“But why?”
Martha had already gathered her wits and answered loudly, so all the people could hear.
“Morinar, you must have realized that their target was not the king, but the queen. He has shielded her because he loves her more than life. And if the queen transformed into a monster in full view of the public...what would happen?”
Morinar swallowed hard.
“I g-got it.”
They would have torn her to shreds.
Innis bit her lip, knowing that Alex would have to be lifted and carried away, past the people, past...
Shimaris emerged from the temple and bent over the king.
Had he heard everything?
Innis frantically searched for a weapon, anything. She wouldn’t let anyone touch her husband. Anyone!
Nobody would dare to approach him—only if they came through her first.
Instead, Shimaris raised his hands.
“Brothers and sisters of the Light! Children of the Bright Saint! Let us pray so that our king would be saved!”
And the entire square, crowded with people, knelt down, making the sign of the Bright Saint.
Whatever Alex thought, they loved him. He had managed to become a good king.
Meanwhile, two strong guardsmen picked Alex up and laid him on a cloak, covering him with another one so nobody would see him anymore. They left his face open, however, so as Innis walked through the square, she kept hearing the whispers.
“What horror!”
“Poor queen!”
“How romantic!”
“How could they do this to the poor boy...”
Martha’s fingers locked around Innis’ wrist. The two women were the only ones who could support each other; there was nobody else except them—and Alex.
He was unconscious and barely breathing.
Innis threw a brief look at Martha, who slightly lowered her eyelashes. Not now, later. Finally, they were left alone, when the guardsmen placed the king on his bed and promptly exited. The only thing left to do was wait for a healer or a life mage.
“What’s happened?”
For some reason, Innis was whispering, as if afraid to scare away the silence in the royal quarters.
“I know that spell,” Martha chuckled bitterly. “It can sever the ties between the soul and the body.”
“And?”
“And the man dies.”
“But Alex is—”
“He’s no man. He’s a half-demon. The demonic half gives him the strength to live...so far.”
“And what will happen later?”
“I don’t know. We’ll see. Either he comes out on top and returns, or...”
“Or he dies?”
“That’s the best case.”
“What’s the worst?”
“He becomes a demon. Do you know the difference between humans and demons?”
“No...”
“Demons have no soul.”
“Really?”
“A body lives, a mind thinks, a soul feels. If you kill a body, you’ll get a corpse. If you kill a mind, you’ll get a beast. If you kill a soul...that’s how you get a demon—a creature without a drop of humanity. Once, I was afraid that Alex would end up as one.”
“But...”
“It’s harder for half-demons. A human can look for ways to kill their soul—that’s how we get monsters who start wars or condemn people to death just for fun, who enjoy the pain of others, but for a half-demon, it’s harder not to give in.”
“But can we check—”
Martha didn’t get the chance to answer the question. The door squeaked, and a man entered the room.
“Your Majesty....”
Martha furrowed her brow. She knew that man. He was a life mage, not the worst of the bunch, either, but could she trust him? Well, it’s not like she had a choice.
The man came closer, took a look at Alex, and almost jumped back.
“But that’s—”
“That’s His Majesty,” Martha enunciated. “The curse has transformed him. Can you change him back?”
The mage didn’t seem all that convinced, but duty prevailed over fear. He laid his hands on top of the king, closed his eyes, and focused. Tiny golden sparks sprang up between his fingers and the body.
Innis clenched her fists.
Please let him succeed! Please!
But the longer it went on, the less she believed.
The mage’s face became more and more clueless, and more often than not, light particles bounced back from Alex’s body. After all, life magic was against his nature.
At last, the mage shook his hands, as if throwing away the remains of Light, and sighed.
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I cannot help.”
“What!”
“Whatever it is, it’s as if His Majesty is rejecting my magic. I believe that soon, he—”
“Quiet!”
Innis advanced on the mage, fists clenched, and there was so much determination in her stance that the man couldn’t help but shudder.
“F-forgive me, Your Majesty.”
“Get out of here!”
The door swung shut. Innis looked at Martha, her eyes full of despair.
“Can’t we do anything at all?”
“There is one place. But we’ll have to go at night.”
Innis sank onto the floor next to her husband, took his cold arm in hers, and put it against her cheek. His claws could hurt her, but that didn’t matter as long as he survived.
Whether a demon or a human, Alex, I want you to live! Please, live!
***
“What’s happened to the king, Your Majesty?”
Innis slowly raised her head and looked at the chancellor. He was tired and disheveled, but there was something in his expression...
“No changes so far.”
Martha had gone somewhere, while Innis stayed, waiting for something, she didn’t know what. But as she kept squeezing her husband’s hand, the thing that scared her the most was that the steady blood current under her fingers would come to a stop.
“I’ve questioned the assassin.”
“And?”
“It’s Viscount Latour, the youngest one.”
“There’s an eldest as well?”
“It’s...complicated, Your Majesty. The eldest Viscount Latour is married to a certain lady called—”
“Carlie?”
“Oh, you know that?”
“Alex has told me everything.”
The chancellor breathed out. The queen knew everything and that meant that he could speak freely.
“His younger brother was recently engaged to a lady called Vanessa Mitor, one of the daughters of Baron Mitor...”
“Is he someone important?”
“He’s not, Your Majesty. But recently—and I haven’t yet told this to His Majesty—he lost his elder brother, who died without issue. Therefore, Vanessa’s father received a pretty good inheritance.”
“I see.”
“So the viscount had his eyes on the girl. A dowry, some connections—she seemed a good catch. But then she started complaining to her fiancé about His Majesty offending her.”
“Did he...defile her?”
Innis’ voice took on a dangerous tone.
“No. She used words like ‘humiliated’ and ‘forced to satisfy his unnatural urges’”
“What exactly?”
“If I understood correctly, Your Majesty, the girl decided to seduce your husband, back before your arrival to Radenor.”
“And?”
“She came to his chambers, disrobed, lay on his bed...His Majesty kicked her out in her birthday suit and made fun of her.”
Innis snorted.
“Sounds like him.”
“Yes, but that girl harbored a grudge.”
“And the viscountess was already mad at him.”
“So they met...and decided that the king was to be punished...by robbing him of something he held dear.”
“They’ve already tried feeding you charm potions, Your Majesty, you must know how—”
“How Viscountess Latour got married? I do. Alex told me.”
“The potions didn’t work and they found an assassin...”
Innis shrugged.
“What’s going to happen now?”
“I believe they will be hanged after...”
Morinar didn’t finish the phrase, but Innis already knew what he wanted to say.
When the king wakes up—or when the king dies.
“I hope everything becomes clear before tomorrow,” Innis said, sullen. “Leave us, please.”
The chancellor bowed out and Innis pressed her cheek against her husband’s hand.
Alex, how could you?
***
“Is there anybody else?”
“Martha!”
Innis was startled by the woman’s arrival. Martha gestured for her to sit down.
“What did the healer say?”
“That his magic is powerless.”
“I see. I had some hopes, but if not...”
“Do you know something?”
“I have a few guesses. See, if a soul is torn away from the body...his soul must be somewhere close, and it can be returned—before midnight on the same day.”
“But—”
“How do I know? Michelle took half of the royal library to Torrin. She did it for her son, but I read a lot of it as well.”
“So, how can we help him?”
“We need a place of power, a mage, and a person who truly loves him. We have all of that if you can get up the nerve.”
“What should I do?”
Martha appreciated the resolve in the girl’s voice. She was determined to not simply try, but to achieve her goal. She had already made up her mind and was ready to do whatever it took. She didn’t care what would come next, as long as Alex returned to her.
“We need to get him down. There’s a certain place there... I will direct the ritual, and you’ll follow him. I don’t know what will happen there. Your task is to get him out before the heart stops.”
“Whose heart?”
“His? Yours? You’ll see.”
Innis nodded.
“Where should we take him?”
She didn’t offer to call the servants. She knew that they had no business being in the place of power.
“Let’s wrap him in a thicker cloak. There’s a secret passage here...”
***
Innis wasn’t scared by the snake and the altar; her own dungeons weren’t much better. Well, there were ghosts instead of snakes, but she wasn’t sure what was worse. At least the snake was silent and didn’t seem keen on lecturing her.
Not to mention that getting scared wasn’t her top priority when her hands felt like they were about to fall off and the dungeon was fiendishly cold. Carrying an adult male was no easy task for two women.
They lay the cloak upon the altar, followed by Alex in the remains of his wedding outfit. Innis looked at Martha with a silent question.
“What’s next?”
“Next, you lie down beside him and take his hand.”
Innis obeyed.
Martha produced a black ribbon and bound their hands.
“So long as the heart is beating, you’re alive, and you can go into the light. After it stops, that’s the end. Got it?”
“Will I have a lot of time?”
“No. But you must find him.”
“What if...”
“There should be no ‘if’ for you. They say that true love can unite people even beyond the border. You’ll appear next to him, and he...he might be sick or hurt, or maybe he won’t even look like himself, I don’t know how it happens. There aren’t that many witnesses to that part of the ritual. Anyway, grab him and drag him to his body.”
Innis nodded.
Suddenly, the hard look in Martha’s eyes grew tender, lit by flames.
“You can do it, girl. I believe in you.”
Innis nodded in response.
“I will. He’ll never escape without fulfilling his marital duty.”
Martha nudged the girl forward and she lay on the altar next to Alex.
The older woman then pulled out a knife, touched it slightly with her lips, and unflinching, cut her own wrist.
“By the blood of a gifted...by the blood of a walker...” The blade opened Innis’ skin, and her blood started dripping down the ribbon tying them together, leaving a scarlet pool on the white stone. “By the blood of the one who lost his way and his ties...” The necromancer opened Alex’s wrist just as calmly and easily.
“I open the path!”
Innis’ mind became drowned in noise. The black snake reared up, covering the entire world, and the girl fell into darkness, hearing Martha’s triumphant scream.
“I pay my price and let my request be fulfilled!”
Innis couldn’t see the woman thrusting the dagger into her own heart and collapsing on the floor beside their feet. She couldn’t see anything anymore because of liquid glass surrounding her. Or is it just icy water?
***
What separates the world of the living and the world of the dead? Grey mist: slippery, clammy, tricky, grabbing your hands and feet, confusing your sense of direction. It is also cold—bone-chilling, cruel, merciless, and everlasting. It is the place where life has already left, but death hasn’t yet found, a gap in-between.
That’s where Innis found herself.
She felt scared, hurt, cold, but there was no time for that because somewhere nearby, somebody’s heart was beating in unsteady rhythm, dull and erratic.
As long as his heart is beating, I can find him, Innis realized.
“Alex!”
Her scream drowned in the thick mist and Innis rushed forward because it simply didn’t matter whether he’d go forward or back.
“ALEX!”
The mist slashed her face, trying to confuse her and lead her astray, giving her a silent command to turn back, but Innis ignored it.
No way but forward.
And when something flashed in front of her, she couldn’t believe her eyes.
Alex was sitting inside a grey cloud, the same as she had seen back in the pentagram. He was in his demonic form, with a tail, fangs, and claws, and his blue eyes were cold and apathetic as if looking right through her. She grabbed his hand.
“Alex! Let’s go!”
His hand slipped from her fingers.
“Why?”
His voice was dull and emotionless as if she was naught but dust to him.
Innis recoiled, but then leaned forward with renewed vigor.
“We need you home, all of us: Me, Martha, the kingdom! You have a son!”
The words she was saying were correct, but she felt it herself; it was not the right approach. There, those things didn’t matter at all.
Emptiness.
Dust.
“I care not about that.”
“Alex!”
“Nobody there needs me.”
“All of us do! Please...”
The heartbeat slowed down even more and a terrible thought pierced Innis’ mind.
What if it’s not Alex? Everything here is not what it seems...
There was only one way to be sure, even if a stupid one.
“What’s my name? Who am I to you? Kiss me and say it to me, and I’ll leave you here!”
Innis almost threw her arms around Alex, but he flinched back, his face twisted in fear, and the girl finally realized it was a decoy.
She lashed out in anger with a powerful gust of wind and the mist recoiled, as if afraid of her, melting the demon like ice cream on a hot sunny day. Still, Innis couldn’t even let herself be surprised. She knew that the clock was counting down and she only had seconds left.
“Alex!”
She poured everything into that scream.
I will die here, but I won’t leave without you.
I won’t go away alone. Hear me, my love!
And then, she heard a response.
“Innis?”
She darted forward, following the voice, rushing through the mist with such strength that the grey current parted to let her pass. The heart had already all but stopped, nearly fading away...
And when strong fingers closed on her wrist, she could breathe out only two words, “My love!”
“Innie, my dear...”
She would know that voice out of a thousand—and those eyes. He wasn’t a half-demon anymore, no. Just a human.
But what about before?
An epiphany came down on Innis and she realized his whole life, Alex had been half a demon and half a human, tearing him apart. His demonic part was unwilling to return, but his human half...
“Home!”
And with the last beat of the fading heart, the grey mist transformed into a dark hurricane. Yet even that was better than the cold sticky abyss that let out a disappointed howl, unwilling to lose its prey.
***
Innis opened her eyes and saw a ceiling. Her back ached, which made sense after she had spent so much time lying on an altar. But most importantly...
Her hand was still tied to her husband’s—and the latter was alive and warm, twitching slightly. Slowly, she turned her head.
“Alex?”
“Innie...”
His blue eyes looked at her lovingly.
“My dear...”
The kiss was long and hard, despite the fangs, and it could have grown into something else, if not for...
“Martha!”
The half-demon’s claws tore the ribbon to shreds and the couple rolled onto the floor from the altar.
Martha lay right where she had once stood, the ritual dagger in her chest, her face calm and peaceful. She had known what fate had awaited her...and she had known that her son was alive. The rest didn’t matter.
Alex dropped to his knees next to her body and touched the dagger.
“Mother...”
And at last, Innis became convinced that she had pulled out the right man. She knelt down beside him and wiped a tear off her face.
Martha, why didn’t you tell me?
And the voice she heard responded to her thought.
***
I don’t remember well what happened after the blow.
Half-Demon's Fortune Page 37