by S. E. Smith
Tonya knew that Austin was going to pull the trigger. She could feel the change in his body movements. Reacting partially out of rage and mostly out of terror, she slammed the key she held between her fingers into his body behind her as hard as she could.
The end of the key rammed into Austin’s groin. He reflexively pulled the trigger, firing a bullet that pierced the side of her car. She broke free, turned around, and shoved him as he bent over in pain. Then she darted to the back of her car.
The loud explosion of a gun resonated through the air. Max grabbed her around the waist and pulled her down behind her car. She looked back and saw a dark red stain spreading from a hole smaller than a dime in Austin’s shirt. He fell backwards to the ground in slow motion.
Max rose from his crouching position and helped her up with his good hand. She stood in a daze when he stepped to the side, and Ashure took his place. She started shaking as shock set in.
“You’re here,” she mumbled.
Ashure cupped her face between his hands. Tears welled up in her eyes when she saw the sorrow, worry, and love in his expression. She touched his cheek.
“Yes,” he said before he looked over at Austin. “I have something I must do.”
She nodded and stepped back. He released her and lowered his arms. Her breath caught when she saw his eyes begin to burn with rage and a deep, unfathomable pain.
He walked over to Austin. Dan had kicked the gun away from the man’s hand. Austin lay on his back, staring up at the sky and uttering small, maniacal bursts of laughter between his moans. She clutched her throat when Ashure knelt down on one knee and pulled Austin up by the front of his shirt.
“You only thought you knew the tortures of the Cauldron of Spirits, Bleu. You should have stayed there,” he hissed.
Austin looked up at him and laughed again. Tonya stepped closer, more worried about Ashure than what would happen to Austin. As far as she was concerned, the man could rot in hell. It was the rage and pain in Ashure’s eyes that made her want to comfort and protect him.
“Fuck you,” Austin choked out as a trickle of blood slipped from the corner of his mouth.
“Ashure,” Dan started to say.
“He is not here,” Ashure murmured.
“What do you mean he’s not here?” Dan repeated.
Ashure released his grip on Austin’s shirt and the dying man fell back to the ground. Ashure rose to his feet and stared down at the drug-crazed man. Tonya stepped up beside him. She looked down at Austin, then at Ashure before she looked at Dan with a confused expression. Max shouted a warning just as Tonya saw TJ step out of the house onto the front porch. Her cry mixed with Max’s as she stepped in front of Ashure when two explosions split the air.
She jerked twice as the bullets pierced her body before she fell back into Ashure’s arms. She hissed out a breath as a wave of excruciating pain sliced through her, and she collapsed. Ashure’s arms were the only thing keeping her upright.
Max and Dan simultaneously fired at TJ. Tonya felt Ashure lowering her to the ground. She didn’t want the look of horror in his eyes to be the last thing she saw. She wanted to see the love.
“I love you, Ashure,” she whispered.
“Ah, my little stubborn love, you are breaking my heart,” he murmured in a trembling voice as he caressed her cheek.
“I will—always—be—with you,” she promised between gasps.
He tenderly lifted her hand to his lips. “I love you, Tonya. I won’t let you die. I won’t—” he choked as a tear spilled down his cheek.
Tonya saw the tear poised in midair, as if time had halted. Her eyelids slowly closed, and her breath grew so faint that it was almost nonexistent. The world around her was no longer moving.
25
Pain unlike anything Ashure had ever experienced pierced him to his soul. The grief welling up inside him was too much to bear. Was this what Simon had felt when he lost his beloved wife? The sensation of being ripped in half was profound.
His breaths were coming in gasps, but it still felt like he couldn’t breathe. Tonya had become still. Her eyelashes lay like crescent moons against her pale skin. He looked down at the bullet wounds. One had pierced her chest, and the other bullet had struck her lower abdomen.
Rage poured through him, and he stared at the man who had shot her. He caught his breath again. This time it wasn’t because of the pain or the rage, but because the world around him had suddenly stopped.
He could see the man on the porch had turned, and his gun was pointed at Max. The muzzle of the pistol was surrounded in white smoke, and a silver bullet hung suspended in the air an inch from the gun.
Dan was standing with his gun pointed at TJ. He looked more like a statue. Max stood with both his feet apart and one arm extended. Two bullets, one from each officer’s gun, hung in the air. Angela’s face, frozen into a grief-stricken and horrified expression, tore at his heart.
He slowly looked up when he heard footsteps on the gravel. He gaped at Magna and the two men walking toward him. The tall, lean man with blond hair hurried when he saw Tonya.
“How did you—?” Ashure choked out.
Magna touched her fingers to her lips in horror and leaned against the tall, dark-haired man. The man wrapped his thick arm around her waist and pressed a kiss against her temple. She slowly lowered her hand to her side.
“We came home late last night. The boy house-sitting for us told us that someone was looking for me. We realized it must have been Tonya from his description. I had no idea that you were here, Ashure,” Magna quietly explained.
“What the hell is going on?” the dark-haired man asked.
“Not now, Gabe. I need my bag out of the car,” the man kneeling next to him said.
“Kane, you cannot help her. The spell I cast will only last a few minutes,” Magna said.
Ashure looked at the man beside him. “Magna is right. Death is pulling on Tonya,” he murmured in an uneven voice.
He tenderly brushed Tonya’s hair back from her cheek. He would stay in this moment in time for a thousand years if it meant she would live. A cry of denial rose in his throat, and he tilted his head back and roared in rage and anguish.
“You cannot take her from me,” he shouted to the sky. “You cannot—take her—from me.”
“I can send you back. There is only one thing that can save Tonya, and only one person knows where to find the magical creatures you will need,” Magna quietly said as she knelt and looked into his eyes.
“What—?” he started to ask. “The unicorns.”
Magna nodded. “Nali may grant your wish.” She looked down at Tonya’s pale face. “I can give her a short amount of time by slowing time inside her body, but it will not last long,” she said.
Ashure nodded. “What price do you ask? I will pay it and more,” he declared.
Magna reached out and touched his cheek. “No price, your Majesty. It is the least I can do for the people of my world,” she softly responded.
Ashure bowed his head in thanks before he looked back at the man on the porch. He gently lowered Tonya to the ground. Gabe had returned from the car with a black bag and handed it to Kane. Ashure rose to his feet.
“Before I can leave, there is one thing I must do for the safety of this world and ours,” he said.
Magna nodded. He walked toward the porch, pausing twice to flick the officer’s bullets onto the ground. He climbed the steps, grabbed the bullet the man had fired, and tossed it into the flower bed.
Wrapping his hand around the gun, he pulled it free and tossed it to the ground as well. He stood eye-level with the man and released the full power of the Goddess’s gift. Before him, in the shadows, stood Bleu LaBluff.
“You always were easy to fool, Ashure,” Bleu drawled.
Ashure walked around Bleu. The soul was under his control and couldn’t move. Bleu tried to twist away but couldn’t, and he growled in frustration.
“You should have stayed where you were, Bleu,�
�� Ashure warned.
Bleu laughed. “What more can you do to me? I saw a chance to escape, and I did. No one has ever done that before. Simon was stupid to give you the Goddess’s Gift. He had a soft spot for you because you showed his wife a brief moment of kindness while I spent years catering to their every whim! You were nothing! Nothing! The miserable result of passion between a drunken pirate and a greedy Sprite,” he goaded.
“Simon would never have given you the Goddess’s Gift because he saw the real you,” Ashure stated.
Bleu sneered at him. “Something you never could see. I made sure of that. Koorgan would have killed you if not for Ruth escaping. With you out of the way, I would have been the next Pirate King, like I deserved to be in the first place!” he said.
“You would have never been the next Pirate King, Bleu. You see, there is something that you don’t know about the Goddess’s Gift,” Ashure said in a low, mesmerizing voice.
“What is that?” Bleu demanded.
Ashure stopped behind Bleu and leaned closer to his ear. “When you are in charge of the dead, you cannot be killed. That is why Nali did not want the alien creature near me. The old witch knew that as well. The only way to become the Pirate King is to be given the gift, and I would never, ever have given it to you,” he quietly sneered.
“I know what your weakness is, Ashure. Without love, you will die, and you’ll be locked in the same hell where I have been. You needed the ceremony that would bind your souls together, but I killed your woman! Now, you have a choice—do you drag her down into the Cauldron of Spirits to live out eternity in that miserable place with you, or do you let her go?” Bleu countered with a malevolent laugh.
Ashure walked around him until they were face-to-face again. “Tonya will live—but you—there is a place much worse than the shadow realm in the Cauldron of Spirits, Bleu. It is a special realm reserved for souls like yours. I hope you enjoy it,” he said in a hushed voice that dripped with menace.
“What? Where? No—no—NO!” Bleu screamed when the world around them changed.
Ashure stepped back as inky black clawed hands containing every fear that Bleu had ever felt reached to pull him apart. Bleu’s terrified screams grew louder, but only he could hear them. The fingers clawed at Bleu, ripping deep gouges in his soul as they dragged him down into the bowels of his own nightmares.
“Enjoy an eternity of pain,” Ashure said before he stepped back into the light.
He turned and faced Magna. She bowed her head. He strode down the steps and kneeled next to Tonya, gently lifting her into his arms.
Ashure stared into the Sea Witch’s eyes. There were no shadows there—only love and acceptance of her place in the universe. She would never be in danger of becoming a Lost Soul. The two men standing protectively on either side of her would ensure that.
“I’m ready,” he said.
“I will open the portal to the Isle of the Monsters. I’ve requested the spell take you to Nali. The spell I cast over Tonya will last one hour. I cannot help you after that,” she warned.
“I will do the rest,” he vowed.
She nodded and lifted her hands. He focused on the powerful bands of magic spinning outward from her spell. If anything, she had grown stronger since her release from the alien. The magic coalesced in front of him, forming a swirling circle in a rainbow of colors before the center opened, and he saw the entrance to Nali’s palace in front of him. He strode forward without a backward glance. The hands of time had started ticking again.
Dan stumbled forward and blinked. He looked over his shoulder at Max, who was staring back at him with a dazed and confused expression. Behind Max, Angela staggered and gripped the side of Tonya’s car.
“Where is she?” Angela asked in a shaky voice.
A low groan pulled their attention to the front porch. Dan rushed forward, his gun aimed at TJ. He put his foot on the front step.
“Don’t move,” Dan ordered.
TJ lifted his hands in the air. “I—what’s going on?” he asked in a frightened and confused voice.
“Down on the ground, roll over, and put your hands behind your back. You have the right to remain silent…” Dan coldly recited to TJ.
Max walked up and nodded to Dan that he would keep an eye on TJ. “Austin is dead. Ashure and Tonya are gone,” he said.
Dan nodded, placed his gun in his holster, and handcuffed TJ. “He should be dead. I know we both didn’t miss him,” he muttered.
“I know,” Max replied.
The sound of sirens could be heard coming down the highway. Dan pulled TJ to his feet as two sheriff’s cars pulled into the driveway. He guided TJ down the steps.
“What the fuck is going on, man? I didn’t—shit! Is he dead? I didn’t do nothin’, man,” TJ complained.
“Take him away,” Dan ordered when the first deputy ran up to him.
He released TJ and looked back at the place where Ashure had been holding Tonya. Max was standing there now, comforting Angela. He walked over to them.
Dan could hear the second deputy calling for an ambulance for Austin. There would be an internal investigation. He would probably be placed on temporary leave until it was over. He shoved his hands into his pockets and stared at the sea oats. In the distance, he could hear the ocean.
Dan glanced at Max and Angela when they walked over to him before turning his attention back to the dune. “What do you think happened to them?” he asked.
Max shook his head. “I don’t know,” he replied in a gruff voice.
Angela lifted her tear-stained face and looked back at him. “He took her back to his world,” Angela sniffed and wiped a hand across her cheek. “If anyone can save our little girl, Ashure can. I know it. I—I have to believe it.”
Max closed his eyes. Dan could see tears winding a crooked path down the big man’s cheeks. He thought of the little he had learned about Ashure. He agreed with Angela—if anyone could save Tonya, it was Ashure Waves, King of the Pirates and Keeper of Lost Souls.
He looked at Max. “This is going to be one hell of a fudged report,” he said with a sigh of resignation.
Max opened his eyes and grimly nodded. “Then I guess we’d better get our stories straight,” he replied.
26
“Open the doors!” Ashure roared as he stepped through the portal Magna had created.
The two Centaurs guarding the front entrance to Nali’s palace had taken a defensive posture while other guards rushed forward. Ashure looked at the Centaurs. They lowered their weapons when they finally noticed Tonya cradled in his arms and covered in blood. Twisting around, they hurried to the palace’s enormous double doors and opened them as he climbed the steps with his precious burden.
Ashure swept by them into the warmly lit interior of the cave that had been converted centuries ago into the Palace of the Monsters. Tall columns supported massive arches and vaulted ceilings beneath the upper levels. The polished black floor was sprinkled with diamonds and other semi-precious stones that were formed during the creation of the Isle. He frantically searched for any sign of Nali as he strode through the arched foyer.
“Nali!” he shouted, his voice echoing in the mammoth entryway.
He looked upward when he entered the circular rotunda. Nali stood near the balcony that was carved into the second level of the cave. She was talking to a small group of House Elves who were giggling at whatever she was telling them. She cast a gentle smile of dismissal to the elves before she turned her attention to him with a slight admonishing expression.
“Really, Ashure, there’s no need for drama. You know that you are always welcome without having to make a grand entrance,” she teasingly called out as she leaned over the railing with an amused expression that quickly changed. “What happened?” she hissed when she saw Tonya, bloody and unconscious, in his arms as well as the pleading expression on his face.
“I need your help,” he called unsteadily.
She placed one hand on the balcony railing an
d jumped. Long satin-like wings appeared from her back, controlling her descent. She landed in front of him, reached out, and touched Tonya’s brow with a gentle caress.
“Who is she, and who did this to her?” she demanded in a soft voice laced with steel.
“Her name is Tonya, and she came from the human realm. She is the love of my life, Nali. Please—I need your help to save her,” he said in a voice that reflected his fear and grief.
She gave him a sharp look before returning her attention to Tonya’s pale, still face. “It looks like it is already too late. She barely breathes, Ashure,” she murmured.
He shook his head. “A spell to slow time for her,” he said.
Nali took a hissing breath and stared at him. “That is very powerful magic. Why didn’t the witch try to heal her?” she wondered.
“The witch was Magna, Nali. There were too many humans, and Tonya’s wounds are grievous. Please, time is running out! Magna warned that her spell would not last long. I came to you, honoring my pledge never to reveal or return to the location of the unicorns. I ask you once more—will you help me?” he quietly pleaded.
Nali’s expression softened, and she laid her hand on his shoulder. “Of course I will, Ashure,” she replied. She motioned with her hands. “Give her to me. It will be faster if I take her,” she instructed.
Protectively, he tightened his hold on Tonya and started to shake his head. Nali motioned again, this time her expression was hard. His fear that Nali would change her mind warred with his despair of ever seeing his love again if he let Nali take her from him. With considerable reluctance, he gingerly transferred Tonya into Nali’s arms.