Ashes to Ashes: The Complete Series, page 58
She shrieked at Sebastian again. He jolted hard to the side. He made momentary eye contact with me. From the look in his eyes, it seemed as if he wanted me to run. There was no way I was going to do that. I managed to push up to my feet. That was when Alicia turned on me. She grunted. I saw the look in her eyes, saw that desire to kill me. Then she threw herself at me.
“No, Millie,” Sebastian screamed.
Alicia picked me up, and she smashed me back onto the floor. Her body was now completely alight with the raging fire of Hell. As she smashed my head down, she got down onto her knees and she punched me. That punch… I felt like she was actually punching memories right out of my head.
Blood splattered across my face. My ears rang. And my head… my body… I started to be pulled back.
She punched me again. But Sebastian reached her. He tried to wrench her off me, but she would not be moved. She’d somehow locked herself against the floor with her power. “Go to hell, Millie, go to hell. Go to hell,” she screamed at the top of her lungs.
I felt myself going to Hell, alright. I couldn’t hold on anymore. Everything was dragged backward. It was relentless. Unstoppable. I….
I thought I was dragged back to the moment when I first met Sebastian. The real version, not what had occurred this morning.
I could see his glittering eyes as I pulled him over. I think I could see the moment as he clutched his heart. I hadn’t been aware of it at the time. But now I stood there right by his side. I think I felt the heat, that warmth, that recognition. That moment when two destinies meet, two destinies that will never be pulled apart again.
Alicia shrieked. She punched me once more. I flopped to the side. I didn’t think I would ever wake again. But maybe that would be okay, because the slightest smile spread across my lips as I stood there by Sebastian’s side in my mind.
Though this had not gone down in my true memory, he turned to me. He settled a hand on my cheek. He pulled me in. “You’re my one,” he muttered. “And, Millie Crown, I will never be that far away from you again. We’ll be together. We will be together—”
I waited for him to say forever.
But I never heard it.
I started to black out. My eyes rolled into the back of my head. Sebastian screamed. He called my name. He used all of his power to try to wrench Alicia off me. She went to punch me one more frigging time.
I didn’t think that she was going to make me black out. From the force crackling across her knuckles, I was certain she was going to kill me. Maybe her passion was getting too much for her. Maybe she didn’t want to wait for the horrifying end that Luxor had in store for me. She clearly wanted to take things into her own hands. But Sebastian wouldn’t frigging let her.
He pushed himself down. I don’t know how he did it, but he collapsed his body over mine. Alicia punched him instead. Right on the back between his shoulders. Sebastian jolted.
And that pleasant image of him reaching out to me and telling me that we would be together forever just shattered.
Alicia screamed. Sebastian flopped down over me.
He was limp. Perilously frigging limp.
I might’ve been able to take multiple punches from hellfire, but that was because I could ultimately fight it.
“Sebastian?” Alicia said, her voice shaking hard through her throat. “Sebastian?” She wrenched him off me. She pulled him around. He was unconscious, or….
Wooziness overtook me again, despite the fear of the moment. I was back there, back there with Sebastian, but this time he didn’t face me. This time he didn’t recognize the heat rushing through him. This time he started to walk away. I saw that there was a light in front of him. It was getting brighter by the moment. Without another word, he was going to leave me for it.
No.
No way. We’d come too far and sacrificed too much. “Sebastian,” I screamed in my mind. “Sebastian,” I screamed louder. And I kept screaming until I finally managed to control my lips. Screamed until I screamed in the real world.
But Sebastian was cradled in Alicia’s arms. Hellfire was still cracking across her form. It was still consuming her body and clothes.
Sebastian’s neck was limp. His whole body was.
I pushed up. Alicia sliced her angry gaze toward me. I’d never seen her more broken. “You did this. You did this to him. You bewitched him. You made him sacrifice himself for you.”
I heard the word sacrifice. No. Sebastian couldn’t be dead.
I’d come too far, sacrificed too much, and frigging married him. He could not be dead.
But that’s when I felt my ring loosen on my finger. I don’t know why, but it chose that moment to slip right off. It clattered onto the floor beside me.
I stared at it, my heart breaking in horror.
No.
Above me, the sky was still cracking open with Alicia’s hellfire. I had no clue what she’d done, but it would not stop.
Lightning began to slice down erratically into the ocean. The rather pleasant afternoon was starting to become chaotic. A storm like no other was gathering. And cracking through it was the vibrant force of her flames.
But beside me was the ring, and in front of me was Sebastian’s limp form. He was….
I shoved forward. I grabbed Sebastian up. I wrenched him off Alicia.
“Don’t you dare,” she shrieked in my face.
I clutched my hands around Sebastian’s head.
There, somehow, I felt his heart beating. It was weak, though. He needed help. And I would give it to him.
Sebastian was not about to give his life up for me.
Alicia jolted toward me. More hellfire cracked over her.
But then she saw the ring. My wedding ring. It was right there.
Maybe it was the sight of it. Maybe it was the promise of it. She changed tact. She reached out to grab it. So I took the time given to me. I blasted up and thrust further into the yacht.
I knew for a fact that Sebastian would have strong potions in his room. I remembered that golden liquid he’d offered me when I appeared on his yacht after fighting off Luxor in the junkyard.
I heard Alicia screaming. Then she was laughing. God, she’d cracked.
“Just hold on, Sebastian. Please, please don’t die. Please don’t die,” I whispered to him.
Tears ran down my cheeks.
I finally reached his room. I kicked the door down. He could charge me for the damage later. I placed him on his bed. Then I ran over to the drinks’ cabinet. I pulled it open, looking for something, anything that would help him. I used my knowledge of potions. I finally found something that would at least make him rouse.
I ran over to the bed. That’s when I heard Alicia’s footsteps.
I opened Sebastian’s mouth. I poured the potion into it. Then I locked his lips closed. I brought my face close to his chest. I could hear his heart beating. It wasn’t getting any stronger. It was getting weaker.
I balled up a hand and struck his chest lightly. “No, Sebastian. You can’t die. We’ve come too far. You promised me too much. You can’t frigging die.” Tears rained down my cheeks, getting hotter and more erratic. I thought they would rip the skin from my frigging face. “Please, Sebastian. Please.”
I heard Alicia screaming. “It’s over. You can’t save him. I can. It’s time for you to die, Millie. You cannot fight me.”
I stood up.
I stared down at Sebastian.
Then I did something wild. I did something I’d only ever seen done in vampire romances. I had no clue if it would be effective. But I couldn’t stop myself. I brought my ring finger around. I nicked the flesh with my teeth. Then I let a drop of blood fall onto Sebastian’s lips.
It was symbolic more than anything else. He’d already told me that what was his was mine. Now what was mine was his. I would fight for him. I would use every scrap of magic, every drop of blood.
And I would keep fighting until finally he was back.
14
Alicia rounded the doorway.
I wasn’t gonna let her get near Sebastian. Though she couldn’t appreciate this, it was her hellfire that was hurting him in the first place. So I grunted and threw myself forward. My shoes squeaked against the floor. As I wrapped my arm around hers, I concentrated on my power to disrupt her hellfire. I really settled it in my heart, then gave it everything I possibly could.
Alicia grunted. She clearly wasn’t expecting my move to be effective, but she was very clearly wrong. I managed to force her back.
We smashed into the wall opposite. It shook. More magic cracked up over her form. It blasted up her face. It looked as if it was going to break right through her. But at the last moment, she held on. I wondered how long she could hold on for, though? Did she understand how hellfire worked? Did she recognize that while it was giving her power for now, it would come at a hell of a cost in the future? While she used it, it was breaking her down from the inside. I think I could even hear her cells cracking. But her mind had to break fully first.
She wrapped her arms around me, pulled me up, then smashed me down on the floor. It was one hell of an effective move. My ears started to ring, my head pounding harder.
She repeated the move. She smashed me down into the floor until I coughed up blood. I sure as hell didn’t give up. When she went to pound her fist into my face, I grabbed it. I didn’t just use muscular strength. I forced my magic against hers and held her hellfire in check.
Her eyes widened. Then her lips pulled into a snarl. “There’s nothing you can frigging do, Millie.” She forced her fist down harder. I continued to try to hold it in place, but it didn’t matter. She was stronger. I strained and strained, but she strained more.
Her fist touched my forehead.
My skin started to crack up under the force of her magic. Her eyes opened wide. There was so much frigging glee there. She was enjoying every single second of this. She was lapping it up like a freaking demon.
“What… what did you do to yourself?” I asked as I finally thrust her fist back. “Did you accept Luxor into your heart or something?”
“You know very well there’s only one man in my heart.”
“You should just let it go, Alicia.”
“Would you have let it go?” she shrieked back at me. “If I’d taken Sebastian off you, would you have walked away?”
… She had a point. No, I would not have walked away.
I didn’t say that out loud. But it was patently obvious.
Alicia screamed and tried to punch me again, but I just pushed my knee into her stomach and managed to flip her. It was getting easier to touch her hellfire. Don’t get me wrong – I would hardly class it as a pleasant experience, but it no longer felt as if it was gonna rip through me.
As Alicia slammed onto the ground next to me, the floor shook, but so too did her eyes. I wondered if she was starting to appreciate that I was adapting to her magic.
With a grunt, I rammed myself forward. All the while, I tried to lock my senses on Sebastian. Could I hear him moving? Breathing? Walking over to me? Nothing. God… I wouldn’t be able to do this if he died.
If I thought that Sebastian’s perilous condition was only undermining me, I was wrong. Alicia whipped her head around. Tears were trailing down her cheeks. “You—”
I rammed her side. I pulled her right through the wall. It took her into my room. Or at least her room in the past. We came crashing down right through a pretty Eastern screen.
She latched a hand around my throat. Fire pressed down from her grip. It threatened to split me apart.
Her eyes could do far more than her magic, though. I could see the death there, just reaching out to me.
With a roar, Alicia punched me right across the cheek. I fell back and smashed into the wall, but fortunately I didn’t break through again. I shoved to my feet. Blood slicked my face. It trailed down from my nose. I didn’t even bother to wipe it off. I just narrowed my eyes at her. “Just give up, Alicia.”
“No. You wouldn’t give up if I was in your position. You stole him off me, Millie.”
“I ignored him for 10 damn years.” My chest shook hard as I admitted that. “And for 10 damn years, he did nothing but wait for me. I didn’t bewitch him, Alicia. I guess… we were just meant for each other. It’s as simple as that.”
I didn’t know why I was telling her this. I knew in my heart of hearts that no words would possibly break through her anger. But these did. For just a second. She stood there. I imagined I got through to the real Alicia. Then the angry, vile version just came rushing back in like water from a broken dam. She shrieked. More and more hellfire cracked across her. I thought I could hear her organs being punctured under the strain. “This isn’t fair. Luxor promised me that Sebastian wouldn’t be able to recognize you. He promised me that Sebastian would hate you even if you threw yourself at him. Why is this happening? Why is this happening?”
I finally got my answer. So Luxor had done something to Sebastian after all? The demon had reached in and somehow broken Sebastian’s ability to recognize me.
I was happy that Alicia had finally told me that, but I was a lot less thrilled when she went to punch me with a fist that looked as if a volcano was trying to crack through the knuckles.
I rolled back. I planted my hands on the floor and flipped. As I came up, I shook my head. I even shed a tear, and this time it wasn’t for Sebastian. “Look at what you’re doing to yourself. You’re breaking apart. Stop accepting Luxor’s hellfire, Alicia. It’s gonna kill you. He’s engineered this entire situation, promising you things he can’t deliver, all to sacrifice you for his own broken plans. Stop playing his game.”
“No,” she shrieked. “If I can’t have him, what’s the point?”
My eyes opened in shock.
How could someone ever think like that? Alicia had a life on her own, a purpose and dreams. She’d been something before she’d gotten together with Sebastian, and she was still something now they were apart.
I’d never think that way, I told myself firmly.
I had a chance to think that. Then I pretty much had to shake my head. Hadn’t I been thinking like that all along? I’d told myself that I couldn’t do this without Sebastian, that if he was taken from me, I’d give up. But now here he was, in the other room, just several meters away, likely already dead, and I… couldn’t give up. Don’t get me wrong, it felt like my heart was being crushed. But I had to put one foot in front of another, and I had to bring my fists up. No matter what happened, I’d promised him I would save the city, and that promise would remain, even if he did not.
I let my own scream blast out just as Alicia thrust toward me. There was now so much hellfire covering her form, I thought that it was going to set the entire yacht alight. It started to burn patches under her feet. I didn’t know if it was a conscious decision on her part, or if she was just losing control. I soon got my answer. Her sleeve suddenly caught alight. It was no mere smolder. It was like someone had attacked it with an acetylene torch. I even smelled her skin as it burnt. Don’t ask me how it could still do that, considering it was pretty much cracked through with hellfire, but obviously while she was protected from her own magic, she was not blocked off from the consequences of it. I had a second to think that was an apt metaphor indeed.
She tried to pat the fire out, but I came at her from the side. I grunted, wrapping my arm all the way around her. The next thing she knew I had her on her back. I pinned a knee against her chest. I brought my fist back. A part of me just wanted to knock her out and keep going until she finally stopped. No more shenanigans with the police or Arcadia 18 News. No more hate, no more bile, no more anything. She’d be out of this equation for good. But just as I paused there, I couldn’t do it.
I saw in her a little of myself. If Sebastian suddenly stopped, turned around, and walked away from me, I’d be crushed, right? Alicia and I weren’t that different, after all.
No. He already had. I’d come back into the past thinking that it would be easy, thinking that he would throw himself at me. He hadn’t. And I’d had to start from the beginning.
I paused there, my anger no longer rising to the fore. I let my hand fall.
Alicia’s eyes were open wide, the skin around them strained. It was almost as if she wanted me to end this. But when I didn’t, she screamed, collected her arms around my middle, and forced me to the side. The next thing I knew, she was pinning me. I was still limp, though. I had a little protective magic to ensure that the hellfire didn’t crack through me, but that was it.
“It’s over, Alicia,” I said, and there was no volume in my voice, no force, nothing.
“It’s not.” More and more tears ran down her cheeks. I didn’t know where they were coming from. Perhaps it was the last vestige of her real self. She was cracking away now before hellfire claimed her entire body.
She shook her head, her attractive blond hair now nothing more than a mess by her cheeks. “I’m gonna save him. You’re gonna leave. Everything is—”
“Nothing will go back to normal. Luxor is on his way. Hell is about to break through the city. There’s nothing you can do. There’s nothing any of us can do. But I’m still gonna fight,” I said as I softly rounded a hand into a fist by my side. I didn’t pluck it up and thrust it into her chin. I didn’t have to. Alicia was fighting herself. That’s what those tears were, right? Her body was naturally rejecting the hellfire. She had a couple of minutes at most. Then she would crumble on her own.
To confirm that, she took a jolting lurch to the side. She suddenly locked her hands on the floor, and she started to cough. She didn’t splutter up blood. Instead it was sparks.
She locked me in a wild gaze. “You can’t have him.”
“I want to save the city. And I want to save everyone in it,” I said, my throat constricting as I tried not to think of Sebastian. “You can help me. Please, Alicia, give me something. Make your last move one of defiance. Luxor preyed on you. He promised you something that he could not give you. He made you turn against everyone else. He even made you kill the chief.”
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