by K. C. Hamby
Everything is disturbingly still as I look around. Everyone is frozen in place except for me and Ash. And Fal. She stops swinging her scythe, confused as hell.
She attempts to stab the Poacher in front of her with a dagger, but it’s like there is a shield around him. A shield around all of them.
“What the….” I whisper.
Black smoke curls the ground around us, bringing cold air in its wake as it puddles around Ash.
“Son.”
Ash growls as much as he can at the voice. Sickeningly, I feel the bubbles of blood beneath the shirt from the action.
I look up into the black eyes of his father, Silas.
“Get the hell away from me,” Ash whispers harshly.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Fal growls, appearing beside Silas in a plume of shadows.
“Dear Nina, are you able to heal him?” Silas asks with concern in the slight wrinkles on his face, completely ignoring Fal.
I think he does care. Maybe the way he cares is just misunderstood. Like Fal.
I shake my head in answer. “He’s Mated. I tried.”
His eyes fall back on Ash’s bloody body. “Ash, your Mate needs you. Falen is talented and is surely capable,” he gestures to her and she snaps her teeth. “But your Mate needs you.”
“Don’t tell me what Eddie needs.” The words are pushed out with a sob and I choke on my own.
He’s not going to make it.
“I will take this pain from you if you take your place by Falen’s side in Death.”
I gasp and snap my eyes to Silas.
“Just do it, you bastard!” I yell.
Yes, I just called Death a bastard.
No, I do not care.
He gazes at me with patience I probably don’t deserve after that. “I cannot heal him either. The only way I can take the pain away is by transferring the rest of my title and taking the pain with me as I depart.” He turns back to Ash. “Take my offer. Save her, Ash. You’re the only one who can heal her. Do what I couldn’t for your mother.”
Fal’s breath catches, and she drops to her knees once again beside Ash. “Ash, please. Don’t do it for him,” she spits at their father. “Do it for me. Hell, if you can’t do that or for yourself, then do this for Eddie. She needs you.”
Ash’s breathing is rapid now. He grits his teeth, fighting against the pain I can feel is a frenzy in his energy. His heart beats frantically...until it starts to slow. Panic takes over as I watch Ash’s eyelids flutter.
“Ash! No no no stay with me.” I push on his chest with one hand and pat his cheek with the other.
“Ash, please…” Tears slide down Fal’s cheeks as she throws herself over his chest. “Please don’t leave me.”
She sobs, squeezing his sides as her face contorts in sorrow. I rub her back, my own fear for Ash falling from my eyes.
“Okashhh.”
I bend down as Silas squats on the other side of his dying son. Fal’s head pops up.
“What, Ash?” she asks.
“I said…” he takes a deep breath… “okay.”
The wicked grin Silas gives me makes my skin crawl.
“Alright, then.” He claps his hands as Ash takes one last breath.
Chapter 75
Edelina
My eyes flutter open, everything around me a blur of moving bodies; my wrists are heavy with metal chains.
Not again.
But this isn’t what woke me. The chains do not panic me. No, something deep in my being. A pain I’ve never known; a breaking apart of my soul.
Ash.
I don’t feel him with me anymore.
The last time my eyes were on him, Falen was bent over his bloody chest.
I reach inside, searching for even the smallest hint of life from my Mannie. And there I find a glimmer, a speck of him hiding deep within my soul.
Ash, please! I scream at him. Ash stay with me!
There is no answer to my pleas. My chest is caving in on itself with this pending reality.
No. I will not accept this.
Panic is setting in. I can’t do life without him.
I need you to stay with me! I scream at the bastard in my head, begging him to fight.
I am met with weak confusion.
I must get to him. I need to get out of these chains.
Something snaps. It is the most painful sensation I’ve ever endured. Worse than wolfsbane. Worse than getting shot. Worse than being tortured.
I scream bloody murder.
No. No. Ash!
I must do something. I can’t let him die like this. I won’t give up on the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I will kill anyone who gets in my fucking way.
I must do this even if it kills me; even if it takes away my soul and who I am, I must save Ash.
I must wake her up.
With a wail to the sky, I make my decision.
Nemesis, I call to the darkest pits of my soul.
There is a warmth stirring in the depths.
Nemesis, I accept myself as your incarnate. I am your vessel, and you are my salvation.
The warmth sparks into skin-searing heat as it rises from the darkness within me.
Wake and seek vengeance for those who have wronged us.
A burning fire explodes in my chest at my words.
I close my eyes and search through the fire in my blood all the way to my too fast beating heart. With every thump, every beat, she becomes clearer to me. Hidden in the cages of myself, she is there. I am there, waiting.
Nemesis. Goddess of wrathful retribution. Goddess of divine justice.
I am Nemesis.
I rip the lock from the cage she slams herself against, charring the bars in her rage. I break the lock in my hands and fling the door wide with open arms.
She runs, fire-covered and angry, into my embrace, screaming for justice and vengeance. She flows into my soul, changing me, becoming me, filling me with so much rage and retribution, I’m sure I’m breaking at the seams.
And I am. I’m being shredded to pieces.
But I was wrong. This won’t destroy me.
Fire covers my soul, but not burning it. Changing it, polishing it, molding me into something stronger. Something that can house the fiery divinity of a goddess.
The Fury I was shrivels away to something more divine, more sinister.
I am Nemesis.
And I am pissed.
Chapter 76
Falen
With Ash’s decision made, I Move my way back over to get even the smallest glimpse of Eddie.
But her eyes are open when I spot her in the crowd of joyous Poachers. Her skin is glowing and golden flames billow from her eyes.
“Oh, shit,” I curse and take a step back.
Her arms shake with fury and, in one swift yank, she rips the chains from her wrists. They melt into piles of molten metal dripping from her skin. Her teeth are bared and steam is rising from her hands.
I Move, landing far enough away to be out of the warzone of her wrath.
“Fal!” Nina yells, but I don’t turn around. “What are you…”
Before she can finish, Eddie explodes.
She roars and monstrous wings of flame shoot out from her back. Poachers fly backward, flames covering their bodies with skin and muscle melting right off their bones.
From the middle of the vanquished circle, Eddie rises into open air, fire hovering above both of her palms just waiting to do her bidding.
“Oh, my god!” Nina screams.
I Move and stand in front of her and Ash both, aiming to protect them from whatever Eddie has become.
Eddie lands with grace back on her feet and faces a group of awed Poachers, gray-feathered and fire-tipped wings spread behind her as if she is ready to take flight at any moment.
“I told your pals and I’ll tell you now, you will rue the fuckin’ day you captured me,” she growls and throws her hands in their direction.
Fire blas
ts from her palms and rolls over the group, incinerating them in a matter of seconds. The smell of burning flesh is enough to make me sick.
She turns to us and runs, wings disappearing as if they were never there. I brace to block her, but I should have known better. She runs right past me and falls to her knees beside Ash.
“Ashy, you better nae leave me!” she screams and starts chest compressions after giving him two breaths, pounding on his chest. “I’ll never forgive you!”
Again and again, she tries to get his heart back beating. The bones in his sternum crack loud and his stomach bounces oddly with each compression. Nina runs into my arms crying.
Tears slide down my too hot cheeks and I wait and wait, needing Ash to emerge from his end as the other side of Death.
Chapter 77
Ash
Everything is dark.
I should be terrified, but it’s actually kind of nice.
Ash…
Wait…Eddie?
Ash...please...
Something pounds in my head. Like Hades has a war hammer slamming against my skull continuously. My body swells.
Son.
I turn and my father materializes from the swirling darkness.
Take my hand, he says and because I agreed to this, I do.
As soon as we touch, an electric jolt pulses through me, hitting my heart with unrelenting force. I gasp, the electricity cracking through my body like breaking ice.
My father’s face is soft and caring as he watches me get fucking electrocuted.
Shadows melt away from him in droves as they leave his skin to spin around us in some kind of shadow tornado.
You have made me proud, Ash, he says and pats me on my shoulder with a heavy hand. I bow my head because…it’s something I have wanted to hear for years but told myself it didn’t matter. “You and Falen both.”
Ash...stay...with...me...
Wait, that’s Eddie again. Why would I leave?
I...need...you...to...stay...with...me..
My father gazes at me with knowing. You will go to her, I assure you. But first…
His clawed hand slams into my chest, gripping my heart. My knees quake and a wail halts in my throat.
I knew I would fucking regret this.
His grip tightens until I’m sure he will crumble my heart into nothing but ash. Betrayal stings in my eyes as I watch him.
I should have known I couldn’t trust him.
He must see the fury in my eyes because his mouth smiles softly, his own black eyes full of understanding as the darkness fades from his irises.
In order to become Death, son, you must first succumb to it, Silas tells me and squeezes my heart again.
Oh.
Wait, I have to actually die?
Eddie is going to be so pissed.
With a few frantic flutters, my heart stops beating. The blood in my body halts and I chill with the absence of red liquid heat. My bones ache, made of lead and too heavy for me to hold on to anymore.
To death I depart, and Death I leave. Into you, my son, Death shall weave, he whispers, eyes loosing their darkness all together and glowing a bright amber. Like my eyes. He reaches out with two fingers. They touch my forehead, and all the breath leaves my lungs.
I wonder if Fal saw our father in the fire when she gave up her mortality. When she became Death’s darkness.
Another slam to my skull and my throat catches on fire. The shadows swarming around us crawl up my body, covering me in smothering darkness. I’m trapped by a cocoon of death and smoke until it bursts from around me, seemingly content with their product of metamorphosis.
Do I feel changed? No. It’s as if I was around a campfire too long and woodsmoke lingers on my skin.
Just as the thought leaves me, the shadows shove themselves into my mouth and down my throat.
I still can’t breathe as they take over everything in my soul.
It burns. Goddammit, it burns. I am being consumed by invisible fire burning me from the inside out. I try to scream, but I am paralyzed, locked into place by pain and suffocation.
I just had to comment on the lack of feeling, didn’t I?
Just when I think I can’t take it anymore, a beating pommels in my chest and the pain disappears.
And then a beating on my chest. Followed by a fiery shock combatting that of Nina’s.
“Ash, you bastart!”
I jolt upright at the sound of my name screaming from Eddie’s mouth. She yells and falls back, taking Fal’s discarded shirt with her.
I look around, but my father is gone.
“Where...is Thanatos?”
Nina falls from Fal’s arms down beside Eddie and looks up at me with wild eyes.
“You...are Thanatos.”
The immortal energy pulses through my blood, flooding me with the knowledge of what I can do; the list of what I’m capable of doing is endless.
I can understand how Fal got a big head from this power.
“Eddie.” It’s a godly growl from my lips as I reach up and touch her face.
“Ashy,” she whispers and falls onto my chest, sobbing hard and holding me with all her strength.
“Eddie, are you okay?” I ask and nearly flinch at the growl in my voice, the smooth menace.
“Aye, I’m a’rite.” She looks up to me and gasps. “Ashy. You…did you…?”
“Yes. To stay with you. I would do anything for you, Eddie.” I grab her face and rub my thumbs over her cheeks. “Anything.”
“You fool,” she chuckles and presses her lips to mine. She pulls back and smiles.
“Wait, what…?” I ask when I see the change in her. Fire. Wrath. Divine power much more than she had before. She’s glowing with it. It radiates from her soul and brushes against me with wrathful heat. “Did you…?”
“I’d do anythin’ to stay with you,” she says. “So, I am Nemesis.”
“No fucking wonder you blew up,” Fal breathes, wiping tears from her eyes. “I was wondering what the fuck happened, but that explains it.”
“Aye,” she answers and nods her head once without moving her gaze from my face.
Nina gasps. “’Death becomes another.’ The prophecy was talking about you, Ash. Which we guessed, but we didn’t know exactly what it meant. You died and became Death like Fal. And ‘A reborn Nemesis takes the skies…’ Eddie is the reincarnation of Nemesis and literally flew into the sky when she transformed.”
“You what?” I ask and squint at her.
“Dude, she exploded,” Fal tells me and mimics an explosion with her hands followed by her best interpretation of the sound through pouted lips. “And fire wings came out of her back taking out a bunch of Poachers. Then she flew and blasted them all into piles of ashes. It was badass.”
Eddie snorts, winking at my sister. “Ach, I do tend to be impressive.”
Fal rolls her eyes, but they land on me, tears lingering and sliding down her scarred face.
“Now,” Eddie growls when she pulls away from me. “Let’s get the rest of these fucks off our island. I dinnae think I got them all.”
“Fuck yes,” Fal roars and looks to Nina.
They both shift into their wolf forms, working together like a well-oiled machine.
After only a few seconds, Nina’s white fur is stained with Poacher blood and red is dripping from Fal’s sharp teeth.
“Wait. I can finish this,” I say, grabbing Eddie’s arm before she runs off.
She looks up at me with questions in her eyes. “What do you mean, mo chridhe?”
“Stay here,” I say in answer and Move to the middle of the chaos.
Because I can Move now.
The power swells in my soul and dances around my body as I gather my energy. I raise my arms to my sides, focusing on the souls of the Poachers.
Fal slides to a stop and shifts back to her person, eyes filling with blackness as she stares at me. She must feel the power moving because of our new connection.
With a final
, deep breath, I clap my hands together and the booming sound of thunder rocks through the air.
It takes away my breath and my knees hit the ground at the same time the Poachers do. All of them. Dead.
Because I am Death. And no one gets away from me.
Fal’s eyes roll in the back of her head and she falls to the bloody ground. Nina is instantly at her side, hands glowing with healing power as she calls my sister’s name.
I sway, suddenly not feeling so hot. Nausea seizes me and I gag into the grass.
“Ashy!” Eddie yells and…Moves next to me in a plume of flame. She drops on her knees just as my vision starts to darken. “Talk to me, mo chridhe.”
“I…” I gag. “I don’t know.”
Eddie places her hands on my chest and her hot power pushes through me, bringing me seemingly back to life. Her eyes pop open.
“Ash, you’ve drained nearly all yours and Falen’s energy with that blow.” Her brows furrow and she pushes hard to heal me. It’s slow and painful. I have to bite my bottom lip to keep from screaming.
“But I thought Death can’t die,” I groan.
“You doaty bastart,” Eddie growls at me and flings her hand to a now conscious Fal, sitting up and rubbing the side of her head as Nina touches her cheek. “You or Falen may nae be able to die like the rest of us, but I assure you, your end would be much worse. You will be gone, nothin’ of you left in the universe. You and Falen’s fuckin’ souls will desentigrate. You cannae just kill anyone you wantae like that.”
“So, Fal Pal passed out because…?” I ask, sitting up with the help of Eddie’s strong hand.
“You and Falen are linked because together you are Death. If you suck up all of Death’s power, you both suffer the consequences.”
I gasp at the dissipating pain. “Well, it got the Poachers off the island, right?”
“At what cost, mo chridhe? There has to be a balance between Life and Death. For fuck’s sake.” She shakes her head, fake disappointment in her brilliant eyes.
Gunshots pop into the silence surrounding us and he slight smile falls.
“Althea!” I hear Nina screech and panic pulses through my chest. She runs in a white-haired blur toward a fallen and bloody body.