I made sure I had all my weapons where they needed to be, plus a necklace with a pouch of my blood just in case I was in a bind and needed to spill some to say a spell. Spells were probably the only weapon that made any difference, but I would’ve felt naked without my knives and the etched revolver Nate had given me on our wedding night.
I wasn’t used to carrying a gun around, but I considered that one lucky, with all my family’s original names written in a language no human would understand. Nate had a leather holster made that wrapped around my left shoulder, and managed not to interfere with my back sheath and the machete I was carrying in it.
“Have I told you that you are the only man I could ever imagine myself with? I know after all these years that has to be pretty obvious, but I don’t think there’s another person out there who could put up with me the way you do.”
Feeling as ready as I could for the day, I faced my other half and tried not to cry. It was an odd feeling for me to have when I was about to try my hardest to kill anyone who attempted to mess with my family.
“Hey,” Nate said, gathering me into him. “You’ve made it so we don’t have to live without each other, so if it comes down to Rick or us, and you can’t deal with that, choose him. I understand the bond you have and how selfless you can be. I lived about fifty years in misery because of that selflessness.”
“And yet you still love me. I don’t know how things are going to go down, but my hope is everyone makes it through the day alive. We better get out there and make sure no one hurts themselves with the tanks Joseph is having them roll out.”
I realized we hadn’t used all the weaponry Joseph had requested Mak bring in once we got settled the first day, but after days of fighting I didn’t know how the various larger pieces of artillery would help. There was a chance Mak had worked his magic on them, so I shouldn’t have assumed anything.
“I don’t think he had the tanks brought over, and you should probably keep that down, just in case he decides they’re needed. I’ve let him go ahead and run things today, but we both know none of it will make a difference.”
“I could scream that we need a nuclear missile and he wouldn’t hear me with the protection I’ve put on this tent.”
“That’s true. I wish we could stay in here and not deal with today, but that wouldn’t help things, so I suppose we’ll do as you suggested and head out. I love you, Yara.”
“I love you too, Malik.”
Nate loosened the hold he had on me and smiled as he kissed my forehead. He didn’t say anything as he dragged me out of the tent. I wasn’t prepared for the scene that awaited us.
For the second time that day, a demon greeted us. This one wasn’t just there with a message, though. He wanted to fight based on the barrage of energy streams coming at us.
Instinctively, I pushed Nate out of the way and started firing back as I dodged the green and blue lines. I didn’t think they’d hurt me much, but I didn’t want to test that theory. It was bad enough I was trying to figure out what had been done to our tent to make it so I couldn’t feel a demon standing outside of it.
“They’re here earlier than I expected. I’ll handle him, but the others are going to need some help.” I tried to get Nate to go so I’d have someone with eyes on Rick.
It helped my case that the demon in front of us didn’t look very old. I didn’t know how I could tell, because they all seemed to have the same general sullen look to their face and black hair, but something felt newer about the male in front of me.
“You sure you got him?” Nate shouldn’t have wasted time asking the question, but I humored him by replying in the affirmative quickly.
I upped my fireballs as he ran, faster than some eyes could keep up with, to get to where the main battle was taking place. I hadn’t had much of a chance to see exactly what was going on, but there was a lot of yelling going on, and that wasn’t something I’d heard much of in the previous days.
“I’m surprise there’s only one of you waiting out here for me,” I said as I changed tactics a little and switched to trying to get closer for hand-to-hand fighting.
We’d found that the demons were better with physical fighting than the warlocks were, but we were by far superior in that aspect. They liked to rely on the spells, but our side wasn’t really phased after I’d protected everyone from that kind of magic.
“Everyone else is a little busy at the moment and Malphas thought you needed some special attention.” The demon’s eyes brightened when he said his creator’s name, or whatever Malphas decided he was to his demons.
“And he thought a wet behind the ears demon could give me that special attention? How old are you, a century?”
“I’m five hundred, I’ll have you know, and I can fight just as well as anyone else.” To prove his point, he pulled out a long dagger from underneath his shirt.
My eyes widened just a little to see a demon with a physical weapon. I’d known something was going to be different about the fighting, but to have him actually stop sending energy at me and be willing to fight wasn’t something I’d expected.
“Are you sure you’re holding that the right way?” I asked as I pulled out my machete.
I didn’t think pulling out my gun and firing was exactly fair since he was so willing to give knife-fighting a try. It would’ve done about the same amount of damage as the machete would in my summation, so I stuck with what I knew best.
He came charging at me with his twisted piece of metal. I suppose he thought he’d catch me off guard, but I was ready, and darted out of the way while I tried to slice his side as I moved past him. He was quick to turn and try to come at me again.
We danced for a few minutes, and I wondered if the reason Malphas sent him after me was because he could actually keep up with my attacks. That didn’t change the fact that I picked up he was a little weak on his left side.
When he decided to open it up for me, I couldn’t resist pushing the machete right into his side. He was skinny enough, and the force I used strong enough, that it ended up coming out the other side. I felt ribs crack as it met a little resistance.
The demon looked down at the handle sticking out of him and the look of shock on his face was almost comical. I couldn’t believe he’d never been stabbed when he’d practiced before. His teacher had to have been pretty good for him to learn some of his moves, so there had to be a few times when someone had gotten the better of him.
“It hurts,” he said, not even bothering to hide his confusion.
“Well, yeah. I’ve been stabbed enough time to know it hurts.”
“But it never has before. Malphas said it wouldn’t hurt.”
The demon dropped down to his knees, and I let go of the handle as he did. His dagger had fallen from his hand within seconds of me injuring him. He was too busy trying to figure out what was going on to worry about fighting.
I was going to say something, but he fell on his side as his body started to disintegrate. Whatever was going on, I didn’t think he’d like the taunt I had lined up for him.
I pulled my machete out of him and continued to watch until there was nothing left of him. I had no idea what had just happened, but the yells and screams coming from the main battle told me I had bigger things to worry about.
I started out by finding Rick and ran in his direction. Everyone was in the general area of the dang tree and he was in the middle of a battle with two demons. I decided to try out my revolver on one of them, just to see if it did any damage. I felt a small recoil as I sent the bullet on its way.
I’d shot a gun enough that my aim ended up being true and hit the demon right in the center of the chest. If he hadn’t been so focused on Rick, he probably would’ve seen it coming. Since he hadn’t, he screamed in pain and started instantly dissolving like the other demon had.
I didn’t know what was going on, but I was ready for a rodeo I felt like we could win. Rick seemed to have the other demon taken care of, so I moved on to find more to kill. It was i
nvigorating knowing that our side was finally doing something.
There were a lot of demons, though, and even with Joseph working the heavy artillery, it was going to take a while to get through every last one of them. A part of me was surprised they didn’t retreat when they realized something had changed.
As the fight went on, I lost track of my surroundings and Rick. I felt a sudden surge of energy in the air and I frantically started looking around for him. I’d managed to get away from the tree during my battle. I couldn’t believe I’d let stupid demons make me lose focus.
“Freddie, I need you by my side right now,” I screamed as loud as I could mentally. I didn’t want to alert everyone that I was looking for him.
“I’m a little busy right now, sis, but I’ll be there as soon as I can. Every once in a while I come across one that’s pretty good at fighting and they take just a little bit longer.”
I could hear the exertion he was dishing out in his thought. It didn’t sound like it was to the level necessary to take on an evil demon leader, so I concluded I still had time to get to him. I took off in a run, able to see the top of the tree from the part of a hill I was standing on.
I didn’t remember getting that far away, but I tended to go where the battle took me, and as my protector, Rick was usually by my side. He picked the wrong day to take his duties lightly.
The worrisome energy was getting stronger and I knew it wouldn’t be long before Malphas manifested. I could feel Nate hurrying to get to Rick, since he was closer, but I doubted Malphas would be as easy to slice into as the demons.
For some reason it felt like I was almost running in slow motion as I got to a spot where I could see the tree in full. It didn’t surprise me that I could see Rick there fighting with a demon. Nate appeared and quickly stabbed the demon from behind and yelled at Rick to get to me.
It was too late, though. I saw the black mist that had shown up at my wedding appear right behind Rick and without any movement other than the mist, I watched as Rick burst into flames and ash fell to the ground in the spot he’d stood.
I was still running at that time and it felt like it was some kind of bad dream. In my visions, Malphas had a shape when Rick died, so I was thrown for a curve that not only had I not been able to prevent it, but it also didn’t play out like I’d thought.
For one, it happened way too fast. There should’ve been at least a chance for me to save him. What good was becoming a sorceress if I hadn’t really found a way to save Rick? I didn’t understand it, and I came to a sudden halt as I tried to figure out if I’d walked into something that caused me to hallucinate.
“I’m sorry, Yara, it had to be done,” I heard Malphas say. “One day you’ll understand.”
Malphas didn’t appear the fifty yards in front of me where the mist had been. His voice was right next to me, and it was calm as could be. There wasn’t an ounce of calm in my body, just anger and the need for immediate revenge.
I didn’t hesitate for a second as I took the only knife that could kill him and jabbed it into his neck. I wasn’t prepared for the instant pain that radiated through my body at the same time, but I made sure the knife made it through. Malphas was taller than me, so I had to stretch to ensure I did as much damage as I could from the side of him.
“Whatever they try to tell you to cover up what I shared with you, know it isn’t a lie. Your brother dying was because of them, not me. It had to be done in order for things to be righted.”
I didn’t understand what he was saying, and bringing up Rick just made me madder. I took the knife out and moved so I was facing him. He didn’t seem concerned about the blood leaking out of his neck in buckets.
“You killed my brother. It doesn’t matter what you thought needed righted.” I plunged the knife into his chest. The pain of that wound was even worse for me, but it had to be done.
I hated seeing the smile on his face as fire started at his feet and worked its way up his body. I jumped back a little, not wanting it to touch me, but I kept my eyes on his face. It was serene, and it didn’t deserve to be.
Grabbing one of my throwing knives tucked into my thigh sheaths, I threw it at him. Hoping to change his expression. The fire accelerated before it made it to him.
Nate snatched my hand and pulled me away from him. He tried to calm me down by whispering to me. It didn’t work, and I only got more pissed off as I watched the fire that seemed to go on forever, at least a lot longer than my brother’s.
Malphas didn’t deserve some strange grand sendoff. He didn’t deserve me sitting there watching it either, so I stopped. I took Nate and I walked over to the spot I’d last seen Rick. I felt the heat dissipate the second I turned away. I didn’t bother looking back to see if there was anything left of Malphas. I knew there wasn’t.
Whether the others were still fighting or not, there was only one thing for me to do. I sat down with my brother’s ashes and I cried.