Sacrifice of the Septimus: Part 1 (Afterlife saga Book 7) (26 page)

“We often have to make difficult choices for those we love.” He followed my gaze, looking down to what he had lost and I watched as he first clenched his fist, making the leather creak under the strain, then he yanked his arm from my grasp and we were right back to where we started.

“It wasn’t a difficult choice when I set out to find
her
…
just a shame I got to her too late before cutting out her tongue.”
  The threat part of this statement was all demon and I resisted the urge to shudder.      

“So you find her, cut out her tongue so she can’t give me what is rightfully mine, which is my own free will and the choice to make my own decision…” I started to say knowing our fight wasn’t yet over…not by a long shot. 

“What then? Just how far was this commission of yours going to stretch your soul?” At this he laughed once without humour.

“Haven’t you heard sweetheart, I don’t have a soul.” He told me with that hard edge glinting in his eyes which told me I knew how much these words did affect him.

“We both know that isn’t true.” I answered quickly, stepping back in front of him as he tried to get around me to reach Pythia.

“And we both know that my soul doesn’t
concern you.”
Okay so this was a low blow and he knew it when he saw the hurt sweep over my features. He released a sigh of frustration before rubbing the back of his neck as no doubt his irritation grew.

“Fair enough. If that’s how you feel Lucius, then I have nothing more to say to you.” I told him, turning on my heel and walking back to where Pythia was still recoiling from him.

“My little…”

“No! Just…just don’t…” I warned him as angry tears started to form. I swiped them away, glad my back was to him so he couldn’t see them. But then I thought about all the mixed feelings I’d had to deal with about Lucius in the past and everything we had gone through…and what we were facing now. 

There had been moments of pure beauty that I would never change for the world, no matter how wrong that statement sounded, given my love for Draven. So this drove me to speak once more…or more like lose my temper.

“Actually, you know what, I do have something else I want to say to you!” I told him whipping back round to face him.

“You have no idea how much your soul concerns me because you have no idea how much it means to me! You have no clue about my feelings for you or the level of hurt and pain I had to endure when believing you dead! What, you think that time shared together in the clock tower meant nothing to me?!” I shouted at him and the surprise on his face was plain and cutting to see. Not once had we brought up that time, but it looked like my time was running out, so there was no time like the present, considering that’s all I had left.

“Keira I…”

“You what Lucius, you thought I didn’t give a shit!?” I snapped storming back up to him once more.

“Do you remember what you offered me back then?” I asked him and suddenly he looked ashamed, but he wasn’t the one who felt that way at the time…no, that had been me.

“I remember,” he told me softly and I knew this was it…this was our time…our last chance.   

“When I locked myself in that bathroom, why did you think I was so upset?”

“Disgust?” I shook my head at his answer and gave him my soft eyes as I told him the truth. 

“I wasn’t disgusted by your offer Lucius, I was disgusted by
my
reaction to it and the damn temptation
I
felt. And also knowing that if I hadn’t run from you in that moment, then I would have given in to something I had wanted from the first moment I saw kindness in your heart.”

“And when was that?”
Lucius asked me on a whisper and I read the vulnerability there that was lay just under the surface, something he could never hide from me.  

“The day you saved my life and the day I swore on my soul that you could trust me.” I told him and he closed his eyes, no doubt seeing the memory of that fated night for himself. The night a kiss blessed by the sun saved my life and the Oracle knew…she knew it all.

‘In blood and in tears and flames will be the price but that will be nothing but a roll of the dice…so as one saved you from the depth of ice, the other will have to save you, not once but twice.’

This is what she had meant in the dream. Lucius had always been entwined around my heart as it was fated by the Gods, the same ones that damned him to a life of darkness at the time. That’s why after our last kiss on that bus he had called me his…

‘Salvation’

I had given him the sun and in return he had given me the type of loyalty only love can create and I knew by trying to convince me not to go through with this that it was that same love talking now. 

So unsurprisingly I watched him take a deep breath, knowing this conversation was affecting him as it was a past we had kept a lid on and never opened until now.

“So you see, you have no right to tell me that your soul is not my concern, no right at all! Not when I know…
what is in your heart.”
At this he lost his patience and grabbed me roughly, yanking me sharply to him.

“And what of yours…what is held in your heart for me?” He asked forcefully, looking down at me with a burning intensity that made me close my eyes as tears began to form under lowered lids, for he needed the truth…he needed what I swore my soul on,

My trust.

I bit my lip to stop it from trembling and slowly opened my eyes, letting the rise of my tears overspill on to my cheeks.

“What I hold for you is a love I am not free to give.”
I whispered up at him and our gazes held, locked in an unforgettable moment of raw truth and savage reality. He placed his forehead to mine and I told him the last of the truth, this time something we both knew but never spoke of…until now.

“We both know what we saw that night in the clock tower and no matter how we feel about each other, you and I both know that I am not your Chosen One and you are not mine…but let me do this and you will have a chance to find her. Your Chosen One, Lucius…let me give her a life.”
I whispered back to him now with tears running freely and a hitch in my voice that told him how hard this was to say. He knew what I was saying and as heartbreaking as it was, I wanted to fight for the chance for all of them to meet their chosen girls. But with no world left then there would be…
nothing left for them to find
.

And that included a man I was forbidden to love myself but desperately wanted to see him loved by another.    

So with his head still held to mine he in turn whispered back the name that will only ever belong to him,

“My little Keira girl”

After these beautiful stolen moments in our own private time he pulled back from me and like that night on a frozen lake, h
e
ran the back of his hand down my cheek, looking at me as if I was the most beautiful woman in the world.

Then he swore his loyalty to me and said,

“I will do whatever you ask of me.”

Chapter 25

I Wish

“Oh no! Please don’t do this to me…not now, come on baby…pleeease, just start!” I shouted looking down at the dials which confirmed my car was dead and one look at the fuel gauge and I knew why.

“Great! Fabulous! Just bloody brilliant…you idiot Keira!” I said scorning myself for my stupidity. I looked out of my window to see that it was now dark and after ignoring twelve missed calls from Draven, I knew I wouldn’t be able to get away with another. I’d already text to tell him that I was on my way back and ignored it when it continually beeped notifying me I’d had five back.

Because I knew what they would say…

Where are you?

Where have you been?

I am worried.

I am not happy.

I am a big angry, macho king with wings and I am going to roar at you woman, bla, bla, bla…

Something along those lines. 

“Oh yeah, you are in so much trouble this time,” I told myself as I let my head fall to the steering wheel.

And even thinking all of this, I still didn’t know what to tell him. I knew what I would have liked to have told him and it sounded something like, ‘just having fun with Libby’. However, I couldn’t say this, not now. And thanks to Libby, Draven knew this. Because my sister, unbeknownst to me, had rang Sophia to ask about bridesmaid’s dresses, also telling her that she was finding it hard to get in contact with me. This would have been fine, as I knew Sophia would have covered for me, but considering Libby’s phone call happened when Draven was in the room, that was me officially screwed.

So after a heavy handed Draven took over, grabbed the phone and asked if she had seen me at all that day or had planned to, that was my fate sealed. And because of this, it now left me freaking out about what on earth I was going to say.

“Well, how the Hell are you going to get yourself out of this one, Keira?” My only saving grace was that after seeing double the amount of missed calls from Libby I listened to her voice mail, warning me about her phone call with Draven and how she got the impression that she had dropped me in it. Well, that was the understatement of the year, but one only made due to my own stupid actions.

I had been in the library a lot longer than I thought I would, but that was because I never expected to find Lucius there hunting the Oracle. Thankfully in the end it had turned out for the best but it took a lot of convincing.

After all, Lucius may be loyal to me, but he was simply trying to do everything in his power to stop me from choosing this fate and ultimately my death. I knew I couldn’t blame him for his reluctance in helping me, but Lucius wasn’t stupid…far from it in fact. Because he also knew the risks of what could happen to us all if I did nothing, and in the end I knew exactly what I needed to say to get him to help me. All I had to mention was saving the life of a chosen one he didn’t yet know and it had been enough to get him to rethink.

At the time, one mention of potentially saving the life of someone he was fated to be with and I knew he struggled with this choice just as I struggled with mine. After all, being torn when in love wasn’t easy for any of us but doing so with a love you hadn’t met, against one you could never have, was an even harder choice to make.

Forbidden love stood against unknown fated love.

One thing was for sure and that was I didn’t envy what he was going through right now. But because I understood it, it also meant that I understood the depth of his decision when he chose to help me. It was almost like going against the grain for Lucius who had only ever tried to protect me, even when we first met and back when he was known as my kidnapper.

So as I sat here in my broken down car I couldn’t help but think back to what I had just left at the library, when I knew that really I should have been trying to figure out what I was going to say to Draven.

“Come again…You want me to do what?” Lucius asked me, obviously perplexed at the time that I would ask this of him.

“Well you did say that you would do whatever I asked, so technically this is your fault.” I said giving him an anxious little smile, one he simply groaned at.

“Women.”
I heard him mutter under his breath but I chose to ignore it.

“Well if you found her then that means so could anyone else, including whoever commissioned you in the first place, so she obviously isn’t safe here.” I told him and he rolled his eyes at me before following me over to the still trembling Pythia. She even flinched back at just the sight of him coming nearer.

“It’s okay, calm down, he’s not going to hurt you.” I told her but she started shaking her head violently as if what I was saying was lies.

“Pythia stop!” I shouted getting concerned that if she didn’t calm down soon then she would have a full blown panic attack.

“Let me deal with this.” Lucius said taking charge and moving me out of his way. I watched as sheer horror glazed over her eyes and she reminded me of a small fawn caught in headlights, seeing the danger coming closer but too paralysed to do anything about it.

He knelt down in front of her and placed both hands either side of her head, ignoring her fearful little moans.

“What are you doing?” I asked getting worried that Lucius was going to back out of his vow to help me.

“Making her compliant,” he told me before turning his attention to Pythia.

“Look at me, girl.”

“I…I…knnnow whhhat …
you…are,”
she stammered out and it quickly had me wondering what it was she knew about Lucius that I didn’t?

“Then obey me and I won’t hurt you,” he told her in an eerie calm voice which he no doubt reserved for his victims.

“What do you…you want with me?” she asked and the grin he gave her was pure evil.

“I want you to show me what you have shown the Electus.”

“What?! No, Lucius, no, this wasn’t part of the deal!” I protested trying in vain to get him off her.

“There was no deal, Pet. There is only me helping you, now let me go so I can do that.” He ordered, turning to look at me and I noticed his eyes were turning their usual, frightening, demonic, blood red. I let him go knowing that I had no other choice than to trust him now. After all, the Oracle had already completed the task everyone seemed to be trying to prevent, which of course was telling me what the Fates had in store for me.

“Now show me.”

“I shouldn’t.” She told him after he asked this of her again.

“There are a lot of things in your dark past you shouldn’t have done little puppet, that I am well aware of, but I also know that if it didn’t stop you then, there is no reason it should stop you now.” Pythia blinked up at him as if she was a small child being called out for the wrongs she had done. I had to wonder with his words what exactly Pythia had done that she shouldn’t?

“Now you will drop your shields and show me, or I will simply take what I want and trust me Puppet,
that will hurt you,”
he said warning her and in turn I warned him by hissing his name,

“Lucius.”

“I will show you,” she said giving in to him and he nodded for her to begin. I watched on, with one arm wrapped around myself and the other bent up with my fist to my mouth, in trepidation. They both closed their eyes and for a moment nothing happened. I waited with bated breath and for long minutes it seemed as though time was locked, neither moving forward or back. But it wasn’t in the now either, just like time had fallen into an abyss of empty space that didn’t follow the rules of past, present or future…it didn’t follow the rules of anything because it
was nothing
and scarier still, in time everything you cared about turned into that same nothing.

I tried to make sense of what was happening and the darkness that was closing in around us but I couldn’t. I wanted to speak but suddenly I was standing on the edge of a hellish cliff side staring back over the open plains of Tartarus. I remembered this place. Its lack of life or colour, just stark hard crumbling ground circling the mountain where the Titans were imprisoned.

“Tartarus…the unbounded first-existing entity from which the Light and the Cosmos are born.” I spoke these words not from any will of my own or with any voice I knew, yet I heard them through my ears and spoke them through my mouth.

I looked to the sides when I heard a noise rumbling from behind me and saw a huge army of demons running towards where I stood. They had their crude weapons raised high, ones made from rock and flaming steel, forged not of Earth. Red skinned generals drove their legions onwards, bellowing orders in another language. Decaying skeletal creatures, dressed as knights in armour, ran quickly between the other ranks as if these were the pawns that needed to go first, charging into battle.

Suddenly my head snapped round and I saw the first of the Titans break free as the mountain erupted. Lava spewed up, bursting from the top like a red firework had exploded into Hell’s dark sky. My eyes were glued to the sight, as if not afraid at seeing the first of the Titans emerging and reaching out of his imprisonment. Then something made me look back.

The great army was getting closer but even this was something I didn’t fear. No, in fact my lips…I reached up to touch them only to find that they were smiling. I didn’t have much time to think too deeply about it as I heard the battle cries start to come closer as the demonic beasts howled in anticipation of battle and blood. Horned Gorgon Leeches which I saw now were much larger than I had seen them before. They were controlled by heavy chains
,
shackled around their curled horns, ones that barely looked strong enough to keep them in line. They snarled at their keepers, snapping their massive teeth at those who kept them from running too early into the fight. 

I looked further back and each section of demons was all grouped together and at the front of each section was a mounted demon in charge. They were bigger and they were scarier than the rest, so it was obvious. Many even wore the evidence of previous victims on their body, whether it was bare skulls mounted on their shoulders or the charred bones which had been incorporated into their rocklike armour.  

But what was obvious was who I didn’t see…

The one person leading them all into battle.

As I thought this and just as they were close to overtaking where I was stood, something happened. I gripped onto something hard at my hip and lifted it high above my head.

“KILL THE TITANS!” I screamed in that same voice I didn’t recognise and I looked round to hear the deafening sound of the army behind me responding to my battle cry. I thrust what I could now see was a flaming sword forward and pointed towards the escaping Titan; a sword that was pulled from the White Lady in the lake…and one that once belonged to
Lucius.

I didn’t understand any of this, but more than that I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t cowering in fear as wave after wave of demons ran past me. And then it hit me…on a golden hue reflecting back at me as one demon passed with a shield of hammered gold held high…

High enough for me to see my reflection. And what did I see there, looking back at me?

Myself
…as a demon

Not only was I a demon, but I was the one leading this entire army into war.

As soon as I saw this, my vision started to break away and the abyss I had been trapped in was finally caught up in the winds of time. I opened my eyes and at first thought I was trapped in yet another vision. I was staring at the back of Lucius in his other form and he looked like an Angel on fire. Stunning phoenix wings attached to gleaming white horns that curved out from his back were pulsating with power, flowing through his unusual flame coloured feathers. He was still knelt down with his hands holding onto Pythia and the both of them were frozen, locked in some strange place I couldn’t see.

I had to wonder, was this caused by Pythia or
was I doing this?

The second I thought this was the second everything stopped. As though one of the Gods had clicked his fingers and snapped that cosmic chord back into place. Lucius lost his wings and his back was once more covered in black leather. Then instead of just letting Pythia go, he gently eased her body back and it was then I noticed that she was unconscious.

“Is she…?”

“She’s fine,” he told me softly and the second I heard his voice I knew something was wrong. He stood but kept his back to me with his shoulders tensed as if he was still seeing whatever it was the Oracle had shown him.

“Lucius?”

“Now is not the time for it, Keira,” he warned and just as I was reaching out to touch his shoulder I pulled back, stung by his words. But before I lowered my hand to my side, he quickly spun round and snatched it back up. Then he yanked me to him so I stumbled into his arms.

“I have never been the type to lose my sanity by giving power to false hope. But if I allowed myself to wish, then I would ask for so many things.”

“What do you wish for, Lucius?”
I asked on a whisper, almost too afraid to ask but more afraid not to.

“I would wish for another life to be sacrificed. I would wish I was your only one and that you were free to love me the way…” He stopped before he finished, closing his eyes so that I could just see a single blood stained tear fall down his cheek. Then he pulled me closer, holding my head to his chest before he whispered the last part of his wish…