by Richard Amos
Poison … the goddess said.
The spasms stopped. Bloody hell! I could barely breathe.
“No,” I protested. “This can’t be happening.”
Poison …
“I heard y—” The healing magic bathed me. “Thank G—”
The spasms ripped through me once more.
“FUCK!”
They settled and my healing power kicked in again, only to return. I vomited blood, spraying it everywhere.
Poison …
“No shit!” I tried to push myself up and destroy the beast essence. If I did that, I’d be free of this place.
I could barely lift my arms.
“Help me …”
Poison …
“Stop fucking saying that!”
The damned spider! I had to kill it. Only I could do it.
After another bout of spasms, I tried to focus my mind. I could do this. All I had to do was push through, summon up any sliver of energy I had and touch golden light.
It was an endless cycle of healing and pain. Blimey! It knocked me for six and then some. There was no energy to summon, nothing in me left to give to my limbs.
“I can’t …” I could barely speak. “I can’t be stuck here.” I had to get up. “Goddess, help me … I need you, Hecate. Please … what can I do? What can I—”
The cycle continued.
I was flat on my back, my limbs so heavy they almost sank into the floor. “Please …”
Chapter Seventeen
“Hello in there.” That wasn’t the voice of the goddess, but I knew who’s it was, and it sent shivers down my spine.
“Lilisian,” I responded weakly.
“The one and only.”
“What have … you done to me?”
Another spasm …
She answered my question as I was splayed out on my back, weakened by the assault on my body. “I’ve given you something far greater than an easy death. In fact, there will be no death for you for a very, very long time. That is the last place you will see, Jake.”
Oh, my God! “You won’t … beat me.”
“I already have. How can this beast die but by your hand? And there you are, ravaged by poison, helpless.”
She’d planned it. Clever friggin’ beast. “How … are you … talking to me?”
“Did no one tell you how powerful I am, Jake?”
“M-Maybe …”
“There is a reason I was cursed, locked in that old woman’s rotting body. Those days are dust. I am ready to make my debut in Coldharbour—my proper debut on the back of my darling Daisy.”
“D-Daisy?”
“My dragon. You know, Jake, the one those dreadful goblins afflicted with that cooling magic. No matter, she is almost warmed up now. I will be starting with the goblins, every single one of them. The rest of the city will follow until I destroy the mansion and all that is secured within it.”
She meant the chamber with the chanters, those who kept the city sealed away, kept it a lie. If they fell, the seal would break and the beasts would be free to go out into the world.
She called her dragon Daisy?
“I’ll never let that happen.” I tried to muster a dark tone, but I just sounded pathetic.
She sighed, one more of pleasure than exasperation. “Should it transpire that you do manage to break free of your prison, there is nothing but death waiting for you. Either way, all of this is over. The goddess failed, and you failed. Say goodbye to everything now, because you will never see your friends again—no matter how many rockets the golem fires at the palace.”
Nice one, Greg! “I’ll … s-s-s-stop you …”
“No, you will not. With that, Jake Winter, I say goodbye to you. I hope you live a very long life in there.”
“I’ll … stop … you.”
She didn’t answer. Lilisian was gone.
I didn’t know how much time had passed, but the cycle didn’t break.
Speaking was out of the question now. I was nothing but a vessel for the poison. I’d timed everything down to the smallest beat. Being prepared for every spasm session and healing didn’t mean it hurt less. Each spasm was excruciating.
Something in the poison, the goddess said in my head.
Finally! I replied silently. What the hell?
Something is stopping you from falling unconscious. Trying to find a way. Your body trapped in a—
Cycle, I finished for her.
My friends … I needed my friends. Were they safe? Poisoned too? Please don’t let them be hurt!
Have to get out of here …
The beast essence was so close, yet so damned far.
I retched again, blood spewing all down my chest. The tang of stomach acid lurked in my mouth.
Trapped, unable to help myself, I was a slave to my memories. I drifted in and out of them, between the violent spasms.
My mind wandered back to my wedding day.
It was a gorgeous day in October. The sun was out, but it was cold and there was frost on the ground—the kind of day where spider webs look like they’ve been spun out of diamonds.
My red and gold tie matched the color of the leaves, as did Michael’s. We were in matching charcoal Prada suits, looking the absolute business. It was the happiest day of my life. Jake Winter had a ring on his finger, and so did his boyfriend. Husband and husband, together forever …
Spasm …
Back to the memory, that lovely memory …
It was a small wedding, my dad and twin sister there, and Michael’s parents, before everything fell apart so spectacularly. Jake Winter: screw up extraordinaire.
God, his mother had hated me so much. She blamed me for his death entirely, said it was shady drug dealers that’d killed him all because of me. It wasn’t just the drug stuff she hated, it was the fact I was a man. If he had married a woman and had children with the house, car and all the trimmings, he would have been fine. What bullshit and she knew it!
Spasm …
Never mind that Michael came out before I met him, had a couple of boyfriends. No, that hadn’t mattered. I was a corrupting force, an addict and a horrible person who broke her son. Joyce, his mum, had called one day, shortly before his death, to tell me how pleased she was that he’d found Andy, that he’d had the smarts to cheat on me. Once he was dead, the whole bollocks about her wanting him to be straight came up. She would ring me loads in the weeks following Michael’s death, at all hours, reminding me how shameful I was.
Spasm …
I carried that, the whole breaking Michael thing, every day. I drove him to cheat and want to leave me, to end up hating me. And I was sorry every day for that.
I’d had to sneak his half of the Yin and Yang pendant we shared into his coffin without her knowing. His funeral was strained but incident free—until the phone calls came that evening, me loading up on cocaine to get through the night.
Spasm …
Clive, Michael’s dad, never said a word. He took everything his wife said and did, a proper doormat. It was like dealing with a brick wall.
The last words Joyce had ever said to me were ‘go die and rot in a gutter somewhere,’ slamming the phone down on me for the final time.
Michael’s funeral …
Spasm …
I didn’t want to think about that …
Raining … Of course it rained. Dark and gray, me broken and haunted by the white eye guy …
Everything was turned upside down, my whole universe. I had friends who loved me, a new home, a purpose beyond killing that white-eyed bastard. Putting him down was still on the list, but it wasn’t the only thing about me. I’d been a ball of fury, hunting down revenge. I was dealing with not being just that anymore, processing all of the changes that had happened to me, a whole world of magic and chaos that had been hidden from all of us who didn’t see what’s beyond what the eye sees. I had a life to cling to. I had … Dean … to deal with. And I … no matter …
Spasm …
I wanted to have pizza again, even if we had it all the bloody time. Never have I missed pizza so much! And I wanted to watch bad movies, laugh, snuggle with Greg and Nay, have Greg climb into my bed in the middle of the night and tell me all about how he was really hot for Bliss. I wanted to smell Karla’s peppermint tea again, devour more of Mr. Douglas’s amazing pancakes.
I have to get out of here …
Cycle … the goddess answered.
All cycles could be broken. There had to be a way.
Chapter Eighteen
A scream tore from my larynx, even when speech had failed me. This particular spasm was on the verge of bone-breaking. I writhed and convulsed, head whipping back and forth.
Bloody hell!
Once it was over, I threw up blood again in a higher volume than the previous times and coughed violently before more came up in a gush of crimson.
It was getting worse. The poison was crawling through me, growing in strength. My healing magic would push it down a little, before it broke the surface once again and ravaged me. It had the upper hand in a major friggin’ way. But I’d beat the fucker!
My throat was on fire from the regular puking, and my sparks were … flashing.
What the hell?
I coughed again, blood spraying. More flashing. Was it some sort of impatience, or an alert that I’d been here too long?
Yeah, I don’t need a reminder! I’m trying to think of something!
Poison …
Please don’t start that again … I chided the goddess. I know what it is.
Another spasm, closer to the last one than they had been before, followed by more blood-spewing.
Poison is beast …
What?
Poison is beast, can be destroyed.
Wait … what? Oh, shit! It clicked. The poison was beast-made. My power destroyed beastly things. Oh, my God! Yes! That was it!
You’re a bloody genius!
The goddess didn’t answer, but that was fine. I lifted my arms, a slow process that took many attempts, and placed a hand on my blood-covered jacket.
My sparks reacted hungrily, consuming the dark red all over my coat in a mad frenzy. I felt the virus die at my fingertips.
Yes!
Wait … I was missing something key. That blood had come out of me. The rest of it was inside me.
Touch your blood …
How?
Open a way …
Open a way? Had she lost it? I had no knife, nothing sharp enough to make a cut.
Cleanse your blood …
I got that! But how? I—Oh, crap!
Wham! It hit me, dragging another scream from me.
Open a way …
You mean with my teeth? Holy bloody crap!
Cleanse your blood …
You want me to bite a way into my veins?
Cleanse your blood …
Got it …
Loud and clear, I understood. Man, did I hate this friggin’ bollocks!
Could I really do this? Not only would it take some serious work, but also require some massive balls to pull it off.
Another spasm …
If I wanted out of here, this was the only way I had.
I lifted my arm again. A spasm had it flailing, so I lifted it again. I got it as far as my chest before another spasm had it back to my side.
Over and over again, I tried the same routine. The spasms intensified each time, but I soldiered on. The little boost my healing power gave me was enough to motivate me. And this was just the beginning.
Up to the chest, off the chest, a cycle within a cycle. Tears of frustration streamed down my face. I could break this cycle, I could! Fuck the frustration. I wasn’t staying in this damned spider beast.
After the latest spasm, I managed to get my wrist up to my chin before it fell back to my chest.
Ha! I’d done it! I’d broken the mini-cycle. I was on the road to victory now, crushing the main cycle.
Cleanse your blood …
Ten more attempts later, I had my wrist to my mouth. I chewed on the skin, trying to get as much flesh between my teeth as I could.
Any moment this opportunity would be taken from me. This was it—crunch time.
Oh, bloody bollocking hell!
I bit down as hard as I could, locking on. I did as much as my brain would let me. Messages were going off from the hub in my skull around my body, telling me to sort out my shit.
This is for your benefit too!
The spasm came, and my teeth clenched as they did each time. My head thrashed along with the rest of me. A new pain in my wrist came to meet the poisonous one cycling through my body; sharp and awful and enduring. Blood flooded my mouth as my teeth tore through flesh.
The spasm stopped and my arm dropped back to my side. I threw up again. Blood spurted from my self-inflicted wound, spraying into the white glow of my sparks.
It was enough.
My own power poured into me. The cut was enough. Millions of sparking ants hurried through my veins, destroying every bit of beast in their path. Even when my healing magic repaired my wrist, my power carried on. It was inside me now, as it already was. A weird paradox if ever there was one. It just came to me—it took the power inside me to go inside me and destroy an invading beast poison …
Yes …
Yes what?
You are not immune to these things, I see now. You can still be harmed by beastly tools. This was a deadly poison, crafted with terrible skill …
Great. At least you see now. I like it when you end up seeing things.
Trial and error …
Hopefully not too much of it … I could do without experiments on how my power worked and reacted to beastly crap. This one I would not have minded passing on.
Now you know …
Yeah, okay … Thanks for your help. There was no sharpness to my words—I was genuine. I really appreciated any help she gave me. I know how cloying that beast presence was that locked onto her, this world. Whatever it was, and my guess was it was worse than Lilisian would be, it was the key to freeing Coldharbour. I thought about it a lot, getting nowhere, but never let it slip from my mind.
Being eaten was another thing I often wondered about, and so had some of the beasts I’d killed who’d considered turning me into brunch.
More healing magic got to work, putting me back together, taking away all of the pain left by the poison, adding further work to my wrist.
I was back to normal, able to get to my feet. My body was fine, I was fine. No, I wasn’t fine—I was enraged. I really needed to kill myself some beasts and help my friends.
Please let them be okay!
Without another thought, I grabbed hold of the spider beast’s essence. The sparks consumed and destroyed it, freeing me at last.
It took a while for my brain to catch up as the golden shards of beast fell from my hands.
“What?”
I was locked in a glass box with no way out. Every inch of it was sealed, with no air holes. So, this is what she meant by death waiting for me?
The box was hanging over dark gloop that bubbled below me—kind of like hot mud but dirtier-looking. Torches blazed in sconces on clean, gray concrete walls. There was nothing else in the room, no pathway or platform, just the gloop. And no sign of an exit.
The gloop was held in a pool that wasn’t wide, but would probably be deep as hell. What was that bitch about to put me through?
Touching the glass didn’t do anything. Although my sparks were still active, they didn’t cause any damage to my new cell.
Bollocks!
The bottom of the glass box opened and dropped me into the gloop.
; Chapter Nineteen
The foul stenches of sulfur and ammonia hit the back of my throat first, then my head went under. Slime, with the texture of porridge and gravel, flooded my mouth. I choked and threw up, taking in more and more.
Shit!
I clawed at it in the best breaststroke I could muster, hoping I was causing some sort of damage to it. Though I didn’t think I was.
Crap! I was gonna drown in this mess. Well, I couldn’t say Lilisian hadn’t warned me nothing fun would be waiting for me.
No way out …
I couldn’t get myself above the surface, no matter how hard I tried. The gloop pulled me deeper and deeper. Up on the surface, there’d been no obvious exit, just sheer walls and torches.
Anything?
The goddess was silent.
Something brushed my leg.
Oh, no … Oh, no!
The gloop churned, being sucked downward and me with it.
I did the only thing I could think of—I activated my shield.
The gloop was expelled from me, pushed outside the new cocoon. I sucked in air, spat out the nasty stuff and threw up a couple of times. Whatever had brushed my leg didn’t make any attempt on the shield.
Great. Here I was again, stuck. At least I could breathe.
Well?
Hecate still had nothing for me. Wonderful. Maybe she was thinking about it …
The only hope I had at the moment was my SOS thread that’d be screaming at my guardians. If they were alive … There was no SOS coming from them to me, which normally happened when they were in trouble. Surely, I would’ve felt their deaths.
A series of horrible images played in my mind, of their heads on spikes, of them burning to death, guts being pulled out by a hookster beast.
I clenched my fists, fingernails digging into my palms. That shit had to stop. They weren’t dead. They were coming for me; I just knew it.
Hours passed and I was still locked inside my shield, floating in the gloop.
“This can’t be the end,” I said aloud. No matter how much I wanted to fight, to figure this out, my determination waned.