His scan halted when he sighted Cade pinned down in his human form between him and the demons. The kevlar armor they had donned earlier had reappeared on his body as Tracy’s spell designed, but in the dim light Jarrett could still see the stain of blood covering his brother's chest.
The brothers locked their eyes on each other, and in Cade’s pained expression Jarrett read so many things. Within the depths of those golden orbs, Jarrett saw the relief at seeing his brother. He could see, and somehow understand, Cade had a plan. Worse though, he understood his brother was in agony.
The memory of Cade’s words echoed in his mind. There are defining moments in life when we need to act against our fear and pain. We trust God will be there to hold our hand or catch us when we take the leap of faith. Jarrett readied himself for the final leap.
Jarrett tried for stealth, hoping to catch Bellig by surprise and follow Cade’s lead. He moved slowly. His keen eyes noticed what Bellig failed to see. The ancient sword of light lay less than an inch from Cade’s reaching fingers. Jarrett watched with pride as his brother touched the tip of the pommel. You’ve got it, Cade. He took another step, remembering Collett told them they had to do this together.
Bellig glanced up as if sensing something and scanned the battle in front of him. He wondered about the storm but brushed it aside thinking it was another of Haki’s tricks.
“You’ll never win,” Cade rasped to keep his full attention.
Bellig looked down at his victim. “What are you talking about, boy? I’ve already won.”
“No. He’s—” Cade struggled to speak, and swallowing hard, growled the words out, “He’s stronger than you. Better—” Cade groaned as Bellig stomped on his broken ribs.
Jarrett held his rage in check, just a little longer, Cade.
Bellig laughed. “No one is better at war than I!” Bending down and gripping a fist full of Cade’s hair, he pulled the wounded lycan to his knees offering him a better view of the battlefield.
As Cade was jerked upright, his fingers finally gripped his lost sword. He met Jarrett’s eyes once more, and seeing the farewell in those golden orbs, Jarrett ran. Lightning lit the sky above distracting their enemy. Scowling, Bellig focused on the storm, and Cade lashed out. Swinging his arm around, he plunged his sword deep, pushing it upward under Bellig’s ribs with the last of his remaining strength.
Shocked to his core, Bellig staggered back, and too weak to hold on, Cade relinquished the weapon once more.
In reaction, the demon lord slashed out wildly with his own red blade, and he felt the resistance when it struck Cade. Bellig’s strong fingers went numb, and the devil’s sword clattered to the ground.
Bellig looked down and with shaking hands touched the gold and silver hilt of the sword embedded deep in his body. It was the second time his blood coated this sword, and he couldn’t wrap his mind around what happened.
Blood flowed around the divine weapon. He could feel the blade piercing his heart this time and considered how strange the sensation was. He gasped for breath and found it impossible to do so. He tried to reach for his magic to disappear, as he’d done before, but it was too hard to concentrate.
A long anguished howl followed his next gasp for air, and a chill ran down his spine. A cold blade came down against the skin of his neck. Then, Bellig, once a favored Guardian of Strength, fell because he gave into the weakness of ego and greed.
Chapter 42
After taking Bellig’s head, Jarrett hurried to his brother’s side. In those final seconds of battle the desperate need to reach Cade pounded through him. He knew Bellig’s wild swing had struck his twin.
As the ground parted like quicksand and swallowed Bellig’s remains, Cade toppled backward, grabbing at his chest. Jarrett called for the change and the fur fell from his skin enacting Tracy’s charm. Jarrett’s transforming hands scrambled to take off the ruined flak jacket to see how bad the damage was.
Cade grunted, as Jarrett’s rough hands struggled to inspect the garish wound. When Jarrett realized the vest had been sliced in half his heart sank. There was too much blood, and the gash was far too deep.
“C-Collett.”
Jarrett nodded. “She’ll come. She’ll know.” Fumbling over the wound, he couldn’t bring himself to tell Cade he’d left her alone and surrounded by demons. He thought back to how she had always come to his aide. “She’ll come,” he repeated with a sure faith he’d never felt.
Looking down, he took in the sight of the deep laceration that started at his brother’s hip and ended at his shoulder.
Blood, dirt, and black ichor covered Jarrett’s face and hair, but it was the fear in his eyes Cade noticed the most. “We did it,” Cade said proudly, “you’re free.”
Jarrett nodded. “We did it. We’re free. So is anybody else he oppressed.”
Cade looked up to the sky as the magical lightning storm ebbed. He was sucking in short, painful gasps of air, but he smiled when he thought about the significance of the electrical bolts shooting through the sky.
“J-J-James,” he rasped.
The rain had stopped and Jarrett glanced up too. He watched the last fluttering of electricity dance within the parting clouds. The demons were mostly gone, and those left were running. Jarrett shook his head. “Most likely. Maybe Tracy and Cynda had their hands in that too.”
“Take care—of them. They’ll—take c-c-are—you."
“No,” Jarrett insisted. “This will heal. You only need time. We can get Ashley.”
Shaking his head, Cade knew he couldn’t heal from this. He understood the severity of the cumulated injuries combined. The stab wound in his upper chest from defending Jarrett earlier burned like a wound from silver. The deep wound that cut across his entire torso was burning the same way, and Cade knew it must be the magic in the evil weapon. His back was broken in several places from the fifty-foot fall, blood leaked from his body faster than his erratic heart could pump it back. In his bones, Cade even felt the lingering dregs of the negative energy Bellig had invaded him with. No unnatural ability to heal could save him now.
“Cade, I’m not letting you do this, do you understand me? You will not die today!”
Cade actually laughed, choked, and groaned at the pain from it. “Still trying—to control everything.”
“You can’t die.”
“I’m sorry.” Cade looked past Jarrett. “C-Collett.”
Jarrett twisted and saw she was finally there, standing behind him. “Oh, Cade,” she cried regretfully, her eyes were glittering with tears. She knelt on his other side and gripped his hand in hers. “I’m so sorry.”
“Fix him! You’re an angel, aren’t you? Use your power or your light. Have God heal him.” Jarrett demanded.
“I can’t.”
“You’ve said that to me before!”
She lifted her chin and met his eyes. “Yes, I have.”
“You love him, don’t you? He doesn’t deserve to die!”
“Don’t you think I would if I could? Don’t you think I would have saved them all if I could?”
The despair displayed in her expression checked Jarrett’s temper.
She focused on Cade once more and stroked his hair. His breathing became shallower. “I love him, Jarrett, I have for a long time. I watched the two of you grow. I was sent to protect you both. I was there when your mother died, and couldn’t save her. I was there when Rowena died, and I couldn’t save her. Jenny, Selena, Cynda, and Rederrick, even Victor. I feel them all. I remember every one of them. I felt their pain as I do yours, I held their hands.” She brought Cade’s hand up and kissed it. “I could not interfere with the consequence of free will, and I cannot change their destiny, no matter how much I wish I could. It is our most sacred law.
“When Bellig took you, you made a choice, and I was powerless to stop him. Drawn in like a moth to flame by your agony, he followed me the day I saved you. He used you. And I didn’t know until it was too late.
“Even I didn�
�t always understand why I could do nothing. It was a hard lesson for me. I could only help you along the way. Because of the path you chose, you grew as I never could’ve imagined and helped so many people. In watching you, I learned it was a journey you had to take.
“But after you, I blocked my connection to Cade to protect him. I watched him from a distance and fell for him long before he fell for me. It was why I was drawn to him even when I had no identity.” The tears flowed freely from her eyes. “I would save him if it was in my power to do so.”
“Consequence, of—choice,” Cade muttered weakly. “Good, and bad.”
Brushing the dampened hair from his brow, she smiled down at him with love in her eyes. “Not only that, Cade, self-sacrifice for a purpose greater than your own is the greatest of all triumphs. You are so strong and selfless.” Still holding his hand, she leaned down and touched her forehead to his, sobbing for him. “I love you,” she cried. “I always will.”
“You—too,” Cade uttered painfully.
Emotion welled up within Jarrett. Sympathy for her plight reached into his heart, and he realized how courageous she had to be to keep helping people while suffering through their trials and hardships. “You can’t help him,” Jarrett stated with full understanding and sympathy.
“No. I can’t. I’m not meant to save him from this. As I was not meant to save Jenny. He must take the next step in his journey.”
Jarrett closed his eyes and accepted the truth as he never had before.
“Everybody dies eventually, even your kind,” Collett pronounced. “But it is not a punishment, it is simply part of the ladder we climb in our progression.”
“Jar—” Cade tried.
“I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Not alone—family now.”
Jarrett nodded as grief choked him. “Yeah, family,” he agreed. He thought about the relationship they had created in such a short time and knew he was lucky to have formed the bond. Even now, Jarrett knew Cade stubbornly held on to reassure him.
The two brothers looked at each other. Their road together had been short, but it was at an end. Jarrett knew he would do his best to live up to Cade's memory “Rest now, Cade.”
With a shaky nod, Cade laid back and finally let go. His last breath eased past his lips on a sigh of relief.
Jarrett’s eyes reddened—but not because of his temper or heritage. The makings of tears formed, and his throat clogged.
Before he could even rationalize the loss of his brother or the rising sensations within, Collett disappeared, and the sandstorm magically created by the leading Guardian slowed, then stopped altogether. The halting grains of sand drew Jarrett’s curiosity. He stood with caution and glanced around for the magician that could wield that much power. Like an explosion, a blast of blinding light came next, and a shock-wave originating around Cade’s body rippled over the desert floor. The heaving earth tossed Jarrett to his knees, and he threw up his arm to shield his eyes from the bright light and stinging sand.
Confused, angry, and more than a little frightened, he shot to his feet again and stood in a defensive stance. Worried he missed an enemy, Jarrett squinted, trying to refocus. After blinking away the light from his vision, he found himself surprised once more. Before him stood the Guardian Haki, the long-ago traveler who couldn’t properly hold a sword.
“Would you battle me now, my old friend?” Haki asked curiously.
Jarrett’s brows drew together in confusion. “What?”
Amused, Haki gestured to Jarrett’s stance.
“Oh, well—” Jarrett relaxed and straightened.
“What am I doing here?” came a familiar, but groggy voice from behind him.
Eyes widening as far as they could go, Jarrett turned sharply. “Wait, what? You were—am I? No.” Jarrett stammered as he looked upon his brother who stood fit and whole next to him. Not even a scratch marred his brother’s skin, and Cade’s attire had changed. He wore a white shirt and black slacks, neither showed any stains from battle.
Disbelieving what was right in front of his eyes Jarrett moved in closer. Reaching out to make sure his brother was real, Jarrett pulled back quickly when his hand stopped on Cade’s chest.
Cade, similarly stunned, patted his chest where it had been sliced open seconds before. “I was—You were.”
“Are we?” the brothers asked in unison.
Rich, warm laughter surrounded them as Haki said, “It does not matter how far apart in miles or length of time, twins are bound together. I am always fascinated by this. I never had such a bond.”
Cade and Jarrett both turned their attention back to Haki. Then realizing they stood in an enormous cave, they took a minute to absorb their surroundings. In the center of the cave was a humble tree. Ripe yellow fruit hung from the branches. It sat atop a small island covered in flowers and crystal, clear water pooling around it. Light as natural as the sun shone down upon it, but the source of it was nowhere to be seen.
Cade stepped closer, then hesitated. “Is this what I think it is?”
“Yes, it is,” Haki agreed.
“How can that be?” Jarrett inquired.
“Why bring us here?” Cade added.
“This is an important moment in your lives. I brought you here to see a symbol of choice and consequence,” Haki explained.
“I can’t believe it,” Cade said in awe. “This is where it happened, the first choice ever made, an act of defiant free will.”
“Actually,” Haki hedged as he walked through the water and stood before the tree. “Not the first choice made, that’s a more complicated story and includes the creation of the first phase demon. This tree is a representation of the first act of free will for mortal man. An act that changed my life, your life, and the lives of all who follow. However, it was not the act of defiance some would have you believe. It was simply a matter of choice. A life of ease in the garden, or a life of growth outside of it,” Haki lifted his shoulder, “they chose. Some say they chose to escape. Some say they defied God, others still think they were weak. Many blame Eve, but what if it wasn’t any of the above? What if they simply wanted more? You’d have to decide for yourselves.”
“Why did Bellig want to destroy it?” Jarrett dared to ask.
Haki examined the hanging fruit as he answered, “He thought he could erase what knowledge has been given. He wanted to set things back to before man existed on the earth. To remove the understanding of good and evil and take away their free will. In a twisted way, Bellig thought he was doing a good thing. He wanted to prevent people from hurting themselves or creating wars. If he could stop them from making mistakes, he could keep them all safe.” He reached up and plucked a bright yellow fruit from the tree.
“By controlling them and enslaving them,” Jarrett said spitefully.
“Now you understand where he was wrong,” Haki confirmed and tossed the fruit to Jarrett, who deftly caught it. “Fate, or destiny as some call it, is much like this tree. See the branches and how each grows in various directions giving the tree beauty and girth? The wind, water, earth, and light are all elements that shape the tree you now see.
“The mortal existence is no different. Love and hate; pain and pleasure; knowledge and experience—it all helps shape human beings for better or worse as they grow. Once a choice is made, the branch takes shape and only that person can decide what direction he or she will reach.”
Cade scowled. “Would it have worked? Could he change everything?”
Haki grinned. “I told you, I brought you here to see a symbol, and that is all this is. Destroying the tree would have accomplished nothing. The choice had already been made, and could not be taken back.”
“Why did Bellig believe it would?” questioned Jarrett as he looked up from the fruit he held in his hand.
“Have you never been deceived, Hunter?” Contrite, Jarrett looked away. “The difference between you and Bellig is you saw through the deception and found your way. You followed wh
at you knew was right and saved many. Whereas he let The Opposer of all that is good poison his soul. Greed fed the lies, and the promise of greater power blackened his heart.
“Bellig, like so many others, was deceived by the greatest liar of all. He never understood the true goal was not to destroy the tree, although that would have amused his master, it was to affect the direction in which Bellig’s own branches grew. The promises made to Bellig of power, strength, and control during a moment of weakness shaped many people in the years to come after.”
“Why send us to protect the tree?” Jarrett asked confused.
Haki raised his brows. “Did I?”
“No you didn’t,” Cade realized. “We hunted him on our own because we knew somebody had to, but we drew our own conclusions about the tree, made our own choices.”
Haki bowed his head with a respectful smile towards them both. “You followed your instincts and what you knew in your heart to be right. Collett, Ramee, and I were merely there along the way to present you with options.”
“And Collett, when she lost her memory?” Cade accused.
Jarrett looked down at the fruit in his hand. “She broke the law.”
“I made a choice, I interfered with Jarrett’s free will and put him to sleep. It was a choice I knew had to be made, and I understood the consequence.” Standing side by side, the brothers turned and watched as Collett and Ramee emerged from behind the tree. “What I didn’t know, was it was all part of a greater plan. Had I not been driven to the Brotherhood for help, the two of you would have never united.” Jarrett clapped Cade on the shoulder as Collett ran to them.
Cade lifted her in his arms, and they clung together in relief and joy. As they embraced, Jarrett quoted his brother, “Sometimes things have to go wrong to go right.”
Cade grinned at his brother and set Collett down for a passion-filled kiss with little care as to who was watching. He poured all of his love, his fear, and his passion into that single kiss and the power of it left them both weak.
Eventually, Ramee cleared her throat like a patient grandmother and smiling sheepishly Collett pulled back to touch her forehead to his.
The Truth of Victory: A Powers of Influence Novel Page 39