by Lisa Morrow
He stared at her, through eyes glazed with pain. “You’re here.”
She nodded. Then with determination in her eyes, she gripped the sword and pulled it out.
He screamed.
A tear trailed down her face as she gently laid him back.
Her hand touched his chest. A word escaped her lips. “Anaka.”
The battle faded around us. From one blink to the next, we stood next to the portal in Sereus.
Asher and I spun around, but only the four of us were in the dark and quiet forest. Tentatively, I let my shield drop.
Tears ran down Blair’s normally stoic face. “I thought the Goddess of Necessity would save you. Would heal your wound. Not send us here.”
Marcalus gazed at the woman holding him so gently, confusion and pain filling his expression. “But you killed me.”
I took a step back. Asher did the same. It felt as if we invaded a private moment, and yet, it was impossible to look away.
Blair sobbed. “No, my love, but I couldn’t stop the queen. I tried. I promise you.” She leaned over him, her dark hair falling around them like a veil.
His voice wavered as he spoke. “All I remember is the pain of dying. Of looking up, wondering where you were, and seeing your face.” He groaned and shifted on the ground. “You did nothing. You let me die.”
Blair sobbed her explanation, each word wrenching from her like an infected sliver. “The queen discovered my True Name. She kept me from saving you, and from coming to you all these years.”
Her words fell between them.
Hope flickered in Marcalus’ pale blue eyes. He reached out with a trembling hand to stroke the velvety strands of her raven-black hair with an expression of wonder. “So you tried—but then, how—you’re here now?”
She met his gaze, her skin as white as porcelain beneath the soft light of the moon and stars. “I tore away my True Name.”
Asher gasped.
My heart twisted in my chest. I’d heard such a thing was possible. Painful. Deadly. But possible.
It was difficult to speak around the lump in my throat. “Will you still be allowed in the Underworld?”
Blair bit down on her lip, her whole frame shaking. “I waited so long. I tried to find another way.” She took several deep breaths, shaking her head as if it could shake away her pain. “I’ve failed you yet again.”
His eyes widened. “You gave up—your afterlife?”
She nodded, hanging her head.
He reached up, his hand shaking, and caressed her cheek. “We’ll be together—Hadia will give me this.”
She opened tear-filled eyes. They shone like the scales of a fish in the sunlight. “Would you want that?”
Sliding his hands to the back of her hair, he forced her to lean closer to him. “You’re my One. It never made sense. But I couldn’t deny what I saw with my own eyes.” He met her gaze. “If we can’t have life together, we’ll have our afterlife together.”
Years of worry, of fears, drained from her face. An unexpected youth, teamed with an innocent beauty, replaced the harsh face I’d grown to expect. “Then perhaps there’s still hope we’ll be together.”
He smiled, then winched. “I won’t—let you go now that I have you again.”
She bit her lip, more tears falling free. “But not yet. Our son still needs me.”
He jerked. “Our son?”
They both turned to Asher at once.
Puzzle pieces fell into place, and my shock was quickly replaced with wonder.
Asher gripped his sword and shook his head in denial. “No, my mother and father were—”
Blair gave a laugh that was almost a sob. “The woman you know as your mother is my sister, and your father is the man lying here dying. Again. And there is nothing I can do to stop it.” She closed her eyes. “Rose, Asher, come closer. We’re running out of time.”
We moved closer to them, Asher walking as if in a dream.
“Asher, stay with your father. He shouldn’t die alone.” Blair spoke without taking her gaze off Marcalus. “Then, get to safety. I’m going to try one last thing to stop Sazar and his brothers.”
“I don’t understand,” Marcalus said.
Blair smiled and stroked his cheek. “I’m dying, but our son must survive.”
Tears glinted in Marcalus’ eyes. “You really—didn’t betray me?”
She shook her head.
His gaze slid to Asher, amazement giving his skin a soft glow. “And he’s really our son?”
She nodded. Her voice came out clear and strong. “He looks just like you, and I gave him my father’s name.”
Marcalus coughed, more bright red blood stained his lips. “He does look like me. The same hair. The same eyes. Even the same grimace.”
Blair’s tears fell on his face as she nodded again.
Asher knelt down beside them. “You’re really my parents?”
“Yes,” Blair whispered.
He laid his sword on the ground beside his father. “I can’t find you both in one moment, and lose you in the next. There has to be a way to save you!”
My heart throbbed. “Is there really no way?”
Blair’s silver eyes met my own, brimming with tears. “This was all destined to happen. If it hadn’t been, using the Goddess of Necessity’s name would have healed him.” She turned her gaze on Marcalus. “You don’t know what it’s been like. I was supposed to die with you… with my One. Only the queen’s command kept me breathing all these years, but I’ve suffered your death every day of my life.”
Marcalus shuddered. “If only I’d known…”
A heart-wrenching silence swallowed us.
After a moment, Asher spoke. “Maybe Rose can save him. Can’t you?”
I felt tears prickle my eyes. “I can try.”
Blair cried out, grasping her chest.
Asher touched her shoulder. “Maybe she can heal you too?”
Blair closed her eyes. “This was all destined. Rose, can’t you feel it? Tear down your walls. You’ll know what to do.”
Hesitantly, I obeyed. A light came from the forest just behind Asher and his family. I stepped closer and Demetria, The Goddess of Harvest, shimmered into sight. Waves of golden hair cascaded down her shoulders. Her dress was spun from lavender flowers, spilling over her muscular frame.
She pressed a finger to her generous lips, motioning me to remain silent.
I looked to the others, but they seemed not to see her or notice my shock. Instead, they gathered around each other. Love radiated from them, cradling them in its grasp.
When I looked at the goddess again, she stood but a foot in front of me.
I gasped as she reached out, pressing her fingertips to my forehead. Images shot through me. The battle still raged. Protectors and warriors fought, even though they had no hope of winning. Only one person could end this. And it wasn’t Blair or Asher.
This was it. My destiny. My fate. I was meant to stop this battle, even if it cost me my life. The goddesses wanted this war to end, but they wanted me to pay for my mother’s mistakes too. She’d run from her destiny, to end this battle, a long time ago. If she hadn’t, countless lives would’ve been saved. They wanted her daughter to suffer for her selfishness.
Only I could stop all of this.
But I couldn’t save Blair and Marcalus too.
That knowledge burned inside of me, leaving an emptiness rimmed with pain.
I opened my eyes. The goddess and her images were gone.
“I can’t save either of you.” I reached for Asher, but let my hand drop.
His shoulders bowed. “You’re sure?”
A rebellious tear ran down my cheek. “Yes.”
“Not to worry. I expected to die today.” Marcalus stumbled over his words, struggling to speak through his suffering. “But I’ll never be alone again. I have a son. And I know my love didn’t betray. I can finally rest in peace.”
“It’s all right, Asher,” Blair reached ou
t and placed a tentative hand on his cheek. “Just always know I loved you and wanted what was best for you.”
Asher shook his head. “It just can’t end this way.”
Blair smiled, the first real smile I’d ever seen. “I’ll use Perseia, The Goddess of Destruction’s name. It’ll kill me, but it should end this war.” She shuddered, and spidery red lines bled into the whites of her eyes. “Rose will protect Asher, and you’ll both stay with Marcalus until he dies. This is our destiny… how it must end.” Her face was as pale as the moon.
There was no way she had the strength to do what needed being done. But I could.
She was wrong about our destinies. At last, she’d be able to die with the man she loved. Asher would have precious moments with his family, and I’d fulfill The Fates’ decree.
I squared my shoulders, fighting back the urge to cry. “Asher, I do love you.” I met his gaze, which was filled with confusion. “I do.”
“Rose—”
But I couldn’t let him finish, or I might lose my nerve altogether. “Enjoy these last moments with your family. Tarak will never have peace… I’ll never have peace, if I don’t do as The Fates asked of me.”
“I don’t understand,” he said, frowning.
“Just remember that I love you.” Closing my eyes, I formed the picture in my mind. “Anaka.”
Heat blasted over my skin.
Asher screamed my name.
When I opened my eyes, all three of them were gone. As was the quiet forest. I was back on the battlefield, leaving Asher and his family safely by the portal.
On one side of me, Sazar and his brothers stood watching me, hunger in their eyes.
On the other side, my army was no more. Instead, red-eyed Protectors, creatures, and the towering Norma and Ugar stood still. Waiting for the commands of their new masters.
Prickling spread across my skin.
I cried out the Goddess of Protection’s name and a red shield came around me. The prickling stopped, but I rubbed my arms. Sazar and his brothers had been trying to enslave me too.
“What now?” Sazar asked, amusement lacing the question.
Turning to Sazar, a man stood in the place of the crippled Blood Wizard. He had dark hair and black eyes, but he was no long hunched over and deformed.
Such a transformation must’ve required a massive amount of magic… likely drained from my people. In fact, he practically brimmed with power. I sensed a chill from him, like a door being left open on a freezing winter’s night.
Terror fought to be acknowledged within me, but I forced it down. I couldn’t think about what I needed to do, or how weak I was compared to these Blood Wizards. I just needed to do it.
I gathered my magic, more tightly than I’d ever done before. Heat blasted away all chill. A smell like burning leaves in autumn drifted to me. This was it.
Every muscle in my body tensed painfully. “Perseia.” The name pulled from my throat, searing my insides as it left.
Excruciating pain.
The taste of ash.
Prayers for death, rolled into sobs that couldn’t escape.
Then, nothing. A pleasant numbness. A knowledge I was nothing more than The Fates’ tool.
Destruction in black and gray and red swept around me in a storm of chaos. My magic ebbed, but I knew I wasn’t done. I reached out for the other Protectors, who answered my call, feeding their own magic through me.
As promised, I would not take magic from the flowers, but instead, risked calling on my fellow Protector’s to add their strength to mine. The price of such a demand meant nothing, not in that moment. Consequences were for those with futures.
Time slowed down. Trees ripped from the ground, flew around me, and disintegrated in the whirlwind of destruction. In my mind, I tried to protect my army, but I had no way of knowing if such a powerful goddess’s name could be bent to my will.
One of Sazar’s brothers stepped through the storm. He reached for me, anger twisting his face, but like grains of sand he too was swept away. The earth groaned beneath my feet. Above me, the stars and moon were no more than swirling lights.
Still more Protectors lent me their magic. It curled through me, like a foreign invasion. Goose bumps raced along my flesh. Something inside of me protested, but I pushed away the warning. There was no other choice.
My skin dissolved. My body became weightless. Still the destruction grew.
Magic drained away, but somewhere I sensed Sazar breathing. Watching. Waiting.
Blair’s magic, something as recognizable as the sound of her voice, curled around me. Sazar stopped breathing.
But so did I.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I awoke in Asher’s strong arms.
The smell of soot and smoke filled the air, creating a haze around us. Beneath me, the earth held an unnatural warmth.
I coughed.
He tilted my head up. “Thank the goddesses, you’re alive.” His voice cracked as he spoke the last word. “Where does it hurt?”
“Everywhere,” I whispered.
My head spun. Mind-numbing pain awoke in my body. I wept, closing my eyes and curling around my belly, as if I could stop my suffering.
But this pain burned on the inside, somewhere I couldn’t reach. My magic was nearly gone, and the explosion of it had left every nerve in me sizzling, too acutely to bear.
His hand touched my forehead. The pain receded.
“My life force?” the question escaped my cracked lips.
It took him a long minute to answer. “No, mine.”
My body lurched as he rose, holding me to his chest.
The pain was still there, somewhere blazing in my belly, but now I could handle it. If I didn’t move.
I took an unsteady breath. “What happened?”
Each of his steps through the destruction jarred my body. “You destroyed them, and with their deaths, their hold over our army.”
My head dropped to the side. We passed body after body of Protectors and warriors lying at strange angles, all while I lay helpless in Asher’s arms. All the trees were gone. The earth everywhere left scorched and uneven.
“Dead?” Tears leaked from my eyes.
“The wizards killed a lot of them… most of them survived your magic. But they’re hurt. And it’ll take awhile for them to awaken.”
I closed my eyes. “Sleep.”
But he didn’t slow at my request. “After you abandoned us at Sereus’s portal, Blair went back to help you.”
His tone held an accusation, but I didn’t regret leaving him behind. He’d been safe, where he’d belonged. This was my battle, and I knew now that I shouldn’t have dragged him into it.
If only I’d been willing to consider, even for a moment, that The Fates had been clear in their words. Asher had never been the answer to this war. My own fears at my limitations had blinded me to that.
“I felt your mother’s magic,” I mumbled. “I think she saved me.”
His tone was even, but his face held an unspoken suffering. “She gave you the last of her magic.”
Very slowly, I dropped my walls and reached for him. His walls were firmly in place, but still, I could sense a great loneliness, raw within him.
“Is she…?”
As if in answer to my question, he brought me to edge of the battlefield. Marcalus and Blair lay next to each other, her head cradled in the crook of his arm. For a second I thought they were dead, but their eyes fluttered open at our approach.
“You—did—it.” Blair’s eyes glazed over, her head rolling to one side. “I’m proud.”
Asher knelt down in front of them. His entire body shook. “You did it too. The battle is over. We’ve won.” He swallowed, hard. “You can rest now.”
Marcalus smiled, showing teeth covered in blood. “I’ve got a son.” The smile slowly faded from his lips. “Make us proud.”
“I’m sorry, Asher,” Blair whispered, only her lips moved. Her eyes stared without seeing. “I
wasn’t there for you… but I always loved you.”
The rise and fall of their chests slowed, then stopped at the same time. A stillness came over them. Within seconds, their bodies vanished.
I looked to Asher.
His head bowed over. His eyes squeezed shut.
My heart ached for him. I reached through our connection, striving to comfort the man I loved. He wouldn’t let me in, but his suffering swept through him in waves. Regret. Sadness. Anger.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
Tremors racked his body. “I can’t… I can’t do this now.”
I nodded, and the movement sent waves of pain through my body. A cry escaped my lips, and Asher’s hold around me gentled.
“At least you killed the monster who did this to them.” Steel etched his words.
“And they can finally have peace,” I whispered.
All I hoped is that in the days to come he didn’t think of the queen’s role in all of this. A darkness uncurled inside of me. She’d have to be dealt with. If not because of what she’d done to Blair and Marcalus, then because of what she’d taken from my One. And if I could, I’d spare Asher the misery that came with revenge.
“There’s no time to morn them.” Asher spoke through a voice edged with tears, before standing, still cradling me in his arms. “Blair says—we need to run.”
It took me several deep breaths before I could speak, concealing all anger from my question. “Why?”
“She proclaimed before the queen and her council that you’d be the next Head Protector, that your powers would be greater even than her own, and that you would make a good leader.” Tension radiated from him as he spoke.
Resentment grew within me. Why had Blair done this to me? She’d known I didn’t want this life.
A picture of her dying face came to my mind, and my resentment fled. This wasn’t in my plans, but I couldn’t believe she’d done this to me just to be cruel. Even if it complicated my future.
All that should matter now was keeping Asher safe. Proving to him I could be trusted. Learning if he could love me for what I was. I didn’t have to change that, not because of some declaration Blair had made.
“I don’t want to be a leader.” I watched his expression, although it didn’t change. “I want to be done with The Protectors.”