Iron Inheritance

by G. R. Fillinger

  “I almost thought you wouldn’t make it, darling.” Procel’s voice dripped venomous molasses as he stepped out of the air and hovered above the ground.

  Nate stepped in front of me and squared his shoulders. I could still see over him.

  “Oh, is this your champion, Evelyn? I’d have thought you were the type of woman to fight your own battles.”

  “Good thing it’s my battle, then,” Nate said, unfurling his whip again, his whole body greener than I’d ever seen it.

  Procel smiled and cocked his head to the side. “Oh, I see you now, little brother. You’re her Guardian. How sweet.” His lips stretched tight and began to bleed.

  Nate shook his head and chuckled. “I’ve never understood why everyone always leaves off the second word of my title.”

  A gust of hot wind pushed me off my feet. When my back hit the ground, a flash of green light lit the air on fire. I shielded my eyes until I saw Nate hovering in the air. Translucent green wings spread out from his back, flapping up and down. Green essence evaporated off him in swirling waves, and his face strained like he was lifting weights.

  Oxygen deserted me.

  Procel grinned with wide, yellow eyes, black essence dripping off his pale skin with ease. He unfurled shadowed wings far larger and more menacing than Nate’s. “I don’t think I remember you, little one.”

  “Don’t worry, you will.” Nate cracked his whip and soared into the cloud.

  Procel smiled down at me. “Be back in a moment, pet.”

  “No!” I pushed myself up, leaping toward them. I jumped thirty feet up, but it wasn’t high enough. My heels cracked the hard dirt as I landed on the other side of the mountain, the steep slope making me slide even farther from my goal.

  I craned my neck to try and see them. Green and dark black streaked through the cloud for milliseconds at a time, then disappeared.

  “He’s going to get himself killed!” I spat and started for the top again.

  The moment I stepped forward though, the spinning black cloud above erupted downward, and I was pushed off my feet again. Thousands of bolts of black lightning rained down on the mountain top, the charred trees perfect conductors because they didn’t burn anymore…somehow. With each passing second, the charcoal branches and electricity formed something fluid and alive that stuck to the trees like leaves. Giant, gelatinous leaves.

  I clambered to my feet and sprinted toward them. The closer I got, the more I saw. The leaves were more like black inkblots with stinging jellyfish tentacles. They had no up or down, but every arm that dripped out seared the bark with a hiss.

  And they followed me. Every time I changed direction to find a way through their barrier, so did they. Every time I tried to enter the grove, the inkblots leapt from trunk to trunk and merged together in an instant electric web of darkness, bright purple sparks surging from one gooey black tentacle to the next.

  A flash of green surged through the sky, and Nate screamed in pain.

  Raw power shot through my arms and legs. “Get out of my way!” I yelled, trying for a burst of speed to the left where the fence didn’t exist yet. They kept pace perfectly, rolling from tree to tree, never missing a link between each other.

  Several more people screamed somewhere behind me, and the familiar screech of the dragon-bird I’d met earlier echoed through the air.

  I gritted my teeth. This had to end now!

  I pivoted on the ball of my foot and launched my body against the living fence, gooey tentacles sticking to every bit of bare skin, tiny bursts of purple light sapping power out of me until my eyelids drooped and I fell sideways through the barrier. I yelled and clawed at the undersides of my arms and the backs of my legs to get them off, to stop them from leeching my life away.

  They squished between my fingers but let go at the lightest touch, falling to the dirt and evaporating into a black fog that slowly floated upward.

  I blinked and tried to focus. My sight was back—all of it. Greens and blues and browns and pinks. But it wasn’t just the earth anymore—there were more people coming up the mountain.

  “Come on, just a little closer, puppy,” Ria’s voice said sweetly just twenty yards away.

  My stomach jumped into my throat, and I bounded toward her.

  She backed away from a giant wolf with an elongated snout and bloody fur. It snarled, and drool fell through the spaces between its pointed teeth.

  “Little closer,” Ria cooed, her hand behind her back.

  “Ria!” I screamed as the wolf snarled and opened its jaws wide.

  The wolf turned toward me, and quicker than I’d ever seen her move, Ria pulled out a silver knife and stabbed the wolf’s chest. It let out one last death growl and fragmented into a thousand wings that flew back into the sky.

  “Another one bites the knife.” Ria grinned, bright seafoam green essence like a shield around her skin and mixing with the dark green protection of her leather armor.

  “Ria, what’re you?” I panted, anger rising against the relief. “You could have died!”

  “Big guy’s lookin’ out for me.” She grinned and winked at the sky, sheathing her knife behind her back. “Pretty cool, right? Miranda found me an extra set of armor. I already had the knife.” She smiled. “Where’s Nate?”

  I shook my head. How could she think this was fun? How could she—

  “Watch out!” I screamed and shoved her shoulders as a giant wad of dark essence landed at our feet, scorching the earth under it.

  “Sriracha!” Ria screamed.

  “Get under the tree!” I grabbed her and threw her next to a tree trunk before she could protest. Two more globs of essence rained down from the sky and hit my armor, sliding off like water.

  “Where’s Na—” She looked up, her voice caught in her throat before she could finish.

  Procel and Nate circled each other in the sky, Procel smiling wide and throwing blobs of dark goo at Nate. At every last second, Nate slashed through them with his whip, barely able to keep up.

  I looked back at Ria and then down at the exposed skin between the armor plates, still tinged black. I could take it, but if she got hit with one of those…

  “Here.” I stripped off my armor, first my arm guards then the chest and back pieces, breaking the straps in the process. “Put this over you.”

  “What about you?” she shook her head, barely prying her eyes from Nate.

  I stepped to the side and kicked down the two nearest trees. They snapped in half like twigs and I leaned them against Ria’s tree to make a shelter.

  “Stay under here. If these globs things hit you…just stay here.”

  Ria called out to me, but before she could move, I crouched down and jumped up into the air again, Procel almost within reach. He jerked his foot up at the last second and smiled, a drop of the dark goop in his hand falling onto my neck and refusing to let go. I thudded to the ground and somersaulted forward, breathing hard.

  The glittering silver stream was right in front of me again, perfectly visible. It wound its way across the grove to an oak tree with a knot-hole in the middle, no more than ten feet away—the only tree in the grove that still had brown bark and green leaves.

  I tilted my head as I reached out my hand, the silver not retreating anymore. Where had I seen this before?

  The world was black and white and silent. People ran in all directions. The inky black perimeter had been breached by Patrons and demons alike. Duke and Josh took on four at a time. The Tercets moved with mechanical and deadly precision. Miranda and Freddy ran toward Ria.

  The tree glittered silver in the center, the knot-hole lit up and thumping like my heart.

  The sky opened with small rays of blue sky, and Procel laughed.

  Nate was bleeding on the ground.

  Procel held an axe and swung at Nate like a golfer. He soared headfirst through the air, his mouth bloody and hanging open.

  My hand slid through the coolness of the tree, and my fingers clasped something metalli
c and heavy. A surge of power shot through my arm, and I aimed it at Procel. He flew back and was still.

  Sound came back at full volume, and I snapped my eyes open.

  Ria screamed at me, only five feet away, tears rolling down her cheeks. I followed her line of sight and saw Nate at Procel’s feet, blood oozing from the corner of his mouth.

  Grunts from Duke, Josh, and the Tercets collided in the distance, their spiritual weapons whirls of light as a hoard of demons came for them. Freddy’s heavy footfalls pounded toward Ria like his life depended on it, Miranda close behind.

  I turned away from Nate and ran for the oak tree, the vision still fresh in my mind. This was going to work.

  A small part of me screamed to just save him now, but I pushed it down.

  This-is-going-to-work!

  I shoved my hand into the knot-hole, and my fingers closed around a solid, metal rod inside the tree. I pulled it out and raised it at Procel ten yards away.

  A bolt of blue lightning shot out of the pointed tip and knocked Procel off his feet.

  I ran for him, jumping over Nate, who was now safe. I raised the rod over my head, Procel in my sights. This was my chance. This was it.

  I slammed the rod into his chest like a sledge hammer and sent his body six inches into the ground. I smashed it into his face, and his skin cracked like ceramic, the scars in the area instantly fading as he healed until I pummeled him again.

  He gasped for breath, and I brought the sharp tip of the rod—more of a thick needle—to his throat.

  He smiled. “Finally, darling. I thought I’d have to kill them all before you found it.”

  “Eve?” Nate limped up behind us.

  In less than a blink, Procel slid out from under me, conjured an axe in his hand, and swung it at Nate.

  I stretched out my hands and screamed until the earth threatened to shatter and swallow everything whole.

  The axe smashed into Nate’s chin and lifted him off the ground with a spurt of blood. He soared up head first with a slackened jaw, his eyes opening at the top of the arc, wind rushing past his red hair, his body suddenly rigid with paralyzed consciousness, unable to do anything, as it dove straight into hell.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  I screamed past pain, past the jagged scratches of my voice on the inside of my throat, past all the air inside of me squeezing out. It was all sucked down with Nate.

  I lunged with the metal rod. Procel dodged it and sauntered to the middle of the clearing with his hands spread out for cheers, a nonchalant smile stretched across his cracked face, slowly healing as the seconds ticked by.

  The hell mouth was twenty feet to his left, and a small vapor of dust skidded along the ground toward the hole, pushing Nate farther and farther down. I glanced at movement on either side of him. Josh and Duke were standing, though Duke walked with a limp and a swelling left eye. Josh didn’t look at me but kept his eyes fixed on Procel. The Tercets lay on the ground, unmoving. The makeshift shelter where I’d left Ria was split and smoldering. My eyes darted over the debris looking for a hand, a foot, anything.

  “No.” I shook my head. I couldn’t swallow. Every breath was smoke and flames that burned my rib cage black. The emptiness latched on to one desire that pulsed from my temple, down my arm, and into the cool iron that already felt like an extension of me.

  “Yes, feels good, doesn’t it?” Procel smiled at me again. “Finally!” He laughed, throwing his arms wide. “Do you know how long I’ve waited for this? That artifact in your hand—feel the engravings under your fingertips, feel its pulse amplifying everything you are.”

  My hand squeezed defiantly, not to listen to him but to beat him senseless with the object of his fascination. It did have a pulse—or at least something that mirrored mine. I held it up and really looked at it for the first time. It was a scepter like a king or queen would have. The sphere at the top was made of slender, individual strands of serrated iron that separated, twirled, and tucked in on themselves. Near the sphere, the metal was pewter gray but quickly tapered down to a polished, thin, silver javelin at the bottom. Engravings covered every inch, progressively smaller and more complex as they flourished to the single sharp point.

  “This is what you wanted all along,” I said in a monotone, my eyes as dead as my soul, as Nate, as Ria. “You never meant for me to join you.”

  “Oh no,” he said genuinely, dripping politeness. “You will join me, darling, now that you have found it. Only a true Blood Nephilim—pure—” he added with an afterthought “—could find that artifact, one of the five keys to creation. That’s why I needed you. That’s why I still need you.”

  My muscles agreed with silent twitches to kill him, to make him pay. With one single, well-placed strike from the scepter—one end a razor sharp orb, the other a needle—I knew I’d be able to do it. This might have been a key to creation, but today it would destroy. Fallen or not, he wouldn’t survive.

  I curled my lips into a snarl. “You won’t control me. I’ll never find them for you.”

  His eyes lit up, the scars on his bare, gray chest straining as he stretched. Every inch of his skin was covered with scars, each one of them giving him power. “Ah, so you know about the blood artifacts, or at least you think you know.” He grinned. “I’ll bet someone already took a shot at interpreting everything for you. Typical Patrons, always jumping to conclusions about prophecies they barely understand.”

  I tightened my grip on the scepter. How did he know about Meg’s vision? Had he sent it just like Kovac had? And how else could the words be interpreted?

  I looked down at the staff. It was iron, cold and firm in my hand. Maybe this was the iron that was doing the bridging, the waking, the joining, and the calling. Not the meteor like we’d thought.

  Procel stopped pacing and stared at me. “Don’t hurt yourself now.” He smiled. “For now, just feel the power inside you. The scepter will channel it, help you to gain the other talents that have been repressed for so long.”

  “Stop talking.” I shook my head. It was just more lies. Everything he said was a lie.

  “I knew you’d need some coaxing, my dear. Why do you think I wanted you to kill Kovac? Why do you think I helped him perfect that sticky black essence that’s on your skin right now?”

  “Don’t listen to him, Eve!” Josh yelled. He’d been creeping closer and closer to Procel with his hands clenched into fists.

  Procel didn’t pay him any attention, but kept his wide, joyous eyes on me. “You see, darkness compels humans to dig deeper into their essence than anything else—it helps them become who they truly are. If you had killed Kovac, you would have finally seen what true power means.” His yellow eyes glinted in the subtle darkness that kept the sunrise from reaching us.

  I clenched my jaw and ripped some of the black tar from my skin.

  “Uncomfortable?” He tsked affectionately, advancing like he was going to help me.

  I stepped to the left, closer to the hell mouth.

  He stopped. “Only you can see the artifacts’ essence, and you can only see it when your true power is accessed. I had to find a way to trick your spirit into the darkness.” He paused and gestured to the scepter. “And it worked, obviously. Not for the long term, but we’ll get there.”

  I shook my head, the coolness of the dark essence still seeping into my skin.

  He chuckled lightly. “You can't control it forever, Eve. Sooner or later, your powers will be too much for you—the way they were for every other Blood Nephilim—and when that day comes, I'll be waiting to point you in the right direction.”

  “Stop talking!” Josh yelled, this time running straight at Procel like he was going to tackle him.

  Lightning flashed before a cry could escape my throat. Josh froze in mid-air and flew back in a sizzling explosion, his back snapping as it hit a boulder. He didn’t move again.

  Duke ran at Procel in the next moment—no scream, not even the sound of his feet padding the ground, his golden
spear gripped with both hands—but Procel turned at the last second and threw his axe out like a boomerang. It spun and sliced through his leg. Duke screamed and fell to the ground, his right leg severed at the knee.

  The axe appeared back in Procel’s hand, and Duke passed out, his wound black instead of red.

  I cupped my scream into my hands, first for Josh, then Duke. I shook my head and cried. Josh, Nate, Ria—everyone. This was exactly what I’d tried to avoid, what was so inevitable that I couldn’t admit it to myself. They were dead because of me, and each tear for their broken bodies carved a singular path down my dirty cheeks.

  Procel laughed. “So weak.”

  I shot forward and twirled the scepter around so the pointed end would stab through his heart. Mine was already gone.

  He turned toward me and waited with his axe, but the moment he swung, I slid to the left and dug the point of the scepter into his thigh. A spurt of black light bled out of him like a solar flare. He screamed in pain and surprise as some of the scars disappeared from the immediate area around his leg, revealing smooth skin through the torn cloth.

  Then he laughed. “Oh, that was good. Come on. Come at me again.” He turned around, hands behind his back now.

  I panted for breath. “You will never—” I swung the spindly, serrated orb back like a baseball bat so it cracked his jaw. “Ever—” I pounded my foot into the ground and spun my body into a back flip. The scepter’s jagged metal top raked across his head. Splinters of darkness cracked out of his shell.

  I landed on the balls of my feet, my chest heaving even though my mind was calm. The scepter pulsed in my hand, and I could see three moves ahead of what he would do. I didn’t know how it was possible, but I didn’t question it either.

  He looked up from his kneeling position and smiled, part of his face, for the first time, not making me want to throw up—his skin looked almost smooth. “You feel it now, don’t you? I can show you how to harness all of it.”