“I didn’t want to help you. You told them I should do it. And look at me now. I’m dead now because of you.”
I start backing up away from him as the song continues, soft and haunting in my head.
“No! No…” I whisper.
I turn and start running, but the trees around me are so thick, their trunks are pressed against each other. I can barely slide through them as they grow thicker and thicker around me. Every time I see an opening, their trunks swell, and I can’t get through.
“Why did you do it?” she asks.
That voice. Not that voice.
I turn and look at Valerie as she stands there watching me with dead eyes.
“Why did you bring me back only to kill me again?” she asks. “I loved you more than anyone loved you. I cared for you. And you killed me.”
No, no. Why is this happening? “You weren’t you… you weren’t right. You were killing people…” I say, trying to defend myself. “I had to!”
“You had to? You were killing people too. Think of all of the people who died by your magic!” she says, and her words are like a punch to my gut.
I hear a murmur of words and turn around as the trees press in tightly around me, turning into all the faces that haunt me. All of those who died by Geoff’s hands and, in a way, my own.
“You killed us,” a woman says.
“My child. She was just a child,” a man says as he holds the lifeless body of his child in his arms. Her body hangs limply as I back away and bump into someone.
Quickly, I turn around and see all of the women who’d been with Aiden.
“Why do you get to keep on living and all of us have to die?” one asks.
“No! I didn’t know!” I say.
One of them laughs, and I find his face in the crowd. “How could you not know? You watched us die, yet you cared too much about your own life to fight back,” he says.
Their voices are deafening but still not as loud as the song as I stumble back. They begin to spin around me or maybe I’m turning, trying to find a way out. They’re bumping into me, crowding into me, jostling me around as they grab for me.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” I say. “It’s my fault that all of you died. It’s my fault.”
“Your fault.”
The voice is loud and clear, and everything stops spinning. The bodies wrapped around me begin to melt like they’re made of wax. They sink to the ground, pooling at my feet until I’m standing in blood. It’s thick, and when I try to take a step forward, I find it hard to walk.
“It’s… your fault,” the voice repeats, and my eyes snap up to the lone figure.
For a moment I’m confused as to who it is. I’m wavering between reality and a world the song has painted for me. Somewhere, buried deep, I know that none of this is real. That this song has found my secrets and nightmares and has made them a reality.
“It’s… your fault,” he says.
Geoff steps forward, walking toward me, through the blood like it is as thick as air. The blood never fazes him, never stops him.
“It’s your fault, Geoff. It’s all your fault! I didn’t want to be like this! I didn’t want to do what you made me do!” I yell as I pull my sword out.
His face twists into something inhuman as he laughs at me. Suddenly he’s towering over me, as tall as the trees, and I am cowering at his feet like a coward.
“They’re all dead,” a voice echoes through my ears.
“His fault,” another says.
“He blames others,” another says.
“No! Can’t you see? It’s his fault!” I say as I aim my sword at him. “It’s his fault!”
“Miles, listen to me,” Geoff says.
“He’s delusional,” the voice says.
“He’s convinced he’s not at fault.”
“He killed them all.”
“It was his own magic. How could he not see it?”
“He could. He is just choosing not to see.”
“Listen to me,” Geoff growls.
I scream as I run at Geoff, the man who has ruined everything. Ruined my life and the lives of so many others. I scream as I near him, and he begins to shrink. He’s no longer towering over me as I grow closer to him and drive my blade right into his abdomen. He stumbles back but grabs me.
“Miles, it’s not your fault,” he says.
I look at him startled. Geoff doesn’t call me Miles.
“Shh… stop listening to her. She’s in your head. Get her out.”
“He’s going mad,” a voice says.
“He was always mad.”
I let go of the sword and clamp my hands over my ears as I turn around.
“Miles, listen to me. It is not your fault. As soon as you realize that, you can fight this. She’s holding you down because you believe her,” the voice says directly into my mind. “We can’t find her. It’s some illusion or something. We can’t find her. We need you.”
“Havoc?”
“Yes.”
“Havoc, where are you?”
“I’m right here,” he says. “Fight her. Can’t you feel my hand on your arm?”
I close my eyes and feel the warmth wrapping around my wrist. It’s almost burning hot, but it’s so welcoming in this world of cold. “Havoc, help me.”
“You need to help yourself. I can’t get you to believe something you don’t want to believe.”
“Havoc, I can’t do this.”
“Yes, you can,” he says. “Now fight it.”
“You killed me,” Aiden whispers into my ear. It’s so real; I can feel his breath against my skin.
I killed him. If I hadn’t suggested asking him to help us, he wouldn’t be dead.
No… Aiden was the boss of a district that had been affected. He was at the meeting. They knew about him and his abilities before I asked him to help us.
“It’s not my fault,” I say.
“What about me? You think my death wasn’t your fault?” Valerie asks.
My eyes snap open and I look into hers. “Valerie…”
“You slit my throat.”
“And you thanked me as you died. You needed me to kill you. You couldn’t live with yourself killing people. You cried every time you ate a heart. You wanted to die!” I say, and suddenly she’s gone.
The song falters, and I feel a wisp of my magic. I search for the origin of the song as I turn and see her standing there. I whisper the name of fire, and it races along the ground and grabs onto her. She screams as it eats through her clothes. Her body goes up in flames, and suddenly she’s gone.
Chapter Sixteen
I look around as the woods come to life around me. I see Iya and Lanni watching me from a distance. Quickly, I turn and see Havoc standing a few feet from me.
“Good job,” he says with a warm smile. “We couldn’t find her because we couldn’t hear her song.”
He wraps his arms around me, and I desperately grab onto him. I sink into his touch and memorize every inch of it. I had been so scared that I would never feel him again that I never want to pull away from him.
“Havoc… I thought you were gone. She was making me think you were gone. After the wreck, you weren’t there and I couldn’t feel your link.” My stomach tightens at the thought of him being gone. Of me being alone again.
“Um… no, we were all there. We were… you know, kind of disoriented from the truck flipping and by the time I figured out which way was up, you’d broken the window, hopped out, and ran off.”
Wait… what? “Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
I squeeze onto him and just feel him there before me. I need to feel how real he feels and know that he’s not gone. That he’s still with me. He’s not leaving me like everyone else has. He has promised to always stay with me.
“You okay? I didn’t even take a video this time since my phone was ruined,” he jokes.
And then something hits me. “Oh my god… I thought you were Geoff,” I realize. “I stab
bed you!”
I pull back from him as I grab for his jacket so I can find the wound.
His hands still mine and hold me before him. “No, I’m fine, my lucky cloak stopped it,” he says with a smile.
Startled, I look up at his face. “It did?” I ask in surprise. And I had even made fun of that cloak!
“No, you totally stabbed me, but I’m fine,” he says with a grin. “I’ll just walk it off.”
“Havoc! I’m so sorry, let me see,” I say as I grab for him.
He catches me in a bear hug that locks my arms by my side. “I’m fine. I’m a demon. You could have stabbed me ten times and slit my throat, and I’d probably still live. I mean you already stabbed me once with your sword, if you get what I mean,” he says suggestively.
I turn my glare onto him in hopes he’ll understand the seriousness of this situation. “This isn’t funny, let me see!” I say as I try to push against him, but I’m scared I’ll hurt him. “Havoc, please.”
He kisses my forehead. “I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not. I stabbed you,” I say as I pull at his jacket. He holds it tightly as I stare at him desperately. “I need to wrap it. Havoc, please?”
“Do you trust me?” he asks as he looks down into my eyes.
“Yes…”
He smiles before kissing my forehead. “Then trust me when I say I’m fine.”
“Havoc…”
“Miles. Your concern makes me very happy. I love seeing you worried about me and caring for me, but I’m fine. I’m just happy you’re alright.”
I don’t know why I was ever worried about my relationship between Havoc and me when it’s clear that he has never wanted to leave my side. It just took us a while to see how much closer we could become.
I hear a noise behind us, and I turn quickly as I hold my hand up, ready to burn anything that steps into my path. But relief washes over me when I see that it is Badrick, and he has a band of people behind him.
“I brought the others,” Badrick says.
I see that he has Yoko, Baron, Evan, Marco, Sam, and Johnson with him. Everyone is looking around curiously while Marco stands shirtless, chest puffed out, sweeping his hair back with one hand as his wings shine behind him. My entire attitude sours as soon as I see him. Too bad it wasn’t him I stabbed.
“What are you doing? I told you guys to stay away,” I say. “Especially Marco.”
“Especially Marco,” Havoc agrees.
“I waited until the singing lady was dead to bring them,” Badrick says. “I heard her go ‘araghagha,’ so I’m assuming she’s dead.”
“That was just the sound Miles makes when he climaxes,” Havoc says.
Badrick shakes his head as he stomps a paw down. “Oh no, it’s not. I can hear you guys clearly from my room. It’s much more ‘Ah! Harder! Oh, Havoc! Ah!’”
“I’m going to burn both of you to death,” I growl. The horrible part is Badrick isn’t joking at all. He’s dead serious about all of this because he doesn’t understand that Havoc was being sarcastic.
Yoko scrunches her nose. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear any of that. Miles, you can’t just do all of this alone. We can help you.”
“I was just told we would get some cool name like The Avengers,” Baron says. “That’s why I came.”
“The Penetrators,” Iya pipes in.
“Please don’t ever say that again,” Sam says.
“We should just call ourselves Marco because a name can’t get much better than that,” Marco says as he flexes his chest muscles.
I ignore him. “Yoko, Havoc’s hurt, can you help him?”
“Of course,” she says as she rushes over.
“Rehna knows we are here. We need to start moving in before she gathers more troops or runs,” Lanni says.
Havoc turns his back to me as Yoko starts to tend to him. I quickly move around so I can see how badly I hurt him. Yoko’s body is in the way, but I can see the blood, and suddenly that’s all I can fixate on. My body starts to feel hot, and I have the sudden need to sit down.
“Miles is having a panic attack,” Havoc alerts everyone because he couldn’t just keep it to himself.
“I’m not having a panic attack,” I mutter as I start fanning myself. I have seen some gruesome shit in my life, and none of it fazed me. I was used to it. But this? This fazed me. This fazed me real bad.
“He’s going to be fine,” Yoko says. “The cut isn’t super deep, and it’s in a good spot. Nothing vital,” Yoko says.
“I told you,” Havoc says.
“I stabbed him,” I admit.
“What?” Yoko asks surprised.
“I thought he was Geoff…”
“That lady was doing wacky stuff to your brain. It’s fine,” Havoc promises.
“Once, I ate this thing, and it did real wacky stuff to my brain as well,” Iya says. “Totally thought my head fell off. I couldn’t find it. So confusing. I thought I was married to a goat, and it was all so strange. I thought I had goat children.”
“I am confused on how that helps this situation,” Badrick says.
“I don’t think it helps at all,” Iya admits.
“So, what’s your plan, guys?” Evan asks, trying to get us back on track.
Lanni, Havoc, Iya, and I look between each other.
“The plan you had when you decided to come over here,” Evan says. “The Plan.”
I look at Havoc who slowly looks away like the trees are more interesting.
“I’ll leave this to you, Miles,” Lanni says as she picks at the dried blood in her hair.
Evan stares at us in exasperation. “You don’t have a plan. You just thought, ‘Oh I’m going to go apprehend an ancient paladin without a single plan’?” Evan asks in disbelief. Honestly, at this point, he should just be proud that we’ve made it this far.
“Pretty much,” I say as I continue to fan myself. “Anyone else think it’s super hot?”
“We wanted to take her by surprise, and what is more surprising than a surprise that even we don’t know about!” Iya says, like he’s proud of himself for figuring that out.
“For once Iya is right,” I say as I kneel down as the world threatens to collapse on me.
He grunts in approval.
Evan just nods slowly. “Alright, well then… here’s my plan. We need to get Miles to Rehna. He’s the most powerful of us, and it will take the most powerful to deal with her,” Evan says.
“He looks real powerful,” Marco says as he points to me where I’m lying on the ground in the fetal position while trying not to pass out.
“There’s so much blood!” I say.
“There’s barely any blood,” Yoko says. “There. All wrapped up, good as new!”
“See?” Havoc says as he kneels down next to me. He gently sets his hand on my shoulder and squeezes it. “I’m fine. I’ve seen you cut a gryphon’s head off and then tie his head to your saddle and ride with it for three days for a twenty-dollar bounty. Where is my strong, little snugglemuffin?”
“Gone,” I moan. “Gone the moment I saw you wounded.”
He laughs but reaches down and takes my hand before pulling me to my feet. “It makes me feel loved that you’re so concerned about my wound.”
He wraps me in his arms as I lay my head against his chest. “I’m sorry for stabbing you.”
“I’m sure I deserved it,” he says as he kisses my forehead.
“This is cute and all, but do you mind me continuing on with the plan?” Evan asks. “You know, since we are a little pressed for time.”
“Just one more moment,” Havoc says as he tips my chin up and kisses my lips softly. “Now you may continue.”
Marco snorts. “Disgusting.”
“Okay… So Badrick will get Miles to the front. The rest of us will deal with Rehna’s guards,” Evan says. “Sound good?”
“What am I doing?” Marco asks.
“Hopefully, being useful,” Evan says.
He
flutters his wings. “I’m always useful.”
“Alright, everyone ready?” Evan asks.
“Do we have like… a countdown? Do we just take off? I’ve never been in a battle before, how does it work?” Baron asks.
“You just… kind of wait for one person to start moving,” Lanni says.
“Why don’t you wait in the truck?” I suggest to Havoc. “You’re already hurt.”
“Nope, not going to happen,” he says as he gives my cheek a kiss. “I’m fine.”
I nod slowly and walk over to Badrick. He kneels down, and I climb onto his back and rub his fur. “You ready?”
“Let’s fuck shit up,” Badrick says, and I stare at him as everyone glares at me.
Evan stops fumbling with some plant dangling from a string around his neck. “He’s a sacred creature. What have you taught him to say?” Evan hisses.
“That has not come out of my mouth,” I say.
“I heard Yoko say that before stepping in the kitchen. And everyone acted quite pleased when she was finished ‘fucking shit up,’” Badrick explains.
“She definitely fucks shit up when in the kitchen.” Havoc says with a grin as he shifts into a raven. “Now, let’s go.”
Baron shifts and steps in line next to Badrick.
“Ready?” I ask.
Sam looks over at me. “So… are we humans supposed to run? I feel like by the time we get there, the fight will be over. Or, I’ll be so winded I couldn’t fight. How do they do it in the movies?” Sam looks around, like he’s expecting his own mount to ride into battle.
“I’m not a good runner,” Johnson says. “I’m getting old.”
“Let’s all walk slowly toward the fight,” I say as I raise my sword.
“Sounds good,” Lanni says. “We are coming for you, Rehna!”
We start walking through the woods as I ride on Badrick’s back, feeling like there’s not a really good reason why I’m riding on his back at this point.
“I can’t fly this slow,” Havoc says as he lands on my shoulder.
“Nice weather,” Sam says.
We look up at the sky and I nod. “Yes it is,” I concur.
We keep walking as we zero in on the shrine.
Happy Endings Page 21