He froze, and then his eyes were suddenly pinned upon her, wide with disbelief. Something in Callie’s brain clicked into place when she saw the shadows in those grey eyes, their shallow walls lurking just below the surface, guarding the man who lived within.
Emeric. The name had hardly registered in her mind when she gasped and pulled her hand away, ignoring the screaming protest of each of her muscles as she crawled backwards, away from him.
As she moved, he didn’t seem to register her fear. He looked after her as though he were seeing a ghost. “Callista,” he whispered, his jaw going slack. “It can’t be. It isn’t possible.”
“Stay away from me,” she said, her throat aching with the words.
When she saw that he wasn’t about to move, she looked around, trying to remember how she had gotten there. She looked up, and saw the huge drop of the falls, rushing into the water next to her. And then she realized that she was soaking wet, just as Emeric was.
A vague part of her mind uncovered a misty memory, something at the fringes of her subconscious.
“I…I fell,” she said, astounded. She glanced at Emeric, wondering how she was still breathing right then. “Did you catch me?” she asked.
He stood up slowly, his face etched with amazement. “You were dead,” he muttered, and Callie suspected that he was speaking to himself more than to her. “You—how are you alive? You were….” He shook his head, uncomprehending.
Though she felt as though she could lie in bed for a week and be perfectly content with the immobilization, she fought against her twitching muscles to stand up. She didn’t like the feeling of vulnerability that she had laying down while he stood above her.
She looked towards the river as she propped herself upon the rock behind her. “Did you drag me out of the water?” she asked, noting again the fact that they were both drenched.
He didn’t answer, still seeming too absorbed in his surprise to process much.
“I fell,” she said again, remembering the sound of Alex’s cry. She met Emeric’s gray eyes, searching for answers. “Did you catch me, Emeric? Or did I hit the water?”
He couldn’t find the words to reply. She watched him grapple for a moment, his eyes flickering back and forth between her own, before he took a step towards her. She pressed herself further into the stone wall of the falls behind her, and he instantly stilled.
For a long while, they stood there quietly, nothing but the sound of the rushing falls to fill the space. Callie searched the man before her for any clue of the person she had come to know in the past month. It was so strange that he, this Guardian before her, could be responsible for all of the many deaths that had occurred that day. For as he stood there and regarded her with those guarded gray eyes, Callie felt the fear she had of him begin to slip away. She recognized this man, she knew who he was. And she knew that he wouldn’t hurt her.
“Why?” she whispered. The deafening roar of the waterfall nearly extinguished the sound of her voice, but a slight shift of his expression told her he’d heard it. He knew what she was asking.
He looked then much the same as he had the night he’d sent her home. Bitterness took hold of his features, warring with a certain underlying vulnerability that Callie could just barely see. “Because I am the villain, remember?”
He hadn’t finished speaking when a gurgling moan was issued from above, a war cry that was the first to sound since Callie had awoken. Emeric’s eyes stole upwards, searching for the woman who had given the scream, but almost immediately they returned to Callie.
Emeric paused, and drew a breath as though to say something, to explain in some way. She stood in silence, eagerly awaiting his words, hoping that he could somehow make sense of this day for her.
But then, before any sound passed through his lips, his face darkened and his jaw snapped shut. Without warning or further speech, his wings extended in an abrupt motion and he rose into the air, disappearing over the top of the falls in a smooth choreography of feathers and sinew. Callie watched him for those short moments before he disappeared, and then stared after him for minutes afterwards. He hadn’t mentioned whether or not he had saved her. She had the uncomfortable feeling that she might never find out.
A loud thud echoed beside her then, and she glanced to her left. It was a wingless corpse, tossed over the side of the waterfall like yesterday’s trash; it stared at Callie with blank eyes and a void expression. She felt ill, even though she recognized the woman as a Siren.
The body reminded her of the ongoing war above, and she realized that she needed to go and help. They would still be outnumbered most likely, given that there were only three of them.
And so she looked around, seeking a way to get to the top of the waterfall. In front of her, she saw the pond that Alex had taken her to many days ago. She remembered having seen a path which crossed over the top of the falls and led to the cave. Seeking that same path, she stumbled into the forest, her muscles still aching but growing stronger with each leap. She found the long, narrow divot in the dirt which wound about the trees, leading ever upwards and onwards, and she began to bound along it.
Sounds of the battle grew nearer as she journeyed that long trek, parting branches and dodging leaves as she jumped across a mixture of fallen twigs and discarded feathers. It was as though, in the space of a few short hours, the world that she remembered had been transformed into a graveyard.
As she ran, three more bodies were thrown over the cliff, hanging in breathless suspension for the shortest time before plummeting into the stream below. The cries of warriors facing death drifted towards Callie as she climbed the final boulder. She could only hope that they were not those of the people she loved.
When she finally reached the top of the falls, the scene which awaited her stunned her into stillness.
The field was blanketed in wings and bodies, none of which were connected, and nearly all of the former were silver. The few white wings which peeked out from amidst the scattered body parts frightened Callie for a moment, as she pictured them belonging to Zeke, or Serena, or…. But she couldn’t think the last name, even in her horrible suspicion.
The feeling of helplessness which the thoughts plagued Callie with, however, disappeared quickly. There were only seven people in the clearing, and three of which were Guardians. Her Guardians.
Alex was fighting with wild abandon, appearing to be out of touch with any semblance of reason or compassion. His eyes were racked with madness; his lips were curled back in a cold snarl of fury. Before Callie’s eyes, he flipped one Siren over his right arm, pressing down on her stomach with his left hand as he did so, resulting in the deafening snap of a spine being broken to shards. As another approached from behind, he whirled around and plunged a hand into her chest, waiting a beat before withdrawing his fist. It held her still-beating heart.
Zeke was in the process of ripping the second wing from one of the Sirens, and Serena helped as she held the Siren’s hips still. A bloody shriek erupted from the dying woman as she fell, and then there was only one Siren left alive.
Serena turned to face the last Siren, who promptly leapt into the air when she saw that she was outnumbered. Serena jumped through the small space between them, catching the woman and dragging her back down to the ground. She had clamped a hand onto the silver feathers when a bone chilling bellow burst forth.
“No!” Alex shouted. Callie gasped, but not at the order.
This was the Siren who had pushed her. She recognized the deep black hair, cut into short spikes, along with the sharp slopes of her face, twisted into an angry sneer.
“That’s the one,” Alex snarled. He took three slow steps towards the woman. Callie couldn’t see his face, but the sudden coolness of his demeanor after such blatant violence caused her to shiver.
“Serena,” Zeke said. He tipped his head towards the sky, and extended his wings. They had flown away before Callie understood what was happening.
The woman’s face was still shaped
into a mocking challenge, but it was beginning to twitch. Callie saw then that it was a carefully crafted disguise; the Siren didn’t want to betray her fear.
As Alex took the last step towards her, the Siren’s smile wavered, and her wings shot out again. Before she could escape, though, Alex reached out in rapid precision and wrenched one of her wings halfway from its place, so that it hung only by its lower fraction.
Callie turned away, her ears pierced by the woman’s howl, unable to witness the pain on her face, even if the Siren had killed her.
“That’s right,” Alex murmured, his voice low but throbbing with unspent fury. Callie barely recognized it. “Scream. Cry out, see who comes to help you.”
The woman’s shriek turned to a low moan, and Callie turned in time to see her sink to her knees, a thick river of blood flowing down her spine.
“You know nothing of pain,” Alex hissed, circling her like a predator. “And yet you cause it so freely.”
The Siren had broken into sobs, her whole body shuddering with them, as she pleaded with Alex in a foreign language. He retorted in the same language, the words rolling cruelly from his tongue, as he lunged forwards and threw the Siren’s head down towards the ground, hurling her onto her stomach.
He stood up, wiping his hands on his white pant legs, and muttered, “Perhaps today will be the day I teach you.”
Now Callie understood. This was why Zeke and Serena had left; to give him privacy. They had allowed him space to avenge her, thinking she was dead. Alex wasn’t about to kill the woman quickly. He was going to torture her.
Movement above caught Callie’s eye. She looked to the sky, and saw Adeline suspended in the air towards the outskirts of the clearing. She had just arrived, likely after having heard the scream. For a moment, it looked as though she would descend to help her friend. But then she saw Alex’s face, and she halted. Crossing her arms hesitantly, she trained her purple eyes on the scene below, waiting to see what would happen.
Alex crouched down next to the Siren, and whispered in her ear. Callie couldn’t hear what he had said, but whatever the words had been, they didn’t quiet the woman’s cries. In fact, her sobs became more forlorn, and she began to scratch at the ground, dragging her weakening body further from him, inch by inch.
He stood again, glaring down at her with disgust. In cold passion, he quickly took a step forward and swung one leg back, about to deliver a ruthless blow to her gut. Callie’s heart pounded in her ears, and despite all reason, she felt pity for the struggling, dying creature before her.
She was about to cry out, to stop him, when suddenly the Siren’s arm reached out and grabbed the foremost leg, the one he was standing on, and before Alex could execute the kick she had pulled the leg out from beneath him. He collapsed onto his back, his head knocking solidly against the dirt floor.
The Siren used his disorientation to escape. She pushed herself up, wincing and cursing as she fought the pain of the gaping wound on her shoulder. Callie didn’t watch her as the woman ran to the far edge of the clearing, presumably disappearing into the forest.
Alex grunted as he sat up, one hand rubbing the base of his skull. His eyes whipped around the clearing, attempting to locate the vanished victim of his wrath. But he froze when his eyes connected with Callie’s.
For a moment, it looked as though he weren’t breathing. Nothing about him changed, or moved, or interrupted the complete stillness about him. He didn’t blink, his eyes wide and incredulous. It was as if he were afraid that if he moved, he would lose the image of her standing before him. And he seemed desperate to keep her exactly where she was.
She watched him sadly, understanding now what Zeke had meant. She could never leave him; her absence would be his destruction. She knew that she would never do so voluntarily, but the picture of him sitting on that field, helpless and hopeless, conjured up an ugly image of the future. What would he do when her mortality began to show? She couldn’t stand to see him so lost, so friendless.
“Callie?” he breathed, standing slowly. He moved with great caution, watching her like she was a fragile entity who might be crushed with the first careless gesture. She swallowed, unable to find her voice. The way he looked at her only served to further remind her of that fateful day, closer for him than it would be for her, when she would have to leave him again. She was ephemeral. And she knew then that she would have traded her soul to make it untrue.
What happened next occurred so swiftly that Callie could barely understand the drastic turn of events.
“Alex!”
Callie gasped at the sudden cry. She looked up to see who had given it, but its bearer was already plunging into Alex’s back, throwing her arms around him in fierce protectiveness, her blood red hair shooting around him in a defensive blanket. Adeline’s eyes were squeezed tightly together in anticipation, curving around Alex with frantic determination.
It was only then that Callie saw the ambush as it rushed towards them. Somehow, impossibly, the Siren who had escaped was flying towards them on limping wing, surging forth with awkward motions and certain speed, her arms stretched out in preparation.
Before the Siren could process the change in owner, she tore at the wings before her, ripping them off in oblivious savagery. And then everything became very still once again.
The silver feathers fell to the ground, meeting their final resting place atop the decaying flesh growing from the field. Alex whipped around, catching Adeline as she fell forwards, her arms still gathered around his neck.
“Adeline,” Alex yelled urgently, tilting her face upwards with one hand. “Addy, can you hear me? Come on, stay awake.”
The Siren stood at the edge of the cliff, watching in horror as she realized what she’d done. For a quiet moment, she may have wanted to stay, to seek retribution from the victim in the last moments of her life. But then her expression set into steely detachment, and she took wing again, never sparing a glance behind her.
Adeline’s eyes had glazed over, her face was beginning to lose its color. She kept her vision trained on Alex, her beautiful features trembling into a valiant smile. Alex held her face on his hand, his expression shocked.
Adeline began to stutter. “Shh,” Alex said, “it’s alright. Don’t—“
“Promettez—“ she muttered, and then sighed in lusterless frustration. “‘Promettez-moi de me…donner un baiser…s-sur le front. Quand je serai morte.’”
The smile grew a small amount, as though she had just cited a private joke between them. Here, in this unholy place, she lost the bitterness with which she had lived. Shed from her character was the harsh suspicion, the defensive threat of fatality. She was pure once more, and Callie glimpsed that Adeline whom she had met once, in a memory.
Alex’s face fell. “Addy, don’t. Please,” he said.
Adeline reached up, her hand quivering and pale, and placed two fingertips on his lips. And then her eyes rolled to the side, sightless. She choked once, the sound a gurgling echo of the life which was parting from her body. And then her figure sank more deeply into Alex’s arms as the fiery strength which had defined her was lost to the shadows of the forest.
“Adeline?” Alex whispered.
Shouts began to erupt from somewhere nearby. Callie jumped a little to hear them, startled by how close they sounded. Snapping into action, she emerged from the forest patch and ran to Alex.
“Alex,” she said softly, touching his shoulder. He didn’t move. “Alex, come on,” she said urgently. “We have to go.”
He blinked, surfacing from the trance-like state he had fallen into for a moment. He turned to her, but his eyes were hollow. He didn’t seem to recognize her.
“Callie,” he murmured.
“It’s me,” she said, glancing down at Adeline’s body.
She looked peaceful now. Her eyes had closed, hiding the violet spirit which had marked her in legend, and she rested tranquilly in Alex’s arms. It wasn’t hard to believe that this was a woman Alex had love
d once.
“Alex,” she sighed, understanding now the meaning of this moment. “I am so sorry.” And the truth was, she honestly felt sorry. She knew that Adeline had been dealt an unfair hand. She had been made to love and to lose several times over. And she had needed to shoulder the burden of others’ grief in the process. Here was a fallen woman whose strength and passion had led to her death. For the loss of such a person, Callie was sorry.
Alex inhaled deeply, his eyes upon Adeline’s face once again, and he nodded. Gently, he leaned in and kissed her on the forehead, his eyes shutting briefly as he said goodbye. He then lowered her to the ground and devotedly arranged her so she laid comfortably, her arms crossed atop her chest. The breeze wafted through her hair, swaying the tendrils back and forth, in rhythm with the ocean. She was the very image of serenity.
“We have to go,” Callie said again after a small space of time had elapsed. She tugged on Alex’s hand, and pulled him towards the cliff. “They need our help.”
But before she could walk too far from him, he had pulled her back into his arms in a suffocating grip, drawing her into his very being, hunching his shoulders around her as his arms tightened her against him. She felt his heartbeat, so vital to her own existence, against her cheek, and felt when he let out a soul-deep shudder.
“I thought I’d lost you,” he sighed.
“I’m alright,” she replied, quickly becoming lost in the feel of him, so warm against her skin. In his embrace, the war beyond ceased to exist. She felt safe, loved. There was little else that she could think about when he held her that way, as though she were the most precious thing in the world.
As her head lay across his chest, she saw the smears of blood and dirt which stained his tanned skin.
The Guardian (Callista Ryan Series) Page 33