I swallowed hard, focusing my energy so I could think, then I wondered if I could perhaps be giving his tutelage too much credit. In my lessons with Charlene, she had given me keen insight into what could be his potential downfall: Pride. It was the very thing that made him powerful, but might also serve as his greatest weakness.
“You might have to get … closer to his inner circle than you’d like.”
She was absolutely right; I couldn’t see another way this situation would play out in my favor. I would have to anticipate his moves, knowing full well that a concession would be made. He knew me fairly well, but I knew him too and that put us on equal footing. I needed to get inside his head, just like Charley warned me would need to happen.
I fell to the ground, breathless and unbalanced, and only then did he even have to lift a finger to attack, slamming me to the floor with one fist, knocking the wind from me. “Wynn! Are you okay?” Caleb screamed at me from across the flames.
“I’m sorry, Caleb. I’m just not strong enough.”
“Yes, you are!” he shouted back at me above the roaring flames. “I believe in you.”
You always have.
I nodded slightly at his encouragement and pulled myself off the ground before setting my jaw determinedly. His words filled me with newfound energy and hope as I clung to that thought and turned back around to face Aidan. Caleb believed in me, and I would fight for him. I would fight for us.
Aidan crouched down, preparing to attack and I whirled around and slashed at him with my tail. He evaded the assault and came at me again, but I did not give up. Thinking back over the last few months, I used every skill and self-defense technique that I had learned, anything to catch him off guard. Aidan smiled at my tenacity and rose to the occasion, fighting back with equal strength. “Good for you, precious. I see you’ve learned some new tricks. Unfortunately, that won’t keep me from destroying you.”
He glanced over his shoulder to where Dad and Nate were still tied up on the ground and smiled. Black vines had broken through the floorboards and wrapped themselves around each of them, squeezing hard. Their eyes bulged and the veins around their temples raised, with sickening black veins splintering in around their face. “I can’t drag you down myself, but I can remove the only reasons you have to stay. Without them here distracting you, you’d be out of options.”
Realizing they couldn’t breathe much longer, I launched myself at Aidan once again for a final attack. He caught me by the neck and held me aloft, slamming me hard against the bookshelf. It was exactly the same position we had found ourselves in the very first time we met. I reached up, clawing at his hands as I struggled to break free and kick the air in vain. His grip was like a vice and I looked down at him with nothing but contempt. The demon smiled beautifully as he watched me struggle. In a moment of fear, I gazed past him and saw Nathan spark the prehensile vine repeatedly, but they didn’t seem to budge.
Both his and Dad’s skin had taken on a greyish hue and their auras flickered slightly. My breath caught inside my chest as I glanced back at Aidan to give the nod that he was waiting for. A knockdown fight here in front of Dad and Nate was not only useless, but counterproductive, I slowly put down my claws and tail, slumping into myself and deflating. “Alright,” I wheezed. “You win.”
“No! Wynn, there has to be another way,” Caleb insisted.
I looked up at him with tears in my eyes, as Aidan stalked around me as a wolf before the kill. My eyes lingered on his face, wanting to soak up every second I had left with him in case it was the last. When he first found me I was broken, but together we put the pieces back until I was whole. Now it felt like I was breaking once again , giving him my heart to take care of while the rest of me went away. “Aidan doesn't make empty threats, Caleb! The last time he threatened my family we lost Elyse. He's played his hand, I lost. Now it’s time for me to go with him.”
Caleb reached for me in longing, with the most heartbreaking expression I'd ever seen and let out a gargled sob. His voice cracked in despair when he called out to me, “I thought we were going to grow old together.”
The sound of his voice nearly broke my resolve as every instinct screamed at me to go to him. It was getting hard to breathe, and my body trembled as it fought to contain the tears that threatened to spill over. “I wanted to. I wanted it so bad, but this is not a love story ... it was never going to have a happy ending.”
His shoulders dropped in sorrow as he tried to remain composed. “I wish you'd told me that sooner.”
My lip trembled when I saw the tears running down his cheeks and said, “I did, you just weren't listening. Why did you think it took me so long to tell you how I felt? I knew Aidan would do this.” Fierce hot tears pricked my eyes. “I chose you over my family before, I can’t make that same mistake again.”
Confusion, hurt and sadness all clouded his face at once, unwilling to believe what he was hearing. Tears pooled in magnificent depths of his pale blue eyes as he shook his head and cried. “I didn't realize choosing us was a mistake.”
“It is if you're asking me to choose you over them. Is that what you want?” I asked. “Because you know what will happen to them if I do.”
Aidan crossed his arms in front of his chest amused, nodding as he sipped his brandy and listened to our discussion. “She’s right, you know. I would kill them in a heartbeat.”
Caleb shook his head and insisted, “No, you're giving up too soon. You can still win this thing!”
I stopped him before he was able to finish. “Elyse,” I sighed. I could see from the look in his eyes that he knew he had lost the argument. Aidan stood over me, cigarette still in hand, watching with nonchalant amusement.
“But ... I love you,” he insisted.
I nodded, tears streaming down my face. “I love you, too.”
His tortured expression would haunt me for the rest of my days as I walked over to where Aidan stood and took my place beside him. I hated leaving him like that, but I was a demon and Caleb had always known that. In a way, this had always been the inevitable outcome.
Looking back towards my father, I croaked out miserably, “I'm sorry, Dad. Once I’m gone they can fill you in on the details, but I want you to know how proud I am to be your daughter. Please don't hate me because of this, it really is for the best.”
He observed me in my demon form, with my black leathery skin and flaming hair billowing out around my face ... and cried. I wanted to hug him and let him know that everything would be okay, but I couldn’t.
Instead, I remained firmly rooted where I stood and glanced up at Aidan with his blond hair glistening in the light of the fire and said, “I'm ready.”
Aidan nodded and grasped the charm of my necklace and ripped it from my throat. “Good. I’ll just get rid of that wretched thing for you.”
Just like that, my probation on earth was over — I was an unwelcome trespasser in these lands. The seven crystals came clattering to the ground and shattered like glass on contact, their metal chains lying crumpled in a heap.
As I watched them fall, my thoughts returned to the dream I’d been having where the hooded creature beckoned me. It’s hideous, gnarled hand reached out to me in the dark and beckoned me to come closer. Repulsed as I was by it, the music played serenely in my head, drawing me ever nearer. I wondered if the dream had been my subconscious warning me all along that this was how my story would end.
I closed my eyes and heard the sweet, melodious voice calling to me again. Aidan took me by the hand and we disappeared to the Realms of Hell. The last thing I heard as I disappeared into the darkness was Caleb’s broken voice screaming my name.
“WYNN!”
About Jennifer Siddoway
Jennifer is an author from Tallahassee, Florida who writes paranormal romance and fantasy novels for young adults. She is a member of both Gulf Coast Authors and the Florida Writers Association.
After receiving a degree in theatre from BYU and working as a scenic artist for
twelve years, she changed careers to do what she really loves—writing. Jennifer believes that part of her job as an artist and story teller is to create a narrative that explores a fresh perspective and leaves the audience thinking.
She has always been intrigued by Grimm’s Fairy Tales and particularly enjoys a twist on an established plotline. When she’s not busy writing or burying her nose in a book, Jennifer enjoys doing medieval reenactment with her husband and two children.
Her debut novel, Dealing with the Devil, is a contemporary Young Adult Fantasy and the first book in the Earthwalker Trilogy.
You can find out more about her and her books at:
http://www.jensiddoway.com
If you enjoyed Dealing with the Devil or The Devil’s Due, you might also enjoy the third novel in the Earthwalker Trilogy, Down in Flames. Coming Fall of 2017!
YA titles by Jennifer Siddoway
Dealing with the Devil (book 1, the Earthwalker Trilogy)
The Devil’s Due (book 2, the Earthwalker Trilogy)
Down in Flames (book 3, the Earthwalker Trilogy)
Reviews are always appreciated!
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The audiobook of Once Found is available for FREE here, on Duncurra’s YouTube channel.
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The Devil's Due (The Earthwalker Trilogy Book 2) Page 29