Down from the Tower (Deadly Endings Book 1), page 37
“Death to you, Reaper,” he snarls. “I look forward to taking your place.”
The words hardly register. If the Queen plans to replace the Reapers, she needs stronger men.
Losing the scythe isn’t the end, so I call the shadows forward and use their dark strength to squeeze his neck. He doesn’t have control of the darkness like I do, and I plunge the shadows through his nose, ears, and mouth.
Without warning, there’s a great shudder that suddenly echoes all around us, like the souls of many are screaming for help. The wall shakes in the distance, something I notice as the man above me succumbs to the dark, shadows leaking from his eyes just before I feel his lifeline snap and he slumps down against me.
I shove him off immediately, spinning to call my scythe to me. When we fell we rolled along the ground, and my scythe is too far to reach without calling for the shadows. It’s closer to Rapunzel than I am, and as she tries to dodge the Queen’s attacks she stumbles on the handle. True to her Mad self, the Queen takes advantage of the momentary slip and goes for the kill, sending me into a panic as I try to launch myself across the clearing to protect my golden girl.
My princess is stunning but still untrained. The Queen will use that weakness and exploit it.
When the Mad Queen lunges at her I use my shadows to push her backward, feeling my energy start to sap. I’ll be out of magic soon and even the cover of darkness won’t rejuvenate my energy quickly enough. Rapunzel is still out of reach, and the Mad Queen looks my way before she screams, rushing towards me as I call the shadows forth. At least now her attention is off Rapunzel.
We fall together, her hands moving to slash at me. She snags the tunic and tears before I can shove her off. Her sharp nails rake over my chest.
She’s going for my heart. The powerhouse of her control.
I throw shadows at her, and she deflects with her blood magic. She isn’t as beaten down as she should be, so I force more and more magic at her to keep her at bay.
If I could get to Rapunzel, we could shadow hop away. But the moment I’m not a target the princess is, so we have to slip into the darkness together.
I crack the Queen’s head back with the shadows, but she’s intent on only one thing. Without the scythe I don’t have my most powerful weapon against her, and even when the shadows grip her chin, just like they did the guard, she surges forward and digs her hands into my flesh..
In me. Through me. Her hand slides into my chest, burning a path to her destination, and I hiss when she clenches my heart.
“Oh, right,” she snarls, laughing humorlessly. “Reapers hold no heartbeat.”
She squeezes, ready to rip it from my chest and drink. I dig my hands into her wrist, enjoying the brief moment where the shadows overwhelm her power and make her feel true pain.
It won’t be enough, but maybe Rapunzel will get away.
“Zarev!”
I can’t look while the Mad Queen is trying to rip out my heart, but her eyes shift behind me and widen. Instead of squeezing and ripping my heart from my chest, she releases it to roll and dodge to one side.
A glancing blow catches her cheek, leaving a deep cut as the blade misses a fatal strike. I whip around to stare, watching as Rapunzel gasps for breath, heaving up the scythe for a second time.
No fucking way. Only those touched by Death can wield a weapon of the dead.
But her father once gave her the Golden Touch, and it was almost too much for her soul to take. Perhaps that’s the moment when she became like me.
Or maybe we’ve always been this way, two halves chasing the desire to be one whole. Because I’ve never seen something as beautiful as the golden haired princess, slicked in dried and fresh blood, hefting the weight of my scythe to attack the Queen again.
And like the coward she is, the Queen uses her magic to strike the blade. It throws Rapunzel off balance and she staggers as the Queen jumps up, lifting her hand to her face.
It comes away red. Rapunzel actually cut her.
I throw shadows in her direction, and the Queen snarls as they push her back. I shadow hop to her side, helping Rapunzel heft the blade, and together we hold it facing the Queen.
When she smiles, her teeth are stained as red as her eyes. Glancing blow or not, it’s affecting her.
Another great roar of pain echoes all around us, and I feel Midas’ soul pulling me towards him. The Golden Magic is fading, because the wielder is dying. I’m impressed he’s lasted this long, and it must be in part due to his Golden Touch.
“Princess has some use after all,” the Queen jokes, shaking her head at the two of us. “But you are in my way, Golden Princess, so your time has to be up! I’ll have to wait to enjoy hanging your corpses from my tower. Such a shame! So pretty you would be, blowing in the breeze.”
She blows us a kiss, and the hearts that form on her palm are edged in blades and fly towards us. Using both hands, I swirl shadows into a shield and shove it in front of us just before the hearts can strike.
From behind the barrier the Queen laughs, and I know things are coming to an end. More of the spiked hearts fly across the clearing, and I only have so much magic left to call upon.
“Until next time,” she screams, and I dissolve the shield enough for us to see. On the other side she’s standing on the fountain's edge, giving us a bloody smile. “I’ll bring down every tower! Tick tock!!” Her manic laughter ceases when the fountain shakes, before gold sparks along the base. It’s weak, but it creates a crack at the bottom.
A crack.
“What have you done,” she growls, her voice dangerously low. Where he lies, Midas managed to roll over enough to press his trembling hand to the fountain, sending the last of his magic into the stone and snapping it. It’s too much for the old rocks to handle, and that crack sends the gold tinted water leaking from the bottom. She stiffens, torn between getting into the emptying fountain and going to strike Midas instead.
He speaks in a voice I can barely hear, digging my fingers into Rapunzel’s arm once more to keep her there. This time she doesn’t fight against me, instead listening to her father’s choked words. “N - now, we’re both fucked.”
He gasps for breath, and the lifeline he’s clinging to stretches tight. Rapunzel’s eyes are filled with resignation as she watches her father take his dying breaths.
The Queen throws herself into the water as it happens, soaking her skirts. In the next breath Midas takes his last, and she’s already undoing the process of appearing in the water. Her body melts and fades, going back to her domain. Other than our labored breaths, for a moment it’s blissfully silent.
And then the wall explodes.
Part 4:
Beyond the Wall
30 Zarev
Rapunzel tries to tuck herself into me, but the force of the explosion sends us to the ground. I tear the blade out of her grip and throw it into the shadows before it can cut her in the fall. We crash into the ground, her hair covering us and my shadows following suit.
There’s a great roar following the explosion and a strong wind crashes against the barrier. I hug her to me, grateful that despite meeting the Mad Queen, we’ve somehow escaped with our lives.
But we still have to get out of Tressa.
When the outside settles, I lift my head. Her hair is everywhere, softly glowing, and beneath our covered canopy, she presses her hand to my chest. I had forgotten that my shirt tore, and the muddy mess Legs threw on me chipped away. Rapunzel’s touch is soft, and she looks up at me beneath the golden glow. There’s warmth as her hand starts to glow as well, her arm shaking, but it only takes a moment to fix the cuts and scrapes.
Her eyes flutter when she’s finished, utterly exhausted, and I wrap her in my arms. Her voice is weak when she manages to speak. “The gold in your chest is gone. D-did it happen when my father died?”
“Before,” I mutter. “Legs threw that muddy mess on me before I left the Red Woods. Whatever it was worked. Even when Midas used his magic, I didn’t feel pain or the pull of his power. I was cured before he died.”
She nods against me, tilting up her head to gaze into my eyes. Her blue orbs are heavy, half closed lids making her look so sleepy as we lay there. “I’m glad… you came to find me.”
I run a finger over her lips, gently tugging at her bottom one. “You’re my life, Princess. If you had to die, I’d be there with you to the bitter end.”
I read the surprise that flashes in her gaze. “I had no plans to die.”
“Things change,” I remind her, leaning in. “Remember, you slept with Death. The afterlife could come for you just as easily.”
Rapunzel shrugs in my grip, leaning forward to press her lips against mine. I kiss her back for just a moment, our tongues dancing together, before I register the silence around us.
We can’t hide here. Tressa is a new land now and we have to see what’s left.
Pulling back from her, I let the shadows fade. She blows out a breath, pulling at her hair until it moves and slides free of us in silken waves that only magic can create so we can see the kingdom once more.
Beyond our small cocoon, Tressa is in shambles. Rapunzel scrambles on all fours, trying to get to her feet, and I drag myself up before pulling her with me. We’re spent.
All around us, pieces of the castle lie missing. Half the trees are ripped from the ground, tipped over, and one lies only a few feet away. We’re lucky nothing came down on us as we hid.
She spins from the wall that’s no longer there, looking out towards the village. With the damage done to the castle, we can see down into the valley and off towards the Endless Sea. Where there should be noise, chaos as people realize that their world is forever changed, there’s nothing. Eerie silence greets us.
In the distance, three ships bearing the green flags sink into the water. The explosion sent out a wave of magic, all made by Midas' hand, and when he breathed his last breath, the magic fell away. It was enough force to strike down the ships ready to storm the kingdom.
I notice figures moving in the water, and press my lips together. There won’t be any survivors to reach land if the merfolk have arrived. They will deal with the soldiers.
“It’s gone,” Rapunzel whispers, looking around at the kingdom. It’s hard to call it much of anything with half the buildings torn apart, and the tower Rapunzel lived in for most of her life is missing, the top ripped from its place high in the sky and lost someplace below. There’s little left to look at.
“I didn’t think it would take out the ships.”
We spin together at the voice to find two spirits standing behind us, Midas and Theo. The four guards' souls are strangely missing, and though I sensed their lifelines snap, I see no spirits. I don’t even feel them around us.
That’s not a good sign. Not if they are controlled by the Queen.
Midas looks old in his ghostly form, much older than he did in life. There’s a pensive look in his eyes, and he studies his daughter with narrowed eyes while Theo stands by silently. I don’t see Rapunzel’s cat, nor do I feel the spirit of an animal. Perhaps her sneaky feline escaped.
I wince, rubbing at my chest. The gold isn’t there any longer, but a weight remains. Rapunzel healed the shallow wounds, but a suffocating pressure builds within me. Midas upset the balance of the afterlife, and I can feel the effects rippling through me.
The spirits, whoever’s left, are surging towards us. I don’t know that I have enough magic to open the passage that they’d need, and the only way to escape the fury that will overtake Tressa will be to flee through the shadows. They can see us but they can’t touch us that way.
Rapunzel swallows, clasping her hands in front of her as she studies the figures. “Father?”
“No daughter of mine sides with evil,” he scoffs, looking between us. “You trusted a Reaper more than your own family.”
She scowls, and some of that defiance she's grown into returns. “My family lied to me my entire life. Even if your soul isn’t passing on, you’re still dead to me.” She throws her hands out at the destruction around us. “Look what your greed brought us.” As Theo and I silently look on, Rapunzel and the King argue about his choices and it’s a rehash of everything he just fought the Mad Queen about.
Not once does he ask about Dorah, showing how selfish he truly is.
I keep my eye on the newly-dead ruler. He might have just joined the afterlife, but he died maliciously and with a vendetta. Corrupt people become corroded spirits, and I can’t allow him to hurt the princess any longer.
Theo approaches at my side and bows. “My soul isn’t indebted to the Queen if a Reaper can send me on.”
“And what debt do you owe her,” I wonder, crossing my arms. The guard looks down, twisting his fingers together that keep disappearing, and his brow pinches. I know very little about the white rabbits the Mad Queen torments, and the last one I had the displeasure of interacting with was on the day of my death when he blew the horn. “You were sold to Midas.”
“A trade,” he says quietly, his gaze dancing to the two royals arguing. Midas’ eyes are wild, but he has no power to do anything to the princess right now. This is her time to vent and grieve before we have to leave the kingdom.
“I know the dead princess,” Theo says quietly, his eyes remaining on Rapunzel. “The one Midas traded and the Queen tossed away.”
Now he’s got my full attention. “Oh?”
He nods slowly, his head momentarily separating from his body. He’s adjusting faster to the afterlife than he should, like he’s resigned to death and happy to go. Being a spirit is like acceptance in his eyes, but he doesn’t know how to handle a formless body.
“When she tossed the child,” he says slowly, pursing his lips. “A man shot from the tower. A beast of a thing, with long pale hair and wings that stretched like skin.”
My eyes narrow, one person coming to mind. Lucius.
But I pause, counting backwards in my mind. More than thirty years have passed since the second princess died. Lucius would’ve been a young child like me back then, not a full grown man. “You’re sure it was an adult?”
“Yes. He returned to the tower as the Queen pulled us along the path, taking the backroads towards her castle. This was before she stopped traveling across Mystica. The man flew up to one of the tallest spots on the palace, and another figure joined him there on the roof. They were too far to see much from where I stood, but they were similar in height. I assume another adult.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
He hesitates, before pointing behind him to his headless body. The Queen left his remains and the timepiece lying in the grass, though his head is now smashed from a tree that fell. The timepiece looks like it’s alright, but I don’t move to pick it up. “Take that with you, Reaper. You cannot let the flowerborne or the Queen’s armies find it.”
“What good is a timepiece to me?”
“Someday, the Queen’s clock will begin ticking again. The timepiece will move. Her reign isn’t infinite, and she knows the countdown is coming. Why do you think she’s trying so hard to claim all of Mystica?”
I frown. I’ve never thought about it like that. She’s remained in power since the King of Diamonds passed and it’s not unusual for the royals of Mystica to live exceptionally long lives. But if her clock isn’t moving, and she isn’t aging, her tyranny could last untold amounts of time. “I assumed she wanted to rule.”
“She wants to control Life and Death,” he explains, looking between myself and Rapunzel, who is glowing now. If she decides to attack her father’s spirit, I won’t stand in the way. With so much destruction already, there isn’t much she can cause further damage to.
And for all the hell her father put her through, a final act of vengeance is the least she deserves.
“Not the people who embody them,” Theo continues, filling the silence as I think over his words. “If she has control of both, she can call the shadows to her even without your magic. Her ability to use hearts and Life for her blood magic gives her power, and if she can play with Death and control shadows like the Reapers do, she’ll be unstoppable.”
“Unless the Mad Queen decides she’s ready to die, there’s no way she can have control of both.” My gaze flickers to Rapunzel, a glowing golden beauty as she rages at her father, and I think of her ability to wield my scythe. She can touch the weapon of a Reaper, because her father gave her power that killed her twin, and possibly, for many moments, claimed her too. “Only those touched by Death have a chance to control the shadows.”
I won’t say any more out loud, but it’s true. I haven’t had but a few moments to consider Rapunzel’s ability to wield a weapon of the dead, but she did so effortlessly. If she can control my scythe, she could possibly wield any weapon that a Reaper carries, since we all built our tools from the stones that crushed us. I doubt the Mad Queen picked apart all of those details, since she wasn’t even around for every step of our journey, but Rapunzel might be one of the only people in existence who has a chance of controlling both Life and Death.
But as I watch her arguing with Midas, I seriously doubt she wants to. Rapunzel has plenty left to discover about herself without tossing in more magical abilities. She’s already powerful on her own. Being able to wield my weapons is just a bonus for her at this point.
Theo clears his throat, drawing me out of my thoughts. He’s been silent, like he’s also trying to decide what to make of things. “The shadow man lives in the Mad Queen’s mind, always. A being of Death and nightmares, unobtainable and haunting. She saw him only once when the King of Diamonds perished. His presence, and whatever words he whispered to her, live on like a prophecy in her head.”
He rubs his ghostly hands together until they disappear, looking out into the fallen trees. “She wants to reach him again. She saw him that one time and claims it was one of the most prolific moments of her life. And when the madness gets too much in her head, she’ll whisper like she’s just recently seen him again in the shadows.”
