The Heart of Arima.

by Emma V. Leech

  By now the stench of smoke and magic, and blood and sweat was overpowering. I coughed, my throat raw, wiping my streaming eyes, stinging from the smoke that curled around me. My skin burned as the magic rushed through my veins, adrenalin pushing my heart to its limits as my own blood roared in my ears, deafening me to any sound the creature was making. Dimitri was back on his feet, though the wounds on his legs were bloody and raw, visible even through the haze of fire that surrounded his body.

  The beast’s movements were more erratic now and I leapt sideways as the great serpent swung down at me, before turning and striking out at Cyd. She was holding onto a third rope as Rodney tied off the other end. I heard her scream as the head bore down on her. She moved, darting away in time but releasing the rope. The other two ropes strained under the force of the thrashing tail and both she and Rodney scrambled to get hold of the loose end and tie it down, before the others failed. I glanced back at the wound on the creature’s torso. It was deep now, the blood pouring down its sides and covering the ground around it with the slick, oily looking fluid.

  It had to be weakening, didn't it?

  I didn’t think it was possible for my heart to pound any harder but when I saw Corvus step out in front of the beast, I knew I was wrong. He was going to try and hold it in his thrall, to give Cain the time to finish the job. We had no idea if a vampire could control a beast like this, and if he could, for how long. It all depended on this. On top of the ravine we stopped the fire attack. We didn’t want her distracted now. She had to be focused solely on Corvus so he could hold her immobile. With her blind eyes he would struggle to keep a hold of her mind and I willed Cain to move faster, watching as he used the scales to climb the great monster's body.

  I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t help, could do nothing but pray to whatever gods might be on our side that this would work. Please, please work. I saw the moment when Cain reached her breast, saw him take hold of the jewelled dagger at his hip, just as Corvus lost his hold on her mind. The great head snapped back and Corvus leapt away, Cain clinging onto the scales with one hand whilst the other plunged down, burying the dagger in her chest, up to the hilt. There was a roar and Cain was thrown down, as the snake bucked and flailed. I watched, helpless, as my brother’s body was smashed against the rocks. The restraints holding the tail snapped and it coiled in on itself, thrashing and writhing. Corvus snatched up Cain’s body and Cyd and Rodney withdrew with him, rushing to the cover of the cave as the massive serpent smashed everything around it in its death throes.

  Finally, it stilled, the tail twitching gently as life ebbed away, and I sank to my knees, exhaustion and fear finally getting the better of me. We had done it, but at what price? I crawled to the edge of the cliff, looking down over the edge.

  “Corvus!”

  I saw Corvus, Cyd and Rodney emerge from the cave, but not Cain. Suddenly Corvus was beside me and I grabbed hold of him, as he clung to me. “We’re OK, Jéhenne, we’re OK.”

  “Cain?” I cried and sobbed with relief as I saw him smile.

  “It will take more than an Ekhidna to end your brother I’m afraid, my heart. He has a nasty headache which is going to make him more pleasant than ever, but he is very much alive.

  “Oh, thank God.” I buried my face in his shirt. He was filthy, covered in the monster’s black blood and dirt, and I didn’t care, not even a little bit. “Is it really dead?”

  “Yes.”

  I heard a groan from behind me and suddenly remembered. “Dimitri! He’s hurt.”

  Corvus pulled me to my feet and we ran to him. Inés was already there, the first aid kit open beside her. She was pouring a clear liquid on the wounds, and it hissed and sent up a foul smelling blue smoke as it hit the demon’s skin. He roared in pain and Inés rolled her eyes. “Merde, don’t be such a baby, I thought you were a big tough fire demon.”

  Dimitri bristled and glared at her. “I like to see you with Ekhidna venom on skin and not shout a bit!”

  “Oui, a bit maybe but not howling like a baby.” She put the bottle away and began to slap on a thick pink cream. He howled again and Inés snorted and began to take the piss once more. In truth, I knew she was winding him up to try and distract him from what she was doing. Making him angry was better than him focusing on the pain. I just hoped she got the chance to explain that before he tried to kill her. She looked up at me with a grin, her eyes still glittering with excitement. “Alors we did it, Nina!” I smiled back at her and nodded. I wished I could feel so triumphant but incredibly, I had bigger things to worry about than the Ekhidna. As Dimitri seemed to be in good, if unsympathetic hands I asked Corvus to take me to Cain.

  I clung to him, eyes closed as he leapt back into the ravine and we arrived to find my brother up to his arms in the snake’s belly. He had removed the knife of Belial from its chest and used it to slit open the body, and was now focused on cutting through the intestines. I retched and turned away as the revolting smell hit me. Cain turned and looked at me with equal disgust, green eyes flashing.

  “Man up, Jéhenne.” He snorted. That sympathetic nature was obviously a family trait. He was covered in blood, both his own and the snakes’ plus the gore and mess from its insides. Along with his scars and tattoos it really was no surprise to me that he had such a terrifying reputation. He looked far more of a demon than Dimitri ever would.

  I looked at Corvus and smiled to see he had his arm flung over his nose. If this smelt bad to me it must have been a thousand times more appalling to his superior senses. “Shall we wait over there?” I suggested, gesturing to where Rodney and Cyd were sitting in the mouth of the cave. He nodded and we quickly moved away and left Cain to his butchering.

  Rodney and Cyd leapt to their feet as we got closer, grinning and rushing to hug us, clapping us on the back and exchanging congratulations. I went through the motions but just couldn’t celebrate. This just brought me closer to the inevitable and I wondered if Corvus had begun to accept that fact too as he seemed very subdued. I was saved from any further pretense at enjoyment of our victory by a flash of light. We turned, squinting towards the snake’s corpse to see Cain with his arm covering his eyes, flinging a large square of material down. The light disappeared and he wrapped whatever the source of it was in the cloth, before holding it up to show us.

  He grinned, wiping blood from his face with an equally bloody hand. “Got it!”

  Chapter 51

  We washed beside the waterfall. Much of our clothing was beyond saving so we ditched it and wore what was left stashed in the bags. At least it made the baggage lighter. I watched as Corvus dived into the water. I didn’t dare follow him as the current was far too strong for me and I wasn’t much of a swimmer. He resurfaced and the water sluiced over him, dripping from his hair and I felt my breath catch in my throat. I didn’t think I would ever get used to it, become accustomed to knowing he was mine, before the unwelcome realisation hit that I would never get the chance. The minutes were rushing past me now, like the sands of time were slipping between my fingers, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t catch them. I watched him, memorising every detail, every play of light on the water, on his skin. He caught me looking at him and stopped, and there was such a world of pain in his eyes that I felt my heart stutter. It was at that moment that I knew, I knew that he was well aware of what was coming, that I would have to leave.

  He got out of the water and dried himself off, dressing quietly, and I never took my eyes off of him. I could hear the others chatting, laughing, much of the tension gone now that the Ekhidna was dead. They thought the worst of it was over I guessed. I glanced up to see Cain watching us and for the first time I could remember I thought he looked sad but then he had to have figured it out too, had to know I would leave ... because there was no other choice.

  Everyone was ready to go, bags packed and the heart safely stowed with Cain. Corvus was sitting on a rock, waiting for everyone, and I closed the little distance between us on my knees. He opened his legs t
o let me closer and I put my arms around him, hugging him tight and laying my head against his silent chest.

  “Time to go.”

  He didn’t reply but I felt him nod.

  “Come on then, lazy bones, on your feet. Let’s go home.” I looked up at him and found he wouldn’t meet my gaze and suddenly,I felt very afraid. “Come on, Corvus, let’s go.”

  “I ... I can’t come with you, Jéhenne.”

  A tiny sharp pain began to bloom, like a shard of ice growing in my heart but I ignored it, pushed the feeling down, hard. “What are you on about? You’re not staying here! We’ve got a comfy bed to go home to ... And--and we can stop at the cottage on the way home, though I’m not sure Rodney’s belt can stand the strain. If he eats anymore ...” I rambled on desperately, trying to ignore the look in his eyes and that tiny piece of ice that was growing so fast that I felt the cold seeping into my blood. I grasped hold of his arms.

  “Corvus?”

  “I’m so sorry, my heart.”

  “Why, what are you doing ... Just don’t. Don’t, OK?”

  He took my face between his big hands, smoothing the hair away and I looked up into those blue eyes that had been watching and waiting for me for centuries. “There is no other way, I have tried and tried to think of how this can end, but you were right. I cannot fight a god and I cannot let him have you, Jéhenne. I won’t.”

  I felt a sob escape my mouth. “No. Whatever it is, no ... I will go to him. There is no other choice I know but I will find a way back to you, I always do Corvus, you know I always do.”

  “And what do you think it would do to me, knowing that you were with him, at his mercy for the centuries to come, and that there was nothing I could do about it? Do you really think I could live with that, my heart?”

  “Yes!” I shouted, pounding at his shoulders with my fists. “Yes! You can live with it and you can wait for me. I need you to do it Corvus. You have to! I have to know you are waiting or I won’t survive.”

  To my horror he shook his head.

  “Forgive me.”

  Suddenly I was caught in his eyes and I couldn’t move. He got to his knees beside me and I felt his teeth, swift and sharp, pierce the skin at my neck as he drank from me, just a little, before his tongue caressed the tiny wounds to seal them. He planted a soft kiss over the marks that would already be fading, before raising his own wrist and using his teeth open a vein. I heard words fall from his mouth, ancient words that raised the hair on the back of my neck and sent fear coursing through me. My blood seemed to burn, leaping under my skin like it was trying to escape its confines.

  Somewhere in the midst of the fear and confusion, I could hear Cyd screaming but I couldn’t turn my head, could only focus on him, on his eyes and the terrible power his words were bringing down on me. The weight of it hovered, pressing against my skin like it would obliterate me while my blood boiled and seared beneath my flesh, desperate to touch the power on offer. I wanted to scream, to run, anything to get away from the force threatening to crush me, grind my bones to nothing and let them blow away, like gold dust. The words stopped, and he held his wrist to my mouth. “Drink, Jéhenne.” It was a command and I was powerless to resist, and so I drank. Cyd screamed and screamed and my blood seethed in my veins. His hold on me broke and I pulled my head away, gagging and retching.

  “What did you do ...? What did you do?” I screamed. Cyd had stopped now and was just sobbing. I could hear her crying like a child along with Dimitri who was murmuring to her through his tears, a soft stream of Romanian. I had no idea what he was saying, he was trying to bring her comfort, but she knew as well as I did, there would never be comfort enough to soften this.

  Corvus collapsed against the rock, he was shaking and I knew ... I knew what he’d done to me. I crawled to him, weeping and shaking my head. “Take it back. Take it back, take it back!” I screamed at him and he caught me in his arms. I threw them off easily and then cried again at the shock on his face. “No.”

  “Jéhenne, you are a powerful witch in your own right, the most powerful any of us have ever seen. You hold the key to Erebus, and now ... And now you will be Master too. You can stand against him now, my heart. Protect yourself and my family, our family.”

  I shook my head, tears streaming down my face, my throat too tight with pain to find any words, even if there had been any.

  “Yes.” He took my chin in his hands and forced me to look at him. “You will live, my heart, you will live and you will make my family greater than ever, do you hear me? You will do this last thing that I ask of you and make me proud. Do it for me, Jéhenne.”

  “Only if you come with me. I can’t do it without you, Corvus, I need you ... You have to come back with me.”

  He shook his head as I knew he would, and I thought the pain would burst my heart.

  “You will not have the power I have passed to you, cannot be Master until ... Until the old Master is dead.”

  I screamed and wailed and hit him, pleading and sobbing, one moment begging him not to do it and the next ranting and raging at him, fury consuming me at his actions. He was leaving me. He was leaving me! Finally he called Cain over and he commanded me to be still but unlike before the command was weaker. I could almost feel the edges of it, like I could peel it away ...and I fought against it, struggling to get away. I could feel the effort he was expending to keep it in place, to keep me still, but I fought harder, trying to get free. Cain held me, restraining my arms and talking to me quietly. “Hush, Nina, hush now,” he said, and with such tenderness that I wanted to kill him. I didn’t think I had ever hated anyone as much as I hated Cain in that moment, as I realised that he had known. For the whole of this journey, he had known what was coming.

  I watched as he, my love, my man, said goodbye to everyone. Inés was first, and to my surprise she drew him into an embrace, and cried for him. “I was wrong about you, and I’m sorry, so sorry for everything. I wish this wasn’t happening but I thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for saving her. You are a good man.”

  He squeezed her hands with a smile. “It will take a little time for the power to take her, Inés, can you ward the Chateau, keep him at bay until she is strong enough?”

  She nodded and glanced at Cain. “Yes. I will bring my sister and with Cain too we will hold him off until she is ready.”

  I could see the relief on his face as this worry was lifted from him, and he passed to Dimitri who was sobbing and sobbing, unable to speak. Corvus hugged him and slapped him on the back, saying some words in Romanian that Dimitri could only nod to, and he sobbed harder.

  Rodney was next, tears streaming down his face. “There’s got to be somethin’ else. Please, Corvus, you’ll break ‘er heart.” Corvus shook his head and I could see now that he was crying too.

  “Then you must be strong for her, Rodney. I know I can rely on you to be there for her, always, she is going to need you more than ever. You will take care of her?”

  Rodney sobbed and hugged him tightly. “Course I will. Bleedin’ stupid question that, aint it?”

  Corvus laughed and hugged him back before turning to Cyd. She was sitting on the floor, arms wrapped around her knees, not looking at him, just rocking back and forth, crying silently. He picked her up like a child and carried her to the rock, sitting with her on his lap. He held her for a little while, stroking her hair while she cried for him. Eventually he got up and went back to Rodney, passing her into his arms. She cried then, hanging onto his neck, refusing to let him go, until Dimitri came and prised her arms away.

  And then it was my turn.

  He walked over to me, while my brother still held me by the arms, and kissed my forehead, so gently. “Another eternity would not have been long enough, my heart.” He released his hold on me and I collapsed against him. We clung to each other, both of us sobbing, holding each other so tight there would be bruises. “Please, Corvus, please,” I wept, the words so useless against his determination to save me. “For God’s
sake, why do you have to be so bloody noble?” I screamed in frustration and he laughed.

  “You think I’m being brave, Jéhenne, is that it?” he said, with a crooked smile. “I’m not, I promise you. I would rather face my fate here than an eternity without you, knowing you were with him. I would choose the sun soon enough, and then I would have the same ending. It really makes no difference.”

  “We can fight him together!”

  “You know that isn’t true.”

  He kissed me, a desperate kiss, like he would crawl inside my skin and stay there forever, and I returned it.

  “I will come too then - if you choose the underworld, then so do I.”

  “No. You will not. If you come here, he will have power over you. You will return. My family is vulnerable without their Master, you must go to them.”

  “I won’t leave you ... I won’t let you go!”

  “You must.”

  I dried my eyes and stood straight, staring into his eyes. “I will never let you go. I swore once that I would come back to you, Corvus, I meant it then and I mean it now. I will always find my way back to you.”

  He gripped my arms and leaned his head against mine. “You don’t understand, my heart, there is no way to come back this time. You will not come for me because it is not possible.”

  He looked up and spoke to Cyd and Rodney. “You will obey these, my last commands as Master. Once ... Once I am gone you will get her out of here as quickly as you can. Cain will call the gateway, he is gatekeeper now in my stead and you must get through it with all haste before Dis Pater discovers what has been done here. You will not, will not, help her return for me. I have left instructions for Lucas, and Cain will explain exactly what it means when you have returned but know this- there will be nothing left to save. I will be lost to you and I forbid you to help Jéhenne in any way if she speaks of such madness.”