Instruments of Mortals, page 12
I staggered to my feet to recover before he could lunge at me. I slipped on the dewy wet grass, and Andrew saw his opening to charge. I had scarcely enough time to brace for impact before he’d knocked his shoulder into my ribs and sent us both sprawling to the ground.
It didn’t matter. Andrew was going to die.
"You were always family, Andrew!" I snarled, a clawed hand reaching up to his throat, squeezing as tightly as I could. He pawed at me, slashed at my skin but I held fast. "I loved you. You were my brother. But my brother would have never done something so horrid. Would have never consorted with Vampires. You let your own inferiority complex get the better of you." I rose enough to slam him into the earth and loom over him as his struggling grew weaker. "You have no one to blame but yourself."
I slashed my claws across his face to mark him as a traitor. He would never be welcome in the village again, assuming I even deigned to let him live at all.
"Just like your neglect of Raven?" He wheezed. "If she dies now… it’s because revenge was more important than her."
Something in my blood ran cold at the thought— and before I could think better of it, I took the bait and looked over at Raven’s crumpled form. Andrew might have taken[37] the opportunity to wrestle free and scamper off into the night, banished from the village as he was. Marked as he was.
It didn’t matter. Not when I looked at Raven.
She was lying still, so still. Blood had soaked into her tattered clothes, and if I didn’t focus on the rise and fall of her chest, I would have taken her for dead. Even that was shallow, as if breathing itself was a battle that she was rapidly losing. I felt the chill of fear settle deep in my bones.
"Raven?" I called to her, already feeling my body creak and pop back into its human form. "Raven, love, please look at me," I begged when I was close enough to kneel at her side.
It felt like ages passed in the time it took for her to open her eyes even a sliver.
"Jaden…" she whispered, and when she forced a trembling hand to reach for me I caught it and held it against my face, heedless of the blood that now stained my cheek from it. "My…"
"Shh, shh, it’s alright. I’m here." I tried to reassure her as I gathered her in my arms. Delilah had already gone ahead to ready the healers once she had alerted me to Andrew’s conduct, all I had to do was focus on getting Raven to her room. She would be alright once I got her there.
"Jaden… my… my intended…" she whispered, and I felt myself clam up in bittersweet joy.
I had never thought I would live to hear her whisper such soft sweetness to me. Now, I fear she will never live to fulfill such a promise.
Chapter 32
Jaden
My heart was on fire. If one thing was certain, I would kill Andrew for hurting her. Much as he might have claimed to love her more than I did… what he tried to do to her was not love. Where he got the idea that it was, I will never understand. Perhaps he was trying to excuse his irredeemable behavior. It didn’t matter; his life was forfeit, and I would collect my bounty by inches and see him suffer.
Delilah handed me the rest of the bandages and we proceeded to wrap her arms. The blood was so hard to stop, his claws had dug so deep I swear I saw the bone. My throat caught and I choked at remembering her limp body on the ground. It was the worst feeling, not knowing if she was alive or dead, or how it came to happen. I would know soon enough though, Raven will tell me as soon as she wakes up.
Her heartbeat was slow, slower than normal and it did not sit right with me, but the monitor said her blood pressure while low, wasn’t dangerously low. I couldn’t stand seeing her lying there so still and pale. I had to get up and pace around the room.
I shouldn’t have let him be alone with her, I did not know she’d be alone with him. I told him to get Mother, not to steal my woman. She was mine. She is mine. A throat cleared on the other side of the room and I turned quickly.
Standing there, as if she’d had no part in trying to have my intended murdered, was my mother.
"She will be fine," the Queen said as she came deeper into the room.
I placed myself between her and Raven. She seemed mildly startled, but I could not hide my anger anymore. Not after what her co-conspirator did to my intended.
"She is beautiful, but now she is dangerous Jaden. You need to be sure about this. If you love her, I will not stop the wedding. But you must be sure." She looked serious, and her eyes looked tired as if she had been up all night.
"I am sure." I did not need a moment to think. I knew. Raven was the only woman I needed, or ever will need. "But you have no right to intervene. Not anymore."
The Queen stared at me with wide, disbelieving eyes.
"You would dare—" she began, indignantly.
"I would say much the same of you, mother. You would dare conspire behind my back, and think so little of me that I would not know?"
Her face paled as I loomed over her.
"Jaden, you don’t know what you’re—"
"You were going to let Andrew kill my intended," I snarled. "What’s more— you were only upset with his plan because he had wanted to take her for himself, alive." I narrowed my eyes at her. "And now you pretend you know nothing of this scheme?"
"I…" She frowned a moment, then closed her eyes with a sigh. "I hadn’t thought Andrew would conspire with the Vampires, of all things. I had thought he would act alone." She looked up at me imploringly. "Had I known he would stoop so low, I would have stopped it all before it began."
When she stared up at me with eyes glassy with tears, I felt my resolve waver; if it was as she said, then she had not intended to betray our people… though that left the question of my intended, and what the Queen would attempt next.
"I don’t think you would betray our people," I said slowly, attempting with every fiber of my being to keep my rage in check. I hoped I wasn’t wrong in that regard. "Andrew is a traitor. His crime is known to the people." I narrowed my eyes at her. "You tread on thin ice, with your contempt for my intended. Would you challenge my decision?"
"No, Jaden." The Queen promised. I wished I could believe her without reservation. I wished all the more I could punish her for what she had done.
"We need a unified front against the Vampires. To expose you for your misconduct now would only divide the people, not unite us under a common banner. And to banish you for your actions would send the people into a panic."
She nodded, her skin ashen.
"But I labor under no assumption that you will ever love Raven, so I will only ask that you respect her. You leave her to me." In a show I would have never done to her before, I bared my teeth and warned her, "Should I find out that you have harmed her, or even attempted to, I would not hesitate to invoke the law of Darland to see you exiled."
It was all I could threaten her with- the loss of her power. If there was only one thing that she loved more than her sons, more than anything else, it was her rule. A part of me had always known that.
Rage flared in her eyes, and she opened her mouth as if to challenge me on it. After a moment, she must have realized that I had no intention of backing down, that my threat was not idle because she pressed her lips into a thin line, nodded, and promptly turned, gathering her skirts on her way out the door.
No sooner than we were alone again, did I turn to kneel at Raven’s bedside. Taking her hand in mine, I gently ran my fingertips over the span of the uninjured skin on her arm in the hopes of gently rousing her. After a few moments of holding my breath in anticipation of finding her eyes, her lashes fluttered, and her head turned sluggishly as if in search of me.
"J-Jaden?" Her voice was nothing but a whisper.
"I’m here," I breathed. "Raven, if anything were to have happened to you... I... If you were gone…" I swallowed thickly.
"I’m here," she said back to me and managed to give my hand a weak squeeze.
"Tell me what you need. Anything at all. I’m here for you." I implored.
"Is the legend of The One real? Is its soul in me?" she asked after a long pause.
Whoa. Talk about jumping into it, my eyes showed my surprise at the question she asked. No one was to tell her, no one was to even speak of it. Someone loosened their lips and they would surely pay. Now I had to be the one to tell her about something that was supposed to stay hidden forever, or at least as long as we could let it.
"Umm... It is possible." I did not know what else to say. I scratched at the back of my neck, uncomfortable with such a direct confrontation on something so massive.
"How can we get it out?" She asked with wide eyes.
I laughed. "Get it out?" I smiled until I realized her question was serious.
"Raven. It cannot harm you. You control it." I felt her heartbeat rise as I spoke. She did not like the sound of the words I spoke.
"My arms hurt. I just, want to sleep." She pulled her hand away from mine and closed her eyes. Though her heartbeat was too rapid to have let her sleep, I took the sign and gathered my things to leave. As I stepped closer to the doorway she spoke again. "Jaden?"
I ran to her. Realizing I’d probably acted like a pup at how quickly I came back to her, but not caring. She grabbed my hands and pulled them around her as best she could and brought her face close. Her lips found mine. My heart was on fire, it took everything I had to keep myself from wrapping my arms around her and scooping her away. The kiss lasted only a second or two, but it will be treasured in my mind forever.
"Be careful," she said.
I wanted more. I wanted to talk to her, to tell her how happy she made me.
"I will, love," I promised with a kiss to her forehead. "You focus on recovery… and I will marry you when I return."
"Promise?" She asked quietly.
"I promise," I replied, and let her weakly pull me into another soft kiss before she turned over to rest more.
I reluctantly stood back up and headed for the door. Her kiss was confirmation. I had her, and I knew Andrew never would, not so long as I lived, certainly not after what he had done to her.
Speaking of Andrew… he was a loose thread, a threat to my Raven and to my people, now roaming free among the enemy. He needed to be put down… and I needed to hunt him down.
On my way out of the castle, I spied Delilah hovering around the hall leading to Raven’s chambers. She looked at me with wide, concerned eyes.
"Guard her," I ordered. "I’m on the hunt. Andrew will be made to pay."[38]
We passed one another [39]on the way to our respective duties, and I gave it no more thought than that. Raven was protected. Delilah would keep her safe no matter what. I was too angry to dwell on it beyond that.
The castle was stifling and hot tonight, but once I stepped outside I drank deep of the chill that settled over Darland. It cooled my head enough for me to stop seeing red. It helped me to maintain my calm enough that I didn’t outright transform and howl at the moon in demand for retribution- I needed to keep my focus; I would need every ounce of it.
The village was quiet that night, and made my journey out of it much easier. The forests welcomed me, though even such familiar territory loomed ominously in the dark. Much as the trees would house my shade, so too would it be my enemy’s keeper[40].
I was well into the forest, enough that the last of the twinkling, distant lights from the village windows had faded away, when the mist came and brought with it the telltale stench of decay. It caught me unawares— either the Vampires had horrifically terrible timing, or were working in tandem with Andrew. Neither bode well for me. My throat burned when I swallowed my coughs and my eyes watered but I refused to give myself away so loudly for little more than just gagging on the smell of rotting carcass.
"Do you fear for the little bird?" I heard Andrew hiss in my ear.
I blindly swiped my claw when I thought I felt his breath brush my ear, but there was nothing there. I heart his heartbeat flutter nearby, but it rapidly disappeared, as if he was darting back and forth as fast as he could to taunt me.
"Come out and face me, coward!" I howled, already feeling my bones shift and my fur protrude into my true form.
"She will be cared for. A lovely Raven, in a gilded cage where none but me can reach her," Andrew continued, though his voice seemed to float along with the mist. I strained my hearing to try and place where the source was. I heard a twig snap, and I whirled in time to see him dart between the trees— or rather, a shadow moved between the trees. His heartbeat stuttered somewhere within the thicket, not far from my left. It could have been him… or the others that I could sense around us. I only wished I could put an exact number on them; with so much moving around and the horrid smell of rot clouding my senses, it was difficult to tell— and the fact that Vampires don’t have a heartbeat to track certainly didn’t help matters. "I will be the better keeper. Of Raven, of our kingdom, and our people."
"A leader does not sneer from the shadows and consort with the enemy, Andrew!" I retorted. "A leader of his people would protect them, not hide among their aggressors!"
I was getting angry. I spun around quickly but he was already gone. What is he doing? A tree branch snapped behind me, always giving the intruder away. I turned but again there was no one. I listened, the floor was covered with downed branches and moss. It was almost impossible to hear someone coming, but a heartbeat I could hear. I heard it for a few seconds but then, again, it was gone.
Another twig snapped. I could not hear a heartbeat. It had to have been nothing. There was no heartbeat. A shiver went up my spine making the hairs stand on end. I only got that feeling when... Vampires. I pulled out my dagger and swung it behind me. I made contact. As I turned I saw the face of the one vampire that had gotten away. His claws and fangs were already protruding from his twisted body and face. Black blood now poured from his mouth as he choked.
"She will die." He smiled a black smile and I was in my wolf form with ease.[41] I grabbed his thick black hair and pulled my dagger from his stomach. The rest was simple. He only squirmed for a few moments before I claimed him. I knew then what this meant.
"ANDREW!" I growled.
It didn’t matter that he had once been my brother. It didn’t matter that I had once loved him as such. It was clear that the man I knew as my brother had either died somewhere along the way or was never there to begin with.
High time I put his body to rest, then. Just as soon as I could find him.
I heard branches begin to move and turned around. Two shiny white twisted faces stood before me. I dropped the last one’s head and it rolled towards them. With a deep breath, I nodded. This was only the beginning. They charged at me.
Chapter 33
Raven
My arms hurt everywhere, but it was my chest that hurt the most. I was angry. I was so frustrated that I was stuck in this room yet again. I’d had to be saved again. I had to wait here, doing nothing, and wait for Jaden to come back again. For how lovely, warm, and decadent my room was, it felt like little more than a prison, a cage from which I could do little but titter like a wounded bird in the hopes that my savior would come to free me from my torment.
I sat there not knowing where Jaden is and my heart hurt. I want to find him. Every time I think of it too much my stomach begins to throb in pain. I tried to sleep but the sound of the monitor[42] and the buzzing of conversation just out my doorway was too much.
She can’t be the One, this scar could be nothing.
The Queen sent out a scouting party.
All these things people whispered just outside my door were only adding to my list of questions. I wanted to get up, I could probably do it. I just needed to figure out which wires go where. As I began searching, I felt someone’s eyes on me. I swallowed hard and turned around.
"Oh. Hello." I uttered, but the greeting was barely out of my mouth before I cringed at myself. What a stupid thing to say.[43]
"Oh you poor thing," the Queen cooed mockingly. "Are you alright? Should I get you another blanket?" Her voice was so sweet, save for a sharpness at the hook of her words, that little piece of her tone that always pierced at the nerves. She always seemed to be around when I was at my lowest, ready to make comments about me and my weakness. I was leery of her kindness, even as I was reluctant to spurn it outright; at the moment, I didn’t have anyone else. I just wished I had anyone else.
"Thank you," I choked out, not realizing the tears beginning to pour out of my eyes. I hastily scrubbed at them with my hands, frustrated that I was crying at being shown an ounce of kindness when I was vulnerable, even if I couldn’t entirely trust that kindness.
"Oh no need to cry. It is just a blanket, come here." She said as she sat on the bed next to me. Her long hair flowed down her back almost touching her waist. She pulled me towards her and I cried. I cried long and hard. I needed to. I missed my old life of boredom and books; I was told I was a dangerous soul which still confused me now; and I was in pain, so much pain.
"I don’t know what to do," I sobbed. Not knowing how else to situate myself, I pressed my face into her shoulder and wept.
"We are in quite the mess aren’t we," she said, speaking quite sweetly.
I wasn’t even sure what she might be talking about, but I found I could only agree all the same. If there was one word I could use to describe the situation, "messy," certainly fit the bill. Lacking a proper response, I nodded.
"First, you put my Andrew in danger when he saved you from that car. Then you pit my boys against each other with your constant teasing, you put Jaden in danger when he fought those vampires and now, and now you have blinded Jaden to the fact that he has a tribe to lead. Please tell me, Raven, what can we do about this?"
Her voice was still so sweet, soft as a songbird, but there was a coldness to her words, a sense of dread that blanketed everything she touched. In that moment, I was no different; I couldn’t stop shivering at the implication of her words.
I tried to pull away but she tightened her grip on me. I could feel her claws prickling at the skin of my neck. What warmth I might have gleaned from the fireplace was doused by the fear that hit my spine, icy and sharp.
