Lockhart's Legacy (Vespari Lockhart Book 1) (32 page)

Lockhart forced himself to his feet, leaning his shoulder against the wall. Two beldams down; two to go. Three runed bullets left. One arm broken. Ribs cracked and grating against each breath. And Wynonna still hadn’t recovered from Mabilia’s last hit. He found himself alone against two angry beldams. The other two hadn’t relied on their dark sorcery; he didn’t expect the other two would follow this pattern. That said, he didn’t think they would resort to it so quickly either.

Proving him wrong, Petronila clenched her hand into a fist, causing it to erupt in a dark blue light, shining almost like metallic sapphires. Lockhart felt his life drain out from him. He became light headed, and he dropped to his knees. His eyes drooped, and he felt himself partially fade into the dream, which they continued to use against him. He felt stuck somewhere between the two though. He could still see and hear what was going on in the real world, but the draining feeling of that dreamscape plagued him.

“Kill him now!” Alviva demanded of Petronila. “He must die!”

The slender beldam continued to clutch her hand into a fist, and the blue energy seeped directly out of the tattoos on Lockhart’s chest. This energy looked similar to the smoke wafting from a flame, except it didn’t simply rise. Petronila dragged the smoke-like energy from Lockhart, funneling it back to herself.

“What are you doing?” Alviva demanded of the slender beldam.

“His power will be mine!” Petronila hissed.

“I lead this coven! Not you! I gave you an order! Kill him!”

Petronila released her hand, as the metallic blue energy dissipated. “Enough!” she shouted. “I have had enough of you!”

She rose up to her full height once again and slashed her longer fingers at Alviva. The fat beldam roared in pain and then charged wildly at Petronila. The slender beldam clenched her fist once more, but this time a metallic orange fire erupted. When she opened her palm and aimed it at Alviva, a flame exploded forth, searing her whole body. Covered in flames, Alviva rolled around in the discarded body parts, attempting to put out the fires.

Her chief rival dealt with, Petronila returned her focus to Lockhart. She clutched her hand once more, forcing the metallic blue energy to seep forth from him and into her hand. She closed her eyes and smiled, drooping her shoulders into a relaxed position.

“Ah,” she said in an almost soothing voice. “Mabilia. There you are.”

Lockhart felt more energy drain out of him. This time, it was a large chunk.

“He didn’t even get to enjoy your power, did he?” Petronila said to what Lockhart presumed was Mabilia’s energy seeping out of him. The beldam was right. With the Caustic Brand staining his chest, he wasn’t able to tap into the power he inherited from Mabilia when he killed her. In the case of the beldam, that would have meant resistance to spells for a brief time. It would have proved useful in that moment, as the energy continued to seep from him. He wasn’t sure how many monsters were left stored in those tattoos, but based on the expression on Petronila’s face, she wasn’t finding what she wanted.

“Where is she?” the beldam asked, opening her eyes.

“What?” Lockhart asked back.

“Where is Estrild?” Petronila shouted. “I need more!”

Lockhart chuckled, blood starting to drip from his nose. “She’s n-n-not in here,” he told her, tapping his chest. “I d-didn’t kill her.”

Petronila grimaced at him. “N-n-n-nonsense,” the beldam mocked with a sneer. “If you didn’t kill her, who did?”

“I did,” Wynonna said, appearing from behind the beldam and holding the knife out in front of her. Wasting no time, his apprentice poured her canteen’s water over the blade. “And, you’ll be joining her.”

Wynonna then plunged the knife into the highest point of Petronila’s body that she could reach. This happened to be her lower gut, but it didn’t matter where the blade landed. With the purified water coating it, that would do the trick as good as anywhere else.

Petronila curled forward, clutching the wound. “How dare you? I will rip you to shreds!”

Lockhart wouldn’t allow that. Free from the slender beldam’s spellwork, he picked up his revolver and fired a shot right into Petronila’s neck. She stopped on the spot and plummeted backward, falling into a chasm at the edge of the cave.

Only one left, and she had finally stopped flailing in the bodies, having put out the fire. Alviva stood up, skin charred and clothes burned off, revealing all of her sickening flesh. She growled, ignoring Wynonna, and headed straight for Lockhart.

Pulling the trigger, the vespari fired another shot. With all his injuries and energy sapped, his aim wasn’t as good as he’d hoped. The runed bullet landed in Alviva’s shoulder. It wouldn’t even slow her down, but if they could get the water in the wound, she’d finally die.

“Wynonna!” Lockhart shouted. “Water!”

His apprentice nodded and gripped her canteen, ready to splash the beldam with water. Alviva, however, refused to give up so easily. Weaving a spell between her hands, Alviva tried to raise Wynonna into the air with an almost invisible force - only a metallic sparkle of light appeared in the air for an instant. Due to her spell resistance from killing Estrild, however, she only got the vespari about a foot off the ground.

Wynonna, still having a chance, tried to fling the water, but Alviva stepped back, dodging the attempt. She then growled again and stepped forward. Her spells were less effective against Wynonna, but there was nothing stopping her from physically hurting his apprentice, and that’s exactly what she did. Using those fat limbs, she reared back and slammed her whole arm into Wynonna, knocking her backward yet again. The force threw her against the rocky wall of the cave, and she plummeted to the ground, no longer moving.

Wynonna was out, and he was on his own now. He only had a single runed bullet left. He had a broken arm, and he couldn’t even stand. As Alviva continued toward him once more, Lockhart placed his revolver down on the ground, instead stuffing his hand into his pocket and gripping his canteen.

Lockhart then tossed his canteen of water in the air and waited for it to align perfectly, while picking his revolver up again. When it did, the vespari fired his last shot. The runed bullet pierced the canteen and continued straight through until it struck Alviva square in the skull. The beldam stopped mid step and clutched at her head. As the bullet had passed through the canteen, it collected the sanctified water, enough so that it had the power to kill this last beldam.

Alviva stomped one foot down, shaking the whole cavern. “You… can’t… win… She promised!”

Lockhart didn’t say anything. He couldn’t. He was too tired. He’d barely been able to toss the canteen or aim the gun. All he could do was hold himself up to watch. Alviva fell, still clutching her forehead.

“Petronila promised!” Alviva shouted with her final breath.

The same black and red necrosis that had overtaken the other beldams now consumed Alviva, stretching out from the watery bullet’s penetration point. They’d done it. The beldam coven was no more.

***

Lockhart dropped his gun, collapsing backward onto the ground. Exhausted and his body broken, he knew only one thing. He was still alive. They were all dead. Why then did his chest still burn? The vespari pushed his shirt aside to see the Caustic Brand still seared into his skin. He’d killed them all. Why had the spell not abated?

That’s when he heard some rocks shuffle. He paused and looked over in that direction. With a gulp, he realized that one of the beldams wasn’t dead. It was where Petronila had fallen, and where she should’ve perished. Had she somehow survived the blade covered in water? True to his suspicions, Petronila rose from the crevice and started to creep toward Lockhart, smiling all the way.

“You sh-sh-should be dead,” he told her.

“I’m n-n-n-n-not,” the woman taunted him. “Yet anyway. Your vile apprentice will be responsible for my death.” She coughed, spitting blood out and looked around. “Where is she?”

“What a-are you? You’re no b-beldam.”

“You’re right,” Petronila said, creeping ever closer, one hand clutching the wound in her gut, the other holding her neck where he shot her. She tilted her head to the side and stared into his eyes. “But I think you know what I am.”

Lockhart glared up at her. “A soul eater.”

Petronila smiled. “See? You didn’t need my help, and you didn’t even stutter. Accolades all around!”

Everything made sense now. Lockhart had wondered how a beldam could’ve known magic like the Caustic Brand. A shapeshifting soul eater would’ve come by it much easier than a beldam. She simply played the role of a beldam, using the coven as a cover. Now, she had all those souls from the monsters he’d killed over the years. He’d made her strong, but she was still going to die. Soul eater or not, that wound would kill her; it just wouldn’t keep her dead. Runed water wouldn’t finish her kind off. There was only one way to kill a soul eater, and that was going to take a different tack altogether.

Petronila pointed at Lockhart’s chest and smiled. “You’ve got Alviva in there now too, don’t you? I think I’ll enjoy devouring her almost as much as I’ll enjoy gnawing on your soul.”

Before Petronila could begin siphoning off any more of his strength, however, a groan came from the other side of the room. The shifting of the piles of body parts followed it. Petronila glared in that direction.

“Your apprentice,” she hissed. The soul eater raised her hands to see how much blood had poured against them, pooling in her palms, and she grimaced.

Without saying anything further, she turned away and limped off, heading deeper into the cave system. As she disappeared, Wynonna pushed her way out of the pile and got to her feet, coughing and sputtering.

“Gross,” she muttered, followed by a series of dry heaves.

The gore covered her whole body, and she tried to fling it off her. As she did, she caught sight of Lockhart and ran over to him.

“Cory!” she said, kneeling down beside him. “You okay?”

He nodded slowly.

Wynonna then looked around the room. “You kill the last one? Alviva dead?”

Another nod.

“Wild! Then, it’s over,” she said, as relief washed over her face. “You’ll live.”

Lockhart shook his head. “P-Petronila.”

Wynonna shrugged. “She’s dead. Knife in the gut. Bullet in her throat.”

“No. Sh-she’s not a beldam.”

“What?”

“Soul e-eater. A shapeshifter. They--”

Wynonna nodded. “Yeah, I know what they are. Read about them in your book.”

“Good.”

“Which way did she go? I have to finish this.” Before he could answer, she saw the blood trail Petronila had left behind, and she stood up to go after her.

“No,” Lockhart told Wynonna, grabbing her wrist. “You c-can’t. She’s t-too strong.”

“I can do this,” she replied. “I read how to kill a soul eater. That rune you--”

He shook his head. “N-no. It’s not that s-simple. She’s fed too m-much. And sh-she’s going to take my s-soul too.”

“Not if I kill her first, Cory,” she said, attempting to tug her arm free from his grip. “So let me go.”

Lockhart held tight. “I’m d-d-dead. I’ve a-accepted it, but you’ll d-die too if you go after her like this.”

“I can’t just let her go. She’s too dangerous.”

He smiled up at her. “I know. It’s g-good you see that.”

Wynonna shrugged. “Then what? What am I supposed to do?”

Lockhart released his grip on her. “You need to k-kill me.”

“What?”

He said nothing more, just staring into her eyes.

“No. Why would I kill you?”

He tapped his chest. “I still h-have a few sp-spirits trapped in these t-tattoos. If you kill me, y-you’ll inherit their power.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m not going to kill you.”

“Wynonna!” he shouted. “Listen to m-me! I’m d-d-dead either way. Do th-this, and you’ll stand a ch-chance.”

“I… I can’t kill you, Cory.”

“If y-you don’t, she w-will. I don’t want my s-s-soul in her clutches. This is y-you saving me.”

His apprentice continued to shake her head.

“Wynonna… Please. Save me.”

She finally stopped shaking her head and looked at the ground.

Lockhart retrieved his journal from his pocket and the vespari medallion from his waist and handed them both to Wynonna. “I… left i-instructions,” he said, tapping the book. “I know y-you’ll be o-okay without me.”

After tucking the objects into her pockets, Wynonna gripped the handle of her knife and pressed the tip against Lockhart’s chest, just above his heart. Looking her master in the eye, she said, “Cory, I’m…” She struggled to say the next word. “…sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the fortune. I’m sorry I lied to you. I didn’t want this.”

He smiled at her. “I know. I already forgave you.”

“I’ll take care of everything. You don’t have to worry about anything anymore. I’ll finish it.”

“G-goodbye, Wynonna.”

She paused a moment, before steeling herself for what she had to do. “Goodbye, Cory.”