by H. D. Gordon
I couldn’t stop. Didn’t want to stop. Wasn’t going to. The fire that burned inside me would blaze until there was no more oxygen left in the world to fuel it. There was no way to keep track of the body count, but I was certain that no one would escape. The fire in me would not cease until it had burned everything in this land into ashes and blackness, like the inside of my heart. Cremation.
Kayden was gone. Somewhere, in some back corner of my mind, I knew this, and I knew that I should have died with him. And the only part of me that was left now, was the part that could kill an entire city of people without batting an eye, the part that did not mourn death, or fear it or hate it. The part that touched it, knew it, ate it.
I felt as though my soul had floated up to the heavens to watch the show. I saw myself moving like a whirlwind, leaving nothing but broken things and red snow in my path. I heard their screaming, heard the fear in their beating, pounding hearts, and I drank it up and up and up. Up high.
And at last, there was only one left. One living person left. And when I saw her there, standing in the middle of her own impressive body count, the snowed city as silent as the shadows all around us, only her heartbeat and my own filling my ears, I knew that this would be it. I would kill her, too. Or she would kill me.
I looked into my sister’s obsidian, demon eyes and saw the reflection of my own glowing gold ones there, and I knew that this was it.
I was going to kill her, or she was going to kill me.
Because that is what true Monsters do–kill without mercy or discretion.
I charged forward with my sword, and she charged forward with her mind, and a crooked smile found my lips that matched hers, fang for fang.
Let the best man win.
Nelly
I collapsed to the hard, white floor, stars bursting and swirling behind my eyes. My head spun and my stomach heaved and I spewed a little bile out as I lay there retching. My eyes were so blurred with tears that I could not see through them. My hands shook like a junkie in withdraw.
One word was running through my head on a constant loop. The only clean thought that my mind was able to process.
No, no, no, noooo…
Anger flooded into me now, giving me enough strength to push up on all fours. I rubbed the tears roughly from my eyes and looked up at the Seer, who had turned back to the white wall and resumed his endless, useless painting. I opened my mouth, knowing that I would not break the silence of this place even if I tried to scream at the top of my lungs. But even in my head the single word I said was dripping with hate and poison.
“Liar,” I said.
The Seer’s hand, where it held the paintbrush to the wall, stopped mid-stroke. His voice sounded in that same uninterested monotone as it always had, as if he had not just shown me the most terrible nightmare ever conceived of.
“What reason have I to lie to you, Night Child? I warned you that the future you sought was nothing but death and destruction. I told you to look only if you wanted, and you did. You just couldn’t help yourself. Do not blame me, Child. I didn’t even show you the worst of it.”
I pulled myself to my feet, my knees knocking together like hammers underneath me. “The worst of it? Nearly thirty-thousand people died in that vision you just showed me! How the hell could that not be the worst of it? I don’t believe you. I fucking re-fuse to believe you, you freak.”
“What do you think would happen after King William’s messenger delivered his final order to the Queens in the other five cities that your kind calls home? What would happen, Night Child, if the rivers protecting them were dammed up?”
“I’m going to kill you.”
A laugh. “With what, Night Child? Your bare hands? Come now, you must know that you cannot harm me. Your mind is your greatest power, and it has none of it in the White World. Besides, what good would killing me do? I thought you had other places to be.”
My heart jumped up in my throat. What was he saying? That there was still time to save Alexa? Still time to stop the massacre of thousands? Still time to save both of our souls if I left now and…did what?
My voice was small and pitifully hopeful as I spoke. “How much time has passed? Can I still make it to her on time?”
“There is still time for you to do some things, but for others, it is too late. If you still wish to go, that is.”
I swallowed hard, willing myself not to collapse to the floor again. “Fine,” I said. “But I want to make a deal first.”
“I do love deals. Tell me, Night Child, what is it that you want?”
“You own my sister’s soul, right?”
“The power I worship owns it. I only procured it for him.”
“So then take mine, too.”
Silence. Then, “And what is it you want in return?”
“Just your word,” I said. “Your word that when both my sister and I have moved on from this world, we will be together again in the same place. Whoever takes her soul, wherever she goes, I want to go with her.”
“Done. Spill your blood for me, Night Child, and you have my word.”
I brought my wrist up to my mouth and sank my fangs into it, and then I let the red spill down my fingertips until it fell down to the white floor and disappeared there. “Now let me out,” I said.
“So you will go, then? Despite what I have shown you, you will still go?”
“Yes.”
“So be it. A deal is a deal. But may I ask you, Night Child, why is it that you are willing to let so many die for her? You must know that a star as bright as she could not burn on much longer.”
This hit me like a slap in the face. I had never heard it put that way, and I refused to believe it, refused to believe that it was too late. My answer was simple, and though it didn’t answer his question, it was a decision that answered a bunch of other questions that needed no asking.
“Let me out.”
I Did It For You!
Camillia sat in the sitting room of her sister’s cottage in the Outlands, thinking of the look on Alexa’s face before she left, taking a small army of fighters off to destroy an empire. She had never been particularly fond of the girl, thought that she was rash in her actions and harsh with her words, but she had grown to respect her nonetheless.
She was after all, just barely not a child, and she had been given a task that was impossibly huge for such a young soul. Alexa had not only taken on the burden of freeing her people, but she had placed herself up for sacrifice to save her sister. Whether she was rash and harsh or not, she was someone who deserved respect and admiration.
The day was finally beginning to darken, and every passing minute had been agony for Camillia. She did nothing but drink tea by the gallon and stare out the windows of the sitting room into the gardens, and pray to the heavens that the Sun Warrior and her troops would be successful. So much depended on it.
Silvia came into the room then, holding a fresh cup of tea for her sister and a tray of pastries. “You should eat,” she said.
“I’m not hungry.”
Silvia set the tray down on the coffee table and sat down next to her sister. She placed a hand over Camillia’s. “You don’t need to worry, Cam. Everything is going to be okay.”
This was the first thing Silvia had said all day about the matter, and Camillia’s gaze jerked away from the windows and fell on her sister. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Silvia looked down at her skirt and pretended to pick something off of it. “Nothing,” she said. “Just that everything is going to be okay.”
Panic bloomed in Camillia’s stomach like a poisonous flower. She reached out and gripped Silvia’s hands so hard that she cringed and tried to pull away. “What have you done, Sil?”
Silvia stood, her face taking on that defensive look that she used to get when they were children. “Nothing. I didn’t do anything. Just don’t worry about it.”
Camillia’s eyes narrowed down to slits. “Don’t lie to me, Silvia. We both know that I can
reach into that head of yours and pull out the truth. Don’t make me do that. I don’t want to, but I will. Tell me what you’ve done.”
Silvia began pacing the room. “Fine,” she said, releasing a heavy breath. “You’re going to be upset at first, but I think if you will just listen to me, you’ll see that I made the right choice.”
Anger was beginning to rise in Camillia, she clenched her hands into fists and waited.
“I made a deal with the King. He agreed that if I told him where the Sun Warrior was going to attack, he would forget about your misconduct and swear that no harm would come to any of us.”
Camillia was on her feet before Silvia could blink, standing two inches from her face, her eyes shooting daggers. “You did what?”
Silvia cringed back a little. “See,” she said. “I knew you’d be mad, but Cam, I did it for you.”
Camillia’s hand came up on its own accord and her palm met the side of her sister’s face with a neck-jerking slap that sounded as loud as the pounding in Camillia’s ears. “How could you!” she screamed. “How could you do that? What is wrong with you? You just sent over two thousand people to their deaths!”
Silvia recoiled, her hand covering the blooming red spot on her cheeks, her eyes wide and watery. “I told you, I did it for you! For all of us! How many would die if this war were allowed to keep going. And why do you care so much about those two girls anyway? They killed Bethany!”
Now anger sparked behind Silvia’s eyes too. “You’re the traitor! Not me!”
Before she could stop herself, Camillia sent her mind out in a powerful push that slammed into Silvia hard enough for her to stumble back and fall to the floor. She gripped the sides of her head, no doubt feeling a throbbing there from her sister’s mental attack.
Camillia stood over her sister, looking down with shame and disappointment written in every line of her face. “For the rest of your days,” she said. “You will have to live with what you have done.”
Alexa
There was no doubt now, none at all, our attack had been anticipated, and we had been herded into the silver gates to await this ambush. They had appeared from seemingly nowhere, thousands of the King’s Warriors surrounding us and cutting their way to the center of the crowd.
So I began cutting my way through them.
It was as though I was at the very center of a burning ball of chaos. People screaming and running and fighting everyway I turned. Too much to take in. I settled my eyes instead on the King who still stood atop the balcony, knowing that I would take down every one of his Warriors if that’s what it took to reach him.
Around me, my comrades were fighting off the Warriors nail and tooth. The Wolves had rushed in and stopped the silver gates from closing, so at least some of the people may have a chance of escape. I ran my blade through a Warrior who was rushing at me, and steam rose from the silver as I pulled it free of his body only to shove it through the throat of another.
Kayden was beside me, keeping the enemy from being able to attack me from too many sides. I only stole glimpses at him from the corners of my eyes, as that was all that time would allow for, but it was enough to know that he was having no trouble holding his own. Others were not so lucky. Even at the rate that I was killing, which was an impressive rate indeed, we were outnumbered, and our numbers were dropping fast.
The King. It wouldn’t matter if I could just get to him. And I would.
He seemed to be grinning down at me from where he stood. Every glitter of his jewels and drop of blood spilled from my comrades mocked me to the point of insanity. I danced through the crowd with my weapon, the world taking on that slow pace that made the efforts of those attacking me seem like child’s play. They were big and strong and well-trained, undoubtedly, but I was small and fast and pissed-off. No, I was livid.
Every single body that I cut down in my path brought me closer to him, and I leapt around them and under them and through them, focusing only on that smug smirk he had on his face, and how I was so close to being to wipe it off of his ugly old face forever.
This was not like all the other times I had faced battle. There was no slow sensation of losing myself, of slipping away from the true me with every passing moment. It was just gone, replaced by the part of me that flourished in a situation such as this. And it grew with every swing of my blade into something enormous and terrifying and undeniable.
My Monster and I were at last, one.
The only moment that I almost swerved from my goal was when I heard Tommy’s cry. I spun around, my sword passing cleanly through the midsection of two of the King’s Warriors, spilling entrails out onto the snow where they lay steaming. When I saw what had yanked the scream from my friend’s throat, I almost changed direction to move and help him.
Two Warriors were dragging out the body of Lord Thomas Caslon, and they threw Tommy’s father at his feet with grins that were as wide as jackals. Tommy charged forward and spun, his sword flinging drops of scarlet into the air, and removing the lives from the two Warriors who had brought his father.
I wanted to help him. I really did. I wanted to go to him, just for a moment, and hug him or kiss him and tell him that it would be alright. But there was no time for that, and if I was being honest, I had my own hunger to satisfy. If I wanted to help him, if I wanted to help all of them, what I had to do was kill the King.
And eventually, I made it to the base of the Council Building, where more Warriors were spilling out of the front doors, charging straight for me as soon as they saw me. I met their challenge head-on, chopping down one after another and knowing that Kayden was at my back, doing the same thing. When I had the chance, I leapt up and gripped the ledge two stories down from where my target waited. A moment later, Kayden followed. And then we began to climb.
So close, so close, so close!
I threw my head back and howled and was answered with the howls of my Wolves, who were fighting with the viciousness of the beasts that they were. When I reached the third story, I leapt over to the balcony and landed on the railing with perfect balance. I jumped down, disappointed beyond words to find that the King must have gone inside.
Kayden was on the balcony only a second after, and through the haze of my Monster’s bloodlust, I looked over at him with glowing eyes. So much seemed to pass between us in that small moment, and I knew that if given the option, I would take us away from here, out of this mess that had me starving for death, and call it quits on the whole matter if I could just spend a few more moments with him.
Kayden looked at me with so much love then, that if I’d allowed myself to stop and think about it, I really might have turned around and left. Just left. With his hand in mine and my heart in his. I would have left.
Kayden said, “In this world and beyond, Alexa.”
And my bloody heart broke and my hand reached out and opened the doors that led inside from the balcony. And there, hundreds of the King’s Warriors were waiting for me.
I spotted King William through them, moving a safe distance away so that he would be able to watch the show comfortably, and my anger and fire took over once more. When the Warriors attacked me, I cut them down like blades of grass, my eyes locked on the King’s, my resolve growing stronger each time he watched one of his best fall before me.
Closer. Closer. Closer. My skin was tingling all over as the silver tattoo that kept count of my kills spread and bloomed across my body. The floor was slick and sick under my feet, but I glided over it with ease, moving faster than I had ever moved in my life.
I saw it in his eyes when it happened. The moment that the King realized that today would be his last, that I would reach him and kill him as promised, and he would not get a chance at escape. Never in my life had I seen anything sweeter. His eyes darted toward a red-headed Warrior at the door, and I knew that he was passing along some message silently, but I didn’t care. The red-headed Warrior was far enough away to be able to slip out, but the King was not. And he knew it. And th
at was all that mattered.
When I finally reached him, I didn’t hesitate. So much anticipation filled me that my vision seemed to tunnel in on only him. And of course, because this universe already hated me so much, that was when it happened.
The enormous Warrior—Andre, I thought his name was—who hadn’t left his King’s side, moved like a bolt of lightning, and I felt a crooked smile touch my blood lips as I waited for his attack. As I misjudged the target of his attack.
I saw it all happen. I watched it all in that same slow way as I was seeing all else, and I tried to stop it. I moved and I tried to stop it, but even with my incredible speed, I knew I was going to be too late. That one moment of misjudgment was all Andre needed.
Kayden was fighting off the Warriors at my back, giving me a chance to do what I’d come here to do, and I thought that Andre would try and stop me from reaching his King. Instead, he stopped Kayden.
When the blade went through his back, I felt as though a dagger went through mine. My mouth fell open and a scream ripped up my throat that could have woken the sleeping demons in the depths of hell. Kayden’s golden eyes met mine, and I watched as the sun that burned in them set for the last time. Forever.
And the next moment, both Andre and his King’s head lay at my feet.
The sword fell from my hand and clattered to the floor, where it lay in a pool of red. Tears fell from my face and mingled with it as I fell to my knees beside my Kayden, and screamed and screamed and screamed his name.
My small, scarred, red hand came up and touched his face, and I hoped more than I had ever hoped in my life for his eyes to spark, for his hand to come up and cover my own where it rested on his cheek. But Kayden did not move. He didn’t speak or breathe or have a heart that beat. Not even for me. Not anymore.
And I could hear them approaching. I could hear the dead King’s Warriors in the room moving in to finish what had been started, and I stared into Kayden’s sunset eyes and waited for them to give me my death. I wanted it. I welcomed it. Because staring down at the man I had loved so much, knowing that he would never look upon my face again, I knew that part of me had already died, and what was left was a darkness that had no point in going on living.