Apprentice of Death

Cinder’s horse raced through the forest after Dominique as she searched for Sebastian with her mind and power. She was frantic with fear, knowing Dominique’s rage and power, now focused on her lifelong friend, Bondmate, and first love. Dominique also had the element of surprise on Sebastian, giving him an edge. She sped her horse on, becoming more and more distraught; it felt like she could barely draw a breath as she became cold with the fear.

“Sebastian!” she screamed his name repeatedly until her voice became hoarse; even then, she refused to stop calling for him, trying to warn him of what was coming for him.

At last, she felt him close, but she also felt Dominique’s presence closing in on Sebastian. She pushed her horse even faster toward them. Tears of fear gathered in her eyes and started leaking out the corners of her eyes, lifted by the wind of her passage to be carried away.

A sob caught in her throat when she heard it, the first snarl of an attack happening. A sharp pain of fear in her heart had her drawing in a breath, desperate to relieve it, as she pressed Obsidian even harder, demanding more speed as she screamed Sebastian’s name again.

They came into view and were fighting, but it was over so quick as Dominique used the element of surprise to sink his fangs into Sebastian’s shoulder. Cinder screamed and sent a wave of power out to knock Dominique off of Sebastian, sending Dominique flailing to the ground a small distance away from Sebastian.

Sebastian screamed in utter agony like Cinder had never heard a person make before; the very sound of it chilled her soul, making her heart ache within her chest, bleeding along with the sound. Cinder ran her horse right up to Sebastian and passed him, blocking him from Dominique, who stood up, his eyes flaming angrily at her. She leaped from her horse, leaving Obsidian as a shield before Sebastian.

She started attacking Dominique with her magic, and he turned on her, retaliating and blocking what he could of her attack. Cinder pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes, focusing her fear into a hot rage as she attacked Dominique; she had to focus if she was going to win this fight, and Sebastian’s unceasing screams were ripping through her.

Dominique hissed as he threw out spell after spell at her, snarling as she blocked his magic better than any unapprenticed witch should have been able to; he didn’t know she had had extensive training in fighting or that she could read his mind and anticipate his spells. She snarled back at him as she flung another heavy ball of sizzling energy at him, the same color as her illuminated eyes that inspired fear in him.

Across the forest, Adrian was riding his horse surveying when he heard the agonizing scream of Sebastian that chilled his blood. He had heard a scream like that before, only once; it had come from the princess after Dominique had bitten her. No other scream or sound could ever come close to the excruciating suffering conveyed in that scream, the sound of vampire and werewolf venom mixing in a single body. Instantly, Adrian knew that Dominique had bitten Sebastian. He could feel the booming and snapping of magical fighting following the first blood-curdling scream, and he knew the Cinder was fighting Dominique.

In a flash, Adrian took off on his horse in the opposite direction of the fighting, running his Prowess harder than ever before. He knew only one person in the world would be able to help Sebastian or Cinder, and he had to bring her to them. Adrian ran his horse as fast as the animal would go in the direction of Celeste’s fortress.

The forest was lit with flashes of color as the hissing, crackling, and thundering of magical fighting echoed off of the trees around the pair, a group of ravens being scared from the treetops in a cawing swarm taking to the heavens. Dominique’s attacks raged at Cinder, slowly becoming more and more violent and deadly as they went along; he had gone from wanting to stun her in the beginning, to save his plans for her, to wanting to kill her now; her last hit on him had done some serious damage, and he knew she aimed to kill him if she could.

He threw out one attack and then sent another explosive ball of blinding white magic toward her, hoping to catch her off guard. Just in time, Cinder dodged to the side, and the tree to her left exploded in a shower of slivers and bark, sending the great tree groaning through the air to crash onto the forest floor. Cinder retaliated with an electric bolt, arcing out from her hand, hitting Dominique square in the chest; his outstretched arms gathered the energy back into a ball to throw back at her, which she blocked easily, despite his speed. She continued to dodge, block and counter all that he threw at her, confusing him. He was a strong fighter, but what he couldn’t understand was Cinder’s edge over him as they fought. She was one step ahead of him the entire time, in both defense and offense against him.

Their magic level was slowly getting lower and lower, but his confidence in his higher capacity had him hanging on. He also had centuries of experience in fighting, boosting his confidence in his ability to overpower Cinder. He left himself mentally open to her attack the moment his hubris clouded his mind, and she struck, swifter than the thundering of their magic that flew through the air.

Not knowing that she was a Seer, Dominique hadn’t bothered to build up any mental walls or protection over his mind from her, and the initial entry was easy for her. She quickly peeled back the layers of his warped mind and used as much force as she could to squeeze his mind under her control, not bothering to be gentle or show restraint as Aeron had taught her long before.

Dominique screamed in pain and surprise as he dropped to the ground, holding his head. She sent him jerking to the ground in pain, squeezing him tighter than a boa constrictor with its prey, a pain like he had never known before. Cinder squeezed again as he screamed and fought back mentally, and she had to fight to remain in control. She had never seized the mind of a vampire before, and she was finding it extremely difficult to maintain; so great was his power and supernatural strength.

Sebastian’s horrendous screams were a stark reminder that she was running out of time. She pressed in further and harder, straining under the mental effort, and finally reached Dominique’s core. There, his center flame burned a deep crimson color that matched his blood-thirsty eyes. She pressed herself into his warped mind even further and struck at his core flame, trying to snuff it out, like Seers did when a prisoner was guilty.

Touching his core flames, she could feel the darkness and untamed cruelty that was the essence of all that flickered under her sight. The flames danced and flared at her efforts to snuff them out. It was like striking at them fanned them, and some of the dancing flames crept up her and into her own heart, making her suck in a gasp.

Enraged, with her electric blue eyes boring into his red ones, she reached out mentally with both of her fists and surrounded the dancing core flames, cementing her hold over his core. At last, she clenched her mental fists around the flames of Dominique with a final scream of war and snuffed them out. His head fell back, and his blood-red eyes rolled into the back of his head with a hiss right before she released her hold over him. His lifeless corpse fell to the ground; his flames extinguished completely; she had won.

She ran over to Sebastian, who hadn’t stopped screaming in utter torment since being bitten. She knelt beside her closest friend, whom she had known her entire life, leaning over him with tears running down her face because of his pain. He was her friend, her Bondmate, and her first love. Her heart utterly shattered as she looked down at him, as he lay dying on the forest floor; she couldn’t bear to lose him, to have another of her loves die because of her choices.

She sobbed and reached down to caress him, to try to offer what comfort she could. This was the man she had chosen to live life with while accepting the consequences of death; her death. At that moment, she knew what she needed to do, what she had to do.

She placed her hands on him and drew the poison spreading through his body into a central point and then brought it up his chest, into his mouth. Feeling its properties, the Earth answered her inquiries with its answer; this was death, and there was no way to avoid the demanded price. There was no way to toss the poison aside now; the Earth demanded its price, leaving her only one option.

She gave a sob, brushed his hair back, and whispered, “I love you, Sebastian!” His mind heard her, but barely, as he screamed with indescribable agony.

With a final loving kiss to his lips, as he strained and arched with the pain, Cinder inhaled the poison into her own body entirely, taking the pain with it and the price of death the Earth demanded; she would pay it in his stead. Sebastian’s screams stopped the moment she breathed in the poison, and a gush of air escaped him as he collapsed to the forest floor.

Cinder sat up as the poison entered her system, her eyes rolling back into her head at the onslaught. He sat up, fear filling his eyes as he looked at her for a split second before she reacted to the poison. She screamed, her mouth wide as she arched her back and fell backward over Sebastian’s lap.

Cinder sucked in a deep breath, so she could scream again, as her black hair sprawled out behind her, her mouth gaping open as she lay over Sebastian’s lap, looking out at the forest from where she lay. The vision that the Oracle had shown her filled her head; it was complete, and it was what she had been shown. She was dying.

Across the forest, Adrian heard Cinder’s horrendous, agonized scream, and he urged his mount to carry him faster to her. Celeste and her entire Coven, the most powerful Coven in the world, all rode running horses just behind him, speeding toward the sounds of screaming and wailing. Sebastian’s tortured screaming had ceased, and Adrian heard only Cinder’s now. He knew deep within his heart that she had somehow sacrificed herself to the torture of death instead of Sebastian; Sebastian’s desperate, grieved, wailing cries were even more proof.

The scene they rode up on was Sebastian cradling Cinder, wailing in despair at her sacrifice, while Cinder screamed her agony, lying backward over his lap in unreachable pain. The dead body of Dominique lay on the forest floor, not far away. The entire Coven dismounted and ran over to where the pair lay on the ground. They started preparing the surrounding area for a ritual.

“Collect wood quickly, Adrian,” Celeste instructed him, “We have to hurry if we are to complete this spell before Dominique wakes.”

“But he’s dead! She killed him.”

“No, Adrian. She snuffed out his flame, but she didn’t kill him. He is a vampire still and will awaken, even though she killed the sorcerer part in him. Now quickly! Collect the wood. We must make a funeral pyre to burn his body on once we transfer the poison back into his body. It is the only way to save her!” He ran to do as she commanded him.

The Coven drew out a large rune circle and started creating the pyre in the middle of it as fast as they could work. A separate rune circle was drawn around Sebastian and Cinder with different symbols. One warlock took a large pouch and filled the drawn rune circle with a black glittery powder, carefully following the runes etched into the Earth.

A werewolf rider came running up on a horse, carrying a large pouch, that he threw to Celeste. She caught it and opened the purse, reaching inside. She drew out a large moonstone and placed it in a designated spot in the rune design. She reached back into the bag and drew out another to begin placing the moonstones around the rune circle that Cinder was in.

Several members of the Coven moved Dominique’s body to the top of the pyre. One of them walked over to Cinder and Sebastian and cut their fingers with a dagger, taking a thick sample of their blood. Adrian watched as the witch mixed the blood in her palm before walking up to the pyre to draw symbols on Dominique’s face. Then they all started surrounding the rune that Cinder was screaming in the center of, chanting an incantation as they raised their arms over the rune circle.

“Blood magic, Celeste!” Adrian hissed, his face whipping around to look at Celeste in horror.

“It is not the same as what you know to be blood magic, Adrian. The Earth is demanding a blood price, a death price. Their blood will simply help the poison be drawn into Dominique so it is recognized.” Her words only served to confuse Adrian more.

“What is going on, Celeste?!” demanded Adrian.

She looked at him, her hazel eyes intense and serious as she answered, “Cinder is going to die. We will suspend her flames in the moonstones you provided and then transfer the poison from her into Dominique’s body to pay the Earth its death price, to bring the balance it demands. The blood is an anchor for the previous victims that Dominique will replace. We will then force Cinder’s core flame back into her body to take its rightful place and bring her back from the edge.”

Adrian’s face contorted with the pain of knowing Cinder would die, and he asked, “Will this affect Cinder?”

“I can’t say. It has never been done before, but it is something that we have been preparing for, for hundreds of years; after what happened to the princess, I wanted to be prepared.”

Celeste and Adrian turned as a screech ripped its way out of Cinder’s throat, as her back arched off Sebastian’s lap, her illuminated eyes staring off into the forest. Her body slumped to Sebastian’s lap, and the light in her eyes faded, a final breath escaping her before her head lulled to the side. Sebastian screamed her name, doubling over her. She was dead.

The moonstones around the rune circle glowed bright, and the Coven didn’t stop chanting or holding their arms out in front of them as they stood around the rune circle. Dominique’s body jerked slightly where it rested on the pyre, drawing both Celeste’s and Adrian’s eyes to it. Celeste knew they were running out of time, so she walked over to the rune circle and started flowing her magic out over Cinder’s body, almost repeating the same process Cinder had used on Sebastian. She pulled the poison from Cinder’s lifeless body and transferred it into the waking body of Dominique, lying on the pyre.

The vampire’s eyes shot open and glowed a blood red, and his mouth opened wide, sucking in air at the sensation of the poison beginning to spread its way through his body. Celeste lit the pyre before Dominique could get up, and it burst into flame, popping and spitting, as the vampire burned; the rune circle surrounding the flaming pyre lit up in response.

Celeste turned to her Coven and joined them around the rune circle that Cinder and Sebastian were in, raising her hands and joining them in their chanting, lending her overwhelming source of magic to the efforts to bring Cinder back.

The incantation changed from them suspending her flames to wanting to push them back from the moonstones into Cinder; to bring her back. Adrian watched as the flames inside the moonstones slowly crept across the rune circle like a fog across the ground to where Cinder’s body lay in Sebastian’s arms. He was still sobbing in utter grief, oblivious to the world around them, as he held Cinder in his arms, looking down at her lifeless body, begging her not to leave him.

The flames crept across the ground and entered her body, seeping back into her core where they belonged. They continued the slow process until every last lick of the flame had entered her core and was back where it belonged, burning bright and strong. The more flame entered her body, the brighter her opened, dead eyes lit up and illuminated until they were strong and vibrant, glowing an electric blue.

Cinder pulled in a breath and blinked, bringing her head up from where it lay to look around. Her eyes found Sebastian, and she raised her hand to gently caress his face, which was wet with tears streaming down his face. Sebastian met her eyes and sucked in a breath, now that he could breathe again. He bent his face to kiss her with trembling lips, his hand coming to her face.

“Sebastian,” she whispered when he sat up to look at her. He caressed her again and cradled her to him, rocking her and sobbing in the relief of her being alive.

Celeste and her Coven dropped their arms and finished the incantation. The black powder that had been spread burst into flames burning all around the two in the center of the rune circle and then went out right before the moonstones crumbled into dust and blew away in the breeze.

Adrian ran over to Sebastian and Cinder, falling to his knees next to them. Sebastian sat up just enough to give Adrian room to lean in close to Cinder and place his forehead in her lap, shaking from the fear of watching her die and of losing the woman he loved more than any other person. Adrian’s frame shook a little as he sobbed with the relief of her being alive. Cinder reached down and caressed his brow like she always did, trying to comfort him. He sat up from her lap and leaned in to kiss her in relief, and she held his face, kissing him back. She caressed his cheek, and he laid his head back in her lap. Cinder continued to caress Adrian as he hugged her legs to him, and she leaned into Sebastian, who still held her, nuzzling her neck as he tried to recover from the overwhelming emotions of her death and return.

The Coven turned and surrounded the other rune circle that held the flaming pyre. They began chanting as Celeste felt, with her magic, the Earth’s response to the sacrifice. It accepted Dominique in Cinder’s place, and the demanded price was paid. Cinder, Sebastian, and Adrian looked at the fire, and all present watched the flames burn the pyre until nothing was left but smoking charcoal on the forest floor.

Celeste turned to the trio and instructed, “Take Cinder home and see that she rests. Keep an eye on her; if you need anything, send word to me. Don’t take the moonstone necklace off of her until I say it is safe to do so. We do not know how this may affect her in the future.”