Eden's Creatures (26 page)

“Stassi, no!” Cal pleaded, squeezing her tight. “We need to get out of here. We can go to the authorities in my world. They will help us.”

“No one can help now. Except us.”

“You can’t walk or fly, Stassi! And if I get killed, which is pretty much assured, you’ll be next. Let me at least get you to safety first.”

She looked around at the devastation of her homeland. “It is too late. There is no safety left for anyone.”

A pervasive sadness filled Cal. “But what can we do that hundreds of Faedin gave their lives trying to do?”

“With my last breath, I will fight Gai’tan. I will crawl after him if I have to.” She put a hand on his cheek. “I am sorry. It is how it must be.”

He nodded. Of course, he knew that. He just regretted that it had happened so soon.

“Humans do not understand Gai’tan, Cal. He will wear many disguises while he works to ruin the world. There will be untold suffering and pain if he escapes.”

“But he’s… a serpent.”

“Not for long.”

The serpent had emerged from the pit once again, but now fire danced over its length, encasing it in a tunnel of flames.

Inside that tunnel, it was morphing. Shrinking.

The oblong head rounded out and sprouted long, dark hair. Shoulders appeared. Nubs on both sides of its body elongated into arms. The lower portion split into a torso and two legs.

Soon, more detail stood out. White skin. A chiseled jaw and cheekbones. Red eyes. Clothing.

At last, a handsome man stepped out of the vapor, dressed in a long coat and high boots. He paused for a moment to take in his surroundings and then stepped onto the blackened pit, pulling lace through the cuffs of his embroidered jacket as he walked.

A flyer appeared out of nowhere.

“Gai’tan!” Bannon shouted as he landed smoothly on the ground. “Welcome to the world, my friend!”

Cal growled in his head at sight of the traitor responsible for so many senseless deaths.

The devil laughed — a terrible, sinister thing that had no place in this world. “You have done well, servant.

“Yes, well, you are welcome,” Bannon said with a dramatic bow. “Now, if you will excuse me, I have a whole wide world to explore.” The Faedin turned to go.

“Halt!” the devil ordered with a voice low and hollow as though coming from a cavern deep in the bowels of the earth.

Bannon slowly turned back.

“You will go nowhere, servant.” The menace in Gai’tan’s voice was unmistakable.

“But we had a deal. I free you, then I am free in return. Simple, really.”

Gai’tan laughed. “A deal? I do not deal with peasants.”

Cal could see the realization flash over Bannon’s face. He had given up his people for a freedom that would never happen. He would forever be under the yoke of the devil, and that collar would just continue to grow tighter and tighter.

Bannon shot into the air in a desperate attempt to flee.

He didn’t get far.

The devil reached up a hand and clenched it into a fist. Bannon arched his back and screamed in pain. At a downward sweep of Gai’tan’s arm, Bannon slammed back to the ground. The devil stalked forward, yanked a sword free of the blackened earth and beheaded his liberator.

The sword dropped to the ground with a tinny clink and Gai’tan strode away without a backward glance. Walking from Faedin on his own, each step taking him closer to mankind.

“Turn him around, Cal,” Stassi begged softly. “We can’t let him leave!”

Panic settled in Cal’s chest as he watched the figure move with purpose across the barren landscape. The nightmare he had suffered for years flooded back to him. All the same fears and vulnerability. The same sense of failure and despair. Was Gai’tan the shadow of his dreams? He had always thought it to be his stepfather, but now he had to wonder. Maybe they were one and the same. Whatever the truth, it looked as though he was destined to see them both dead.

Slowly, he flew downward and placed Stassi gently on the ground. He met her gaze and what he found there shook him to the core — an unwavering and absolute belief in him. He wished he could assure her that it was well-placed.

He kissed her mouth fiercely and then pulled away. With one last smile for the warrior girl he loved more than life itself, he straightened. “Gai’tan! Gai’tan!”

The devil turned in surprise. “Oh, now this is interesting. Survivors.” He started back at an unhurried pace toward them, his boots clicking on the hardened lava. As he drew near, his eyes ran seductively over Stassi. “And a beautiful one at that.”

Cal stood in front of her protectively.

“How noble,” Gai’tan drawled. “But entirely unnecessary. I have no desire to kill either of you. You see, I find myself in need of servants to help me navigate this new world.”

“No thanks,” Cal said with a snort. “I saw what you do to your servants.”

“The man was an idiot,” Gai’tan said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

“True.”

Gai’tan reached out toward Stassi. “You, my dear, will be more than a servant. You will be my concubine and hold a place of honor at my side. Come.”

“She’s not going anywhere. Neither are you.”

The devil sighed dramatically. “You cannot defeat me, young man, so allow me to disabuse you of that notion right away in order to save you an enormous amount of torture.”

“I’ve been tortured since the age of six,” Cal told him flatly. “There is nothing you can do to me that hasn’t already been done.”

“Oh, do not bet on that.”

Cal picked up the sword that the devil used to kill Bannon and shifted his weight to the balls of his feet. “Sorry, but I can’t let you leave.” He pointed back toward the pit. “That’s where you belong.”

The devil retrieved another discarded sword. “Very well. A duel it is.”

Cal’s blade almost slipped from his trembling fingers.

“You can do this, Cal,” Stassi murmured encouragingly.

“That is a highly optimistic statement, Stassi.”

“He can be defeated.”

“I’m not so sure about that. He has powers.”

“So do you.”

“Remind me.”

“What can you do that he can’t?”

A smile turned up the corners of Cal’s mouth as he remembered saying those same words to Gilad.

He stepped out to meet the devil.

Gai’tan twirled the sword and it looked quite at home in his hand. They began to circle each other. But Cal wasn’t about to have a long, drawn-out fight with an expert swordsman as it could only end one way — with him dead. No, he would only get one shot at this, so he had to make it count.

His breathing came in rapid pulls as he considered his next move. Around in a circle they moved, tethered together by their narrowed gazes. Cal knew the devil toyed with him, yet he couldn’t just lie down and die. He had to try something.

The devil lifted his sword and touched his forehead in a mock salute.

Now!

Cal leapt into the air with blurring speed, his broad wings taking him over Gai’tan’s head. He swept the sword down on his way past and to his surprise it connected, drawing blood across the alabaster cheek.

Cal didn’t hesitate.

He landed behind Gai’tan and screamed as he shoved his sword straight through the embroidered jacket. The blade sank deep, with deadly precision, all the way to the hilt.

I did it!
Cal could hardly believe that it was over that fast. He had defeated the devil.
The world is safe!

“Excuse me.”

Cal stiffened in shock.

“Do you mind removing your sword from my back?”

Cal let go of the sword and staggered back in cold dread.

“I told you, you cannot defeat me.”

Gai’tan pulled the sword from his own body, turned and whipped it through the air with powerful force. Cal tried to duck out of the way, but the blade hit true, embedding directly into his chest.

He stumbled wordlessly back and looked down in shock. It struck him as odd to feel no pain with a full length of metal sticking out of him.

And then, the world shifted, robbing him of balance. He fell to the ground on his side, gasping for breath.

On a broken leg and dragging damaged wings behind her, Stassi howled and flew at Gai’tan in a rage. The devil struck her in the face so hard, Cal could hear the bones break.

Wrath surged through Cal once again, the same white-hot anger that had brought out his wings. He ground his teeth together and slowly wrenched the sword from his body. Inch by inch. The exposed, sharp metal slicing open the palms of his hands. When it finally came free, he raised it in the air toward the heavens.
I need your help! You can’t let Gai’tan win! You can’t! I’m not asking for myself, I’m asking for all mankind! I’m asking for the Faedin! I’m… I’m asking for Stassi.

A booming rumble of thunder answered his call. Bright lightning crackled the air and a sliver of light hammered down toward the tip of the sword.

Cal screamed and almost dropped the weapon from his hands, but by some miracle held on. The blade trembled, radiating with energy — a power far too vast for Cal to hold. He knew instinctively what he needed to do.

He flung the sword and the lightning out toward the devil.

“No!” Gai’tan bellowed as the ribbon of white fire coiled around him, pinning his arms to his sides. The brilliant flare consumed him, licking over his skin in hungry flames. He fell to the ground in an attempt to smother the inferno that had become his body, but it only grew hotter as it devoured him. The devil writhed in agony as he burned, and Cal knew that there would no escaping that holy fire.

The pit started to stir once again and shadows slithered across the ground. They grabbed a hold of Gai’tan’s ankle, and the devil shrieked and clawed at the earth.

Out of nowhere, an ominous roar crashed out of the sky and a vortex of wind spun into existence over the pit. Hovering above the ground, the black, swirling orb of menace seemed intent on destruction.

The pit began to collapse in on itself as the powerful eddy broke it apart and sucked in the pieces. Debris from the Tree That Will Not Die spun over the land in a violent tumble before disappearing upward into the eye of the hole. The devil, no longer screaming and abandoned by the shadows, was caught up in the potent stream and being pulled closer and closer.

The strong winds battered at Cal, tearing at his clothes and hair, and he feared he would be next.

But he need not have worried.

An abrupt silence cut through the world, and when Cal looked up, the pit, the tree and the devil had vanished.

T
he adrenaline slowly seeped from Cal’s body and the pain seeped in. He knew that he had taken a fatal wound. Most likely Stassi as well, but he had to know for sure.

Using weakened forearms, he pulled himself slowly across the ground.

She appeared so still, lying there, and the closer he got, the worse it looked. An alarming amount of blood had pooled beneath her head.

When he finally reached her side, he stretched out a shaking hand to push the hair from her face. “We did it,” he told her hoarsely. “We did it, Stassi.”

A soft moan told him she still lived, but blood dripped from her eyes, her ears and mouth. He buried his face in her neck and started to cry. Ugly tears of regret that wouldn’t stop no matter how hard he tried.

“Don’t… cry,” she whispered.

“I… okay.” It took every bit of willpower he possessed to do as she asked, but he was determined to make her last moments happy. He lifted his head. “You did it, Stassi. You can go to the Wonder now. It’s where you want to be, right?”

“The… Wonder.” A bloodied smile lit her face. “Yes. I will… wait for you there, Cal. We… will see each other again. I promise.”

No, we won’t, Stassi
, he thought, choking back another sob.
You won’t remember any of this. You won’t remember your life in Faedin. You won’t remember your family. And you won’t remember me. I figured it out. I know what happens. The Faedin live to die, but they also die to live. Life is your Wonder, Stassi. Human life.

He had thought about this for a while now and knew he was right. After he saw Leeah outside of the veil, he realized that the Faedin were reborn as humans when they die. That was why it was important for them to become more compassionate. So they could strip some of their feral tendencies and assimilate back into society.