"Max!" I gasped as disbelief rumbled through my body. "But--how?" I narrowed my eyes through the darkness and instantly in the background, the fire pit erupted into the sky in one large wave of orange-red light, exposing the surrounding areas in a flash and allowing me to confirm that it truly was Max.
"We don't have time for that." Max said affirmatively. His eyes wondered over to Freya where another man was cutting her ropes. Max stepped closer to me and reached for my collar. Instinctively, I jerked away and then found myself foolish when his eyes widened.
"Sorry," I murmured before letting him take my collar off.
I didn't know how he was going to get the collar off in the first place. When Scar had placed mine on, she had made it very clear that there was no way in hell it would ever be able to come off. It didn't just have a simple latch and buckle like an animal's collar, it was some special metal and leather link that just sewed itself together on its own.
But when Max placed his hands against my neck and the metal inside began to heat up rather quickly. Before the sound of splintering metal rang through the air, I remembered he was a Druid.
"We must hurry." Max's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. I turned my head to see his eyes searching the forest, probably looking for Freya. And he must have found her for his face twitched in a soft smile as his gaze drifted off behind us.
Freya's sassy huff sounded right before she started violently cussing at the man who had cut her bindings. "What took you so damn long? Huh? Leave a damn nymph all tied up against a tree and you just watch her cry her eyes out as she--"
"Freya!" I shouted and her feverish eyes flashed over my way.
"They did the same thing to you!" She waved a hand my way as she glared at the green cloaked man. "She's a princess you know. I bet her royal ass she didn't like being treated such a way."
"I'm not a princess." I mumbled as I swung my arms in defeat against my sides and accidentally slammed my knuckles against a tree trunk. Hissing as I pressed my closed fist against my breasts, someone stepped from between the shadows.
Max instantly drew the sword at his side in a large arch, the steel reflecting the fire explosions behind us as the other Druids fought with Scar's men.
Kieran stood there with his hands raised to his shoulders in surrender as his earthy eyes glittered with humor as he peered at Max. "Always thought you would be the one to save the day. Aren't Druids sort of well-known for that sort of thing?"
"What are you doing here?" Max's eyes hit mine, "What is he doing here?" He then asked me not a second later. He balanced his sword skillfully in his hand as behind us all, the forest lit up in a large field of light as a tree combusted soon afterwards.
Scar's demands started to fire back and forth between her men and women as she instructed them through the fight. I looked over my shoulder to see her standing with one foot up on a jaggedly cut tree stump, and the other drilling itself anxiously into the dirt. Was she scared of the Druids and their magic? I wondered but never let the thought carry out as Max placed his sword back in the sheath placed on his hip.
"Since you're here," he rose his chin up a fraction. "Are you up to destroying a couple of Hunter's?"
Kieran's eyes wondered over to me and a smirk as dark as his heart played across his face. "Anything for my fiancé."
I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes as his long and lean legs started to carry himself closer to me.
Max seemed to be the braver one of the two of us, for his eyes rolled over twice before he let out a moan. "Let's just get this done with." He cut Kieran a hard look and Kieran walked right passed me to follow Max.
I watched as the two of them, clad in black hunting cloaks, wondered off into the war of magic and gunpowder.
"He always seems to be the one to come save you." Weston's voice said behind me and I whirled around to see his face casted out by shadows.
I reached out and placed a hand on his left breast. "Don't worry about that." A soft smile crossed my face and his lips thinned to a scowl.
"How can I not when I could have prevented all of this from happening?" Weston's golden brown eyes glimmered with disdain as he looked after Kieran.
My hand slipped from his chest. "What do you mean?"
"I could have taken you away the first night I met you. I knew what my father was planning and I knew how Kieran would turn out. Why do you think my father forced Kieran's dad to send him on that mission? Killing is like a Reaper's inner beasts bate, it'll constantly drive him insane till he's killed every last thing he loves. And that includes you, Caelia." Weston's chest heaved up and down as he tried so desperately to control his breathing. But in his eyes I could still see the fiery demon twitching. My hands went up to his face and my fingers lined his hard jaw tenderly. I knew what his words meant and what they hid, even though he tried to not let his feelings be revealed in that manner. But I guess that his small opening of his heart is what led me to stand on my toes and place a chaste kiss on his lips. It was our first and it was something I'd always remember.
"I don't care." I whispered against him as his hands fell on my hips and held me against him. My toes were hovering just above the grass as I pulled back to look into his face. "I don't care about heroes and what was thrown my way just days ago. I only care about who was there for me through it all, and Weston, you were undoubtedly the only one who was there for me when the Crown tried to kill me." A small chuckle escaped my lips as a smile parted my face.
"He wasn't just the only one." A twig snapped underneath a heavy boot and I swiveled around to see Reighton standing there rubbing his neck where his collar had once been.
"I--I know, but--"
"I'm surprised Max worked this fast. Before I came outside to see you jumping out of a window, I'd managed to pull him out of the Crown's torture chamber." Reighton cut me off swiftly as he stepped up closer to Weston and I. Weston placed a hand on my waist when he came close enough to smell his natural scent of light musk and ocean air. "I told him to leave and find help and I wasn't expecting it to come tonight." His eyes laid on mine before moving towards Weston.
"I'm just glad we all came out alive." I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. Screams echoed all around the four of us and Freya's cackle rumbled through the air.
"Take that you bitch!" Freya shrilled before dodging and swinging her leg up to kick a woman in the breast. Reighton snickered and Weston's frown deepened.
"I don't know how long we'll all stay alive." Weston's somber tone rippled through the air.
The woman that Freya had soccer kicked in the breast stood up from her hunched position growling like a wolf in the hunt. Her eyes feverish as she lifted her revolver and placed her finger on the trigger. Determination cording through the Amazon woman's forearm as she held it perfectly straight towards Freya's forehead caused my breath to hitch.
Freya stood there stunned as she stared into the eyes of the revolver, watching them roll with laughter as the woman smirked.
"Freya!" I gasped and Reighton and Weston looked just in time as from the trees above, a man with long blonde hair fell from above in a ripple of green cloth. In the midst of the wind formed from the drop, I managed to see the spark of faerie armor. The man above drew his arm up and back as he grabbed the hilt in a tight fist and threw the extraordinarily elegant blade from its sheath.
The woman didn't have time to react as in those four seconds the cloaked man dropped to the floor and swung his sword at the base of her neck.
My shoulders cringed inwards as my face was speckled in warm blood. The woman's head rolled off her shoulder and onto the grass in a sickening thud as her body folded in on itself and crashes against the earth.
Kieran's Reaper form roared as my eyes followed the shattering cries of his attackers. Four men, climbing and stabbing to get a good hold on the beast before them, made their way up Kieran's demonic legs. The cracked and bubbling joints of an animals muscle makeup looked gruesome as one of the men failed to dodge Kieran's swiping claws and was swung up through the air. The man's knife slipped through Kieran's stretched out clothing to reveal the true skin of a Reaper. The sick green and grey color was etched in dark undertones of deep blacks and purples. The muscle eroding and tearing with every movement Kieran made to escape to the trees.
"Are you alright?" And oddly textured deep tenor spoke and my attention went back to Freya. The nymph was utterly stunned as her wide lavender eyes continued to stare down at the body of the woman.
The man still wore his hood to cover his features, but no one could hide the startling shimmer of the pale blonde hair that laid underneath.
Freya looked up suddenly and nodded her head. "God thank you." She praised before gulping.
A fire bomb went off in the background and I caught a small glimpse of his lush lips parting in a smile as his face was angled to look down at Freya.
"Who is that?" Reighton asked the same question that was tumbling through my mind at the moment.
We all watched from the subtle shadows as the man placed a hand on Freya's shoulder before pulling away. She stared after him as he walked to the nearest tree and grabbed hold of the nearest branch. Hoisting himself up, he was soon lost to memory.
"Did you see that?" Freya shouted towards us as she waved her hands towards the woman's body. "I'm not imagining my own safety, am I? Please tell me I'm not dead and still trapped in a hell hole of war?" She rolled her eyes and pleaded up to the heavens.
I broke away from Weston and jogged the rest of the way towards Freya. Collapsing on her, I gave her a tight hug before drawing back. Freya was looking at me with wide eyes and an awkward smile.
"I must be dead." She murmured between clenched teeth.
I slapped her on the shoulder. "No!" I shouted. "You're no where near being dead, alright? Now let's try to find a way out of here." I spun around to look at Reighton and Weston as I kept my hand on Freya's shoulder to see Scar with two daggers placed around each boys throats.
"Not yet princess." Scar cooed. "We still have some unfinished business and I need my bounty." Her eyes gleamed as the erupting forest reflected through them. Ash was falling all around us as more and more shadows fell from the trees and tried to overwhelm the odds of Scar and her Hunter's winning. But the eight men and women she had behind her were a lot tougher and skilled than any of us probably expected.
"Just let them go." I tried to say as calmly as I could as I held my hands out in half surrender.
Scar shook her head slowly. "You come here and call off your buddies," she tilted her head towards the equally fought battle in the small clearing. "Then I'll let your friends live."
I knew she was lying. But that didn't stop me from feeling the urge to yell out for everyone to stop. I'd always wanted their freedom, but I always knew mine wouldn't go without ease. For some reason, everyone wanted me. It didn't even matter if I was left whole or broken, alive or dead, they all wanted me.
I was opening my mouth to tell Max and his men to stop with their assault when Scar let out a piercing scream and dragged her daggers clear across Reighton and Weston's throats.
"No!" I shouted as I ran towards Reighton and Weston.
Reighton had his hands pressed firmly across his neck as bright red blood oozed between his finger tips.
My heart sunk to the very back of my chest as his knees fell to the ground with a sick crunch. Weston reached out with one hand to grab Reighton's shoulder, his eyes wide with fear and shock.
"You idiot!" Scar growled loudly as she spun around to reveal an arrow dug deep in her shoulder blade. Mar Reeve stood there behind her with a smirk on his face as he knocked another arrow in his bow and pulled back.
"Take another step and I swear this one will be your undoing." Mar Reeve said boldly to her.
Freya scrambled forward in the grass as she reached out and held onto Reighton's shirt. I didn't know who to focus on. Everyone was dying and it was because of me. They were all trying to save me.
Tears ran along my eyes and I closed the world off. Staring straight ahead, I looked beyond the forest with a blind eye. The world was fuzzy around the edges as I felt my body start to warm up.
Freya pulled Reighton closer to her and Weston's eyes met mine. He wasn't dying, Weston. The blade hadn't gone nearly deep enough to cause more than a minor scratch, and for some reason that infuriated me.
Anger boiling up in my chest, my hands clenched into a fist. There was no way anyone was going to decide the fates of my friends. I was going to save each and every last one of them.
Thunder crashed off somewhere in the distance as black clouds started rolling off the mountain tops in the distance. The wind picked up and the torn maids dress I was wearing started to flutter in the air.
The fighting in the clearing came to a halt as my skin started to light up. My veins twisting and threading together as the blood within became someone holier. My breath hitched as a soft pain echoed deep in my soul and I realized that was the pit that held all my feelings. All my love and hate for the world and the people within it. All the envy and gratitude I've had for the people in my past. It the was the very thing that made me who I was.
And it was the very thing that caused the world to come crashing down.
In a split second, the light in my veins rolled out and off my skin and pushed its way across the earth. In a wave of power and blinding light, the world was overcome with what made up everything I was.
And I felt that release. I felt the urge to keep everyone and everything I loved safe. But it wasn't a bad thing. It let me know that in that moment, I was saving one of the many people I loved. For when the ring of light brushed across Reighton, I could feel his wound and his dying heart healing. I could feel the pang in his chest as his heart thumped back to life. And I felt more connected to him.
But the feeling was bittersweet for once the light became evanescent and disappeared completely, someone in the middle of the adversaries dropped dead.
I let that tear I'd been holding back as I looked through the parting people. We all wanted to know who had taken Reighton's place. We all wanted to know who had died because I'd taken Reighton from Gods hands.
And when I saw the dark mass of wavy hair and soft pale skin, I almost crashed onto the floor.
Devastation rippled through every fiber in my body as Freya stood up slowly from Reighton as he sat back on his heels and stared up into the stars.
The ashes from the burning trees all around fell like the Angels tears as they took the souls of the dead all around us. I closed my eyes just in time to hear Freya's cry of misery.
Her feet stumbled at first through the grass as she made her way to where Max laid between the blades of grass. And then she started to run. Her feet pounding through the ash and blood, kicking up the grass as she thundered her way through the crowd of people.
I couldn't watch as she fell across his body and began to weep. I had taken his life because I'd loved Reighton too much to let him go.
My eyes wondered to where Reighton sat on his heels to see him staring straight at me. I shook my head and turned my back on my friends.
"Caelia." Weston spoke softly as the earth began to quiet down.
I looked at him over my shoulder. "I didn't mean for any of you to..." I choked and Weston took three long strides to collapse against me in a giant embrace. I turned my head away from him and stared into the shadows as Freya's hiccuping tears and moans would haunt me forever.
Thank you all so much for reading!
Please don't forget to vote/comment.
Omg! So a lot happened in this. And I'm sorry for the late updates and the long waits after so many cliffhangers. But I've been trying to figure out how to make everything super suspenseful. And I hope I did that this time because I've been driving myself mad constantly thinking of way to kill off Max.
Max is dead! And Reighton lives. I hope you all were worried for Freya when she was held at gun point and then when Reighton was literally dying. But who's this mystery man? The one that saved Freya? And then what's Scar's deal and who's the man behind her bounty payment? Any ideas?
Final chapter is next and I hope to have that one up soon. It won't be long, I'm afraid. Because the battle is pretty much over and there's a big reveal that leaves this book at its closing.
Hope you've all enjoyed this book so far! I've had an amazing time writing this :)
WC75
(Unedited)