At some point I heard Romy cry out for me. She was following, as were Verena and Kai. But my focus was on my goal. Far ahead I could see the wall of undead trampling over the graveyard as if the stones were nothing but daisies to squash. Stone cracked, and the earth was churned up beneath hundreds of feet.
I pushed every ounce of energy into my limbs, using my arms to propel me forwards, kicking out my legs until I was keeping pace with the wall of undead.
My eyes found the very person I searched for. Arwyn. He was positioned against a gravestone, his face marred with dried blood. Just seeing him made my breath clog in my throat, but that didn’t mean I stopped. I pushed through my constricting lungs and forged ahead, aware of the undead creatures following behind.
Father Tomin should’ve been with him, but there was no one else in sight.
JustmyArwyn, alone in the night as he faced off his impending doom.
I cared for nothing else. Not rules set upon us by a demon, or the threats of what would become of us if we acted against him.
Onlyhim.
The hoard of corpses had yet to notice me. Their focus was pinned on the man that had stolen every possible emotion from me, and claimed it as his own. In the chaos, he looked up and met my eyes.
One small connection was all it took for the old magic to swell in my bones. It was a siren call, promising me salvation if only I reached for it.
The thing was, there was nothing to reach for by the time I got to Arwyn. I was made of old magic. My skin was the crust of the earth, my breath the air that occupied the skies. Fire as hot as the sun boiled beneath my flesh until there was nothing I could do but let it out.
I was a puppet to the power, willingly giving in to its control.
The dead didn’t notice me until it was too late.
I stood before them, my back to the man I loved, a group of allies and possible enemies to my side.
“No!” Arwyn shouted after me. “Hector, stop!”
Too late. It wasn’t me he should be pleading with, but the ancient and endless power occupying my soul.
Magic expelled from every pore in my skin, a force so great it ripped away at Bahmet’s domain, blasting into the poor souls who’d clawed themselves out of graves just to feed on our flesh.
There would be no feast for them.
Fire scorched rotten flesh, bright and brilliant. The winds drove at them, forcing them to a halt. And the ground, without thought or guidance, cracked. A sinkhole opened up beneath their stumbling feet. A wide, gaping maw of soil and mud that gobbled the undead up. Gravestones tilted into the crack of earth, like jagged teeth wearing down the corpses until they were pulp.
I did itallfor Arwyn.
The last thing Bahmet’s undead army saw was the glowing silver of my eyes. I was no demon, but I felt like one inside. Even without Bahmet’s magic, I was formidable. Driven by need, by emotion. I was an angel, stood with wings of elemental magic at my back, heaven’s judgement crackling around my fingers.
Heat flared behind me so suddenly, it stopped me in my tracks. I spun around, magic still clinging to my subconscious, intuition screaming in my ears that something was still wrong.
Arwyn was utterly and completely bathed in flame. His outstretched arms wreathed in vicious tongues as he stretched out to me. I couldn’t make out his face anymore, but the keening cry that left his mouth almost brought me to my knees.
Almost.
In a blink he was before me, burning alive, but in the next Arwyn was gone, barely a slip of smoke left behind.
Another harsh glare of light brightened the graveyard. It was next to the first fire that I’d spotted from a distance.
“Pyres,” Romy gasped from my side, ash coating her rich skin, wide eyes fixed to the two smouldering stakes to our side. Then she forced out another word, a name that was half a sob, and half a scream. “Arwyn.”
The darkness laughed, taunting me.
I ignored it and continued running. The closer I got to the towering stakes, the more I knew that Romy was right.
Arwyn was bound to the second burning pyre, totally overwhelmed in flames. He continued to scream, his pain and fear satiating the unnatural fire.
How was this happening?
