The Heart's Ashes (72 page)

“
You will never touch the light, I will never touch your skin,
but I will keep you in my dreams, until we meet again.”

Jason stood
stiff and stared through glazed, squared eyes, as I recalled the
words softly. My lip quivered, and I watched the last of David’s
life slip away from his unmoving body, then, as his pain receded to
the bliss of the other side, he came back to this world for one,
single moment. “I’ll see you soon.” He smiled, black eyes washing
away with the green that could only belong to his soul.

He dropped his
head and turned away—sparing me the terrible grief of seeing life
leave his emerald gaze.

The tightness
in my stomach forced me to fold over; I dropped a hand to the
ground, holding the other tightly across my body.

My heart
knows. It knows what I’ve done. I can’t take it back. I need to go
back—just two minutes. Just two minutes and everything will be
okay.

But I can’t—no
matter how much I pray. I can’t.

David.

Jason towered
over the lifeless corpse, smiling as he lifted David’s eyelids with
his thumb. “Never thought I’d see the day.”

Pools of tears
filled my eyes, refusing to spill—the ache in my heart wouldn’t
allow me the relief. I wanted to scream, to run, to throw myself
from a tall tower. My heart was gone—it stopped beating when
David’s did, but my breath wouldn’t give me a chance to die, coming
in gasps, forcing me to live.

“
Jason.” Drake stood. “You know what to do.”

“
What are you doing?” I reached out when Jason lifted
David.

“
Finishing what I started.”

“
No!”

Jason turned
and threw David’s lifeless body on the blazing heat behind him.

“
Oh, God. No!” I gripped my hair, ripping at it. I need
control, what can I do, what can I do?

The raging
flames licked David’s skin, his clothes, melting his face,
dissolving his hair as I watched.

Tears streamed
then, and my chest felt so tight I could no longer feel my breath.
“No,” the words trailed off. “No!”

He burned. He
lay still—not breaking free, not running, not moving or thrashing
about—just burning. Burning.

As audible
gasps grated the back of my throat, Jason squatted beside me and
turned my face away from the light—away from the image of
devastation. “I will erase this from your mind, Ara. You won’t know
him anymore. Then you will—” Jason looked up, over at the door, his
eyes wide, when a deep, raging scream echoed from somewhere in the
hall.

“
Guards.” Drake pointed. “Secure the castle.”

Jason stood,
and bodies moved everywhere, scuffling apart in all directions,
fleeing the room.

“
Wait here,” Jason said, then disappeared too, leaving me
alone with the melting remains of my husband.

My chest
shook; stillness swallowed the room—a ticking clock, crackling
coals, and my breath, the only mentions of existence aside from the
distant screams, resonating somewhere deep within this
fortress.

Sobbing, I
crawled to the fire. “David?”

His hand lay
on the tiles by the gleaming embers, two fingers undamaged by
flames—the last remaining sign that he was once alive, that he once
held me, loved me. A reminder that I would never feel his touch,
ever again.

My shaking
hand moved slowly across the space between us, but the door swung
open and banged loudly on the wall, Jason ripping me away before I
had the chance to touch David. “We need to move. Now.”

No. I reached
out, watching the distance grow greater between our eternal
separations. No, I need to say goodbye.

But Jason
dragged me from the room, leaving me with a broken farewell and a
deep, burning desire to trade places with my dead husband.

The blood
rushed to my head, pulsing as I hung upside down over Jason’s
shoulder; I lay motionless—all fight in me burned away with the
life of David. My lip began to heal with the blood now coursing
through my veins, and the warm rush, the life force David left
behind in me, made me want to vomit. I slowly reached up and slid
my fingers between my teeth.

“
Don’t!” Jason flipped me back into his arms and held me like
a child, his vehement glare a warning. “If you throw that blood up,
you’ll lose the last bit of David you’ll ever have.”

My chin
quivered. I ran my tongue over my lip, forcing it against my teeth
to break open the gash that healed because of his death.

Jason shook
his head, breathing out as he ran, so fast I barely even saw the
bodies now lining the halls. “You shouldn’t have done that,” he
said. “That was silly.”

“
What’s going on?” I asked wearily, hearing a loud crack and
the writhing terror of distant voices.

“
They’ve come for you.” He steered down the dark stairs,
leading to the dungeon he first locked me in.

“
Who?”
I don’t think I can take any
more pain.

“
They won’t hurt you.” His voice split the darkness, the only
evidence, aside from his arms, that he was still there. But the
light over the bed I first slept on here soon greeted us. He placed
me gently down and knelt before me. “Ara?”

I looked back
from my distraction of the stairs, shadows and flames dancing along
the walls, coming up fast behind us.

“
Ara, I need to tell you something, but we don’t have much
time, so—” He pulled a syringe from the pocket of his shirt. “I
need you to listen, even if this doesn’t make sense.
Okay?”

I nodded,
staring at the needle.

He swallowed
hard and unbuttoned his shirt, holding the syringe between his
fingertips. “I hate what you are, but I love the girl in you—I
always have, and I need you to know—”

“
Jason. Please? Tell me what’s up there?” I looked at the
staircase as a shadow covered the wall at the bottom—getting
closer.

“
It’s them—the Lilithian Knights.” He rolled his collar over
his shoulder and uncapped the lid from the syringe, using his
teeth.

“
The Lilithian what?”

“
They want their princess back.” He stopped, and looked behind
him, smiling.

“
Get away from her!” a raging, husky voice warned.

“
Mike!” I screamed and launched off the bed, straight into his
arms.

“
Ara!” He kissed my forehead, squeezing me with familiar
compassion. Love. Warmth. Kindness. “What have they done to you?”
He took one look at my face, and tears welled in his eyes, forcing
out over an enraged scowl.

We both looked
at Jason, who stood as if waiting for something.

“
I’ll kill you,” Mike growled, pushing me onto the bed as he
stomped toward Jason.

“
Mike, no!” I jumped up and grabbed his arm. “He’ll kill
you.”

“
I wish him luck.” He shoved me back and a soft, thin pair of
arms wrapped around me, cradling me to a bony shoulder.

“
It’s okay, Amara—you’re safe now.”

“
Who are you?”

“
I’ll tell you later.” She tugged me along, too strong for me
to fight, taking me further and further away from Mike—away from
Jason. “For now, we need to get you out of here.”

“
No. I can’t leave Mike. Jason will—”

“
It’s okay. Really.”

“
No, it’s not okay. Why should I listen to you? Let me
go.”

“
I’m here to help you.”

“
No, you’re not.” I tugged my arm free. “I don’t know you, I
don’t any of—”

“
My name is Morgaine. I’m a friend of—”

“
Lilithian Morgaine?” We stopped; the girl looked at me, her
eyes liquid and round, framed by her short-cropped cherry-red hair.
“
David’s
Morgaine?”

She smiled and
nodded. “It sounds nice when you say it like that. But, yes. I am
she.”

“
But, Jason said your people tortured David.”

“
Yes, David was sent to us.” She looked down. “I was his
punisher.”

“
You?
You
did that to him?”

“
No.” She smiled, shaking her head. “I didn’t. I—”

A loud roar
echoed off the walls like a mountaintop call, and the crack of
sticks made my eyes go wide; I pushed away from Morgaine’s arms and
ran back to the cell, stopping dead at the sight of a body on the
floor. “Mike! Oh, my God.”

Everything
froze.

“
Ara. You shouldn’t be here.” Mike grabbed me and pulled me
into his chest. My eyes stared, wide and disbelieving, as Jason
rose from the floor with a bloodied face.

“
What did you do to him?”

“
I punched him,” Mike said with a self-satisfied
grin.

“
But...”

Jason stood
fully from his folded position and uncupped his hands from his
face. The blackened bruising faded to yellow in front of my eyes
before vanishing completely, leaving only a dried trail of blood
over his upper lip.

“
Ara—” Mike pushed me into Morgaine’s arms, “—you need to get
out of here.”

“
Why?” I asked, watching Mike roll the sleeves of his grey
shirt up as he walked toward Jason.

“
Because I have a score to settle.”

Morgaine
pulled me by my tattered wrist; I slipped my hand from her grip and
stopped. “Just. Wait.”

Mike sighed.
“What?”

Jason looked
up at me, his face flooding with confusion as I wandered over and
stood before him. “I need my wedding ring back.”

After a deep
breath, Jason reached into his pocket. “Ara?” he said softly,
closing my fingers around the ring, holding them there; my skin
crawled with his touch. But he said nothing more, just stared into
me, his pale, murky green eyes turning bright and emerald, almost
like David’s used to be. As if the world stopped for that one
moment, we stood there, our gazes locked—a wordless exchange of
anguish, fear and sorrow betraying my heart with confusion.

My hand
started to shake and the sound around us came rushing back as Mike
pushed me aside and slammed Jason into the wall—blood bursting out
through his lips as he folded over again.

Everything
slowed down around me; my body stopped living for a breath; no
rational emotion a part of me. No fear, no anger—only pity,
distorted by surprise when Mike stepped back and dropped a
roundhouse kick to my torturer’s face, blurring as he spun.

An
uncontrolled breath escaped my lips, my eyes stuck, watching Jason
fall limp to the floor. He didn’t move, didn’t even block when Mike
stormed forward and laid his fist down on Jason’s skull, tearing
his skin into bursting, blood-spitting lacerations.

“
Mike?” I stepped forward, but he was crazed, lost to a battle
fought within his core—unable to stop, like a man chopping a tree
with an axe. “Mike, Mike!” I grabbed his arm. “Mike,
stop.”

With hate
infused eyes, masked with tears, Mike turned to face me and wiped
the dotted splatters of Jason’s blood from his chin.

My lips fell
open when I saw the damage he inflicted on my vile, former
friend—without a single scratch on himself. “What are you?”

Morgaine came
up behind us then, and placed her arm around me. “Amara, when you
accidently bit Mike the day of Karnivale—”

“
You turned?” I asked, my eyes wide. “You’re like
me?”

After Mike
kicked Jason again, he looked at me and stroked my cheek; “It’s a
piece of you I get to keep.”

Jason lay
completely unmoving against the cellar wall. His body twisted into
a mess of contorted limbs and torn flesh. I’d never seen anyone so
battered. My heart flooded with a sick rush of pity for the man who
caused me so much pain, and my mind lashed me for such idiocy.

“
Mike, we need to go,” Morgaine insisted.

“
Not yet,” Mike said through closed teeth and started toward
Jason again. “Not until he’s dead.”

“
Dead?” I cried.

“
Yeah. I can kill him, Ara. My venom’s like yours.”

“
Wait.” I landed in front of Jason, my hand outstretched to
Mike’s raised fist.

“
Ara? Get away from him,” Mike ordered in obvious disgust at
my sudden defence.

“
No.” I turned and looked right into Jason’s eyes as he sat
himself against the wall, struggling to catch his breath—his face
hidden under a mask of red. “Jason,” I spoke softer, “I promised
myself that one day I would get revenge on you for what you did to
me.”

Jason’s brow pulled tightly over his wounded gaze. “What
I
did to you
?” he
scoffed, wiping his nose. “You will never know the true measure of
what I have done.”

“
That may be so.” I nodded. “But I’m going to let you live, so
that you can suffer the eternity I know pains you to exist in. It
is
my
eternal
revenge.” I pushed up from the wall and fell into Mike’s
arms.

“
Ara?” Jason called as we walked away.

“
Ignore him, Ara,” Mike said coldly and pulled me
along.

“
No! I want to hear what he has to say.” I lifted Mike’s arm
over my head and stepped back to where Jason now stood in the
middle of the cell.

“
Please?” Jason begged, barely able to stand as he offered me
the syringe. “Just kill me?”