Two Halves Series (74 page)

“You don’t have long, Eric. I don’t know who, but someone wants you to lose your powers quicker than you think you will.” The outer rims of Xela’s eyes filled with worry I hadn’t seen since we decided to bend her mark away.

The woods, lightened by the grayish glow of the moon, swayed to the rhythm of a forceful wind.

“Eric, you’re going to defy centuries of laws for me.” Xela’s forehead creased.

“And you haven’t healed yet.” Mira examined the polka-dot bandage around my neck. My fleshed spikes hadn’t been well since I’d bent Xela and Sarah back to their own bodies almost a week ago.

“If I don’t, it will destroy you.” I pointed to the sphere on the witch’s wrist, the mark of the underworld which guided Xela’s actions.

It glowed brighter than the sunset, like it was fighting for its own survival. Even if Xela tried to defy it again, with time, the sphere’s evil strength would make her betray him, and she would eventually fail. The sphere would win.

In need of seclusion, I chose to bend in a canyon, close to where Xander had kept Xela captive, at least when he thought it was Xela. Away from civilization, I would invoke enough energy to erase the sphere, but it could also be stronger than a nuclear blast. The power began to build within my veins as soon as I decided to help the black witch this morning. Inside, electricity, not blood, pumped my heart.

“You need to leave, sugar.” I kissed Mira on her forehead. “Believe me, you’ll know when I’m done.”

Xander wrapped his arms around Xela. Their bodies melted together before they parted with a kiss.

Their affection confirmed for me I made the right decision.

“Will you keep safe?” Mira asked.

“Yes, but I have a feeling I’ll need your help to get home.”

She nodded.

“Thank you, Eric.” Xander shook my hand.

“Not a ‘lover boy’ today, am I?” I teased.

“Jokes aside, you’re closer than a brother to me. I hope I can one day repay my debt.”

“There’s nothing to repay. It’s an honor for me to right what’s been wronged for decades. Now go!” I motioned with my head toward the woods.

The siblings disappeared between the trees. I waited with Xela until the sun had set. Our only light was that from her wrist, pulsing orange and yellow like a sun’s hot spots.

I pulled the rope out of the back pack. “If I don’t tie you, the sphere will make you escape. It will fight for you. It is who you are.”

“You better hurry.” Xela stood with her back pressed against the bark of a tree. “The heat is beginning to throb toward my feet to run.”

Over twenty loops later, Xela squirmed, wiggling underneath the rope. Her sphere now glowed as bright as fire.

“It won’t take long,” I promised.

I spread my legs in an even stance. A purplish glow emitted from my pores. With my fists clenched, I cracked my neck, once to each side. The energy intensified, and I concentrated on its flow through my body. The velocity in my veins sped as electricity passed through my arteries. Like a current of high voltage wires, it roamed within me. My spikes broke through the bandages.

“Agh!” I shut my eyes, letting my fists open. The flesh around my neck vibrated, and purple lightning spread from the tips of my fingers to the ends of the spikes, toward Xela’s wrist.

When I opened my eyes, the purple light beamed from my neck outward and up into space. The electric shock that buzzed around me muffled Xela’s screams until a blast radiated away from her wrist, flying me backward fifty feet.

Mira found me bleeding in the bushes ten minutes later. I haven’t been able to move, except for the thrusts that shock my body upward every few seconds. Xander carried Xela in his arms. Her scarred wrist no longer had the underworld’s mark. It had worked. Peace replaced the sizzling fire in my veins.

“Eric, it seems like killing the demons is no longer about your loss of power. In fact, you may gain new abilities,” Xela interrupted my memory.

“The only way to lose my skills now is for me to kill the remaining demons or…”

Mrs. G and Xela froze.

“…or for me to give them up willingly,” I finished.

The fire in the pit rose as if in agreement, drawing all our gazes.

“Someone’s meddling in the keepers’ decision?” I asked.

Xela nodded.

Mrs. G seemed lost in thought for a moment, then shook her head from side to side. “The last demon. There’s something odd about him. He’s stronger than any other demons but old. The most powerful one yet. Kill him, and he’ll gain enough strength to destroy the keepers.” Mrs. G’s creased forehead explained more than I bargained for. She had no idea what to do either.

“How?” I raised my arms, feeling a slight tingling in my neck.

“You cannot kill the last one, Eric. He deceived the keepers. He’s using their strength against them. You will become their weakness if you kill him.” Xela’s eyes flamed a spark.

“Of all people, Xela, you know I don’t have a choice. My mark will guide me to kill him. It’s not something I can stop.” I stood and began pacing in front of the fire place.

“Defy the mark. I have,” Xela whispered.

The room seemed emptied of air.

“Your victory over the demon will be your doom,” Mrs. G added. “Killing him isn’t the answer.”

“Bend me back, Eric.” Xela blocked my pace. She pulled up the sleeve on her left arm, exposing the scar on her wrist. “Right what the keepers think has been wronged, and let’s end this right now.”

I hadn’t considered her humble offer before, and I wouldn’t now. Smiling, I rolled her sleeve down her arm. “If I do that, I don’t deserve to be an evil-bender.”

Mrs. G stepped in. “He’s right. It takes two of the keepers to outvote the third, and I have a feeling that’s been done. You need to defy your mark and follow your own instinct. Your heart will guide you.”

Mrs. G pressed her palm to my chest, warming the beating organ inside it. Its rhythm quickened, responding to a magical touch as if seeking power from the witch. She took her hand away, and the beating resumed to its regular pace.

What they were asking me to do seemed impossible. My mark defined who I was. It connected my infinite strength to the keepers. I didn’t remember a time without it—only a vague memory when I was a lost boy. But if I didn’t defy it, I’d lose it anyway to mortality. Was this my only chance to keep my life as an evil-bender? Would I still be an evil-bender without it?

A tingling ripple flowed through my body and stopped at the crusted spikes. The thin coat of fresh scab broke along its edges, and I bled where Mira had placed the last bandage over the ointment.

“You need to go?” Xela examined the burgundy drops flowing down my neck.

I nodded with sadness, thinking about the new kill I’d perform today that would bring me closer to my own death. My fate called out to me.

“You’re not strong enough, Eric.” Mrs. G dabbed my neck with the corner of her apron.

“I don’t have a choice.” I showed them my wrist where the water mark tattoo glowed. Its pull forced itself up my arm toward my heart. Soon, energy would squeeze inside my chest, blackmailing my life for duty I had to fulfill. Heat spread through my veins before it turned into electricity, and I had to go. “The keepers will find a way to get the energy through me.”

At my life’s cost.

I knew they had increased my ability to draw on their energy, just to hasten the process. There was no need to heal to get the job done. With an exhale full of defeat, I pressed my palm against the side wall of the hill, and a vortex opened. The cave filled with an orange glow that emanated from its orb.

Underworld. They want me to go to the underworld.

Before I stepped into the stench of dirty socks and rotten eggs, Xela slammed into me for a hug.

“Be careful,” she whispered.

The witch’s gratitude always overwhelmed me but made it easier to accept my defying the keepers and removing her mark, which had ultimately removed her curse.

“I will.”

The force of the vortex sucked me in, bringing me close to one of the three remaining demons whose fate stood between me and death.

Waves of heat wrapped around my body. I stood in Aseret’s grand hall of the underworld. The walls glowed brighter than daylight, illuminated by the forever-burning fire pit in the center of the hall. Without seekers to care for the wooden bridges, most had been burnt by the spitting bubbles of flowing lava underneath them. Charred stumps propped at the edge of the crevice. The river below rolled through the crater as the lazy magma drifted from one end of the hall to the other. The central fire had dimmed by a fraction since the last time I’d been here to check for Aseret’s followers, two weeks ago.

Around the outer edge of the hall, countless candles burned—they would never die out. The heavy stench of stinky socks and rotten eggs still overpowered the room and would pollute the underworld for a long time. I swooshed my saliva and spat to the side, trying to get rid of the imprinted odor. My feet pushed through the ashen remains. Heavy moisture hung in the air, and I wondered how a place with such intense heat could hold any dampness at all.

I stood near the rim of a deadly drop into the hot crater. My arms hung at my sides, palms facing outward. Stinging electricity weaved between my fingers, and I detected the energy transfer from the keepers, preparing me for the inevitable. Cracking my neck to each side, I closed my eyes, exhaled, and let my senses guide me. The tingling in my neck intensified, but I kept my spikes beneath the skin. My ears perked up, listening to the quietest change in the sound, trying to block out the swoosh of the lava, the flickering fire, and the breaking magma. The crunching noise resonated louder in the echo-prone room.

A rustle to the right stirred, but I did not move, pretending to be lost. I knew the demon wouldn’t expect me to have my guard down, and he’d come closer. New shuffling resonated to my left, and I opened my eyes, sensing another demon’s presence.

Two.

If I killed two demons, there’d be only one left to deal with and my life would end.

I never thought two of them would show up together. Were they in cohorts? My gaze shifted across the hall from left to right and back. Each stood still, prepared for a fight, clenching and opening their fists. Aiming at one would allow the other to have a clear shot at me.

But I didn’t want to hit either of them. The countdown would lower to one demon away from living without Mira. As a mere mortal, the probability of meeting her again, or to understand her life as a shapeshifter and watcher, was diminished by the thousands.

The demons kept still, as if waiting for something I wasn’t aware of. Should I make the first move? It’s not something I would have doubted or contemplated in the past. I’d bend the evil out of them in seconds. If they were willing, I’d aid them in becoming good warlocks, but these demons did not seem to have a thread of free will inside them, their stance and clothing identical.

A deep laugh vibrated through the hall. A laugh I’d recognized.

That’s impossible!

He stood at the opposite end of the hall, sixty feet in front of me, but the warlock didn’t look like the warden I’d remembered. William and Ekim had killed him; the body was dead, but the soul eluded capture. Aseret’s brother was never bound to the hereafter after his death, the way Aseret had been. The warden’s spirit now possessed the body of a young warlock, reincarnated in new flesh. With broad shoulders, evenly spaced eyes, and a chiseled body, he reminded me of the Greek god of fire. At least the warden’s unibrow was gone, although his brows were still wider than normal. The warlock didn’t wear the customary cloak of the demons like his partners on the side had. With jeans and a v-neck, he’d blend into the human world; perhaps that was his goal.

All three are here.

“You cannot kill the last one,” Xela had said. If I did, this warlock would steal my powers, and I’d be the one to lose my life.

He paced to the right, then the left, like a praying cougar, focused on its hunt—and I was his prey. The other demons hadn’t moved.

“Why aren’t you bending, evil-bender?” The thick voice absorbed all other sounds and streamed toward me in a ribbon of power. There was no hiss or drawl the way I’d remembered in Aseret’s or the original warden’s voice. This tone possessed energy of persuasion I hadn’t experienced before. It wrapped itself around me like Medusa’s snake hairs, slithering from my arms and torso up to my ears, freezing all other logical thoughts. Even the bubbling lava seemed to respond, spitting higher to the melody. His words were beautiful, matching the warlock’s presence and strength.

I shook the hypnotizing trance off my body. “I gather you heard of me. Too bad I can’t offer the same courtesy.”

“My name is Vulcan.”

How appropriate.

“What is it that you want, Vulcan? I have a job to do.”

“But do you want to do it, Eric?” His gaze held mine. He spoke like a brother and a partner, not a scheming warlock.

Who was he to question my calling? Did he doubt I’d kill him? I was an evil-bender, and I had to fulfill what’s been asked of me. I wouldn’t fail.

A sphere materialized in my right hand. The electricity sizzled through my body down to my fingertips where it interlaced between my fingers in the form of blue sparks.

Oh, yes!

The bandages on my neck ripped as my spikes burst through, vibrating the seeping blood. The keepers must have sensed my confrontation. My mark glowed, cheering me on as if it didn’t matter that I could be killed by the other demon. No longer able to contain the surge, I shot the blue sphere of fire at the demon on my right with as much strength and voltage I could muster. The demon disintegrated on my first blow.

I’d go out on my own terms—no one else's.

One down, two to go.

But my victory seemed to laugh at me from the inside. My sight blurred, and I grew weak in my knees. How could something so right feel so wrong?

“Your heart will guide you,” Mrs. G had said.

To my left, the smirking demon held an orange orb of fire in each of his palms. He pulled his arm backward and bent at the knees.