SWNOVELS Heir of Broken Fate: Chapter 35
After Knox talked to the commander about the wendigos on the island and I said goodbye to the gorgeous griffin, thanking it profusely for saving our lives, I’m in Knox’s arms once more, the adrenaline long gone from earlier as fatigue wracks my body.
“That was eventful,” I say flatly.
Knox’s chest shakes on a laugh. “Just a tad.”
I look him up and down, realizing we don’t have the books. “Oh my god, where did—”
Knox cuts me off. “Axel has them.”
I slump into his body. “Thank god that wasn’t for nothing.”
Knox chuckles, his deep rumble of a laugh making my lips twitch into a smile, until his face turns ashen, his body tensing. “Something’s wrong.”
Knox flies faster than ever before, reaching the house within minutes as he teleports and flies at the same time. He lands on the front pathway so quickly I bounce in his arms from the impact. Ace and Axel have their swords drawn as they land, Knox and I doing the same.
“The shields are down,” Axel pants.
Knox’s face leaches of color. “The island. It was a diversion to get us away from the house, to get me to use my power so I wouldn’t feel the wards being destroyed.”
My heart stops entirely.
Hazel.
A killing calm washes over me, everything around me sharpening as my senses sweep the area. My canines flare as I snap my gaze to the silent house. Ignoring Knox’s shouts of protest, I run for the house as fast as I’ve ever run before, spearing out my magic as I do, praying that it finds Hazel.
The smell of blood shoves its way down my nose, so strong I can taste the metallic tang on my tongue. It isn’t long before I find the source. As I run through the open front door I’m met with deadly silence. Bodies of Knox’s guards pile along the floor, crimson blood pooling in every crack and crevice of the once white marble tiles.
Rage burns through me, hot searing fire, crackling in my veins as I take in the innocent lives butchered around me. I think I scream, yet I can’t hear anything through the ringing in my ears. I run through hall after hall, opening doors as I go, my magic erupting around me as panic digs its claws deep within my heart.
I spear my power into every inch of the house, searching for Hazel.
Please be alive, please be alive, please be alive.
I’m running up the foyer stairs when I feel it—her energy, lightly pulsing. I spin so fast I nearly shove Ace down the stairs. I didn’t even hear him behind me. Running through the house to the backyard, I scream in horror. Dead guards line every inch of the garden, dozens of Knox’s men dead. Bile burns my throat as I splash through puddles of crimson blood, torn body parts, and lifeless eyes. I throw open the cellar door so strongly the door snaps off its hinges. I practically fly down the cellar stairs, my feet never touching a single one.
Shaking as I lay my palm on the door, purple light flaring beneath my hand before it clicks, I shove it open, rushing into the room only to stop cold. Hazel is curled in a ball in the far corner, a long sword dripping with black blood gripped in her hands so tightly her knuckles are white. Her soft floral dress is no longer yellow, but stained red.
I can’t contain my sob as I fling myself toward her, tears of relief streaming down my face as her bloodshot eyes snap to mine. Hazel drops the sword in her hand, a cry leaving her lips as she focuses, seeing it’s me. She’s shaking so much I’m surprised I don’t hear her bones rattle against one another.
“The books,” she croaks. “The books.”
“I don’t care about the books,” I say as I search for any injuries. The majority of the blood isn’t her own, I can smell it, yet she has several deep gashes on her arms and legs.
Boots stomp down the cellar stairs, making Hazel flinch.
“It’s the boys…It’s the boys,” I soothe, sweeping her hair back.
I hear a broken cry pierce the room before Axel’s deep voice says, “She’s okay, Ace.”
I turn to see Ace shove Axel off him, lunging for us. He stops abruptly, his face dropping, eyes filling with pain. Knox comes up behind the twins, his own face grave and pale.
“The books,” Hazel mutters again.
“I think she’s in shock.”
“No,” she blurts. “The books.’
I look around the room noticing that it’s completely empty. I lift my widened eyes to Knox. “They came for the books.”
“I hid them before they could find them. I wouldn’t let them have the books,” Hazel whispers, her eyes glazing over again as her mind takes her far away.
I lean forward, kissing the top of her forehead when words fail me.
Ace’s broken voice fills the room. “Hazel, do you want to go to your room?”
Hazel snaps her head up at the sound of his voice. Tears roll down her cheeks. As if the trance was broken Ace rushes forward, no longer in shock at the horrible sight. He slowly lifts her to his chest, Hazel’s head settling in the crook of his neck.
“I need to heal her,” Ace says softly as he leaves.
I stand by, feeling utterly useless as Ace carries Hazel up the cellar stairs.
“I’ll go get the others,” Axel says solemnly.
I drag my eyes to Knox, finding his face as white as a ghost, his eyes unseeing and hands shaking. Finding so many of his people dead, in his own home…
I gently lay my hand on his arm. “Knox?” He doesn’t move, doesn’t even flinch. Worry claws through me. I slide both my palms up his neck, gently cupping his face, forcing him to look at me. “Knox.”
Silver lines his eyes as he slowly focuses on me. “My men…my friends…” he says brokenly. “I swore this would never happen again.”
With nothing to say to soothe or comfort the loss he feels, I lift onto the tip of my toes, wrapping my arms around his neck. Knox’s arms circle my waist in return, crushing me to him as he buries his face in the crook of my neck.
I’m sitting with Ace and Hazel in her room when Knox strolls past the open door, heading to his room down the hall. His clothes are splattered with mud and blood from burying his friends.
I don’t know what sort of person it makes me, but I couldn’t stomach seeing so many people dead, so many innocent people brutally murdered. If I had to see it again it would have utterly shattered a part of me. Guilt courses through me that Knox had to do it, that he had to bury his friends at all.
I should have helped him.
“He wanted to do it alone, Axel and Lenox too…as a goodbye,” Ace whispers to me, reading the guilt wracking my body.
“It’s not right,” I croak.
“No, it’s not,” is Ace’s only response.
We sit in silence, waiting for Hazel to emerge from the bathroom.
The house is full of sounds, bangs and clatters as the workers fix whatever was knocked over or broken. It’s a small miracle that the servers got out unharmed; they had invisibility and shadow magic to thank for that. The guards hid those who didn’t possess the magic…they died protecting their friends.
The bathroom door opens at the same time Axel strolls into the room, his steps unhurried and face drawn. Sadness lingers in every inch of his body as he stares at Ace, having another silent conversation between themselves. Without so much as uttering a word, Axel turns, his boots squeaking down the hallway as he retreats.
Ace turns to Hazel as she takes a stiff seat on the bed. “Hazel, can you come downstairs into the study?” He takes a shuddering breath. “Can you tell us what happened?”
Hazel stands, her hands quivering. “Yes, of course.”
“If you’re not ready to talk that’s absolutely—”
“No, I need to tell you what happened,” she cuts in.
Ace leads, walking in front of Hazel as I walk behind her, acting as her own personal shields.
The foyer has returned to normal. The dead guards, shattered glass, and pools of blood are gone, a lingering scent of lemon coating the air. My eyes burn as the image of the foyer not so long ago flashes through my mind. I blink rapidly, praying that my tears vanish and the image goes away.
Harlow sits up straighter in her chair as we enter the siting room. Hazel takes a seat with Ace on a two-seated sofa, leaving me to sit beside her in a single chair. Lenox’s face is as drawn and solemn as the rest of them. Everyone here lost friends and family today.
Knox enters the room a moment later, sealing a silencing shield around us. He’s freshly bathed, wearing clean clothes, yet he continues to rub his hands together behind his back as if he can’t get the blood off them. “Can you show me what happened?” Knox asks Hazel gently.
She gives one quick dip of her chin before her eyes go vacant, glazed and unfocused.
Knox’s jaw clenches, his hands balling into fists at his side. Hazel slumps back in the sofa as Knox transfers her memories to all of us.
Hazel
Walking through the foyer, I peer down at my feet, watching my yellow sundress twirl as I move when suddenly screams and shouts fill the house.
Two harried guards crash through the front door. “We’re under attack! Everyone hide, now!”
Fear slithers through my body, my eyes widening as I run for the training room.
I will never be unprepared. Never again.
I pump my legs as fast as I can, my chest heaving as I reach the room. I rush to the far-side wall, grabbing as many knives as I can fit into my pockets, then draw the long sword from the middle shelf. My hand wraps around the hilt, and I loosen my wrist just as Delilah taught me. I pause as the smell of blood fills not only the training room but the entire house. Then the screams ensure.
Outside, dozens of guards in gray suits, red emblems attached to the sleeves, attack Knox’s guards.
The backyard is covered in blood splatters within seconds, puddles of crimson forming as men fall dead on the grass. Their limbs chopped and butchered.
A dark shadow in my peripheral catches my eye. A large beast, its scaly leather skin rippling with shadows, heads toward the cellar door, flanked by five gray-suited guards.
“No,” I rasp.
Invisible talons squeeze my chest as memories of Luna bombard my mind. The gashes slashed across her small torso, the smell of the beast clinging to her tiny body as her blood gushed into my arms. The horrid beast grasping my baby girl as it—
No.
I refuse to let these horrid beasts take any more from me.
Sprinting out of the training room, I run down the hall to the servants’ stairwell, swinging the metal door open. Only to be met with lifeless eyes as three guards, dressed in that horrible gray uniform, walk through the threshold.
Before I can move, they lunge for me.
I scream as I swing my sword, sobs racking my body as I strike. Crimson blood leaks down my sword as I defend myself against those who used to be my own people, who were meant to protect and serve the very thing they’re destroying today.
A heavy hand wraps around my arm, yanking me so hard my head snaps back with the force. I kick and scream as the man drags me down the stairs. I try to cut the back of his legs but another guard appears. In one fell swoop he slices my arm so deep I drop the sword as I scream. Dragging me to the bottom of the stairs, they kick the exit door open, sunlight shining through the dark hall. Frantically diving deep within my magic, roots sprout from the ground. Wrapping around the guards’ neck, they strangle the very life out of them until their hands on me go slack, their jaws hanging open as they fall to the floor. I thank Mother Earth for saving me.
I unsheathe the swords strapped to their waists and run. I never stop. I don’t dare look back at the carnage, the sounds of metal hitting metal. The screams of agony and the smell of tears and blood is enough for me to know that we’ve lost many today…too many.
I push my feet to go faster, begging the goddesses to listen to my prayers that they haven’t taken the dark magic books, only to come to a skidding halt. The five guards that were flanking the beast pounce on me the moment I turn the corner, pinning my arms and legs to the ground as I thrash, roaring. Their nails bite into my skin, fresh blood trickling down my limbs. Darkness slides over my face. The beast. Its red glowing eyes peer down at me as it licks its lips, practically buzzing with anticipation as it hovers above me.
“What a pretty little thing you are. I think you’d be delightful entertainment in my bed,” it croons.
My eyes widen, my magic blasting out of me with the force of my panic.
Thick vines sprout from the ground below me, so tall the guards can do nothing as they wrap around their bodies like snakes, suffocating and squeezing their necks so tightly their eyes bulge and pop out of their sockets. With my limbs now free, I scramble back, the beast shaking with rage as I kill his men. He slinks forward only to stop inches away from me, his eyes going wholly blank. The red glowing tinge moments before turns a milky white color, as if a light switch was turned off.
I don’t dare wait to find out why. Standing on a sob, I sprint for the cellar. My fingers tremble against the door as purple light shines beneath my palm, and when I push open the door, my knees buckle at the sight of the books. I pick up every one, already shooting my power out into the garden, digging a hole so large, so deep, they’ll never be able to get to it in time.
I sprint from the room, trembling and shaking as I run around the building to the hole I created. I don’t second-guess myself as I drop them into the black pit. With the little power I have left, I cover the hole and run for my life. I pick up a fallen sword as I sprint into the cellar once again, clutching the blade to my chest as I curl myself into a ball in the corner.
Praying that I survive.
Bile burns my throat, threatening to rise.
I place my hand over my mouth, swallowing profusely until it subsides. I know Hazel is strong, I truly do, yet seeing what she went through and knowing that I’m the one who brought her here…
My hand falls to my lap as ice coats my veins; they’re all dead because of me. I was the one to bring Knox the information about the dark magic books, I was the one that found them in the library, and I was the one who brought them into the house.
Those guards and that horrendous beast killed all those innocent people because of me, because of the decision that led me here, my actions.
Angel, this isn’t your fault.
He should hate me right now; he should hate me that I’m the reason his loved ones are dead.
Numbness spreads throughout my body, the couch beneath me disappearing as it feels like I’m floating. The coffee table before me blurs. Everything around me appears to not be my own sight. The words leaving people’s mouths no longer reach my ears.
My heart leaves me once more.
I forgot how it felt; it’s been such a long time since it’s abandoned me. I can see everything, yet it doesn’t appear to be my own. The hand resting in my lap feels foreign, as if I’m looking at someone else’s body. My breathing turns so shallow and slow I wonder if I’m dying. Suffocating like those that Hazel wrapped her vines around. A hand touches the knee in front of me—I think it’s my own, yet I can’t feel the weight of it. Someone moves my head because suddenly I’m looking at sapphire eyes. Lips move, yet no sound leaves.
Angel.
The voice calls to me, to my heart.
I’m plummeting, falling so far, and I jolt as my heart returns to me. My body feels like my own once more.
“It’s not your fault,” Knox says gently.
I lift my heavy head to find the room empty, save for Knox kneeling in front of me.
When did everyone leave? How much time has passed? Where did my heart go?
“The monster who sent the beast and guards is responsible. Not you,” he says vehemently.
No matter what he says, I know I’m partially to blame. Those innocent people died because of my actions. I’m no better than my father.
“Don’t,” he snarls.
I snap my gaze to Knox. His sapphire eyes blaze at me, my heart catching at the worry I find there.
He exhales slowly, his voice guttural as he says, “I need your help. I’m not strong enough to seal the wards around the house. Not if it could be shattered while my magic was occupied. I need you to seal them.”
My mouth feels like cotton. “I don’t know how to do that.”
“I’ll teach you.”
It’s the least I can do. For now, I have an insurmountable number of deaths hanging over my head.
“I’ll do whatever I can to help,” I breathe.