SWNOVELS Chapter 46
No sooner have the words left her lips than her wand is in the air, pointed at Zev, a golden light bursting from it. He's quick enough to move his head out of the way, but the blast catches him in the shoulder, sending him flailing away into the snow. The yelp he lets out as he
crashes and falls still breaks my heart.
"No!" I shout, whirling back to face my mother.
"Baby," she starts, ready to dish out another lie, or tell me the truth. I get the feeling I may not know who I should actually trust until it's too late.
She takes another step toward me, but before her foot can settle, a blur of darkness streaks through my vision, toppling my mother and sending other members of the Order scrambling. Before my eyes can follow the movement, the shadow appears behind a hooded member and knocks them unconscious with a blow to the head before they can even turn around.
The vampire has arrived.
Fire starts to fly again and I duck down, hunching over my shrieking baby to keep her out of harm's way. I look behind me to see if I can spot Zev. I can only make out what might be the outline of a rock, or perhaps a motionless wolf. Suddenly, I feel a body at my side.
"We need to flee, Bernie."
Order members are scattered about, some heading our way but ceasing the onslaught for fear of hitting Rain. This is as good a time as any to escape, but...
"Not without Zev and Rune."
"Bernie, they may not survive--"
"It's a three-way pledge, Darius," I say firmly. "We're not leaving if they're still alive."
Darius stands his ground, his face conflicted. He's trying to respect my wishes, but it's clear his chief concern is keeping me alive. I can't imagine a world in which this man would hurt me, no matter what consequences he may face. If I had to choose between my mom and the vampire this instant...
"Bernie, you need to trust me!"
My mother's voice comes from the ground near the fire. She's slowly getting to her feet, obviously hurt from the blow she took.
"No matter how charmed you are, or protected you feel, each of these men is trying to save his own race! The stakes are too high to be blinded by their powers--or your feelings! Don't you think they would snap your neck in an instant if it meant saving everything and everyone they care about? Do you really think you and your child matter to them more than their entire realm? More than their own lives?"
She limps toward me, looking hurt and afraid, and speaking words that ring true. It would be foolish to think about how each man has treated me without remembering why they came in the first place.
"Matilda's daughter, I presume," Darius says calmly.
"Don't say her name like you know her," my mom says.
Interesting. It looks like I know something my mother doesn't. What to do with this information, I'm not sure.
"You don't know of what you speak, woman," the vampire spits back, sounding much more like the Darius I was first introduced to. "None of you know the first thing about this child, its powers, or the prophecy."
While Darius gives my mother a verbal lashing, the other members of the Order fall in behind her. It's me, my baby, and a vampire against a much larger, seemingly more powerful group. My baby might have magic one day, but that day is not today, and I already know I don't have any--thanks to Nanny. So really, it's Darius against the Order, which doesn't seem like great odds, even for a super powerful vampire.
I look back toward the clearing, vaguely making out the movements of a body slumped against a tree. I know in my heart it's Rune. He's alive at least, though it's hard to say for how long.
"Is that why you've killed so many of us, you monster?" my mom fires back. "Just racing to get to the last one so you could feast on the innocent for eternity?"
I throw another glance back toward Zev, and see that he's starting to rise. I may not know who to trust, but I know I'm not ready to see any of these strange, beautiful men die.
When I turn back, I see my mom slowly raising her wand.
"Mother," I say in my most admonishing voice. "Do not."
I expect her to ignore me, but instead she looks at the ground and starts to cry.
"Oh, Sunshine,' she whispers between sobs. "Why won't you let me save you?"
Her words strike a chord, and I see how painful this is for her. She knows she hasn't earned my trust, and yet I think she truly believes that I'll die without her help. But then, her expression shifts, a new malice in her eyes and a harsher tone in her voice.
"Don't you see what this magic becomes?" she wails, gesturing to the fire and devastation all around us. "There's no end to this, Sunshine. Everyone will always want to achieve the greatest power, to live forever, to rule over the others. There's only one way to end this." She lowers her wand and reaches out to me with her other hand. "Give me the baby, Bernadette. She is the sacrifice that will save us all. Her death will end the wars forever."
A collective gasp comes from the Order members behind my mother. A figure steps forward and removes her hood--it's Joe's wife, Betty. She hovers over my mother's shoulder and speaks while keeping her eyes on me and the vampire.
"What are you talking about?" Betty asks. "The objective was always to save the child, Lauren."
"No," my mom says firmly. "It was always to save our families, our husbands and brothers, our sisters and mothers... our daughters."
She turns her attention back to me. "I'm asking you to do something impossible, Sunshine. No mother could ever willingly harm her child."
Except you, I think to myself. By trying to take my baby from me.
"But this goes beyond your pain, or mine, or my mother's. You have a chance to end so much suffering. If we don't do the right thing, these cursed magic creatures will haunt the world for another million years."
This whole time, my mom has been trying to convince me of the evil forces conspiring against me. I know she believes what she says, but she's lost sight of who the real monster is.
I look down at Rain--cold, hungry, and crying. I need to get her away from here. Away from the witches who are supposed to be her family.
I turn to Darius, whose eyes have been locked on my mother this whole time, every muscle in his body ready to spring into action and save the baby he pledged to protect. That's it. The pledge.
He takes his eyes off my mother to look at me, a hesitant expression on his face. I know he heard my thoughts. "Bernie..."
"Darius," I say, not giving him a chance to stop me. "Take the child."
"What are you doing?" my mother yells, her wand hand raised again.
"I'm taking your advice, mother," I say, with every ounce of sass I can muster. "I'm doing the right thing."
I hold Rain out toward the vampire. He's the only one who can keep her safe right now, and that's all I care about. "Take the child."
He looks at the baby so tenderly, a sort of compassion on his face I never thought could have existed. And then he raises his gaze to me. "No."
I don't understand. Neither does my mother or any member of the Order, who all seem dumbstruck at the scene unfolding before them.
"Darius, I've broken the pledge," I say. "All I want is for her to be safe, away from all this, and you're the only one I trust to make that happen. Please, Darius, take my baby."
He pushes Rain back into the nook of my arm, then reaches up and touches my cheek.
"She's safest with you. Your love for her is as strong as any magic, and has already kept her alive against all odds. I refuse to take her from her mother, no matter what."
When I open my mouth to object, he inches closer, wrapping an arm around me while keeping his other hand on Rain.
"I can't allow any harm to come to the child," he says softly, his dark eyes penetrating all the defenses I had built up around my heart. "But can't allow any harm to come to you either followed the star that night expecting to find a savior for my people. Instead, I found a savior for my own soul, and I will not let her go
now."
For the briefest moment, all the fear drifts out of me as I lose myself in Darius' eyes, feeling secure in the midst of this madness.
"All right,” I say, knowing I can't change his mind and realizing how much I need him by my side. I linger on his eyes for a second longer, finding strength in them that I know I'll need for the fight ahead.
And then, before I can turn away,
Darius and I are hit with a blast of
magic that sends me flying back several feet and crashing into the snow. My grip on Rain tightens as I hold her close to my chest and pray she isn't
hoort. The wind is knocked
out of me and my head spins from the impact.
I look around frantically for Darius and scream when I see him.
He is on fire. Blue flames licking at his flesh, burning him from the inside out. I try to crawl to him, but every part of my body flares with pain and I fall back when I realize my right leg is broken. Darius crashes to the ground flailing wildly as flames engulf his entire body. His cries are excruciating and echo through the forest as the trees themselves seem to absorb his pain.
"What have you done?" I scream as my mother stands over him, wand pointed down, smoke still curling from the tip. Then she turns, her face a mask void of any emotion, as she locks her gaze with mine and takes a step toward Rain and me.