closer to the edge of the Black Sea. Vines that made it to where the tide meets the pebbles lay withered and browned at their tips. Although the storm is fading, dark gray clouds shield the edges of the crimson moon that will only last one night.
Calista.
I must know if she is still alive.
My power reaches out from me in tendrils of invisible smoke as I search for the energy of her soul and the decay magic in her veins.
Only two have joined my dead this evening. I can taste their sadness as they join the rest of the souls in my domain. Neither of them are Calista.
I breathe out a sigh of relief, then glance at the sky as the sound of flapping wings grabs my attention. I tilt my head back further to witness a crow gracefully flying overhead, its caw echoing through the air as it vanishes into the forest. I close my eyes, and the scent of damp moss and rain-soaked pine penetrates my nose.
I focus on the small, winged creature, observing its boldness as it fearlessly enters my domain. Merging my mind with the bird’s is seamless, and when I close my eyes, I am transported into its perspective. The wind rushes through its feathers as it soars above the treetops, lifting us to greater heights.
He caws, and I reach into his thoughts. The crow is trying to find Calista.
My eyes fling open, and I am back in my body.
Of course she has a crow. If I had known, I would have used him to spy on her.
With a deep exhale, I use my fingers to remove the last traces of dirt from my hands, the gritty sensation clinging to my nails. As I cast one last look at the grave, a heavy sigh escapes my lips. I cannot waste any more time. I must regain possession of my sibling’s mortal bodies before Calista can die.
I head toward the tree line. The weight of exhaustion deepens with each step, each breath accompanied by a rattling within my lungs.
