by L. C. Davis
"Prince," I breathed. "I can't believe it really worked."
"Don't have so little faith in yourself. I chose you for a reason."
I swallowed hard, taking a step forward. "Can you help us stop the Patriarch and get Remus back?"
"Your friend is in the aether now," he said, looking past me where Hunter stood. "It is up to him to escape Thanatos' grasp. As for the Patriarch, that depends. Is it the hunter's moon that rises above me?"
I looked at the full moon sinking over the horizon. "No, but it will be tomorrow night."
"Good, then there is yet time. Come sunrise, the Patriarch will be fully present in his vessel. By the time the hunter's moon rises, his power will reach its peak, but at sunrise he will be weak and vulnerable."
"That's good timing," muttered Hunter.
The prince's attention turned to him again. "Wolf child, come forward."
Hunter hesitated only a moment before taking a step forward, his chest puffed out in that enviable bluster his kind was so good at producing even when they had every reason to tuck tail and run. "Yeah?"
"The timing of our encounter was no accident," he said firmly. "Neither is your presence here. You are initiated, are you not?"
"I am," he said with far less certainty.
"Good. I need you to perform a ritual, the most important you will ever preside over. The fate of this world rests on it."
"No pressure or anything," said Hunter.
Maybe it was just my imagination, but it looked like the prince smiled. "Hurry. There is little time before we are found."
"What do I do?" asked Hunter.
"Even in his weakened state, the Patriarch can only be slain by a holy blade forged by holy hands," the prince explained, looking at me. "Arthur, you still have the hilt."
It wasn't a question but a statement. I reluctantly pulled the seemingly useless hilt that Foster had given me from my jacket and began to wonder just how much of this had been the result of the prince's influence rather than my own foresight. "What good is this? It's broken."
"It isn't broken, it's incomplete," said the prince. "Priest, take the hilt."
Hunter looked at me and hesitated before the prince barked, "There is no time to waste!"
Hurriedly, I passed the hilt to Hunter and watched the prince with growing concern. His little light show had doubtlessly alerted the others to our presence. The fact that they hadn't shown up yet was bizarre.
"What now?" asked Hunter, hefting the useless handle in his palm.
"Plunge it into Arthur's heart," the prince said urgently.
Hunter frowned and looked at me again. I shrugged. "Just do what he says."
The wolf sighed, putting a hand on my shoulder before he did as the prince said and thrust the hilt towards my chest as if there really was a blade attached to it. I was expecting the impact of the hilt, but not the sharp, ice-cold pain that shot through me from one end to the other. I looked up at Hunter and his eyes were wide, echoing the horror and confusion I felt.
"Oh, God," he breathed, looking down at the blade that had suddenly formed in his hand. I collapsed to my knees as blood seeped down the edge of the hilt and he followed suit. "What did you make me do?" he cried.
"All is as it should be," said the prince. "Only a blade forged by holy hands and stained in the blood of the Patriarch's greatest weakness can kill him."
The calm, matter-of-fact manner in which the prince explained it did nothing to ease the shock or the pain that was spreading throughout my chest. I could feel my heart lurch as it gripped the blade, each beat slicing in deeper.
"He's dying," Hunter said, maintaining the sense to push my hand away when I tried to rip the blade out of my chest.
"He's already dead," said the prince. I could see him moving forward from the corner of my eye, a golden shadow that could just as easily have been a hallucination. He came to a stop next to Hunter and gently pushed the wolf away. "I'll take it from here."
The prince knelt in front of me and his hands were warm and strangely solid as they rested on my shoulders. "You have done well, Arthur. By burning my remains and freeing my spirit, you have proven yourself a worthy vessel. Now, together, we will complete the work of undoing this blasphemy."
"Why?" I choked. "I burned your remains, why are you doing this to me?"
He stroked my hair and if he had a face I felt sure it would have registered sympathy. "This isn't a punishment, Arthur, it is a mercy. Only a portion of my remains were buried in that statue. The rest were defiled and used to create the first hunter."
My eyes widened. "What does that have to do with me?"
"You are his reincarnation, Arthur. All living beings are composed of three parts. The soul, the spirit and the body. I am but the spirit. You, reincarnated throughout so many lifetimes, are both my soul and my physical substance. You have been called many things and have struggled many times to undo the curse of your existence, but in this life you will find rest. We will be together again, as we always should have been."
"Hey!" cried Hunter, lobbing a stone at the prince. It succeeded at drawing his attention, if nothing else. "You didn't say shit about that through the board."
The prince tilted his head. "Hasn't anyone ever told you to be careful playing with spirits? You never know what's going to happen."
Hunter gritted his teeth and a snarl echoed through the walk. "I won't let you hurt him."
"I am going to complete him," said the prince, standing. Without his support, I collapsed but I could still see them from the ground. "I am going to bring him the peace he has sought for so long."
"Is that so? Why don't you ask him how he feels about that?"
"He is but one incarnation of a soul that has seen many lifetimes. His fear limits his perspective. He understood this in the life he led as William and he will understand again once he is free of the shackles of this mortal coil."
"William?" Hunter echoed my confusion. "You're saying he's the reincarnation of William fucking Winters?"
"In slightly less profane terms, yes."
I found myself on my back, staring up at the moon that was barely visible over the horizon. Tinges of gold and red were beginning to bleed into the blue dawn. With more of my blood pooled on the stone walkway than flowing through my veins, the truth the prince had just revealed seemed as likely as any of the other myriad possibilities in the universe I was so close to being drawn into.
Moments before my funeral I had been so sure I was close to death, but now that I was staring into the face of it, I knew differently. It wasn't cold or dark or empty like I had imagined. It was as warm and bright as the sun on the horizon, waiting to take me into its open arms and fill me with all the endless beauty it had to offer. As the sounds of Hunter and the prince arguing faded into a dull hum, I felt myself relax into the embrace of the light that had held me captive my entire life.
Just before I let go entirely, something pulled me back. It wasn't a hand or even a voice, but rather a single realization. Despite all its promises of completion and fullness, the light waiting for me on the other side wasn't full or complete at all. It couldn't be. One thing was missing and without that one thing, that one person, there could be no true eternity, no endless love, no all-encompassing wholeness. How could there be anything without him?
I sat up slowly, puppeted by some unseen force. I only realized my eyes had been closed when I found myself staring at a huge white wolf with feathers in his fur and fangs like a saber-toothed cat. He was bristling and snarling at the same thing that had drawn the prince's attention further down the path and seemed to have sparked a momentary truce between them.
When I turned my head, my entire body felt light and hollow. I staggered to my feet and made it a few steps down the path before I saw him. Prentice. He was standing in the center of the walk, his eyes full of horror. For the first time in my life, I saw fear on his face and I knew that he was still there. Even if the Patriarch was destined to take over the moment the sun rose,
my Prentice still existed in some form, in this moment if nothing else.
I managed a few stiff steps in his direction, neither willing my limbs to move nor fully aware that they were doing so, before I collapsed. He was there to catch me and his touch pulled me back to the realm of the living just enough to share in his fear.
"Arthur," he said in a strangled voice, his hand coming to rest on the hilt of the blade. He knew better than to pull it out, even though I could tell he had been tempted for a second. He was always so calm and collected in a crisis. So unlike me. "What have you done?" he snarled, turning all his rage on Hunter and the prince.
The prince uttered some quip I couldn't make out and didn't care to. All I cared about now was warning Prentice, but as I gripped his sleeves I couldn't quite remember how to form words. "Run," I pleaded, finally managing one.
Prentice looked down at me in bewilderment, his eyes ringed in dark circles. Even if the prince had been lying about everything else, it appeared that he was telling the truth about Prentice being weak. No wonder he had waited so long to come out.
It figured that it would come to this. Evidently, the prince had too much faith in me. The unexpected betrayal aside, nothing else about the plan had changed. I had come into the Walk of Souls with every intention of killing Prentice, and now I was using my past breath to spare his life. Typical me.
"I'll handle it myself," the prince said bitterly. Before I could make sense of his threat, I saw and felt his golden energy filtering into me, funneling in through my nostrils. It choked me with its hazy smoke as it poured into my mouth and blinded me as it shined through my eyes. My body grew stiff, but the battle for control was only momentary. Soon, I was a passenger in my own body, fully aware yet powerless as the prince ripped the blade out of my chest.
Prentice staggered back and watched me in confusion, as if reluctant to accept that it wasn't really me. "Arthur?"
"Right name, wrong person," the prince spat in my voice, holding the blade at his side while Hunter looked on, clearly conflicted about whose side he was on.
Prentice narrowed his eyes. "Who are you? Get out of him."
"Send the Patriarch out. He'll remember me," the prince sneered.
Prentice frowned but a moment later, his eyes turned golden. It didn't take long for the Patriarch to recognize who he was speaking to. "Arthur?"
"Hello, lover," the prince purred, "or should I say, Daddy? The monsters play one hell of a game of telephone with their little legends and prophecies."
The Patriarch took a lurching step forward and it was impossible to mistake the look of hope on his face. "How? I searched everywhere for you. Gaia said you were trapped in the aether."
"Hiding, trapped, same difference."
The Patriarch frowned. "You don't mean that."
"You never were good at taking a hint, were you?" He turned towards the horizon and I knew it was for my sake. He wanted me to know that the time had come. Prentice, or whatever was left of him, fully belonged to the Patriarch now. If any part of him was left, surely he was nothing more than a passenger just like me. At the same moment, I caught a glimpse of my spilled blood on the pavement and knew that it could only be the prince's energy keeping my body animated.
"You love me," the Patriarch said, his voice trembling with rage. "She's poisoned your mind with her lies, can't you see that?"
"The moon's children might have killed me, but you're the one who defiled my corpse and created an army out of it!" the prince seethed. "Did you think I would forgive you?"
The Patriarch stared, shellshocked. "I did it for you."
"You did it because you're a selfish old fool who couldn't bear to let go!" he cried. "I was a mortal. I lived a mortal's life and I should have died a mortal's death, then returned to live again. It is my birthright as a child of Gaia!"
"Gaia?" he frowned. "You were my creation. I breathed life into you, I brought you to the heights of greatness and would have given you my entire kingdom if you had only asked."
"A kingdom means nothing if it's not earned," he spat. "I'm not an immortal, and I never wished to be your concubine. It is true that I loved you once, but the man I loved has turned to the wretched excuse for a god standing before me and all my love has turned to hatred."
"Arthur, please," he said, his hand outstretched as he took a step forward. "Forgive me. There must be something I can do."
"You can die," the prince said, raising the blade. He lunged forward and I pulled back with everything I had. The prince froze and his grip on the blade faltered as I strained against his control, finally wresting it from his grasp.
"Run," I cried. "I can't hold him off!"
The Patriarch stared at me, a look of pure bewilderment on his face. Suddenly the omniscient sun god was just a deer in the headlights. I groaned as I felt the prince regaining control and tightening our grip on the sword. The Patriarch was useless, that much was clear. I knew I had another second, maybe two at most before the prince took control again and I doubted that whatever fluke had allowed me to take control would happen again.
There was only one thing left to do. This blade, the only weapon in the universe that could kill the Patriarch and the only hope our world had of surviving him, could only be used once. All I had to do was make sure it wasn't used on him. In one final act of selfishness, I turned the blade on myself and plunged it into the heart that had forged it.
No! the prince railed inside my mind as I collapsed.
"Arthur!" The Patriarch cried, rushing forward. He pulled the blade from my chest and I coughed, spraying the stone walk with fresh blood as he gathered me into his arms. He pressed a warm hand to the wound in my chest--or maybe it was just my flesh that had grown cold--and held me close. "Please, my love, don't do this. It's not too late to make amends. Heal your vessel and we'll put it all right, you'll see."
I gasped and seized in pain as the prince took control again. "Take this wretched vessel and defile its corpse a thousand times if you wish. I wash my hands of you both and commend myself to Thanatos' destruction. Search for me all you want, Patriarch, but you will never find my spirit, not in this world nor any other."
"No," the Patriarch cried as the prince's energy poured from my mouth and the hole in my chest, filling the sky with a brilliant flash of light before a tear opened in the dawn, creating a swirling black void that swallowed it whole. It was the same void that had taken Remus. The Patriarch stared into the void for a long moment before looking down at me, his golden eyes full of grief. "You stopped him," he said in a strained voice. "You stopped him from killing me after all I've done to you. Why?"
"I didn't do it for you," I said, gasping for my next breath. "For...Prentice..."
His brow knit in confusion and for a moment, I must have started hallucinating because I could have sworn that the golden drops that fell on my cheek were tears. The sun melting seemed far more plausible. "Such devotion," he said with a dry laugh. "Yours is the kind of love that would inspire a god to tear apart the earth, and yet all that the object of your love has ever done is hurt you, torment you, defile you, and betray you. What makes my vessel worthy of such unparalleled and undeserved adoration?"
My lip twitched in the closest approximation of a smile I was capable of. Maybe it was the fact that the prince had quite literally run off with my spirit, but the gap between my body and my soul felt wider by the second. "Love isn't earned, Patriarch. It can't be taken or killed, no matter how hard you try. No matter how much you love someone, you can't make them love you the same way and no matter how much you try to stop loving them, you can't. Guess being a god doesn't change the rules."
"No," he murmured, looking away. "I suppose it doesn't."
"Please," I said, trying to swallow despite the fact that my throat was a desert. "Let me say goodbye. I just want to see him first."
The Patriarch's eyes searched mine and there was more emotion in that solid golden light than I would have imagined possible. "No," he said carefully, "there
is no need for that. Regardless of your motivation, you still saved my life. For that, I owe you a blessing."
"Like a wish?" I asked hopefully.
He frowned. "I suppose. Ask and it will be given to you."
I took a rattling breath. "Stop them. Call the hunters off and leave the wolves alone."
His eyes narrowed. "That is what you ask? To spare those dogs that would just as soon tear you apart as call you one of their own?"
I cast a glance over at Hunter who was watching us, crouched and ready to either flee or fight. "Dogs aren't so bad," I murmured. "They're loyal. Maybe hunters could learn a thing or two from them."
The wolf's eyes filled with some emotion I didn't quite recognize. He finally bowed his head and turned away. For a moment, I allowed myself to indulge in the delusion that he had forgiven my betrayal.
"I will honor your request," the Patriarch said with no hint of bitterness. "But I will not let you pass into the light. I will not honor your predecessor's betrayal by allowing you to pass on into the light or to remain mortal. You will become one of my children, as you were always meant to be. That is his punishment and your burden to bear," he said gravely, slipping his hand around my neck.
My eyes widened, but before I could even open my mouth to protest, he snapped my neck and I slipped into the very darkness I had feared for so long.
Chapter 31
REMUS
The void spilled the three of us out onto the earth, but our surroundings left little room to doubt where it had been opened in the first place. I had never been to the hunter's compound, but this place was exactly as Arthur had described it. There was a sprawling estate on a hill surrounded by numerous smaller structures that each could have qualified as mansions in their own right. The rolling hillside was as perfect as a painting tinted in the warm hues of sunrise, and the sight of the full moon retreating on the horizon gave me a reason to fear that we had arrived on hunter lands at the most inopportune time of the year.
Victor pulled me to my feet before I could even get my bearings and I saw Sebastian struggling to stand a few feet away from us. They were both shaken but, as always, Victor was quick to recover.