by J. N. Baker
I struggled to find my feet, limping into the trees as fast as I could on my one good leg. My movements were lethargic, clumsy as I stumbled over broken branches and hidden rocks; my frantic footfalls leaving an audible trail behind me. I stifled a cry as my left foot caught an exposed root, sending me tumbling to the forest floor. I fought the thick mud as it held me captive.
When the crash sounded behind me, I knew without a shadow of a doubt what was there.
I cranked my head around, staring into an eerily familiar pair of red eyes. The Sythen’s hot breath scalded the skin on my face as it crept toward me, the foul stench of it ambushing my nostrils. A mouth full of blood-stained teeth inched closer and I forgot to breathe.
My lips parted in a silent call for help, blood oozing from beneath my fingernails as I dug my hands deeper into the mud, desperate to get away from my attacker. But it was useless. It had me right where it wanted me. This was it. It was finally over.
The Sythen’s teeth sank into the flesh of my abdomen and I released a blood-curdling scream that I was certain no one would hear.
Hot liquid seeped out of my open wound, pouring over my skin and mixing with the muddy rainwater beneath me. My fists beat wildly against the Sythen’s snout in a feeble attempt to free myself. I screamed again as it tightened its jaws until I was sure it was going to bite me in half.
Suddenly, the Sythen howled, releasing my limp body and spinning around. The stub where its tail used to be slapped the side of my face, sending black blood shooting across my temple. Alec backed the beast farther into the forest, the tip of his blade pressed firmly against its long throat.
“Get her out of here!” he shouted as the Sythen lunged at him.
Josh rushed to my side, tucking my long-lost sword into its proper place on my hip and scooping me up in his arms. He cradled me against his solid chest as he sprinted through the trees, putting distance between us and the Sythen. When he finally stopped, we were near the edge of the forest, a few trees all that separated us from the raging battle just outside the castle walls.
Josh carefully set me down on a pile of soggy leaves and I bit back a cry as he used a small knife to cut away the bottom half of my shirt. It felt more like he was cutting away pieces of my flesh. My chest heaved as I struggled to breathe. The pain was blinding. He lifted the last piece of fabric from my ribs and inhaled a sharp breath.
“Shit,” he hissed, yanking his wet shirt over his head. He tried to wring it out as best he could and then pressed it firmly over my gaping wound. This time I couldn’t stop the cry that escaped my lips.
“Hold pressure on it until it’s healed,” he told me, grabbing my hands and placing them on top of the shirt. “And then get the hell out of here. Alec and I can handle this fucker on our own. And don’t you even think about dying on me. Do you hear me? This is not over.”
His large hands found my face, blue eyes locking onto mine until there was nothing else, until it was just him and me. No war. No pain. No death. No end of the world. It was just us. And suddenly, I could no longer deny what it was I wanted. This. This was what I wanted—this man. Eternity be damned, I chose Josh. And I would choose him again and again because the intense pull I felt toward him was as natural as drawing breath and as strong as the gravity holding me on this bloody battlefield.
We might only get fifty years or we might only get this one moment. But I would take it. I would take anything I could get if it meant being with him. Everything in my life had been chosen for me since the moment I set foot in that godforsaken parking garage. This…this I would choose for myself. And I chose Josh.
As if sensing what I was thinking, Josh pulled my face to his, his lips crashing into mine. The kiss was fast and hard and entirely too short. And yet, it still warmed me to the core. He broke the kiss, resting his forehead against mine. “I won’t rest until it’s dead,” he swore. “You will be free again.”
I reached out and grabbed hold of his hand, my fingers tightening around his, unable to let go. I couldn’t let him go. “Josh, I—”
“Zoe,” he cut me off, smoothing a hand over my disheveled hair. “I have to go. I’ll see you soon. I promise.”
With that, Josh disappeared, swallowed by the dark forest.
I had no desire to move, and not just because every move I made sent shockwaves of pain rippling throughout my entire body, but because I wanted to know that Alec and Josh were okay. I needed to know. I’d impatiently waited for them to return for nearly ten minutes. It felt more like two hours. I knew that every minute they were gone only increased the chances they were never coming back.
I glanced over my shoulder, peering through the trees for the hundredth time. There was no movement—no sign of life. I tried to assure myself that they would be all right. After all, it was just one little, bloodthirsty Sythen, right? I checked the trees once more.
I knew worrying wasn’t going to help anyone. And I knew I was needed elsewhere. Waiting around only made me a sitting duck for any of Baldric’s troops that might stumble upon me.
I tried standing before collapsing back to the ground, weak from the loss of blood. I lifted Josh’s shirt from my stomach to see the still-gaping wound staring back at me—along with a few organs I was positive I shouldn’t be seeing. Shit. I wasn’t healing as fast as I normally did. A stabbing pain shot through my leg as the bone the beast had broken snapped back together. My leg was healing, why wasn’t my abdomen? Maybe it was because the wound was so severe. Or, perhaps the acidic nature of the Sythen’s bite was counteracting my body’s ability to heal.
I gripped my stomach, blood leaching through shaking fingers. Could a Chosen die from blood loss? It wasn’t one of the three ways William had told me, but that didn’t stop the question from plaguing my mind.
I couldn’t wait around to find out. People were counting on me, people I cared about. I had to find the strength to push on. This wasn’t over yet. It wouldn’t be over until Baldric drew his last breath, and I was going to make sure that happened.
I ripped Josh’s shirt into narrow strips and wrapped them around my abdomen, tying them off in tight knots in hopes they would hold the shredded skin together enough that it would start to heal. That, and so my intestines wouldn’t fall out. Grinding my teeth, I rose to my feet once more, steadying myself against a nearby tree.
I breathed in through my nose and blew it out, pushing the searing pain to the back of my mind. I could hear Markus now. What the hell do you think you’re doing lollygagging around? This ain’t no day spa. Walk it off, soldier. Even from the grave, the man was infuriating.
Once my legs stopped shaking, I unsheathed my blade and stumbled out into the clearing, making my return to the bloody battlefield.
Hundreds of arrows sailed overhead, whistling through the night sky. Not that I could see any of them. With the falling rain, visibility was minimal at best. I made a feeble attempt to wipe the blood and rainwater from my eyes, limping blindly to what I thought was Jade. I yanked my blade from the belly of a large soldier and shoved him to the ground before spinning around and slicing off the head of an oncoming vampire, relying heavily on my heightened sense of hearing to keep me alive.
“What the hell happened to you?” Jade asked as I moved closer to her.
“Rabid dog,” I muttered, dodging another attack. I winced as the movement tugged on my wound, cursing under my breath as I took off my attacker’s head.
“Watch out!” a young voice called out from behind me.
I spun around just in time to see a large vampire barreling toward Jade from across the battlefield, fangs extended and sword raised. Jade lifted her own blade, ready to run him through. Knowing full well Jade didn’t need my help killing one measly vampire, I turned to head into the thick of battle. That’s when I saw it—out of the corner of my eye—James sprinting toward Jade as fast as he could.
“James, no!”
He slammed into her, shoving her out of the path of the vampire’s broadsword. The teen
ager lifted his battle axe, intercepting the vampire’s wide blade as it came down.
“You stand no chance against me, boy!” the burly man spat as James staggered back a step, struggling under the weight of the vampire’s sword along with his own weapon, which was clearly far too large for his lanky frame. “Out of my way!”
“No!” James grunted, using both hands and all his strength to shove his axe into the large sword, pushing it back a whole inch.
“Get out of here,” Jade hissed, grabbing James by the back of the neck and hurling the young, soon-to-be shift aside before I could get to him myself.
The vampire growled, James already forgotten as his eyes locked back on Jade. He clearly had a specific target in mind. I wondered what the reward was for taking down one of the Chosen. Jade seemed perfectly fine with the situation. The corner of her mouth lifted as she flipped her sword in one hand and beckoned him with the other. He growled once more and lunged for her.
James leapt in between the vamp’s blade and Jade, taking a through and through of cold, hard steel to the chest. He cried out, dropping his weapon and wrapping both of his sweaty palms around the sharp metal that impaled him. The bloodsucker shoved the blade farther into his body. The force of the second blow sent James and the blade on a collision course for Jade. She dropped to the ground at the last second, the tip of the blade piercing the trunk of a large tree behind her. James’s body hung limp from the sword.
Laughter erupted from the man. “Ha. Shish kabob.”
I snarled as I brought my blade down on the back of the vampire’s skull. I felt the crack. He fell to the ground with a permanent smirk carved into his face. Before I could take his head, Jade jumped on top of him, her blade slicing through his flesh over and over again. When she was finished, she cut off his head—just to be sure he was dead.
James howled in pain as I ripped the sword from both the tree and his body in one swift motion. He collapsed into my arms and I sank to the ground, holding him. I pressed my hands over his wounds, trying to stop the bleeding. It was hard to distinguish his blood from my own.
“You fool,” Jade hissed, beside us. “I didn’t need your help!
“Enough!” I snapped. “Yelling isn’t going to fix anything. The damage is done. Get him out of here. Now!”
Jade pursed her lips, glowering at me for a minute—a minute that James didn’t have. She nodded stiffly and lifted the scrawny teenager out of my arms, carrying him back to the castle with more care than I would have expected from her. I honestly doubted he’d make it. I suspected she knew it, too, if her outburst was any indication.
A burst of pain shot through my side as I tried to stand, sending me stumbling to one knee. Blood seeped through my bandages, trickling down my leg. I bit my lip and straightened. I had to push forward. I had to finish what I came to do.
And then the unexpected happened. Baldric’s troops retreated.
They ran back to the other side of the lake to their precious leader—both of them—leaving their dead and wounded behind. The small kingdom was littered with bodies, theirs and ours. There were far too many to count. There wasn’t a cemetery in all the land big enough to accommodate so much loss. Our people, what was left of them, migrated back to the castle walls, very obviously confused.
“Why are they retreating?” Holly asked, making her way toward me.
“I don’t know,” I replied, never taking my eyes off Baldric’s retreating forces. A heavy fog settled over the land and I cursed under my breath. As if it wasn’t already hard enough to see.
“It can’t be over that quickly, can it? I mean…” She trailed off, hesitant to say what we were all thinking. They’re winning.
“No,” William said solemnly, stepping beside me, Ryuu to his left. “They are regrouping.”
“Sparky needs to hurry up and electrocute their asses.” I turned to see Jade as she returned from the castle, covered in James’s blood—along with the blood of every creature she’d killed. Suffice to say, there was a lot. “Would it help if I found your little human again?”
“Don’t even think about it,” I snapped. “And, I don’t know how many times I have to tell you, I don’t know how to control it.”
“Well figure it the fuck out,” Jade growled. “Or else we’re all going to die.” She pushed past me, splitting in two and making her way to the front of our troops.
“Where is Alec?” I heard Ryuu ask from the other side of William. “I haven’t seen him in a while.”
“Lizard hunt” was all I said and Ryuu’s laughter filled my ears. It might have been the last laugh I ever got to hear. I savored it.
A brilliant flash of white took over the pitch-black sky as a single bolt of lightning zigzagged through the darkness, followed almost immediately by a crash of thunder that shook the earth. Somewhere in the distance an unnerving sound rose above the thunder. The unmistakable sound of marching. They were coming back.
“Archers!” Godfrey shouted. “To the roof!”
A number of our people broke rank, storming into the castle on Godfrey’s heels.
Another bolt of lightning electrified the night as if the day was just on the other side, fighting to break free. As the darkness returned, so did the Sythen, circling overhead like vultures waiting for their meal. I watched in helpless horror as two of the beasts landed on the top of the castle, hurling our archers over the edge one by one.
“No mercy!” Baldric boomed, his voice like thunder in the storm.
His legion responded with a battle cry that made even me take a step back. The steady rhythm of their marching fell away as they took off in a run, barreling toward us at full speed. One last flash of lightning blasted through the darkness, illuminating the thousands of bodies stampeding toward us, weapons raised. Had we lowered their numbers at all?
They crashed into us head on like a massive wave.
Steel met flesh as I sliced my blade through soldier after soldier, withdrawing it from one and burying it in the next. If I could only get to the real enemy, to the master behind the massacre. I had to get to Baldric. If I could kill him, this would all end. I had to believe that.
“Duck!”
I dropped down to one knee as Ryuu’s katana came sailing through the air, slicing over my head and burrowing deeply in the heart of the massive gray wolf as it lunged toward me. As the large animal fell motionless to the ground, the katana ripped from its flesh and snapped back to Ryuu’s outstretched hand.
With a quick nod, I spun on my heels, impaling the next soldier that came at me. While he was still flailing on my blade, I yanked his own short sword from his hand and swung it at him, sending his head sailing backwards. I kicked the still-standing body off my blade and out of my way, pushing on through the masses.
“There are too many!” someone yelled. “We aren’t going to make it!”
There were too many and we probably wouldn’t make it, but what choice did we have? We either fought and died, or gave up and died. I’d much rather die for something I believed in than to simply give up and bow down at the Devil’s feet. I would not bow down to the enemy, not now and not ever. Baldric had a plan for me and I was going to make sure he never got the chance to see it through.
Something in the corner of my eye caught my attention and I turned toward the forest. It was Alec. Relief washed over me and I exhaled a breath that I wasn’t sure how long I’d been holding. He and Josh had finally returned. The beast behind Cindy’s death, behind my insanity, was finally dead. I was free. Just like both men had promised me, my mind was once again my own. I took a few steps toward Alec and stopped dead in my tracks.
I was such a fool.
Clutched in Alec’s left hand was a second sword. Josh’s sword.
Sensing my gaze, Alec looked up at me through the rain and the flurry of moving bodies and I gasped for air, unable to believe what I was seeing. I shook my head, my eyes begging him to tell me otherwise. It couldn’t be possible. It couldn’t be. Alec’s eyes grew
sad, his shoulders slumping ever so slightly. He shook his head once, confirming my worst fears. As he moved closer to me, I could see it written all over his face.
I watched Josh die a thousand times through Alec’s eyes.
“No,” I breathed. “No, he promised!”
But Josh wouldn’t be keeping that promise. He wouldn’t be keeping another promise ever again.
I felt nauseous, dizzy as I stumbled back a step, the stolen short sword slipping from my fingers as the tip of my own sword dragged through the mud. The world tilted back and forth, or perhaps it was just me.
I was grateful when gravity took me, muddy water splashing up my thighs as I collapsed to the ground. An endless stream of salty tears flowed down my blood-splattered cheeks until I wasn’t sure what was rain and what wasn’t. Did it even matter? Did anything matter anymore?
Threatening footsteps approached me from behind and I rose to one knee, spinning around and swiping up with the sharp and vengeful edge of my blade. The man’s head sailed in one direction and his body in another. Needless to say, he didn’t get back up. I sank to the ground, my hands suctioning into the thick mud.
Someone called my name, but their voice was muffled, faint, as if they were miles away. My body rose once more, tearing through another soldier before returning to the bloody ground. The monster that I was kept me alive. The human that I used to be just wanted to die. But much like the rest of my life, what I wanted didn’t matter much.
I wanted gravity to smother me into the ground, suffocating me with the weight of the world. I wanted Josh to walk out of those trees…even if it meant that Alec didn’t. I wanted one more kiss, one more touch, one more warm embrace. For once in my godforsaken life, I wanted fate to be working on my side, to be working for me rather than against me. We just needed more time. We deserved more fucking time. This couldn’t be how it ended.