“Go,” I ordered them, before the Count could change his mind. Raphael and I had to find a way to rescue the rest of the convent still held ransom. Following my lead as I strode toward the academy, the minion guards and the Count escorted us, except that we were not prisoners. We were going of our free will.
The bell of the convent rang just once, sounding inauspicious as soon we stepped in the cloistral gardens of the convent. We had to cross them to reach the academy.
Just steps away from the academy, a bone-chilling and dark feeling changed the atmosphere above and around us. A gut feeling of utter wrongness hit me even more, dread and goose bumps. Evil darkness loomed inside the academy’s central courtyard.
I could see our warm breaths in the air. The stormy skies darkened even more. The back of my neck prickled, and the not so far sound of howling of wolves announced their departure, hopefully with the girls.
The sound of shoe soles on the stone floor of the academy lazily slackening and the back of my neck prickling in all its full force told me I was facing someone I didn’t want to meet.
Ash…
Raphael stopped walking, and his gaze was looking forward. Crap. I couldn’t see him. I cursed under my breath. Raphael looked at me with wide eyes.
“Must be Gavril’s good influence,” I explained with my evolving sarcasm.
I didn’t feel Ash’s intense signature hatred at the moment, which probably meant he was extremely pleased with himself. Jerk. Crap. I turned my mind to the Count’s horrible mind, since everyone could see or hear Ash except me.
Yup, Asmodeus. Ash was there, a few steps from me, wearing his cloak the color of dark blood and an inexpressive stupid golden mask.
One should know the enemy first, before engaging into a war. Well, he was a Fallen, a supernal being… and he was evil incarnate. Oh yes, my personal favorite, I couldn’t see or hear him, but I had established that. So I also suspected he wanted me alive. Killing the Count’s Draugr and giving no weapons to the warlocks had been somewhat proof of that. However, what did he want from me, “changing the world” as he had put it? Not happening. I had to stall enough to free my friends first.
Simultaneously, a familiar humming struck my chest, stronger than ever. Crap. Please not him. Not Nicholas. I prayed that he had the good sense to go back to France before it was all too late. God help us.
I will not be afraid. I raised my chin to him with a cocky smirk.
“Lord Aurous welcomes you,” the Something-Reeking-Rot Count said. Right.
“What did he promise you?” I asked Scary-face. I caught him confused by my question. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. He was clearly clueless and unhinged without his Draugr. I pitied him in a kind of weird, sick way. So I directed my speech to Ash. “Ash, why don’t we short-cut the negotiations and let my friends go. I promise I will fight you anyway.”
“Wh-who-o?” The Count was confused again. It was going to be a very long day if I was counting on him to be my translator.
“The same idiot who killed your Draugr, wearing a gold mask there.” I pointed in Ash’s direction. Then I realized I had said way too much. Not that I cared what the Count thought, but I had given away my ability to Ash. Just like I had, Ash had found out I couldn’t see him or hear him, so now he knew I was capable of seeing him right now through a different channel. I prayed he was too busy being the angry, evil psychopath he was, before my dumb faux-pas dawned on him.
“You killed my Draugr. Nothing is eviler than you. I will make sure you return to hell.” Count Rectalgia pointed his index finger at me.
“No. Your Draugr tried to kill me, and golden nugget there blamed me. He lied to you. You can help us stop him opening hell,” I explained simply, realizing that my effort convincing him of the contrary was futile.
Incoming. Ah—the first wave of heat struck me. Good—no. Not good. It felt like it was burning my skin, and the shield barely deflected it… Crap. Somehow, I had forgotten that the power of the golden arrow was weakening, but he didn’t know that. Raphael shielded me with his body. His body had heated, but my weak shield had protected him from a first degree burn without him knowing it.
Raphael, if you are thinking of a distraction, now would be the right time, I suggested. Obviously, Ash wasn’t pleased with my attitude or my golden shield. Oh, well, I wasn’t fine with him hurting my friends either. As the hatred wave subsided, I pushed Raphael away and straightened my shoulders back. I smirked back at Ash as if his attack had not put the fear of God in me.
“Lord Aurous is convinced you will change your mind soon, Miss Pearson,” the Count said, repeating Ash’s words. I couldn’t hear them inside the Count’s head either. Crap.
I exchanged glances with Raphael. Scary-face pointed his hand behind us.
We turned to see what Count Reremouse was pointing at, and our eyes confronted the most horrendous sight. I tightened my fists so much my nails were digging trenches inside my palms. It was the main courtyard of Our Lady of The Stars, where the founder had built a large cross as a centerpiece outside the convent.
I froze and gasped, appalled and horror-struck, not knowing if I was the one screaming.
Chapter 55
Gavril hung over the large cross in the open, crucified with his arms open and his hands and feet nailed, wearing an obtrusive crown of barbwire. His blood was brown and cakey, dripping like a fading ink with the cold wet deluge. He had bled all over his bare torso, hands, and feet. Judging from the blood stain in his denim pants, he was broken. A large black crow guarded his body ominously, perched on top of the cross. God, all this was my fault.
Gavril. I called him, breathless and sick to my core.
He didn’t answer me. I couldn’t see him breathing. I launched myself to undo his torture. I knew I was letting my guard down. I knew that Ash or the sycophant guards could take advantage of the situation, but Gavril was more important. Raphael moved just as quickly next to me, helping me pull the nails out of the cross and off him. We struggled taking him down. No pulse. HE HAD NO PULSE.
While Raphael applied CPR, I used what was left of my healing power, but it was useless. I hardly had any spark. I felt helpless and so weak. Not even the strong chest presses that Raphael applied had helped. His lips were so pale. No. Not him. Nothing was working. Nothing.
He was dead, and even if I had any power, I couldn’t bring back the dead. The taste of despair and failure was unsettling, but the horror of losing my best friend… my mind refused to accept it. It was unthinkable. Impossible and very surreal. I fell on my knees and held him in my arms, like St. Mary did Jesus a couple thousand years ago.
“GAVRIL… please. Oh, please.” My eyes drowned as I carefully took that awful crown off his bleeding head. I had let down my best friend. It didn’t get lower than that. With all my cursed powers that were more a detriment than help. “I am so sorry. I am sorry—so sorry. I FAILED YOU… I FAILED YOU.” I sobbed, quivering with him as I held his cold, dead body.
Raphael closed his eyes. Tears ran down his half-werewolf face. I hated Ash so much at that moment. He had taken the two most beloved beings in my life away from me.
“Oh, I am truly sorry for your loss.” The Count’s gleeful words couldn’t even register within the enormity of my sorrow and the anger I felt. He wasn’t.
I kissed Gavril’s forehead and gently placed Gavril’s battered body by the stone pedestal base of the large cross. My chest hadn’t stopped humming since we’d crossed the academy’s threshold. Raphael took my cue and prepared. We were about engage the real battle. The two of us. He ground his jaws and stretched his large lethal claws.
My breath got cut short when I watched two guards dragging Anne and Nicholas through the grounds, just to dump them a couple steps from the Count. They both fell on their knees. Crap. Both had their hands and feet in metal shackles like slaves, but they raised their heads with the pride of their ancestral blood lineage.
“Oh, look what we found. He couldn’t live without y
ou.” Something-Rotten was mocking poor Nicholas.
I inhaled deep and wished Nicholas had stayed home. How did he find me? The golden arrow, I suspected. I glared at the miserable otiose pile of dung standing next to him—the illustrious Count. For a split second, I envisioned Count Roussette in those shackles as I slapped him. Instead, I held my chin as high as possible, measuring my chances to free them. There were none. Worse yet, I couldn’t live with myself if I had to choose between Strzyga royals and the girls or the Sisters at the academy still held against their will.
“Now that you understand the gravity of the situation a little better, Lord Aurous grants you the generous choice between your beloved prince or perhaps even the queen, if you cooperate with him,” Count Something-Evilish said. Crap. Crap. Crap. They thought they had the card game figured out. This was not good.
Nicholas looked at me, not recognizing me behind the ski mask but acknowledging our unique connection. However, seeing Nicholas helpless in chains, just like I had seen Marcum, broke my heart. I took off my ski mask and turned my gaze to invisible Ash.
“Ash, you misguided lowlife son of God with the face of a golden nugget, you killed Mother Clarisse and Gavril. Let everyone go—alive. I promise you I will stay to kick your sorry arse.” I was irrational, and I wanted to say more to him, but I held back my insults (which I had not many left of in my repertoire.) Everyone’s life depended on me. Nicholas’s tortured gaze locked on me.
“Do not speak to Lord Aurous disrespectfully. He is a saint.” Count Something-Ruderary reprehended me like a child. Sure, right. Blithering idiot. An effin saint? Seriously… the math was simple. Ash = Asmodeus = Lord Aurous = evil. The Count equaled a brainwashed moron.
“A saint?” I blurted into hysterical painstaking laughter. “Only complete idiots would believe that holy bullspit.” Crap, I really needed to work on my insults.
“I assure you, Miss Pearson, that such words will bring you a great deal of retributions. Maybe we should ask Our Royal Highness if he is willing to exchange the medallion for your life.” Count Rabelaisian was playing dirty. Nicholas didn’t know where the medallion was nor did he know Ash was never going to let me go. But if the Count wanted the medallion, I suspected they were going to hold onto Nicholas and Anne regardless of my cooperation or not. I still had to negotiate the entire school. The situation was so screwed up.
“I am so sorry,” Nicholas mouthed.
Was he sorry he didn’t know where the medallion was or that he almost had me for dinner or because he got caught? It didn’t matter—not really. He was forgiven from the depths of my heart. I was actually sorry because he had become a target and because he was here to find me. It was all my fault.
“I love you.” But he loved me, making my being soar, even when I felt broken with the loss of Gavril.
Crap. It was the same Gavril who understood that I belonged with the Prince. God, I was going to miss him so much. I felt my eyes water again. I wasn’t expecting to make it through the night. Maybe before long I would join him. If I could just save St. Mary’s, Nicholas, and his mother before that.
“I love you,” he repeated again.
LOVE.
The same thing that Gavril wanted me to have. With all Nicholas’s autocratic and royal corks and derisive laws that he was brought up with, he loved me. No one had ever loved me. Despite the poison that ran in his veins, he loved me. I felt so foolish for not understanding it, for wasting so much time between us. I should be the one apologizing.
Nicholas’s gaze locked with mine. I knew then that even without the golden arrow humming intensely, I had fallen for Nicholas. As hard as it was for me to admit it, I loved him, too, so much that I had to leave him to protect him. I should have known he was going to look for me. I should have known. Crap.
Unexpectedly, the golden shield extended from Nicholas to me, filling me with that brilliant golden luminescence I had distrusted from the beginning. I instantly felt courageous, powerful, and even stronger. I felt loved.
Suddenly, the ground pulsed with hatred. Ash’s hatred. He hated my love for Nicholas. On the other hand, Count Something-Rabbitfish smirked as he read my deepest weakness. Nicholas… He kicked him hard in the ribs with his shoe. Crap. I repressed my scream as I felt his hurt.
“Nicholas, I hope your memory has been refreshed enough, or do you need more motivation?” the Count asked him with his evil scarred smirk, pulling his neck chains. “Where is the medallion?” Crap.
Nicholas raised himself from the floor, not willing to show weakness for his mother’s sake or mine. The guards stepped back a little. Nicholas was impressively huge. He looked down at Count Shitless-Cheat.
“You can kill me, but let them go,” Nicholas pleaded.
I smiled at his gallant gesture. He smiled back at me. His golden light connected once again with mine. The love we felt for each other was never more real, more intense, or truer.
Like a concentric ring, a larger wave of dark energy pulsed toward us. No heat this time. I recognized this evil. The dark force approached at unreal speed. This was the same type of evil that had tried to take over my soul last time I’d lost control of my emotions. I realized I had to rein back my anger and despair, even when losing Gavril was so devastating.
Without hesitating, I moved to shield Raphael. We ended up face to face. I caught him off guard. He and I exchanged glances as we held each other, somewhat confused with my action until we felt a wave of dark energy strike us. It was like having a bitter spoon of flavorless sugar coat our bodies like an icy thick cold sheet.
Gratefully, Nicholas’s golden shield had extended to us, breaking the syrupy evil into a thousand glass-like pieces and then falling off us and burning to ashes on the floor. This love Nicholas and I felt for each other had saved us, even when I was awkwardly protecting Raphael.
This was what Gavril had been babbling about. As long as, Nicholas and I were together, we could be unbeatable… Why couldn’t I have seen this before?
Crap. Ash had known this and had found the one way to keep us apart. The poison that the Count had given Nicholas had turned him into a thirsting vampire. Nicholas had a frown on his face. I let go of Raphael instantly. It must have looked like I was embracing him.
Through the mind of Count Something-Machiavellian, I knew Ash was standing right in front of me, and he was covered in this blur of heat and blackness. I supposed he was very, very angry with me. GOOD. He could join my club. I was very, very angry too.
Crap, I still couldn’t see him or hear him. Not that it was wise to wish it. It would be ill-advised to negotiate everyone’s life at this point in exchange for the medallion. Ash would just kill one by one until I gave him the medallion. Then I recalled the demons incinerating with my touch, but would it be the same for Asmodeus? Following Nicholas’s example, I raised my chin, put my hands over my hips, and took a firm wide stand. I wasn’t going to let him know I was scared or that I had no juice left in my batteries. “Show you are strong when you are weak, and weak when you are strong.” Thank you, Francis and Master Sun-Zi and the art of war.
I stepped forward without losing sight of the blurring dark cloud.
Ash stepped back.
Another step forward.
Perhaps, my only chance was to hold onto Asmodeus while I carried the medallion and hope to have him die or burn into ashes or be gone… I had no idea if this was going to work at all. I didn’t know what that would do, but I was going to die trying. I was fed up with all this pain and hurt. I was going to avenge Mother Clarisse’s and Gavril’s death. He was not going to touch the people I care for ever again.
KAWOOM.
A loud explosion rocked the floor and the air space in all directions. I fell on my knees to protect myself with my hands on the wet ground... Weird, I wasn’t expecting this type of distraction from the werewolves. Perhaps from someone like…
“NO, Ailie, STOP!!” Francis shouted. Francis? Raphael’s brothers accompanied him. I knew then tha
t the explosion had been him and not Raphael’s brothers. Crap, he should not be here at St. Mary’s. He was supposed to be far, far away, a couple thousand miles across the Atlantic Ocean. How in the world would he know how to find me? He had located me thru his mind. Figures… Crap. Crap. Crap.
“FOR GOD’S SAKE. WOULD SOMEONE LET ME DO THIS?” I shouted.
Ailie, the medallion is taking your strength away. Francis directed the information to me through his thoughts.
No wonder I was feeling so exhausted and weak.
It will kill you. That is the way the seven gates of hell open. You must die from crossing each of the seven gates. Each time, the medallion will strip you completely from your powers and your humanity before you die. Lord Aurous will not harm you. If anyone does before or during the process, then the process will never be completed.
I remembered reading something similar regarding the legend of Ishtar. I never understood it or even gave it a second thought but now…
On the way down to the land of no return, Ishtar passed through seven doorways, and each time, the gatekeeper removed the symbols and clothes of her divinity from her. Eventually, Ishtar came face-to-face with Erishkigal, the goddess of death, and collapsed. All sexual activity stopped on earth. Was this the reason the Strzyga race was in extinction?
So that was why the Count and Ash were looking for the medallion. Great. I’d made it so easy for them. They couldn’t get the information out of Émil nor from the queen after almost a year of torture and imprisonment. Nicholas was next. No need to remind myself that Ash was so evil.
Focus, vamp girl. Stop your mind from wondering, Raphael reprehended me from wherever he was. God, he was already worse than his brother. But he was right. I stopped my meandering.
Francis ran to reach me, but Ash intercepted him with a bone-crushing crash against the cross where Gavril had been. He fell on the steps near Gavril’s body.
I glared at Ash, but ran to assist Francis. Sorely, I would fail Francis too. I had failed everyone, and it was all my fault. Crap. I had no energy left to heal him. I felt so demoralized.
Legends of Astræa: Cupid's Arrow Book 1 (Legends of Astræa Series) Page 52