The Dark God's Bride Trilogy, #3 (23 page)

At the stroke of midnight, the grandfather clock woke Amara. She forgot when she fell asleep. Sleeping on the floor didn’t feel as uncomfortable as it looked. She briefly opened her eyes and saw flames and smoke burning on nearly every surface. Her eyes snapped opened and abandoned all thought of going back to sleep when she realized that her home was being consumed by fire. Alarmed, she pushed to her feet.

My god! Why is the house on fire? Is anybody coming to help? White flames…
Noctis… he didn’t!

Something even more terrifying startled her. The man with the silver eyes appeared at the base of the stairs. He
came back to free her.
Correction
, Amara said to herself. He came to take her back to the Realm of The Dead. 

He picked up the dark cloak amidst the fire and then walked to the mirror. Oddly, the cloak appeared undamaged. He reached into the mirror and offered his gloved hand. “
Are you ready to come home?
”

“This is my home,” she replied, grey eyes surveying the fire surrounding them. “Whatever is left of it...” She wasn’t sure if he could understand by reading her lips.

“
Come with me, Amara.
” It wasn’t an order, but a plea.

“Over my dead body
.” Then, she added shakily, “Literally.”

He exhaled softly.
“Your heart still lingers in this world.”

“I’m not ready to leave it yet,” she confessed to him. “If you keep insisting on taking me back to the Realm of The Dead, I would have
no choice but try to escape… again.”

“
A catastrophe like none you have ever seen will take place unless you come with me now. You will be a guest in my home.”

“Catastrophe?” Amara whispered and she looked all around her. “What can be more catastrophic than this?”

“I cannot reveal that to you.”
he answered with a shake of his head. It was an obvious lie. He seemed to be hiding something from her. Something he didn’t want her to know. She decided not to pursue it. It had nothing to do with her even if it was about her.

“I’m not coming with you,” Amara clarified.

He seized her hand and pulled her out of the mirror. Afraid that he would take her back to the Realm of The Dead with him, she fought and struggled away from him. He effortlessly pulled her toward him, wrapped the cloak around her shoulders, and the pulled the hood over her head. He threw her over his left shoulder and then carried her out of the burning building while she protested with her fists against his back. The cloak protected her from the fire raining down from the ceiling.

When they were a safe distan
ce away from her burning home, he let her down to her feet. She turned toward her home and groaned when it began to collapse. Ordinary fire would have taken hours to burn down the brick structure, but Noctis’ flames only needed minutes. Why would he burn down their home? This place held so many good memories – of them, of her friends.

Amara never thought she would cry over a building. But it was no ordinary building. It was more than a place where she ate and slept. It was her home. For three years, she kept the home in livable condition. She cleaned every window and mopped every inch of the place. To see it gone to rumble like this…

“Why would he…?” Amara bit into her lower lip to prevent a sob from escaping. She squinted when she thought she saw Noctis standing amidst the ferocious flames. She caught a glimpse of his profile before the collapsing structure blocked her view. Her only thought was of how to get to get to him.

The man with the silver eyes standing by her side caught her hand when her legs moved forward. She turned to face him. “I need to go to him,” she declared daringly. The tone of her voice lacked the usual shakiness whenever facing him. She was still very much afraid of this man, but fear no longer took priority. “He needs me and I must go to him.”

“
It will not end well, Amara,
” he foreshadowed.
“Are you certain this is the path you want to walk?”

“I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life.”

He must have seen the determination in her eyes, because he didn’t ask her a second time. Slowly, he released her hand. She shrugged off the cloak and gave it back to him.

“He is going after the other two females,”
the silver-eyed man said to her.
“There is only vengeance in his heart now.”

Amara ran around the burning mansion and scanned
the surroundings. She spotted Noctis far off the property across the maze garden. He was heading into the nearby woods by himself. She called out his name as she ran after him, but he didn’t seem to hear her.

The chase took her further and further into the dark woods. She attempted to navigate her way to him with only her instincts to guide her.
Smoke began to swirl around her, suffocating her. Countless slips and falls later, she made it through to the other side of the woods before she collapsed from lack of oxygen. Wheezing and huffing, she turned back to look at the woods she just crawled out of. It was being consumed by fire at a devastating rate.

Amara discovered herself standing at the peak of a tall hill. Behind her was a sea of fire and in front of her was a million-dollar view of the city by night. Under the moonlight, she saw Noctis walking down the slope of the hill. He was heading for the city. She briefly glanced at the great fire behind her and then to the city in front of her. It was like looking at a before after photo of the exact same thing. He was burning down everything in his path.

She sprinted toward him and grabbed him by his arm. She thought that he would stop for her, but he kept on walking as though she wasn’t even there.

“It’s me!” She shook him, but that garnered no reaction from him. She swung herself in front of him. She seized him by his shirt collar, and yanked on the fabric to obtain his attention. Finally, his blue eyes met her grey ones. “Don’t you recognize me?”

He brought an arm between them and cleared her from his way. His strength sent her rolling down the slope of the hill. She was able to slow down the momentum by turning her body vertical to the slope. The fall hurt so damn much, she didn’t even want to get up. She could barely breathe, but she couldn’t afford the luxury of catching her breath. If she let him walk away now, she would lose him. That was more literal than she intended.

She had just lost her home. She didn’t want to lose him too.

“The Amara you saw… wasn’t me! It was Rion! Are you listening to me? I said it was Rion!” Her cry fell on deaf ears.

When she made an attempt to get up, her knees almost gave out on her. Her vision blurred out of focus and then back again. There was a little voice inside her head telling her to give up. If he couldn’t recognize her in the first or second attempt, there was very little chance of that happening on the third. His condition was
a long time coming… perhaps even passed due. There was never any future for the both of them to begin with. Only a fool would fight a losing battle. She should have cut her losses and let him go.

I’m a fool
, she admitted to herself. She didn’t want to let him go. She just couldn’t. Not just for her sake but for the sakes of millions of people who were about to lose their homes and their lives if she failed to stop him. She couldn’t afford the luxury of giving up. Too much was at stake. Her mission was simple: stop him or die trying.

I need to convince him that I’m alive… but how?

She heard Dimitri’s voice calling her name. The voice was getting closer and closer until she felt his hand on her shoulder. She attempted to shrug him off. Accompanying him were Chevalier and her brother, Trent. “Amara, don’t!”

“I have to snap him out of it.”

“He won’t recognize you.”

“I know that, but I still have to try.”

“You’ll end up dead. Even immortals think twice about contending with him, and you’re as mortal as it gets.”

“I’ve dealt with him all of these times, haven’t I?”

“That was when he still has some threads of sanity left. Those threads have snapped and what we have on our hands right now is a powerful deity who has lost control of his damned mind. As your friend, I can’t let you do this.”

“That is my choice to make, D!”

“I’m afraid your friend is right,” Chevalier said as he observed the situation. “We’ll take over now.”

“Take over? What do you mean take over?”

Chevalier turned to Trent and gave him a go-ahead nod. Her brother summoned his bow,
Ragnarök the Destroyer
, slayer of the gods.

“No!” Amara scream
ed her protest. “Don’t hurt him! You can’t!”

“We don’t have a choice, Amara. If he reaches the city, many lives will be endangered.” Chevalier pushed her toward Dimitri, who trapped her in his arms.

“I can still reverse this somehow! Please! Let me try!”

The three of them ignored her pleas. Her brother fit an arrow into his bow and aimed. If it landed, it would be all over.

“
No!
” She fought wildly to get free as Trent let the arrow fly “
Noctis!”

Noctis halted, raising his hand to freeze the arrow inches away from his palm. The arrow lost its momentum and disintegrated. Her brother simultaneously shot three more arrows, but the distorted space around Noctis did not allow the arrow to penetrate. Without glancing back, he dematerialized.

In a matter of minutes, a large section of the city was covered in smoke and debris. The ravaging fire gluttonously consumed and devoured everything in its path. The gas pipeline gridded beneath the city leaked out from the condensing pressure, causing a series of devastating explosions. 

Chaos reigned in the streets.

“Take her with you to the lair,” Chevalier said to Dimitri.

“Damn it, D!” Amara spat at him. “Don’t take orders from him! Let me go!”

“I’m not taking orders from him. I’m agreeing with him. It’s not safe to be here.” Dimitri turned her around, bent his knees, and then, he flipped her over his shoulder.

“Let me down or I’ll scream! D!”

“We need to put a stop to him,” Chevalier said to her brother.
Ragnarök
transformed into a sword at her brother’s command. He nodded and they too, dematerialized.

Panicking, Amara squirmed violently as she crawled her way down Dimitri’s back. He lost his grip and dropped her to the ground. He spun around and bent down to help her up.

“Are you alright?”

She shot a glare at him and he shrunk back.

“You’re still coming with me,” he persevered.

“No, I’m not!”

“Why won’t you just shut up and come with me?”

“Because I have to do something –
Anything!
”

“No you don’t.”

“Yes! I do!”

“Why?”

“Because I can’t leave him like this!”

“Why not?”

“Because I can’t lose him again! I just can’t!”

Dimitri opened his mouth to speak, but as her words sunk through, he didn’t know what to say. Their little argument died out just like that. He had nothing to add to it and neither did she. The two of them were stuck in awkward silence.

“I have to go to him, D. I’ll do it with or without your help.” She waited for him to make a decision. He couldn’t decide so she headed down the hill by herself.

Amara went in
the opposite direction of the evacuating crowd as fire rained down from the burning skyscrapers. The cars were lined up from bumper to bumper. Seeing that the line did not move, many people abandoned their vehicle and fled on foot. As Amara went toward the center of the city, many people tried to talk her into fleeing with them. Some even went as far as dragging her by the arm. She refused to go with them. Eventually they gave up on her and fled by themselves.

She wandered the streets without having any idea where she was going. She followed the trail of destruction on a hunch in hope that it would lead her to Noctis.

She noticed that the further she ventured into the city, the more distorted the space around her became. She thought it was her imagination at first, but then she realized that it was really happening when she saw that the speed of falling objects were visibly slow. Gravity weakened. And further into the city, gravity appeared reversed. The structure of the building seemed to be breaking down into chunks; from chunks to smaller pieces; and smaller pieces down to the invisible molecular level. Up in the sky, a thunderstorm was brewing. The clouds were pulsating with boiling energy as if they were going to explode from being overcharged. It felt like being in a dream, only it was real. Very real.

How could one man cause so much destruction and madness? She knew he was more powerful than other immortals, but she never realized he was capable of creating this kind of mayhem.

Amara turned back when she heard Dimitri’s voice calling her name among the crowd. He was moving against the crowd to catch up to her.