"Bless," Fawn murmured, reaching out and hugging all four of them as they purred and rubbed their faces into her more. "You guys must've been so scared."
Suddenly, a dark shadow sliced horizontally through the room, lopping off Matthieu's head in one go. His head made a dull thump and squishing sound as it hit the stone floor.
Two light wisps cleaved downward, effectively slicing Matthieu's arms off, and they hit the ground with consecutive, disgusting plops.
Directly after, his headless, armless body fell backward and hit the ground.
I held my hand out, palm facing Matthieu's chest, and summoned a tree to grow from his heart. His chest cavity popped open as a small but full apple tree formed from inside it.
Silas conjured a death rune, sending it directly to his forehead at the same time Bastian tossed an acid potion, and we watched as the acid coating his dismembered body ate away at the skin and muscle.
Fawn smiled slightly at his mutilated body before her brows rose. "His spirit is lingering next to his vessel." She swallowed hard, holding both hands out, making a pushing motion that only seemed to frazzle her more. "His spirit won't dislodge," she mumbled to herself before shaking her head. "I've never had a spirit so attached to the body before, but in that state without immortality, there is no way that he could survive that."
An eerie chill crawled up my spine, making the hair stand on the back of my neck.
"He's a pile of bones, detached from the torso," Jasper muttered, shaking his head.
"That dead fucker is just that--dead," Casper vowed.
The twins exchanged a long look before both of them closed the distance between themselves and Fawn, pulling her into a hug.
Fawn sucked in a shaky breath and allowed herself to melt in their arms as the cats meowed in protest of being squished and flew upward, circling around us.
"I owe you alifetimeof debt," Jasper rasped, inhaling her scent through his nostrils deeply.
"We all do," Casper stated, his voice cracking. "I am so fucking sorry, sunshine. This should'veneverhappened."
Bastian surged forward, wrapping his arms around Fawn as the twins dropped their arms. "We need an antidote for that potion that we can take daily until this is all over. I need that potion," he mumbled. "I could extract the active ingredients from our blood. It should still be effective to find that way."
Fawn's arms circled around Bastian. "That would be extremely helpful."
I stepped forward and stole her from Bastian, wrapping her safely in my arms and inhaling her sweet scent that was tainted with blood and sweat. "I am so incredibly sorry, bug. I love you so much. Casper's right, though, that should have never happened."
"It shouldn't have ever happened." Silas moved forward, and I squeezed Fawn once before stepping back for him to wrap her up in an embrace. "It won't happen again." He pulled back and looked deeply into her eyes. "I will never allow this to happen to you again."
"I'm sorry this happened to all of you." She frowned, her eyes downcast. "I mean, I am the reason you were tortured."
"We arenotgoing to do this right now," Jasper told her. "This is not your fault. It's none of our faults. It's Matthieu's fault." He shoved a finger toward the discarded body of Matthieu.
"My brother is right," Casper stated. "Blaming ourselves won't help anyone, and we need to focus on the task at hand."
"Both the emperor and empress have fallen in the Revivium Empire if what Matthieu said was true," Silas told us with a heavy sigh. "We need to get this information back to Emperor Lloyd."
"My magic is still weak because my body is weak." Fawn's voice cracked. "Teleportation takes too much magic."
"None of us have enough magic for teleportation." Bastian shook his head. "I'm only now feeling my magic starting to come back."
"I'm tapped out for light-jumping," Casper muttered, crossing his arms.
"Me too with shadow jumping." Jasper shook his head.
"I don't think there's any easy way out of here," I said with a sigh, scratching my beard before scrunching my nose up in disgust. Dried vomit was in my beard. I dropped my hand.
"First off, we need to get out of this palace and out of the Revivium Empire. Even if we have to fight our way out," Silas told the group.
"Let's get the hell out of here," Fawn urged us. "Just use as little of magic as you can. Our magic is strong enough that it shouldn't be a problem."
"Everyone's magic is back now, right?" I asked, and everyone nodded their heads.
