More magic leaps from my opponent’s hand, but this time I expect it and dive out of the way. He continues to attack over and over again as I leap around the room. My thoughts go a thousand miles a minute. If my sword won’t hurt him, what will?
Suddenly, the fire is burning brightly once more. I know it has to be Hecate’s magic, and I hope it’ll help us here. I grab a piece of wood from the fire, ignoring it when my hand screams in pain, and throw it at Conley. The flaming wood goes right through him, leaving behind the creepy figure, untouched.
Damn it. What am I supposed to do?
A ball of bright light blossoms in the center of the room. I glance behind me to see Hecate murmuring, her hand outstretched to the light. It chases away the smoke and the shadows. But the two figures remain. They look so strange cloaked in light, but still shadows.
I roll and grab my sword from the ground and strike out at my enemy over and over again, but nothing happens, and I hate that I feel myself growing tired.
Orion flies back and hits the ground near me, but climbs once more to his feet. He spreads his wings and darts into the air, then dives back down at his enemy, but he too passes right through the shadow man.
As my enemy approaches, he knocks the sword from my hands, and I use my fists instead, although they pass through like air. His fists strike out at me, but they’re solid and painful as they strike me over and over again.
The ball of light disappears, and I blink into the darkness, the firelight not able to pierce through all the shadows. Then I roll away from my attacker. Orion is suddenly at my back. One of the men begins to laugh. Blue magic strikes Orion, and to my shock, a groan of pain rolls through him. He’s still in his stone form. Nothing should be able to hurt him, but it does.
“If I get hit enough,” he whispers. “My soul will be gone and I’ll be nothing but stone.”
I feel sick. He shifts away from me, and magic slams into one of my wings.
I scream and look as part of my wing seems to melt. Rushing to the small lake, I dive in and the pain finally vanishes. Horror flows through me as I surface. I don’t know if what happened will be permanent. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to fly again.
The water around me lifts into the air in a million droplets, and I see that Hecate’s hands are raised. She shifts her hands quickly toward our enemies, and the water slams into them. My heart hammers as I climb out, hoping that maybe, just maybe, their weakness is water. But as the water falls harmlessly to the floor, the two men are still there, still unhurt.
“Go, Hecate!” I hear Orion shout. “Go for the surface. We have to be close!”
A cold certainty washes through me. Nothing we do can hurt these men. The only reason Orion would tell Hecate to go on alone is if he knows we are doomed. So we will be the distraction. We will buy her time to escape, and maybe on the surface she and Andros and their child can have some happiness.
Orion and I will die down here.
But it’ll be worth it. If she lives.
When Hecate doesn’t move, I shout, “Go! You heard him!” And I square off with my smirking enemy.
“Not a chance!” I hear her say.
“God damn it!” I scream as more magic comes toward me. I just barely manage to jump out of the way before he’s able to light my other wing on fire. “We’re losing. You have to go!”
I catch sight of her in my peripheral vision. She hasn’t moved.
“You really want Andros trapped down here forever? You really want your baby to never see the surface?” Yeah, I’d struck low, but it’s necessary.
And my heart aches when I see Hecate running for the exit. This is what we wanted. Now, we just need to keep this fight going for as long as we can, so that they might not be able to come after her. She needs time, time to reach the surface, no matter how close or far it is.
I see flashes of blue light behind me, and when I shift, I see Orion on his knees. His eyes are wide, and his enemy closes in on him. Without thinking, I leap between them. Magic strikes me in the chest, and I tumble back beside Orion. Looking down at myself, I see a gaping hole. Blood flows freely from me, and I know that within minutes I’ll be useless.
They won’t even have to fight when they kill me. All they have to do is cut off my head as I sit helpless.
A cry slips from my lips as I climb to my feet, pain so intense that tears burn my eyes. Orion is there to help me, but his stone form is gone. I wonder if he no longer has the strength to keep it. But I can’t ask. Our gazes go to the two creatures we face, and in that moment we know that we’re going to die.
But at least we can go out knowing that we gave Hecate a chance.
“No!” we hear her shout behind us.
I can’t even turn. My heart sinks into my stomach, and a helpless desperation fills me. Hecate didn’t run. Hecate is still here.
We are all going to die together.
A flash of magic explodes, filling the room, and I know...I know it’s over.
23
Hecate
I don’t know if I was ever truly going to run and leave them behind. But I’d gone out to the tunnel and started climbing, my thoughts spinning. It'd been so long since I was on the surface. So long since I practiced real magic. I felt that years ago I would’ve known what to do, but now I don’t.
Those creatures weren’t human. They weren’t supernatural. They weren’t the undead.
I’d tried every spell I could think of, and nothing would hurt them. They were just...glowing shadows with necklaces. And then, I’d frozen. Old memories came slamming back into me, and I turned and climbed right back to that room.
Orion and Blaise are dying. Left on their knees and without the ability to move or fight, they are sitting ducks. And so, I try to save them with the simplest of spells. The red glow explodes from me and dives at our enemies. The necklaces are plucked from their throats, and come flying into my hand. As the metal touches my skin, I sense a great evil, but also a great power.
The two shadows begin to change, to remind me of the many lost souls that waited for eternity on the banks of the Styxs river. I murmur old words of life and death, a spell meant to dispense evil spirits, and I grow that spell in my hands until it’s so large and powerful that it seems to drain magic from my very soul, and then I launch it at the two creatures.
They scream, a terrible wailing that echoes all around us. Their faces turn up to the ceiling, and their hands twist into claws as if they could fight the magic of the first witch. When they begin to burn, to fade away in a wave of smoke and embers, I smile and watch until every last part of them is gone.
And then I head toward my men.
My head spins. The floor beneath me seems to tilt, and the necklaces in my hand feel too heavy, so I throw them into the fire and take a shaky breath before facing my men. Orion falls first, and then Blaise. Both men are trying to get up. Their legs and arms move, but they can't rise.
I stand over them and spread out my hands. Channeling the power in the necklaces as they crackle in the flames, but ignoring the evil, I use them as fuel for my spell. The green glow that comes from my hands illuminates the men. I put some of my own magic into it, blending them together until I’m sure both men will be well. Until I’m sure it will be enough to heal them completely.
Unfortunately, as the spell fades away, I realize I’d done something foolish. Something that every magic-user knows not to do. I had used too much of my magic. It’s something I’ve done before, when I was very young. It was a painful and difficult recovery, but I’ve gone long past that point this time.
When I fall, I have no idea how far I’ve gone when I channeled my magic out, but I know it’s too far.
And after everything Hades put me through, I realize that this could be the thing to finally kill me.
24
Orion
Hecate is so light in my arms. From the moment she’d used her magic to defeat our enemies and to heal our wounds, she had fallen into a slumber so
deep that her heart barely beats. She is cold too, almost like a dead body. And no matter how long we climb, she never stirred nor reacted.
We’d bundled her in her cloak. We’d walked without taking any breaks, passing resting place after resting place. Blaise and I barely spoke. There was nothing that could take away from the horror of knowing that this beautiful woman could’ve given her life for us. We would have never wanted that. We would’ve rather died.
But we hadn’t been given a choice.
All I can do now is to keep climbing... and hoping. Hoping that she’ll survive this, somehow. Because even though beheadings are the only known way to kill immortals, there are technically other ways. Other ways fueled by things I don’t understand.
When strange and unexpected scents travel down the tunnels, we both stiffen and stop for the first time in too long. I look back at Blaise, frowning.
“It smells like...trees,” I say.
His eyes widen, and then it seems to hit us both what this must mean. We rush forward, as fast as we can safely go, and see a light ahead of us. Heart in my throat, I keep going until we step out into the bright light of day. I blink against the darkness and breathe in the scents of nature, carried by a cool and pleasant breeze.
We’ve done it. We’ve escaped.
When my vision comes back into focus, I keep going, walking beneath the trees with their heavy branches of leaves. But I don’t care about the beauty of this world, I’m searching for my brother. For Andros.
But he’s nowhere to be found.
My heart beats faster, and my hands feel clammy. “Andros! Andros!”
He has to be here. We’ve done everything we were told. There is no world in which he would still be in the Underworld, and our mate half-dead in my arms.
“Andros!” Blaise calls, and his voice waivers. “Andros!”
There’s no answer. We search and we search. We wait and we wait. But he never appears.
When darkness falls, I lie with my arms wrapped around Hecate’s still form. Blaise had built a fire and lays beside me. He doesn’t speak, which I’m glad about, because my heart can’t take my failures.
He makes us food, which I don’t eat. He carefully spoons soup and water into Hecate’s mouth, but I’m not certain she gets any of it at all. The beautiful witch looks... dead. My brother seems lost.
And my purpose...it’s gone.
I stand.
“Don’t!” Blaise says. “Don’t you fucking think about it.”
“We didn’t save him. We can’t save her.” My words sound numb, even to my own ears.
Blaise stands then moves in front of me, blocking my view of the flames. “First of all, we don't know that Andros didn’t return or that Hecate won’t wake up. You’re going back to that dark place again, and I won’t allow it. You hear me?”
My entire chest aches. “I’ve lived for so long. My only purpose was to keep my brother safe. And then it was to keep my mate safe. I’ve failed, on both accounts.”
He shoves me, and I’ve never seen him this angry before. “How about me, you asshole? I’m here too. I’m in this Brotherhood, just as much an Andros is. Do I not matter to you?” He pounds his chest with each word, and his voice rises until he’s screaming, the veins in his neck sticking out.
“You do,” I say lamely, hating myself even more.
In fact, he matters so much to me that I refuse to shackle him down with me any longer. Blaise is so good, so wonderful, so full of life. He deserves better than me.
He shoves me again. “And what’s more, it doesn’t matter if we live forever if we don’t enjoy our lives. So instead of giving into that darkness inside of you, step out into the light with me. Let’s find a way to live, no matter how the cards fall right now.”
I stare at him, but I can’t seem to see him.
“Do you think this is what Andros would want?”
“Don’t…” His words hurt something deep inside of me.
“It isn’t. Now lay down with Hecate and protect her. She didn’t abandon us when things got bad, so we aren’t abandoning her. Understand?”
I look down at my mate. The dying witch who carries my brother’s baby.
The darkness calls to me, urging me to be free from all this pain, from all this loss. It plays over the years upon years of loneliness and suffering. I’ve experienced everything already. Everything except a mate and a child. Everything except a true Brotherhood in this new time.
My legs feel numb when I sit back down. “Alright,” I say.
“Tomorrow,” Blaise says, his voice certain and angry. “We go to Andros’s body and see if instead of the body coming to his soul, if his soul went to his body.”
It’s not the way the legends say. It isn’t logical in any way. But I lay down next to Hecate and hold her cold body tightly. Tomorrow, tomorrow we’ll know the truth.
25
Blaise
We fly until we near the woods, then touch down. We have to walk the rest of the way to his brother’s body, but I’m already breathless. Not because of flying all day, but because I’m truly afraid of what will happen if Andros hasn’t come back to life.
Hecate hasn’t improved.
Orion isn’t speaking, sleeping, or eating.
I’m afraid of what my future will hold, because I’m beginning to think I’m going to lose everything today. And I can’t. I can’t lose everything again. One minute I had my best friend, his brother, a beautiful woman, and a child on the way, and now it’s all slipping through my fingertips.
I’m desperately trying to hold on. I’m trying not to show any doubts. But the doubts and fears are there, hissing in the back of my mind. Telling me that because of what I did that day with the children, I’m cursed. That I’m the reason all of this was falling apart, because I don’t deserve anything good.
Orion moves faster and faster as we approach the shrine, and I have to struggle to keep up, even though he holds Hecate in his arms. We’re near the top of the hill, shoving the branches aside, when we finally come out on the top and look toward the little building that holds his brother’s body.
It’s burned.
Completely.
There’s nothing left of it but blackened smoke and the slab of marble covered in soot. I rush forward and take Hecate from Orion’s arms. He releases her without looking at me and stumbles forward like someone in a nightmare.
He moves all around, no doubt searching for Andros’s bones. Surprisingly, most of our kind could be burned down to nothing and still have our muscles and flesh grow back. It’s a painful process, but it’s possible.
Yet there’s no evidence of bones.
“What happened?” he says, gasping in uneven breaths and collapsing into the ash. His hands rake through it, coming out with unrecognizable bits and pieces, but none of it looks like bones.
“I don’t know,” I manage to say around the lump in my throat.
His movements become more and more frantic as he begins to dig through all the debris, crawling around on his knees, jerking one way and another. His face is a mask of torture. I can barely breathe around the lump in my throat. I just hold Hecate’s body tight and watch Orion unravel.
And here, in this moment, I feel my world crashing down. Orion’s sounds of misery rise up and his movements become desperate. If he were a bomb, he would be seconds from going off.
But then he stops. He just...stops. And it’s like he knows, he knows his brother is gone. Forever. Really gone. There are no hail Mary’s left. And no amount of love or dedication can make this better.
This is the end of the road.
I can almost feel Hecate’s heartbeat slowing in that instant. Like she was holding on for this moment too, and now she is letting go. Andros is gone, which means Orion is too. And I’m losing Hecate, slowly but surely.
I feel tears sting my eyes. I will always go on. I will always keep going. But the loneliness and heartbreak will never leave me, of that I am certain.
; How was it that I thought I could be enough to heal Orion’s broken heart, to bring back a man from the dead, and to gain the love of a worthy woman? I’m a fool in every sense of the word.
My knees give out beneath me. The setting sun lights the sky on fire, and I feel the tears that roll down my cheeks. I know now that I’m witnessing the death of hope. Of my dreams. And there has never been a worse feeling.
Because what are we without hope?
“I remember.”
The voice that comes behind me rolls through my body, and leaves every hair standing on end. Orion turns to look and I follow his gaze. My heart...my god damn heart is overwhelmed as I stare at Andros. He isn’t a lost soul any more. Instead, he wears his normal body, and the similarities between Orion and Andros are impossible to ignore.
Orion makes a terrible sound and runs to his brother, covered in soot. His arms come around Andros, and the two hold each other tightly. There’s so much pain and so much love in their embrace that it feels like the world is shifting beneath my feet.
Andros pulls back, and they clasp wrists before releasing each other. They stand close, so close they could touch, but they just kind of stare, as if uncertain if this is real. And it’s strangely beautiful, and strangely sad.
“I remember everything. I remember how I died.” Andros’s face is filled with the most terrible suffering.
“I know… I know I wasn’t there for you--” Orion begins, but Andros cuts him off.
“Gary did a ritual. He said it was to allow the female gargoyles to get pregnant easier, and that he needed a man for it. They strapped me down, and then a phoenix brought three small children.” His voice catches. “As the eclipse passed overhead, they broke the children’s necks and tossed away their souls with a dark kind of magic I’d never imagined.” He closes his eyes, and seems to fight to keep speaking. “It was the phoenix who attacked you in his dead form. And the human, Peter, who said the words to the spell. I struggled. I fought. And then my soul appeared in the Underworld. I don’t know what happened after that, but it seems he dumped my body for you to find, and that the children were thrown in the ocean, their own souls taken to paradise in the Underworld.”
Hecate's Spell Page 14