Someone else had and speaking of the Queen, well that bitch was all mine. In fact, when seeing this epic landing (thank you very much) her mouth had literally fallen open in utter shock as she was struck dumb at the sight. Not that I blamed her for her reaction, I just blamed her for everything else.
I then used her astonished state to my advantage, yanking the now broken spear from my demonic glider after first kicking it over to do so. Then I threw what was left of it at the Queen, catching the tail of her skirt and pinning her to the ground. Doing this gave me just enough time to get to her and prevent her from getting to the Eye.
Which meant that by the time I got to her, she was trying to tug her way free tearing at her skirt and stumbling to stay on her birdlike feet. I quickly found my own weapon, which ended up being a spiked mace residing amongst a heap of ash and I couldn't help but mutter to myself,
“At least it's not bloody this time…nope, just fucking heavy.” I was just taking my first swing at her when she ducked, tearing an even larger section of her skirt in the process.
“Quite honestly, I think it looks better as a mini skirt,” I said with an evil grin down at her bird legs, adding,
“The scrawny chicken look is so in this season.” At this she sneered back at me and soon found her own weapon, meaning that the fight had really begun.
“What's the matter, that power of yours all gone?” she taunted back, and I had to admit I wished in that moment I could have proved her wrong and shot her with blast from my palm. Instead I had to use what the Gods and my father had given me before coming to this place, which was proven when I said,
“I don’t need anything extra to beat your chicken ass!” Then my fist connected with her jaw. Admittedly this wasn't as effective as the power the Eye had given me, but it was enough to have her stumbling to one side with a bleeding lip.
I used the opportunity to swing the heavy weapon down at her, a move she counteracted by rolling out of the way so my mace hit the ground. Her own weapon was a long sword that looked one hit away from cracking. It seemed that these Harpies had robbed the armoury of this Castle, for everything they used to fight with was old and rusted and barely worth the handle it was mounted in. Yet despite this, when she swung her sword, the tip of it still managed to catch me in the arm making me hiss with the bite of pain before snarling back at her with anger.
After she had caught me with her blade, she spun on a heel and started to run back towards the Eye, which was when I decided to throw my Mace, knowing it didn’t have to travel far.
“RRRAHHH!” I screamed, aiding my throw and making it spin sideways before hitting its target square in the back and knocking her off her ugly birdy feet. I heard her whimpering in pain as she tried to get up, but it must have been too much for her as her hands and her knees gave out from under her.
It was only when I approached that I realised why this was, as the damage caused to her back was definitely not something she could sleep off and feel better in the morning. Not when I had cracked her spine.
She tried again to get up, only this time attempting to flap her wings, but they also were too damaged and wouldn't work properly. They only managed to lift her off the ground and gain her about four feet in height. Her body steered off to one side due to it becoming lopsided when one wing gave out completely. This made it easy for me to reach up and grab her foot before yanking her down hard back to the floor.
“No! You…you can't do this to me! I was promised my revenge!” she said, as she scrambled backwards like a wounded crab searching desperately for the protection of its shell. I picked up her fallen sword and stalked towards her, finding her broken and bleeding form close to one of the mounds of stone that was covered with soul weed. It was time to teach her a lesson in revenge.
I stalked over to my prey and in response, she started to drag herself back quicker, meaning that by the time I had reached her she was closer to the soul weed. Then when she started to try and get up, I made my final move and kicked her chest, making her fall backwards, pinning herself against the large thorns. She screamed as each one pierced through her body and wings. She reminded me of a butterfly pinned on the wall of some eccentric Entomologist’s office.
“My Master, he will have your head for this!” she threatened, making me roll my wrist around, swinging the sword and telling her,
“I would like to see him try, for what I remember of him, he was the one running away like a coward and leaving you alone to endure my wrath.” She snarled at this but I could see in her eyes she knew it was true.
“Your Master has forsaken you and all of your kind. You were nothing more than a puppet to him to use and now he has cut those strings leaving you for dead.” She turned her head away as if she couldn’t bear the truth coming from me any longer, but I wasn’t done. I put a foot to one of the branches of soul weed and rested my bent forearm to it, to lean in closer, telling her,
“So, tell me, Bird Queen of a dead flock…” I ignored her snarl and snap of teeth, continuing,
“…You really think he cares for your life and all for a revenge you seek when it is sourly misplaced?”
“Your mother killed my sister!” she screamed back at me making me shake my head, now with a look of pity on my face. I straightened back up knowing what I had left to do.
“You’re just a mortal, you couldn’t understand my pain!” she said with tears of hatred in her eyes. She was a creature lost to her own self-absorbed bitterness and mortal loathing, and it was time to end both.
“No? Well, in the words of Buffy the Vampire slayer…then I will just have to settle with causing it!” I said as I raised my sword and sliced through her right wing. She screamed in such agony it must have travelled for miles, for it was an echoing sound that rang in my ears.
“I hope my Master kills everyone you hold dear to you, I hope he tears them limb from limb and you are forced to watch as everyone you love dies at his feet…Ahhhh!” This ended in another agonising scream as I severed her left wing from her body knowing that this was the ultimate price for a being such as her to pay.
Losing your wings was like mourning the death of your own life when you were forced to face an eternity of living without them. After she could no longer say anything more I got close and told her,
“My mother didn't kill your sister.” Her lips curled up and when she opened them to speak, I told her the truth,
“The daughter of a Titan did…but just in case you don't believe me, I think it's time for you to see for yourself.” I said before slamming my hand over her face and forcing that same memory from my mind into hers. And like most things that had to do with the power that came from the Eye, I had no idea how I was able to do these things…
I just knew that I could.
I only took my hand away when I knew it was done, forcing myself to ignore the tears that coated my hand as the Harpy Queen had wept for the death of her sister.
The roots of her rage that had consumed her, had been that of her undoing.
I turned my back on her, after watching her head slump forward in utter defeat. I expected nothing else from her, nor did I expect her to admit that she had been wrong. So, all that was left of her now was for her to wallow in the bitterness of her mistakes by herself, for there had been many. Starting with taking me from one pissed off King that would have seen them all burn for the crime.
As for me, well I had delivered my revenge despite not taking her head as I said I would.
No, instead, I thought it better to let her live with the knowledge that she had done all of this for nothing.
Now as for Lucius…
His Demon knew no such Mercy.
Chapter Eighteen
The Last Sound of Revenge
I left the Harpy Queen to her wingless, pity party and walked back over to the well. I looked over the side to see an exhausted looking Nero staring back up at me.
“You good? I asked, making her shrug her shoulders and wince after saying,
<
br /> “Not gonna lie, I could be better.” I smirked before telling her,
“I'm gonna get you out of there, just give me a minute.”
“Why, you got any more bitter bitches you've got to kill?” I had to laugh at this before replying with,
“Oh honey, at this rate I will have enough enemies to send a bumper pack of Christmas cards to.” She scoffed and made me chuckle when she commented drily,
“Now why does this not surprise me.”
After this I turned the crank enough to free the dead Harpy that had been pinned to the well wall with a cog lodged in its broken back. I was then free to turn the crank, doing so until I could see Nero's dirty blue hair coming to view. Then, after raising her to the right height, I reached over to untie her hands and helped her step onto the well’s wall before down onto the black sand.
She was in the middle of thanking me when her sentence trailed off because now she was taking in the carnage all around her.
“Seriously, like who the fuck are you?” Nero asked in astonishment, looking at me as though she was seeing me for the first time. So, I answered honestly,
“I’m a Draven.” Of course, she already knew this after discovering who my Grandfather was, hence why she had been calling me Princess this entire time.
“Okay, yeah…so that makes sense,” she admitted with a shrug of her shoulders and in reply I winked. She rolled her arms cracking her joints as she did this trying to alleviate what I knew would be the pain and ache in them.
“At this rate I'm going to need to come topside just to get myself a good chiropractor…you don't know anyone by any chance, do you?”
“Sorry, not my field.” She then paused and looked around the space mumbling to herself,
“No, I don't suppose it is.”
To be honest, she wasn't the only one surprised that I had been capable of doing such things. I mean sure, I had always been trained to fight but admittedly never doing much of it before I met Lucius. But this hadn’t been just fighting. What had happened here, had been more like a bloody bomb going off!
Then again, I couldn't find myself being sorry, not seeing as I had done everything I had wanted to achieve. Nero was safe, I had made it impossible for the Harpies to follow us, and I'd also been able to retrieve the Eye of Crimson. Now all that was left was for us to walk out of here and try and find our way home.
Nero walked over to one dead Harpy and kicked out its remains making it sink in on itself as it was nothing but ash inside. She sucked a startled breath through her teeth before telling me,
“Gods, you’re fucking brutal.”
“You think it's too much?” I questioned with a wince,
“Oh, don’t get me wrong, these bitches totally had it coming, and trust me, I bloody love you for it, but just remind me not to piss you off…yeah.” After this I decided it was best to inform her,
“I am actually a very easy-going person…erm…usually.” Her look said it all, but what followed only added words to her scepticism,
“Um, sure, okay, whatever, Princess.” I frowned and pointed out what she had said only a minute before,
“Hey, what about all that about not pissing me off.” Her look said it all and I laughed, nudged her and said,
I will make you a deal, stop calling me Princess and call me Fae, and all is forgiven,” I said reassuring her, making her joke after looking around all the destruction,
“Fuck honey, I will call you Julia Roberts, or the Queen of bloody England if you want me to.” This time we both laughed.
After this we both looked round for any weapons that looked half decent and the least rusted. Then I walked over to the piece of spear that was still stuck in a large section of the Queen’s dress before pulling it out of the ground and freeing the material.
“Not sure now is the time for a change in outfit,” Nero commented, making me smirk before holding it up against myself and saying,
“Do you not think it suits me?”
“Oh sure, the blood stains go with the murderous glint in your eyes.” I laughed at her joke before telling her the real purpose for it,
“I think it’s best we put this destructive baby to sleep.” Then I used the material to gather up the Eye of Crimson, that started to glow brighter the moment I was near. It was like it was reacting to my presence and trying to pull me into touching it once more.
“Hey, I think it likes you,” Nero said, and even though she joked I couldn’t help noticing that Nero was staying well away from it. And well, after what we had seen when being in the cage together, then I couldn’t say I was surprised or that I blamed her.
If I didn't already know that touching the Eye wouldn't kill me then I would have been wary also. But this did make me wonder why it called to me in the first place. What exactly was it about me that had made me worthy enough to survive its touch? Had I been chosen, or had it been drawn to the strange powers I seem to have? It was true that after touching the Eye my powers had increased, by not only lasting longer but also allowing me to be able to control elements of it, whereas I hadn't before.
I then thought back to the first time my powers had manifested. It had been back in my father’s vault when I had been tricked by the witch into believing she had been Lucius. It was back when she had needed the box or more like the map inside it. It was strange to think that it all led back to that one day my father had brought me the box. All of it leading to the Tree of Souls, which in turn led me here…into Hell.
Every step of this journey was seemingly taking me closer to discovering the truth. The witch wasn't working alone as we once thought, that much was now clear and now I think it was also safe to assume that Lucius’ brother was the one in charge of it all. And thanks to the Eye, the only reason I knew that he was Lucius’ brother was because of a conversation the Eye had shown me. All in that one fleeting moment when Lucius had his demonic hand wrapped tightly around his throat. Back when his hood had fallen back and revealed who he was. Someone he knew well and had trusted with far more than he ever should have.
In my vision Lucius had gasped at the sight of him, knowing exactly what this meant. Another person Lucius had trusted only to be betrayed. I knew this because I too had felt how Lucius felt in that single moment of time. The deep level of betrayal had taken him straight back to that day of the crucifixion and back to the time of his rebirth.
In that one moment he had questioned everything.
Everything he had ever known about his brother.
In that split second I had been shown this, my heart had bled for him. I also wished that this had just been meant as another metaphor and not as a sign of things to come…
But I would have been lying to myself.
The one thing I was most certain of and that was I would take the image shown to me to my grave, without ever telling a soul. Even if it meant the rest of my life was to be a short one, I would live every second of it to its fullest. And to do that meant first getting the Hell out of here and getting back to Lucius!
“God, you're fucking brutal.” I heard Nero say again, this time whilst pulling a curved blade from the chest cavity of one shrivelled up Harpy.
“You said that already,” I reminded her, as I wrapped up the Eye without touching it. I didn't exactly feel up to getting zapped by its powers again or experiencing another trip down memory lane. Oh, and I most certainly didn't want to see the future again!
“I know but I feel like I have to say it again…Gods, I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm actually happy you threw me down a well.” I had to laugh at this, which was why I replied with a chuckle and a wink,
“Me too.”
“Here, let me help you,” Nero said, after wiping the ash from the blade by using her thigh and coming back towards me. She then helped me tie the material in such a way that it acted like a backpack so it would be easier to carry, along with my new weapon I let hang from it.
“Better you than me,” she commented eyeing up my back in a wary
way.
“Yeah, well let’s just say the sooner we get this back to Lucius, the better we will both feel.”
“Speaking about your boyfriend, he must be having demonic kittens right about now!” she said, making me wince at the thought.
“Well, he most certainly will when he finds out who their master was,” I commented, prompting Nero to give me a questioning look.
“You know who it was?” she asked clearly shocked.
“Yeah, it was Lucius’ brother.” After this I told her snippets of what the Eye had shown me, surprising her with the knowledge that Lucius had a brother. She asked me the obvious question, which was…did he know? In all honesty it wasn't one I could answer with certainty. As it was one I had been asking myself since we had first been taken. Had Lucius known he had a brother and kept it from me and if so, why?
“Yikes, but I think I'm starting to feel sorry for this boyfriend of yours,” she teased, but I tensed knowing that she was right, and I hated that. I hated knowing that Lucius was yet again forced to worry for my life. In all honesty, that seemed to be all he had ever done since being together. It had been one thing happening after another, leaving Lucius forced to deal with it. Lucius, who admittedly was a control freak, having no other choice but to endure my continual disappearances.
I think at this point I was ready for him to lock me in a bloody cage and throw away the key. For starters I felt like I could sleep for a month and as long as he was in there with me what else did I need...well, other than the obvious basics like food, drink, most definitely some alcohol, and yeah…Netflix wouldn't go amiss.
To say that I was ready to go home was an understatement.
I thought about my parents and how they must be going crazy with worry wondering where Lucius and me were. I thought about my friend Wendy, as the last time I spoke to her was when I had been in Jerusalem. It had also been done via email with technology to scramble my computers whereabouts so no one would know where it came from. I had told her I was okay that I was happy and that for the time being, I had just needed to walk away from life. I never read her reply, I had been almost too afraid to, knowing how much having me disappear and be so cagey about it all must have been hurting her.
Roots Of Rage: A Vampire King Paranormal Romance (Transfusion Saga Book 9) Page 14