My hand reaches out and closes around his neck. Aric lifts him off the floor and melts back into his own skin.
Kaius kicks at him and tries to scream, but he can only choke and gasp desperately for air.
I hold my breath and slide into the lobby.
Kaius claws at Aric’s hand, even as his eyes start to roll back into his head.
I creep closer, and my heart pounds harder.
The second elevator opens, and Jerod and Griffin rush to Kaius’s aid. Aric blows them back with an outstretched hand. They crash into the walls and puddle into unconscious heaps.
While he’s distracted, I shove Excalibur into his back.
A deep, primal howl escapes Aric’s mouth. He flails his arms and tosses Kaius into the reception desk. The wood splinters and Kaius drops to the floor, limp and unresponsive.
Aric staggers backwards and turns to face me. The sword protrudes through his chest, but there’s no blood, only a trail of thick, dark liquid. He catches some of it on his fingers and stares down at it confused.
“This is what underestimating someone looks like.”
He shudders and coughs, and bright green foam drips over his chin.
Blinding violet light consumes the sword. Terror fills his eyes, and the light disintegrates his stolen body and sucks him inside the blade, leaving only his screams behind. The sword crashes to the floor, but Aric’s electric green energy continues to wrestle with the shadowy burgundy aura of Excalibur.
Jerod groans and crawls away from the wall, clutching the back of his head. Aric’s frenzied shrieks momentarily distract Jerod from his pain. His hand falls away as he stares transfixed at the sword.
I run to Kaius’s side and check for a pulse. The skin around his neck is singed and bruised. “Oh God, Kaius…” I was too slow. Tears burn behind my eyes.
Aric continues to scream and fight from inside, and the sword trembles violently from the efforts.
Griffin opens his eyes next. He holds onto the wall behind him, his stare glued to Excalibur.
I press my fingers harder into Kaius’s neck. “Wake up.” I still don’t feel anything. “Wake up! Kaius…” I drop my hands to his chest and feel around for any kind of movement in his energy. It’s faint, but I can feel his heart beating. “You’re alive.” I wipe the tears from my eyes to clear my vision.
With another guttural wail, Aric’s hand reaches out of the sword and claws deep grooves into the tile. Jerod cries out and sinks deeper into his corner. But the shadows win. Aric’s arm is yanked back inside, his energy is snuffed out, and his pleas fade down to nothing.
43
Icy Prison
Kaius’s body shudders, and he drags in a deep, shaky breath. He doesn’t open his eyes yet, but he’s breathing, slowly and raggedly. It would be a horrible sound if he hadn’t almost died.
Burgundy light wraps tight around the length of the sword.
No one moves. Jerod’s wide eyes find mine.
I climb to my feet and approach Excalibur with unsteady steps. The energy spilling off it vibrates the floor. I kneel beside it and wrap my hand around the hilt. The light glows brighter.
Kaius coughs and rolls onto his side. The movement helps Jerod unglue his own limbs. He pushes himself to his feet and runs to his brother’s side.
“You’re such a fucking idiot, man.”
Kaius laughs and lets Jerod help him to his feet. He reaches up and rubs at his sore neck. “What are you doing here, then?” His voice is hoarse, but it’s working.
“Someone had to drag your stupid ass out of here.” Jerod pulls my note from his pocket and shakes it in my face. “And what the hell is this? You don’t get to do this to me. Don’t you know anything about twins? I mean, I can’t feel your pain or anything, but it would literally kill me if you died. It’s science.”
“I’m sorry.” A relieved smile breaks out over my face. “I was scared.”
“I appreciate that, but don’t ever do it again.” He side-eyes the sword. “Nothing is going to spill out of that, right?”
“I don’t think so.” I stand and set the sword down carefully on the cracked desk. The light starts to dim, like it’s slowly absorbing itself into the blade.
Kaius pulls me into a tight hug. “Jade, I’m so sorry. You have no idea.”
I squeeze him back. “It’s okay. But you shouldn’t have tried to save me.”
“As if you needed saving.” He pulls back and ruffles Jerod’s hair.
Jerod smacks Kaius’s hand away, but his eyes are bright with relief. “You were both incredibly stupid.”
Griffin joins us by the desk and analyzes me and Kaius. “We need to get you both to a hospital.” He wraps his arms around me, careful to avoid my wounded shoulders. The bandages washed away in the pool of death, leaving the raw skin exposed to the elements. “What happened to you? You look partially drowned.”
“I partially was.” I rest against his chest and push the memory away. He’s warm and dry, and I don’t want to think about anything else. “We need to get back to the forest. I want that thing far away from here.”
“On it.” Jerod rounds the reception desk and turns on the computer. The glow around the sword has completely vanished, but he still looks at it like it’s going to pop up and bite him.
Kaius drapes his arms around me and Griffin. “What’s this now?”
I bat him away. “Nothing.”
He grins and rocks back on his heels. “Near death experiences have a funny way of making you feel giddy, you know?”
“By the way,” Jerod says, “Malcolm is faxing over paperwork as soon as the office is back open. Kaius and I talked about it last night. We’re making you an equal partner in the company.”
“But you don’t have to work here if you don’t want to,” Kaius adds. His voice cracks a little.
“Stop talking.” I poke Kaius in the ribs. “I don’t know what I want to do.” With us all equally in charge, I could do just about anything. Including leave and never come back. I’m pretty sure I hate this entire building now.
“You don’t have to decide today,” Jerod says. “Or even this year. There’s absolutely no rush.”
“What are you going to do while you decide?” Griffin asks.
I shrug. “I think I’ll just travel for a while. Get out of Chicago. Breathe some different air.”
“Sounds good to me.” Jerod finishes up on the computer and sags back in the chair. “I know I just had a long vacation, but I really need another one.”
“We all do,” Kaius says, earning himself another jab.
“I got us on a flight leaving in seven hours,” Jerod says. “That should give us enough time to get you two to the hospital before we pack up, grab some food, and leave.” He wrinkles his nose at the sword. “Let’s dump that thing back in the swamp.”
I grab the sword, and we filter out of the empty building. The sun is just rising over the horizon, casting bright purple streaks across the cloudy sky.
“I can’t believe you jacked my car,” Griffin says as we buckle ourselves in. “I didn’t even know you could drive.”
“I can’t.”
He looks at me and laughs.
“There’s a surprisingly large amount of space on the road at three in the morning.”
He shakes his head. “Well, if you want to pay me back, maybe you can think about squeezing in some time between travels to go out on another date with me.”
I tap my finger against my chin and pretend to think about it. “I think I can squeeze in the occasional date. You know, if it’ll help you forgive me for almost wrecking your car.”
He raises his brows. “You almost wrecked?”
“I haven’t been behind the wheel since my driving class at the preparatory school. Of course I almost wrecked. A few times.”
He looks at me again, but a smile stretches over his face.
The sword rests innocuously in the back seat, and he eyes it in the rearview mirror.
“I
’m pretty sure I’m going to have nightmares for life,” he says.
“Yeah.”
We pull in the hospital parking lot, beside Jerod’s sparkling ride. Griffin cuts the engine, but we don’t get out of the car right away.
I look down at my hands.
“Are you okay?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know. I guess I’m just thinking about everyone who had to die because…”
He takes one of my hands and squeezes it. “We’ll all heal together.”
“If that’s possible.”
“If Merlin can be real, anything is possible.”
I almost smile.
“What do you think is going to happen now?” he asks. “Is the curse broken?”
The energy coating the sword is the opposite of calm. But I don’t think it could be any other way. “I guess we’ll see.”
The icy forest is still equal parts noxious and innocuous. My brothers and Griffin wilt like old flowers near the vanishing point. And like before, I take the compass, and carry it and Excalibur deeper into the woods. I’m better prepared this time, with a fuzzy hat on my head and a solid coat around my body.
When I reach the lake, the fog disperses and the ice breaks away. The spirit of the lake appears as before, cloaked in white with a bright light emanating from her skin. She smiles this time and gazes at me with her colorless eyes.
“You have returned the sword.”
I hold it out for her to see.
“You have done me a great service, and I thank you deeply for that. While nothing will break Aric’s ties to your bloodline, except what we have already discussed, I will work from the other realm to release all other binds on your family.”
“Like Aric’s curse against the males?”
“I will work on it. I cannot give you a timeline, but I can promise you that I will break it.”
I guess that’s as good of a response as anything else. Whatever the other realm is. “What do I do with this?”
“It must be returned to the stone. But you need only discard Excalibur of your own free will.”
A shimmering light skirts across the surface of the water, and a glow illuminates an underwater stone—a different one from last time, one not overrun with aquatic plant life. One that lies much deeper in the depths of the lake.
I’m far from being an athlete, but I rear back and throw the sword as hard as I can. It trembles through the air, and then plops ungracefully into the water. It floats for a moment. Then it’s pulled under the water and towards the stone, gravitating into the abyss against its will. As it descends, angry hissing oozes from within, whispering my name and cursing it, over and over and over.
The blade pierces the stone, and the spirit of the lake bows her head and sinks back into the void as well.
As her light fades, the lake freezes over once more, the heavy fog descends. And everything falls silent.
Also by Krystal Jane Ruin
No Rest for the Wicked
Winter’s Siren
Acknowledgments
I always have to thank my family and friends who are a constant and much needed support system.
Along with them are my invaluable writing friends and the equally invaluable blogging community. I want to thank them all so much for always cheering and commiserating with me.
And to my editors, Serena Clarke and Jessica Nelson, I can never thank them enough for their eyes, hard work, and feedback on my novel.
About the Author
Krystal Jane Ruin is the author of supernatural and paranormal fiction, living in the Tennessee Valley with a collection of swords and daggers. When she's not hoarding stuffed pandas, hourglasses, and Hello Kitty replicas, she can be found drinking chai tea, knee deep in Sudoku, in a YouTube hole, or blogging about books, writing, and random things at KrystalSquared.net.
www.krystaljaneruin.net
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