Blood of the Infinity War (Afterlife saga Book 8)

by Stephanie Hudson

  The fight began.

  Arsaces

  Chapter 35

  Stabbed in the Back

  Approaching the iron gates and grand entrance into the Flavian’s arena, one built only to cast dramatic effect as the gladiators emerged, I snarled my anger at the servants leading the way. I knew the fucking way! Not many knew but when this place was first built, I came here dressed as a slave posing to be one of the first gladiators, so that I may experience it first-hand.

  I remember walking from the dark tunnels and up the corridor through those gates before seeing the unimaginable in the capability of what mortal hands could create. Having it spread out before me was almost like looking up the centre of a great beast with its mouth open trying to swallow a piece of the Earth.

  But unlike then, now I found no joy in its thundering walls or spectating eyes. The thrill of it back then, well it was like being once more on the battlefield and seizing victory with a single slice of your sword directed at the right commander. Like cutting the head off a snake, its body may still move for a few moments after but it doesn’t take long for death to swiftly follow.

  Well, right now I faced a new snake, one that had tried to claim what was rightfully mine. But, as I faced those doors ready for them to open, I didn’t feel as I should. I didn’t feel the warmth of excitement coursing through my veins or hear the murderous need of whispered words of encouragement coming from my demon side. And why, well I knew why…

  Forgiveness.

  That one word held me shackled like a chain around my neck pulling tighter the closer I got to the arena. She had begged me to spare his life as she had no doubt done the same to Lucius for my very own. But it was done and there was no going back on it now. We both knew the price of his actions and whereas before I had been eager to tear him limb from limb, now I was eager for it to be done with. So that I could face the aftermath and start to rebuild the broken pieces my own actions would cause.

  The doors opened and I walked through with even steady strides, holding myself back from running in there, drawing my sword and getting this show over with. Lucius was there ready and even he didn’t look as though this was something he relished the idea of. But as I, he knew it had to be done. One Electus for one King and to have it prophesied for both was simply not possible, yet neither of us was prepared to give her up to the other.

  However, what my sweetest one had said to me did grant food for thought. Was it possible that Lucius had mistaken the words of Pythia for another prophecy? One I was to play a hand in some time in the future. The problem with that was even if it was fact, it still didn’t enable me to tell him so. Not without giving him knowledge that I held the Spear’s broken tip from him, for the blood of the Son of God could not fall into the hands of another. Not until those hands were granted worthy in the eyes of the Fates and washed clean of the sin and blood that remained there.

  “Arsaces,” Septimus said in acknowledgement and I nodded my own.

  “I see Rome had no issues accepting you as their new ruler,” I commented dryly as I looked around the thousands that cheered for their new Emperor.

  “It was as you said it would be,” he replied coolly, showing his usual calm demeaner, one he was even famous for on the battlefield. Septimus didn’t kill or strike at the end of an enraged battle cry like most. No, he simply killed silently, slicing through his victims with not even so much as a heavy breath or a whispered warning. It was why I had assigned him first as a spy, then an assassin and after this, positioned him as right-hand man to my enemies. His skills of such would most certainly be missed and above all this, his loyalty as a friend could not be overlooked.

  But that all changed when he stole from me my most precious gift bestowed by the Gods themselves. One I had been waiting for longer than Septimus had known life, both mortal and immortal. But even now, I was yet to discover how he managed it? I would be the first to admit I was arrogant enough to have thought the task impossible as I had gone to enough lengths to make it so. I had turned my home into a fortress and cleared the halls so that she could have the freedom and no longer feel like a prisoner in her new home. But, in reality, a prisoner is very much what she was and would remain. For the fear of losing her simply outweighed that of any discomfort she may have found in the over protective orders I issued as law.

  Outside the walls of my private chambers was also a different matter entirely. No one could merely come and go as they once did, nor could anyone but myself and a few chosen others be admitted into this section of the palace. And all my men had been given strict instructions that if my new Queen had been found lost wandering where she should not be, then they were to surround her. They were then ordered to turn their backs to her and inform me at once of her whereabouts so that I could retrieve her myself. She was for my eyes only and if I were forced to share such a beauty then it would only be done so whilst in my presence. It was the only way to ensure that all who gazed upon her knew who she rightfully belonged to. Irrational thoughts it may be but I was King and after all this time with hopes of finding her, then I wasn’t about to let her go by the hands of another.

  But in the end, none of this had mattered as the one who took her from me, ended up being one I would have least expected. But his loyalty ended up being a lie and it is as my sweet one had once said, ‘assumption is the mother from which all mistakes are born’. Wise words indeed, and some I wished I had listened to more intently.

  “Do you wish to know what our last regards from our Chosen were?” Septimus asked, still looking to the crowd. I growled thinking that he too as I, had spoken with her, something we both agreed we wouldn’t do. Well, if loyalty was completely fucked then neither of us would be surprised at the others disloyal actions. But that was the unknowing power of the Electus and it seemed as though it continued on, as I nodded for Septimus to tell me in which regards she spoke of.

  “She informed me that if we fight, then she will never forgive us.” The thought of this pained me indeed and I knew that I would have another battle on my hands the second this one was over. Each of us turned to the girl who held both our hearts in her hand and bowed, unable to miss the painful way she turned away from us.

  “Then one of us will fight for her forgiveness when this is done,” I said as I ripped my cloak from my shoulders and drew my sword. Septimus nodded and said,

  “Indeed, we will.” Then he held up his own sword and brought down the face of death in place of his own.

  And so, it began.

  I swung my sword around in my hand just as Septimus did the same, then we raised them once more together and hit out, clashing our steel. This soon became the signal for Rome’s citizens to release the echoing of their bloodthirsty cries. I wanted to glance once more at my wife but I daren’t. Not whilst I had a sword in my hand and was currently swinging it towards the King of Vampires.

  For some reason, I chose this moment to think back to how it felt when first hearing that she was my wife. Even if it was in another life, the depth of hearing such near brought me to my knees, after of course it was proven true. At first hearing such things, things that sounded like the impossible, well surely, I could be forgiven for thinking it as lies. As it was something I had believed at the time to be said only to save the man she loved… this Draven. But then the Imp had lowered her guards at her queen’s request and I had seen it all.

  I had finally seen her soul and to know that I owned it, well the elevation to my own was of the likes I had never known. Which is why it was mine to protect and the reason that I now fought for it.

  I swung my sword up and over aiming for his head, knowing he would block it all the same. It was difficult fighting as a man but somewhat liberating all the same. But it would have been harder still had I been fighting a man I hated. Hatred is harder to control the other side of me. Harder to control the beasts of Hell that want to lay waste to any enemy that may stand in my way. But the one I was fighting now, well his only crime was loving the wrong wo
man…

  My woman.

  A crime he must now pay for with his life.

  So, as I spun with my sword and then I aimed high for the killing blow, getting it over and done with so that I didn’t have to prolong her pain…

  Or his.

  Keira

  I didn’t want to look. I even hated myself for looking but I knew I would have hated myself even more if I would have turned my back on them now. So, I watched. And I hated every second of it. Every clash of their swords, every hit, block, parry, swing and dive I winced in fear that it would be the last ever needed. Because as long as they were still fighting then it meant they were both still breathing.

  Draven was unstoppable. He swung the sword like it was just an extension of his arm and I guess knowing the other side of him, then this wasn’t far from the truth. Even watching them fight as mortal men still seemed impossible. How fast they would move, at times almost quicker than the eye could see. Lucius was better at dodging the coming blow than dishing it out. He was the faster of the two but Draven was the stronger. You could see this every time their swords would meet, and Lucius’ hold would be forced to bend just that little bit more. In my own time, they were equally matched. But now, in this world, Lucius was still young and had lots of catching up to do.

  “Sophia, we have to do something! We can’t just sit here and let this happen!” I almost shouted at her in my grief.

  “After the next few hits, we are going to stand up and go to the edge…I will explain there.” I listened as Sophia leaned next to me and whispered, pretending to comfort me by patting my hand. I nodded letting her know that I understood and after a few more gruelling hits, I got up, rushing to the side. She followed me.

  Once there, I watched Lucius spin on his heel twice and each time he came back to Draven swinging his blade upwards. One of the blows actually managed to catch Draven unawares and sliced into his bare arm. He roared in rage and I was so caught up at the sight of blood trickling down his arm that I hadn’t even noticed Sophia was trying to get my attention.

  “When I give the signal, I want you to pretend to faint,” she muttered next to me.

  “But what will that do?” I asked in hushed hopeless tones.

  “It will help us get out of here.” Her reply confused me, how exactly did she think we could accomplish such a thing. And besides, how was leaving now going to help them.

  “What! But we can’t leave and…” I started to argue but she cut me off and gripped onto my arm to get her point across.

  “Keira, this might be our only chance, everyone is here and the guards are preoccupied. This might be our last shot.”

  I thought about her words, glanced around us and knew that she was right. Every important person in Rome was now here. Which meant if we managed to leave, then the palace halls would be empty and anyone who could know who we were, were also here watching the fight. But then what if something happened to one of them…what if I didn’t know? What if Draven killed Lucius and I wasn’t there for him, there to say goodbye? Or even thinking about how Lucius had momentarily got the upper hand, what if Draven found himself distracted enough not to see his own killing blow coming?

  The sound of clashing steel made me jump out of it and I looked back to see this time Draven was gaining the upper hand. He lashed out with new fury, slicing his blade one side and then the next, each time Lucius was left only to defend against the attack. They managed to get closer to the wall and after Lucius managed to trip Draven up the crowd went wild.

  Draven snarled up at Lucius and then in retaliation, kicked up one of the large flaming bowls in Lucius’ direction. Thankfully, he still had his shield, so managed just in time to deflect most of the flying flaming oil. Then he threw his shield to one side and charged at Draven. The fight seemed to be increasing for both of them and I actually felt my head start to spin because of it.

  “Now!” Sophia hissed and I put a hand to my head and didn’t have to fake the dizziness I felt, as the lightheaded sickening feeling was very real.

  “Help, she is faint.” Marcus stepped forward and helped me onto the chair. I barely just noticed as Draven looked up at me as if he had heard, which meant letting his guard down for a second…one that could have meant his head…not if I hadn’t screamed,

  “LOOK OUT!” He ducked just in time because of it, making the crowd boo. Then he came up from the dodge and elbowed Lucius in the face, making him stumble back a step. Before he could regain his balance, Draven was on him, hammering down with his sword. Lucius just managed to bring his own weapon up to fend off the blow, but with him still lay on his back and Draven above him, well let’s just say gravity wasn’t on his side.

  Lucius brought his other hand up to grip onto the blade, no matter that it sliced into his skin. He needed the extra power to stop Draven’s sword from going down any closer and I held my breath at the sight of it mere inches from his face.

  “No.” I uttered wishing my words had the power to stop this but that’s when it hit me, maybe my words were never going to be strong enough. Not unless backed up with something stronger. A statement like no other.

  Backed up by action.

  “Come on, we can slip out,” Sophia said, urging me up out of the seat, as everyone had raced to the edge to watch the end. I let her drag me up and pull me towards the entrance when I pulled back. My mind was racing at what I knew I had to do.

  “Keira?” She questioned my hesitation with a worried frown.

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t allow this to happen.” Then before she could stop me, I yanked my hand free and raced to the edge, pushing people out of the way. I was just in time to see Draven kick out at Lucius’ sword, making it skittle off to the side, leaving him defenceless. He tried to roll out of Draven’s way, but he wouldn’t allow it. No, instead he stepped on Lucius’ injured shoulder and raised his blade high, ready to hammer it down into his heart.

  I didn’t know whether it would kill him or not but I couldn’t take that chance. I knew there was only one thing in the world that could stop that blow right now and that was…

  Well, it was me.

  Draven had closed his eyes, as if what he was about to do was too painful to watch and I screamed as loud as I could just before I launched myself over the edge. I didn’t think the drop would kill me but it certainly would have enough force to break something. I watched just in time as Lucius shouted my name, something that must have been enough to get Draven to stop his attack. I braced myself for the landing and when I felt the impact it wasn’t half as hard as I thought it was going to be. I opened my eyes after feeling no pain and the second I saw Draven looking down at me, I knew my plan had worked. Draven had forgone dealing his death blow to Lucius to save me instead.

  Lucius got up from the ground and after retrieving his sword he walked over to us. Draven let my feet go and the next thing I knew I had two angry men on my hands, now shouting down at me. Well, as long as they weren’t fight each other, then I considered this a vast improvement.

  “What the fuck were you thinking!?” Lucius snarled and Draven yelled,

  “You could have been killed!”

  “What if we couldn’t have saved you!?” Again, this was Lucius, followed swiftly by Draven once more,

  “You could have seriously injured yourself!”

  “I don’t care, I am not letting you just kill each other over me! And I promise you, if you value my life at all, then you will stop this shit, or I swear the next thing I do won’t just be jumping off a wall, but it will be a damn cliff!” I threw at them both and Draven’s and Lucius’ reactions were the same. They both flinched back at merely the thought.

  “One of us will save you.” Draven was the first to argue.

  “Yes, but you don’t know that, what if you’re not there or what if I manage to sneak off?” I challenged.

  “Then you would find yourself quickly living out your days locked away!” Lucius snapped and I rolled my eyes as Draven looked in agreement
.

  “That maybe so, but you can’t force me to eat! You can’t force me to live or be happy!” They knew I was right but for good measure I added one more threat.

  “I swear to you, as the Gods are my witness, if either of you kills the other I will make your life so miserable, that you would envy the dead! I would make you witness each day as I faded away, so stricken by the grief and pain brought on by what the other took from me, you will regret this day for the rest of your life!” Alright, so now they were listening to me. Good, I was finally getting through, no matter how dramatic I sounded.

  “Then what would you have us do?” Lucius asked as if pained by the idea.

  “I would have one of you forfeit me to the other, so that I may be happy. Because if you both love me as you claim, then you would want that for me.” Lucius looked as though I had struck him and turned away because of it. However, Draven looked to be trying to control the impulse to snatch me away from this place and never look back.

  “Neither of us are prepared to choose that,” Draven gritted out. I took a deep breath and informed him,

  “Yes, but it was never your choice to make.” They both looked hurt by this so I continued.

  “Neither of you ever asked me what I wanted, you never even considered that my feelings mattered! That’s not how love works! You don’t just take what you want, like some stolen treasure you think belongs to you because you want it more than its owner.”

  “Then tell us, what is love about if you claim we don’t know!” Lucius threw at me and Draven looked ready to agree with him. I took another deep, shuddering breath and placed a hand on each of theirs that were covering the hilts of their swords.

  Right at that moment they had never looked more like brothers. Night and day. Each other’s balance.

  And they didn’t even know it.

  So, I told them.

  “Love is about sacrifice… and there is always another way,” I said knowing that Draven would understand my words more than Lucius as they referred to the last time we spoke. But the second the words were out all I felt was hurt. I screamed out in pain as I felt the impact in my back, one so powerful it brought me to my knees. I briefly took a moment through the sheer agony of it all to look around and all I saw was chaos. People were screaming in the crowd, Draven and Lucius were issuing orders as they had me in their arms. Sounds seemed to fade away and I felt my clothes become wet and sticky. I tried to take a deep breath but something was trying to stop me. That’s when I looked down as if I would see the problem for myself.