Covenant

by T. E. Joshua

I tried to move my body closer to hers, but I was still too sore to do so. She picked up on my movement and drew in closer to comfort me. I asked her, “What happened to Lyonell? What happened to my brother?”

  Alope smiled with joy and responded, “I think he’s dead.”

  That was impossible. “Who stopped him?”

  “Natalie and Liyah stopped him. The Wolf clan can’t hurt us anymore.”

  “Wait—Natalie?” I questioned.

  “Yeah, she displayed some awesome Awakened Reborn powers like we had never seen before. Don’t you remember? Liyah blasted Lyonell with an energy wave from behind and Natalie reflected the wave back into Lyonell.”

  Natalie killed him? I recall the beam of light clashing right into him as he yelled. No one in the single digits of the Covenant could be killed so easily, not even me. I pressed for additional answers. My curiosity wasn’t satisfied just yet. The number eight warrior wouldn’t go down with one single blast of dark energy, not by a long shot.

  “Lyonell—he must still be alive.”

  “Tristan, you must rest. Don’t worry about him. I will protect you if need be. He can’t hurt us anymore,” Alope assured me.

  Then Natalie Schultz scurried over to me and muttered, “Alope’s right. You need rest. I’ll take care of you.”

  Alope rudely suggested, “My dear, you have done quite enough for today. Tristan’s been through a lot and doesn’t need your help. I’ll take care of him from here.”

  Natalie snapped back, “I’m not leaving his side, so you’re going to have to deal with it.”

  “Natalie and Alope, it’s fine.” I uttered as I pressed through the pain of talking out loud. The more I raised my voice, the worse I felt. Both of them remained silent. Alope continued to cross her arms as Natalie leaned into cover me with a white comfy blanket. The jealousy between the two was as dense as a block of ice and just as cold and hard. I knew Alope all too well. Her envy could get the best of her, which could pose great danger for Natalie—but the Awakened Reborn wasn’t to be taken lightly.

  Then I sensed the my clan rush to the door. Much of their dark energy had been drained. The door flew open and they stormed inside. As I lay there helplessly, Liyah Manwolf was the first to run to my side. James walked in after Liyah.

  “Glad to see you’re healing, cousin,” James said as he stood next to Natalie. I could tell he was still wounded from Sean’s kick to the leg from the way he limped. He also had a bruised up arm, and his jacket sleeve was still covered in dried blood.

  “James, your arm,” I said.

  He grimed and replied, “It’s nothing compared to your injuries. I’ll heal in no time.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  Then I looked over to Liyah, who grazed my forehead with her warm, gentle fingers. “Thank you, Liyah, for stopping Lyonell.”

  “Don’t thank me; Natalie was the one who reflected my energy wave back toward him. I thought you were done for when you passed out on the west end,” Liyah confessed.

  I chuckled a bit. “Come on, Liyah, you should know me better than that by now. It takes more than my egoistic brother to take me out.” Then I had to ask. “Where am I?”

  “In your Uncle Eis’s house. You’re in his room,” Alope answered.

  That was when Alope reached underneath the bed and retrieved two pairs of gloves. “These were Sean Winddick’s weapons. I removed the pair of Naiche blades from his dead forearms before the police and medical team arrived. They’re his gauntlets.

  The gauntlets were covered in dry blood and a part of finger coverings were ripped. The gloves had a small trigger underneath the thumb area. I didn’t put them on because of my condition and handed the gloves back to Alope.

  “Hold on to these for later use,” I said. “Are the others dead?”

  “The unknown warrior and Sean Winddick are dead. Falsha and Bors are gone; we couldn’t find their bodies. They must have retreated after Sean died,” James answered.

  “This will be a nationwide story for the media. The Wolf clan must have escaped when the army of police and military raided the west end. Surely the Tribal Council and the Naiche clan will hear about this. Father won’t be pleased. My sister will surely rat me out. They will send more warriors, probably higher ranked ones, Red Hunters,” I said lowly.

  “I’ll protect you till you recover,” Alope kindly offered as she rubbed the top of my head.

  “Thanks, doll face,” I said back. Natalie, who was on my left side, grabbed my blistering hands.

  “Where is Aaron?” I asked, curious.

  “Well,” James said with sadness, but Liyah cut him off.

  “He’s downstairs with Uncle Eis. Come down when you can.”

  “Okay, I shall be down in a few minutes to see them. If you guys don’t mind, I would like to speak with Natalie alone, please,” I said with a hint of demand. James glared at me in disapproval but then smiled out of respect. Alope had a more sinister expression.

  “Come on, Alope,” Liyah said. Alope stood there and answered, “Give me a minute, would you?” Liyah nodded her head in agreement. She and James left the room as Alope lay there, not paying any attention to Natalie. It was as if we were alone together, exactly what she had wanted from the beginning, even before we had traveled to Blackfalls to hunt down Natalie.

  “Tristan, I thought I lost you earlier on the west end. I went crazy as they rushed you back here. I thought you were dead,” Alope confessed as she started to cry. “Just don’t ever leave me alone in this coldhearted world again. I need you. I can only survive with you. Okay?” Alope said passionately. She could barely get those words out of her mouth as she smiled happily.

  “Thanks, best friend,” I said. She leaned over to kiss me on the cheek, showing Natalie that she wasn’t going anywhere. Alope released her warm lips from my cheek and looked up at the Awakened Reborn. This time she didn’t give her the evil bitchy glare but a face of gratitude. This was a rare occasion for Alope. She put aside her harsh, envious feelings for Natalie—well, for now.

  “I’ll leave the two of you alone now,” Alope uttered sadly. She vanished from the room.

  “Wow, I thought that girl would never leave us alone,” Natalie humorously said as she held onto my hand. She squeezed it tight, as if believing that I would chase after Alope.

  “Alope is a good girl with a heart of innocence. Give her a chance, she’s only fifteen-years-old,” I muttered in her defense.

  The pain on my side started to hurt as I tried to move around.

  “We should have admitted you to the Blackfalls Metropolitan Hospital,” Natalie expressed warily as she watched me ache.

  “No, it’s fine. The Anglo police would have found me for sure.” Natalie giggled. I continued, “I may take a few hours to heal, but going to the hospital would’ve gotten us caught and raised more unnecessary suspicion. The Spirit Whispers can heal me with prayers, or I can use my dema energy to heal my body faster than normal.”

  She smiled. “What if I told you that I have the gift of healing?”

  I had forgotten about the pain as soon as I heard Natalie say that, half backed away out of impulse. The very words sent chills down my spine. “What did you say?”

  “I mean, I know this may sound ludicrous to you, but I believe in healing from the Reborn faith,” Natalie confessed with confidence.

  I was now thoroughly confused. I had no idea that the Reborns believed in healing powers similar to the Covenant. I wasn’t taught this back home in Red Valley. I didn’t know what else to say at this point. The very thought of her doing some type of religious prayer in front of me was intimidating.

  “I’ll pass, but thanks,” I said with sarcasm.

  “Tristan, I am serious,” Natalie said. She wasn’t giving up.

  “Natalie, I have been thinking. My uncle Eis said something to me before al
l of this mess.” Natalie froze. “Things are going to get worse. More people will end up dying. Your family will be in danger as long as you have a connection with me. Please do as I said before—leave Blackfalls. Take your family far away from here. It’s going to get even uglier.”

  “I know what you’re about to say,” the Awakened Reborn said, “and the answer is no. You’re stuck with me now.”

  “Natalie, please be reasonable. Don’t let your emotions make the decision for you. The Wolf clan will be back with more Red Hunters. I don’t want you caught in the middle of the fight to come. I can’t lose you. I would rather walk away from you than stick it out and both of us die,” I argued reluctantly.

  “No. No. Please don’t ever tell me that again,” she said. Natalie’s eyes grew big as she leaned over to hug me.

  “Don’t become dependent and make decisions solely based on me,” I said harshly.

  “I won’t.”

  I stepped out of the bed and onto the ground. I couldn’t stay conscious in bed for long periods of time, so I decided to move about the room to get my body active.

  “Can you make it?” Natalie asked, holding onto my shoulder. I was too proud to admit that I needed her help to walk out of the room.

  “Of course, you forgot who you were holding,” I said, referring to me being a cold-blooded killer.

  I had dragged my foot from the edge of the bed and made it to the door. Natalie escorted me down the hallway. I heard the sobs of a girl in the living room—they sounded like those of mourning and regret.

  It was Liyah Manwolf; she sat on the brown couch, crying beyond my knowledge. Natalie insisted that we go outside. I followed her lead.

  Once we were outside, I realized I had only been unconscious for a few hours. The sun was hiding under the horizon of the tree line. It was slightly chilly as I stepped onto the back porch. Then I smelt the burning of muscle tissue oozing through the winds, like meat being cooked in a frying pan—almost coppery, something metallic being set on fire and added to sulfur and brimstone. I could see flames inside of a hole.

  Natalie released my arm and whispered, “Be strong.”

  I walked over to the group. Uncle Eis, Aaron, and Alope surrounded the hole, the fire burning beneath them. The smell came from there. James wasn’t next to the hole like the others. He was farther away and seemed to be pondering something.

  “What’s that smell?” I asked him.

  He took awhile to answer as the depression of the moment overtook him. I imagined he had been thinking about the coming fight with more warriors.

  “James?”

  Yet he kept silent.

  “James?”

  He finally acknowledged me. He was shaken. “Sorry, Tristan,” he muttered.

  “What’s that smell?” Before he could answer, I knew what the brimstone scent was. I smelt the small bitter odor when we had burned down a house full of Reborns a few months back. This time, the smell wasn’t as intense, but it was still bad.

  “It’s the burning flesh of the fallen warriors—the nameless man and Sean Winddick, the number thirty-seven warrior.”

  Without hesitation I peeked into the abyss-like hole, and there lay the burnt body of the boy I had stabbed. His skin had melted into a black ash, and part of his skeleton showed through the dirt. The nameless man was partially blackened. The fire began to diminish as Aaron manipulated the winds to move the fire along. Uncle Eis gave me a stare and then looked at the dying fire. I realized what he wanted me to do.

  I nodded. I felt the flames and used my dark energy to increase the fire’s intensity. I waved my hand, and the blazes of heat moved around the bodies, more so consuming the nameless man. Before long, the two were burnt to a crisp; even their bones dematerialized and sunk into the blackened earth.

  “Why did you bring their bodies back here?” I asked James, though my bigger concern was his true intentions regarding beheading Natalie.

  “We quickly gathered their bodies as more police officers showed up. The cloud of dust masked our presence as we took their bodies and you out of the west end. We couldn’t risk the Anglo government getting their hands on the bodies of Naiche warriors. As far as they are concerned, the events that took place today were terrorist acts from an unknown group of murderers.”

  “Thank you, James.”

  “For what?” he questioned, silently staring at me from the corner of his eye.

  “For standing by my side when I clearly protected the one we were supposed to slay. I owe you.”

  “You don’t owe me. I simply put aside my love and honor for the Covenant in order to protect our relationship. We’re friends. We’re family. You come before our orders.”

  Then there was a dead pause as the fire continued to burn the remaining flesh.

  “It’s not over yet,” he uttered coldly, not wanting the others to hear.

  “I know. Although you may believe I screwed up, I don’t think I did. There’s something more to her than either of us knows,” I explained in a deep whisper.

  “After all of this, you know what needs to be done.”

  “I won’t do it,” I said strongly, trying not to think of that dark moment.

  “Keeping her alive is more dangerous than killing her and returning to Red Valley. Either way, they will come. Maybe not tomorrow or the next week, but they will come. And when they do, they will come for her and for us.”

  “Then let them come. You four don’t have to fight alongside me. This is my problem now. I shouldn’t have brought you guys into the mix. You don’t deserve that. Once I fully recover, I’ll take Natalie far away from here. We’ll disappear. Start a new life somewhere. They won’t find us.”

  “And do what? Protect her until you die? Where would you go? We have no allies beyond the Covenant. They will eventually find you.”

  I looked at Natalie standing next to Liyah. Liyah could have attacked Natalie at any moment. It was clear my clan wouldn’t harm her without my say-so. They had fought to keep her alive as ordered by me.

  “What if I told you that we could survive the coming threats? Would you still follow me to the end?” I asked James. “Remember what you said back in the shed before we left Red Valley, till the very end.”

  He sighed, brushing his hair back. I saw the horror on his face. He didn’t believe me. I wasn’t sure if I believed me. I had to rely on the faith of the Awakened Reborn. If she believed her Reborn God could protect us, then I believed.

  “Tristan, you’re the number nine warrior. Lyonell is gone, at least we think. Numbers one through seven might come. We won’t be able to stop them. Even with the Awakened Reborn’s help, they’ll kill us all.”

  “Believe me, James. Times are about to get even darker. But what I am asking from you, as a friend and cousin, is this: would you follow me even though sure death is ahead of us?”

  “I haven’t forsaken you yet, and I don’t plan to.” He paused, clearly thinking. He glared at me and smiled with some satisfaction. “Death awaits all of us. I will follow you, even until the ends of the earth. If you believe Natalie needs to stay alive, then I will follow you. If you believe we need to behead her, then I will follow you. But hear me out, Tristan. Beheading her and returning to your father with her head might prevent any further complications between us and the Tribal Council. I pray to Lucian that the Naiche clan won’t come after us. We’ll be dead for sure.”

  “Maybe so, but have you ever been so right about something without knowing why?”

  “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  “I mean that Natalie is special. I’m not sure of it, but we will need her. She stopped Lyonell today, the number eight. The Awakened Reborn didn’t need our help. That tells me something. She is more powerful than we previously realized.”

  “Regardless, we’ve got one hell of a fight ahead of us,” he said, patting me on the
back. “I’ll follow, cousin. I gave you my word in the shed, till the end.” Then he drew closer and said in a more sinister tone, “Though I’m not sure the others will agree.”

  He glanced toward Alope, who was kneeling before the graves of the two fallen warriors and seemed to be offering up a prayer to Lucian for protection and discernment. She lowered her head and kissed the dirt, showing her thankfulness for living to see another day.

  James left my side, leaving me to think about my next move. Would I behead the Awakened Reborn and restore our relationship with the Covenant, or would I risk keeping her alive for the sake of our friendship?

  19

  Covenant of the Reborn

  NO ONE KNEW OF THE forbidden pond in Blackfalls. Only Natalie and I did. It had no flaws, no beginning or no end; it just existed as the pond of hope. The two of us paced our steps into the dark woods. The crickets chirped, the coyotes howled, the wind spoke, and the waters of the old pond were ready to receive the Awakened Reborn’s blood.

  The Covenant was a solemn promise between Lucian and Naiche about the demise of the Reborn religion and the rise of the people under the Covenant. Through this promise a child would be born whose body would be sacrificed for the inhabitation of Lucian. Of course, this was all speculation under the belief of a prophecy, not that I necessarily cared for the cause. I had only cared about defending my father’s honor and killing Natalie to prove it, but my new feelings for this monster of great faith had taken over my original intentions.

  That was what I felt or thought when the moment came to get rid of the Awakened Reborn girl. Everything in this moment was wrong. Our friendship was forbidden and shouldn’t have ever happened. Even the mere thought of her should have been an insult to my culture. I dishonored Lucian, my clan wanted her dead, and I needed to end this before the situation worsened. James had explained it very clearly. He would follow me but he implored me to end her life. Could I bring myself to behead her? The answer was simple but morbid. Yes, I could. I didn’t necessarily want to do it; however, I had to do what was best for my clan and the Covenant. Natalie Grace Schultz must die.