by Joshua King
15
The figure took a step toward me, forcing me to look more closely at the ancient version of my own face. Terror flowed through me and I rushed backwards away from it. I couldn’t look away from the bloodshot eyes that held so much pain and disappointment or the deep lines surrounding a mouth pulled down in a deep, permanent frown. Another step found me at the edge of the plateau and I couldn’t find my balance. I fell, tumbling down the steep mountainside I’d just battled my way up. Rocks bit into my skin and tore at my clothes. My head smashed against the mountain and my vision spun, making me go limp. There was nothing I could do to stop myself. Brielle’s voice screamed somewhere in the distance but I couldn’t even focus on the sound. The fall finally ended with my back folded over a sharply pointed rock, my head slowly gliding down toward the ground as the rough boulder scraped my skin. I squeezed my eyes closed. Suddenly, the mountain around me trembled. A violent earthquake shook the rocks around me and I fell from the peak of the rock to the ground. Around me, small rocks broke free of the side of the mountain, raining down on me and bouncing away. Opening my eyes, I could see a larger rock overhead. It slid toward me, but I didn’t have the strength to move out of the way. The crushing blow flattened me to the ground and the sound of bones cracking accompanied a scream tearing from my lungs.
It seemed like I laid there, struggling against the rock, for hours, but it was probably only a few moments before Brielle landed beside me. Her wings folded down by her sides as she dropped down to rest her hands on my face. Tears sparkled on her cheeks and her fingertips trembled as they touched my skin.
“Don’t try to heal me,” I forced out. “Not until the stone is gone.”
“Then move it,” she gasped.
“I can’t.”
“Hayden,” Jaxxim said as he scrambled toward me, “push the stone off. Brielle needs to heal you.”
“I can’t move it.”
“What do you mean?” Aurora asked. “You’ve lifted things much heavier than that.”
“I know,” I said through gritted teeth, the anger and frustration toward all of them returning. Even with the crushing weight on me, I wanted them to go away. “But I can’t. My strength is gone. So is my energy. I can’t move.”
“I’ll help you,” Jaxxim said.
He, Bugs, and Bex rushed to me and positioned themselves around the stone. Worsened pain coursed through me as they rocked it slightly, then finally took hold and moved it out of the way. As soon as they removed the stone from my smashed body, Brielle rested her hands over me. I wanted to tell her to get away, to stop touching me, but I fought against the compulsion. The toxic thoughts were getting stronger, but I knew they were wrong. Something was happening and I needed to push back against it with everything in me. My eyes met hers and she stared like she was looking into me. I couldn’t read her. I couldn’t see beyond the swirling lavender of her gaze, but I could feel her there beside me and it was enough to keep me focused. The other women gathered around me and having them close intensified the struggle inside me. At once I needed them there and wanted to cast them far away from me. The more I felt that need, the more I strained to try to touch them.
“Get Malakan’s kit,” Stephana commanded.
As soon as she said it, fear struck me. The kit was in the bag over my shoulder and I worried the rock falling on me might have crushed it. My bones could be pieced back together, but if Brielle’s healing powers barely worked on living beings other than Fae, I didn’t really trust the idea of them working to save glass bottles that had come up close and personal with a chunk of mountain. I couldn’t move the arm draped over the bag, but it was mercifully numb when Ashe moved it to get to the bag. She pulled it close and dug through the contents, taking out the kit and resting it on the ground. There were a few gouges in the leather, but no broken glass fell from the package, which seemed like a good sign. She opened the kit and seemed relieved to see all the contents intact.
“It looks like he cushioned it,” she said.
“Glad to be of service,” I said through gritted teeth.
The glow of Brielle’s healing hovered over me and I wondered if our power-magnifying link would work on me if I could lift my arm to touch her. I wasn’t familiar with the self-healing protocol. Aurora came over to Ashe and knelt down beside her. They worked quickly to blend the ingredients Malakan had left for us with the plants we’d harvested from the forest after the train crash. Gulping down the concoction didn’t appeal to me, but the knowledge that my broken body still didn’t have enough control of itself to fight off the women lifting my head to force it down and that if I didn’t take it, I may never be able to peel myself up off the ground combined to make me cooperate. The mixture was thick and distinctly grassy with both sharp and musty undertones that weren’t something I’d ever want to encounter again. Unfortunately, it already seemed fairly futile to think this might be the only time I’d need to take advantage of the tools the warlock left for us to recover from my journey.
“What the hell is going on?” I coughed out after swallowing the noxious substance.
“We were wondering the same thing. Did you find whatever it was that was running away from you?” Aurora asked.
“It was Malakan,” I told her. “At least, it was at first.”
“What do you mean it was Malakan at first?”
“It was Malakan. I saw him. I thought I did, anyway. But then when I got to the top and he was standing there, it wasn’t him. It was…me.”
“You?”
The feeling of bones throughout my body mending and internal organs slipping back into place cut off any answer with a groan. When the wave of sickness ended, I continued.
“Yes. It was me, just old. I got to the plateau and when the guy turned around, it was an ancient, craggy version of me.”
“You had to have been imagining it,” Aurora started, but I saw Lilly staring at me and knew she was wrong.
“What is it, Lilly?” I asked.
“I saw something when you were running up the mountain, but I didn’t know what it was. You said it looked like you?”
“Yes. Just really old.”
“Hayden, you weren’t seeing Malakan and you weren’t seeing yourself. That was a Terian. It’s a creature capable of embodying your greatest fear.”
I looked at her through narrowed eyes.
“My greatest fear is an ancient old man version of myself?” I asked incredulously.
I didn’t want to be lying down anymore. The pain had lessened and my bones were back together. Pulling away from the ground, I drew myself up and straightened. The movement was too fast and the now too-familiar aching and creaking radiated through my joints. I groaned, grabbing one hip as I leaned against the wall.
“Hayden?” Bugs asked. “You okay?”
“Apparently just old as shit,” I said. “Everything might have caught up with me.”
“Why do you say that?” Lilly asked.
Her voice sounded strained, like she was afraid of the answer she might get.
“Climbing the mountain was harder than I thought it would be. Not that I’ve ever climbed a mountain before, or thought it would just be a breeze to scurry my way up it. But it was much harder than I thought. My body felt slow and my joints ached. I’m feeling more pain than I have since becoming a vampire.”
“You’ve been different since we got on the mountain,” Lilly said. “It’s changing you. You’re angry and volatile. It’s like it’s getting inside you.”
“It’s getting to me,” I admitted. “Of course, it’s getting to me. I’m getting my ass kicked by something I didn’t even know I was going to have to do. When I was younger, it wouldn’t have been this way.” Almost as soon as the words were out of my mouth, realization settled over me. “That’s it,” I murmured.
“What’s it?” Bex asked. “What do you mean?”
I looked at each of them.
“What I just said. When I was younger. That thing was my greatest
fear, just not what I immediately thought about. I’m not afraid of myself as an old man. It’s aging. I’m afraid of getting older and losing my youth. Being young and powerful was all that mattered to me, and losing that was the worst thing that happened in my life. At least, that’s what I thought at the time. That’s what I’ve always been afraid of. I’m afraid to get older and not be able to do what I need or want to do.”
“I don’t understand,” Brielle said. “What does that mean?”
Taking a few steps back, I tilted my head so I could look up the narrow path again.
“It means I need to climb the mountain.”
Without waiting for any of them to respond, I took off up the mountain again. My body cried out, but I ignored it. No matter what I was feeling or what thoughts were churning through my head, I was getting up that mountain. Nothing was going to stop me. Fuck the fear. I wasn’t old. I wasn’t ever going to be old. Aurora’s bite had rejuvenated me and restored my most vital youth. That could never be taken from me. I wasn’t like Darian. He had given up his youth and his power to pay for the black hat help of the Dark Mages. That would never happen to me.
I leapt off one boulder and onto another one several feet higher. The instant my boot hit the rock, another shock of earthquake shook the ground. My hand reached out for something to stop me from falling back and slapped against the mountain beside me. Another wave of tremors coursed through the rocks and dirt, and I realized these weren’t normal earthquakes. I was causing them. Concentrating on the waves of movement through the ground, I quieted them until everything was completely still.
“Everyone brace yourselves,” I commanded.
A few seconds later, I created another earthquake, starting it in a focused, saturated knot of trembles right at my feet and then expanding it out until the rocks above me shook treacherously. Just before they tumbled, I brought the energy back in and ended the quake. Complete stillness took a few seconds longer than I expected it to and a small rock bounced off the middle of my head took some of the edge off my excitement. It was an incredible new skill to have discovered, but I obviously required more time to gain full control of it. Any use of it until then would have to be done with tremendous caution because of how dangerous it had already proven itself to be. That would have to come later. For now, I needed to get up the mountain.
Taking off again, I could hear my friends behind me, shouting after me, but I didn’t slow down. Any hesitation was just giving my body the chance to revolt again, and I didn’t want that to happen. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw them struggling to try to catch up, and I realized some of my speed was starting to return. Seconds later I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye and saw Brielle hovering beside me. Her wings fluttered rapidly, but her face seemed unaffected by the effort.
“Do you really think you should be flying?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Aren’t you going to get in trouble?”
“I’m not in the forest anymore, Hayden. Besides, I think flying is the very least of my misbehaviors. Now really isn’t the time to start questioning my adherence to the rules.”
The new sass in her voice brought a smile to my lips and I looked back at the others again.
“Find a place to stop,” I called back to them. “Rest. Eat something. I’ll go ahead and come back for you when I’ve figured out what we’re supposed to do next.”
If any of them protested, I didn’t hear it, because I kept pushing myself harder and faster down the path. Brielle kept up beside me and even though I would have preferred to know she was safe with the others, having her flying there with me motivated me to keep going. I climbed further up the path, pulling myself up the increasingly sheer rocky face of the mountain by hands when my body wouldn’t stay upright. As the mountain got harder to climb, I noticed Brielle was humming softly as she floated beside me. I looked over at her as she effortlessly floated above the ground and envied her as much as I admired her beauty. My foot slipped and I fell backward a moment, gripping onto two large rocks when I heard a sound just at the edge of my hearing that stopped me cold.
Before I could ask what the sound was, it happened again, and this time much louder. It vibrated in my bones and I could feel it more than hear it. It was like a scream, but somehow it went directly into my brain, blocking out all other thoughts and instead pushing down so all I could focus on was the searing pain of the sonic scream. I shuffled my feet when the noise paused and braced myself. Whatever it was, it was coming closer.
Brielle shouted out and I turned to her. She pointed into the sky.
“Kyro!” she yelled.
Shit. Something else for the damn manual.
The creature descended on me. Its light, leathery wings pounded through the air, speeding it along as its hyper-focused eyes scanned the ground for easy prey. I grabbed my short sword just in time as one of the talons came at me at a speed that confirmed it had identified its desired prey and was diving specifically for me, expecting me to be caught unaware.
I slashed and a claw fell from the beast, blood splattering me. I pulled myself higher and got a stronger foothold before turning back toward the Kyro, now circling for another diving attack. I held my hand out to stop Brielle from making a move and shot my other out at the bird. A blast of magic flew from me and I felt myself directing it under him, lifting and driving him into the wooded area near the top of the mountain. I waited for the sound of the crashing timber to stop and when it did, for the sonic scream of the Kyro to return. When it didn’t, I nodded to Brielle to continue on.
My muscles ached and I felt like I was moving through water with how slow I was going.
“You have to move faster,” Brielle told me. “Keep going.”
“I’m trying,” I snapped back at her. The slowness, achy movements brought back the fear. It threatened to stop me, to force me to give up. “Why do I need to hurry?”
“The Kyros,” she shouted back as she sent a stream of magic at one of the creatures that sent it tumbling backward through the air away from her. “They rarely fly alone. Usually, they fly in flocks.”
The thought of several more of the four-foot birds coming at me was less than pleasant.
“That’s fantastic. What happens if his buddies show up?”
“They will fly in close formation, blotting out the sky. The sound of their screams will split your brain in half.”
Fuck.
“Don’t sugarcoat it,” I said as my sword slashed at the enormous bird again. “Tell me the truth.”
The Kyro finally retreated and I didn’t even hesitate long enough to put my sword back in place before taking off up the mountain again. As I crested the first peak, I collapsed on the ground for a moment, allowing myself a small respite to breathe deeply. Brielle knelt beside me and opened a canteen, lifting my head to drink. As the water touched my lips, I closed my eyes to let my body relax. As I did, a vibration in the dirt shot me right back into focus. I sat up sharply and looked around wildly. The sounds of branches being crushed under the foot of something massive was moving closer to us, moving slowly but methodically until I could see the trees moving and falling in the wooded area behind us.
I pushed myself up on my knees and pulled my short sword again. Whatever creature this was, I was prepared to face it. Brielle stood behind me and I shooed her away, until she was far off to one side. Partly this was to protect her, but it was also so if I needed to throw magic to her, she would be in a position to attack and distract. The last of the trees directly in front of me fell and I saw the ten-foot tall monstrosity bearing down on me.
The hair, long and brown and matted, fell from its body in thick clumps, dragging on the ground and filling itself full of leaves. The hooves underneath pounded on the ground with every step, shaking the world around me and nearly making me lose my footing. Suddenly, it stopped and sniffed with its massive, slimy nose and the mouth below it began to open. I watched in horror as the lips curled back and revea
led two rows of extra sharp teeth. It drew in the air around it with both its nose and mouth, and the head shook as it tried to find my scent.
“What in the bloody fucking hell is that?” I asked. “Is that a giant?”
“No,” Brielle said, backing away from the creature, “It’s a Murgaht, one of the deadliest creatures in the area. We are going to need to choose our next few steps very carefully.”
“That doesn’t sound like an arbitrary warning.”
“It’s not. Murgahts are ancient creatures. They are the size of giants, but they are a very different species, much closer to animals. Their hair keeps them warm even in the deepest depths of snowy tundra, but their ability to shed and regrow it lets them survive even warmer climates. See his eyes?”
I looked where she was pointing, though I really would have preferred to not examine the creature much more. Two horns stood out from its skull, the hair hiding their base and the eyes of the beast.
“No. Does it have eyes?”
“Yes, but they are essentially useless. Murgahts are mostly blind, but that doesn’t stop them. Their keen sense of smell and taste allows them to hunt with abandon. They’re not fast, but their incredible strength allows them to easily capture and eat even the largest animals of the forest and mountains.”
“So, this thing thinks I’m an after dinner mint.”
“You could say that.”
It made a move toward me and a memory flashed through my mind.
“Erral,” I said. “This is what Ryu was turning him into. He didn’t just put those discs on his eyes to keep him under control. He did it to turn him into a monster.”
Brielle looked pained.
“But Erral didn’t want to hurt you.”
The way she said it was less than encouraging. I tried to think quickly, but my body was so exhausted and sore I could barely lift my head up to face the beast. It charged, and while it moved slowly, its massive legs churned with power, and I barely had the strength to move out of the way in time before it crashed through the natural rock wall and came to a stop before toppling down the mountain.