The witch helped me figure out something about myself. I wasn’t above taking a life. I was far beneath that notion because her death would be at my hands by the time this night was over.
I blasted her with a spell and she went flying backward. Delena rose to her feet as I ran to Sebastian who was convulsing on the ground. I watched as the lines grew thicker as they slithered over her skin. She lifted her hands to her face and smiled. “So much power. I need more.” Delena laughed like a crazed lunatic. “Julius is going to be so happy when he sees that I can handle their sins.”
And with those words, she went after another one. I couldn’t worry about them though; my focus was on Sebastian. I bent down just as I heard a murderous scream. It was an ogre. Before I could be picked up by him, Payne slipped behind the ogre and pierced through his back with a large blade. When the ogre fell, Payne asked. “Is he gonna be okay?”
I removed my gloves. “I’m going to try something,” I told him.
“Watch out, Barron,” August yelled somewhere behind me. “She’s bouncing all over the fucking place. One touch from her and we’re down, brother.”
Another murderous scream and Payne cursed next to me as he took out another ogre. “Barron’s about to rage.”
“No,” August laughed. “He’s already there.”
Raging?
Only I didn’t look back to see what was going on, I reached down and touched Sebastian’s cheek and immediately he stopped convulsing. I sighed in relief. “Really fucking nice for him, but if she touches one of us, that trick won’t work on us.” How the hell August was keeping track of us over here and had the time to complain in the midst of this turmoil beat the hell out of me. All I could do was smile as Sebastian’s pupils turned back to normal and he sat up, drinking me in and a small exchange passed between us before he stood, bringing me with him.
“Like I said, our touch means something, witch.”
My pulse sped up at his words and through the madness, I still got sucked into his blue eyes that continued to look at me in a way that no one had before. So solemn and true. Like I was the only thing he could ever want. The only thing he desired. Even in the middle of this hell.
“Damn it, Barron, go after the ogres or the witch,” August yelled. We turned around to see what was going on.
I gasped at what I saw. What kind of monster was this and how did Julius create it? Before me, a skeletal figure stalked toward August and some sort of red essence flowed all around and through his bones. It was terrifying to see. I’d seen everything, and yet this was…
“Barron!” Sebastian yelled. Barron? I was confused until I looked harder at the walking skeleton. He wore dark pants, a black shirt, and boots. The very same clothes his brother had been wearing… How? Then it clicked. Of course. The Grim Reaper’s sons! “Remember me telling you about that scary form I keep hidden,” Sebastian found the time to say and smiled. “You’re looking at my brother’s.”
“August!” Payne yelled, rushing toward him. August saw Delena coming for him and faded while in the middle of two ogres who ended up punching each other instead of him. He reappeared close to Barron who was a storm of red.
“Oh fuck,” he hissed, eyeing his brother. “He’s going to surge.”
“There’s no way Delena can survive if he does,” Payne mentioned.
“Get ready for it!” August yelled. I wished I knew what the hell was going on.
“Come here,” Sebastian said as he materialized a cloak and covered me with it just as the harsh red essence flowing around Barron exploded and expanded for miles. The sound was deafening, and the heat touched me through the cloak, and I knew I’d a goner right now if it weren’t for it.
Minutes ticked by before Sebastian finally peeled the cloak off me and I saw that even he had been using one. I looked around and there wasn’t an ogre left. I couldn’t see Delena either. Everyone had covered themselves with cloaks. Payne pushed his hood away from his head and glanced around. “He didn’t get her,” he cursed.
Before I could ask how he knew, Barron was screaming, and it wasn’t a normal scream. It was monstrous and terrifying. “He doesn’t exist within his rage. It’s his curse.” The pain in Sebastian’s eyes as he looked at Barron had me reaching out to him.
Only the second scream that pierced the air was one of pain. Delena stood behind August cupping his head. He couldn’t even fall to his knees like Sebastian had because she held him so firmly. Sebastian faded, and Payne took off running to separate August and Delena. Palms up, I started humming an enchantment and when I finished; I blasted her with it. It separated them. August fell, convulsing on the ground like he had when I had touched him the night before.
“So much,” Delena gazed at her hands and laughed. By now, she had harvested a bit from both Sebastian and August and it showed. Her skin was almost completely covered with the darkness. She coughed, laughed, then coughed once more. I just stood and watched as Sebastian and Payne both swung at her. She blasted them both back with magic, but her eyes widened, and she coughed again.
“Your body can’t handle what little you’ve taken of their power.” I smiled as I walked toward her. “If you take in any more, you’ll die.”
Delena continued coughing while studying her hands. “No, you’re wrong! I can handle this and more.”
She ran toward Barron next. In his skeletal glory, one touch from her and he went from a raging monster to a screaming man. He fell just like his brothers.
Inside me, darkness brewed. It smelled, no, it tasted the weakness of Delena’s own darkness. Suddenly, all the surrounding power was deafening with a pulse that thundered inside me. I didn’t know which one, but it sought out everything in its path.
Because I knew my darkness. It would put hers to shame.
No one was safe.
The ache that had been present while around Sebastian and his brothers came to a crashing tsunami that drowned me on the inside.
