Endure (51 page)

His tendrils took on the shapes of different weapons: swords, axes, arrows, and even a shield. He smashed the shield into me, causing me to stagger back, and he followed through with the arrow. It shot through my chest and the pain was worse when he pulled it back. I ducked as the axe swung over my head and when his sword came down, I met it with my blade. Darkness rippled into the glass and filled my weapon. It swirled into the handle and up my arms, a thousand pinpricks riding into my chest. The magic dissipated into my soul and a burst of energy filled me. The fresh vitality revitalized me and the wound on my chest closed slightly.

I stared down at the weapon and then up to Ithreal. He seemed unaware of what had happened and he launched his arsenal forward again. I swung at the shield and then deflected the arrow. The power strengthened my muscles and closed my wounds further. When his tendrils arched behind him, I lunged forward, cutting through his forearm. The limb fell to the ground and rolled across the grass, dissipating in a waft of black smoke. Ithreal roared and staggered backward. Black magic stretched out and whirled around the stubby limb until the arm reformed.

I called to the earth, and bars of stone arched out of the ground. Each one curled over him until a dome-shaped prison cell contained him. I focused on the power, letting another layer of bars form over the others and strengthening the prison.

Ithreal touched the rocky bars and smiled, his hand completely re-formed. His tendrils smashed into the stone bars one at a time, barely cracking them. He paced inside the cage like a captive lion in search of freedom. His power swelled inside the dome, sucking away all the light and filling it with shadows. “Enough of this!” he growled.

All the tendrils merged together to form a single blade, and one by one he began to shatter the bars. More rose from the earth to replace them, but he was destroying them faster than I could build them. I tried pushing more power into the stone, but it was no match for him. Each bar crumbled beneath his shadowy wrath.

I switched gears, calling water to my aid and reaching out to the riverbank. Water moved in a typhoon of power and like a tidal wave it crashed over him. I molded the water inside the cage like an upside-down bowl. When the dome had filled, I flexed the power, altering it from water to ice. Ithreal screamed and his body slowed as the element solidified. Soon he was a still black blemish inside a dome of ice.

I sheathed the glass blade and walked toward him, unsure how long it would hold. I pressed my hand against the surface and the cold nearly burned my skin, but I didn’t pull away. I summoned lightning to my hand, charging it into the ice. It took longer than I expected, but slowly the jolts began to hit his body. I couldn’t hear them, but I felt his screams in waves of power. Soon there was a nonstop current coursing from me to him.

I felt him weakening and I wouldn’t let up. I pushed bolt after bolt into his body, but the darkness spread beneath the surface in response. An inkblot appeared, spreading across the icy barrier. It grew larger and darker as it neared the edge until a thick tendril broke through. It slammed against the outside of the dome, sliding across the ice and striking out at the air. The magic hissed, changing shape into an ice pick. Bit by bit it slammed into my element and chipped it away. I ducked as it passed overhead, but it slammed down against me on its way back. The tendril wrapped around my body and lifted me into the air.

Power pulled me forward with godly strength, smashing me into the ice. My body swelled from the impact and I struggled to break the hold. After the fourth time I hit the ice, I felt broken, and I forcefully dragged up my elements. Flame ignited over my torso and the black arm screamed, dropping me to the ground.

More tendrils broke free, finally shattering the icy cage. Ithreal’s breaths were wheezing and heavy, and bar by bar he destroyed the rest of the rocky prison with a rage-filled thrust. The stone exploded into the air and Ithreal stormed forward—engulfing me in his magic and lifting me into the air.

“I thought I could beat some sense into you. To make you accept what I’m offering, but obviously that battle is futile. Time to try something different.”

A black hole opened beneath us and we fell through the earth. I didn’t have time to breathe and the portal stole what was left of my breath. I felt dreary, no one part of my body hurting more than the other. White dots flickered in my vision and when we came out the other side, we shot out of the ground and rose into the air. Ithreal’s tendrils held us aloft like the legs of a spider, pushing him high off the ground. I stared back out over the war.

Tiki’s people had joined the fight and they annihilated everything in their way. Vincent’s family had been halfway destroyed, but he remained at the forefront of the fight. He looked exhausted, but he tore into demon after demon, going as far as sinking his fangs into their throats. Marcus was on the losing end of the battle with a group of Visceratti. The hunters who once surrounded him were dead, and claws tore into his body and face from every angle, one after another.

On top of the island of land, Rayna was on her back. The Visceratti Queen pinned Rayna’s shoulder to the ground and a tongue slid up her cheek, licking the blood from her face. She squirmed and struggled against the Queen’s wrath, but she wasn’t strong enough.

 
Ithreal moved in a circle, letting me see the wasted lives below. His children followed the line of dead bodies, breathing demonic life into them. Desperation and sadness clung to my throat and tendrils of his power cut across my body. When he spoke, he voice was a megaphone booming over the dead forest, and it amplified the splitting pain in my head.

“Is this your hero? Is this the man who inspired you to come to your slaughter?”

The battle froze again, the power of his voice entrancing the world. It took all my energy to look up at him, and beneath his skin, veins slithered across his face.

“This fool has led you to your death! Concede now and your lives will be spared.” Nobody moved and Ithreal panned the crowd. “Nobody speaks and nobody moves. Nobody rises to challenge me. Have your allies forsaken you, Protector?”

A primal roar sounded and Vincent stepped forward, his black eyes glowing with a ring of gold inside them. “Never.” His claws cut through the air, taking the head of one of Ithreal’s Unborn. It hit the earth and the body burst into flames, crumbling to ash.

Ithreal growled with rage. “So be it!” he screamed, and we fell from the sky.

The battle continued and the god landed on his feet, a black tendril raising me in the air and smashing me into the ground. Bones throughout my body broke and I fought to stay conscious. I summoned the water element, and the pain was immense as it shifted and molded me back together.

“Yes, heal your wounds so I can inflict more pain.” He lifted me up and smashed me again, his eyes full of fury as my bones healed once again. “Give in to me, Chase, and this will all be over.” When I didn’t respond, he repeated the action over and over again, finally throwing me to the ground. “Is this what you want? Pain? Is that why you let Willy and your mother die, because you like to suffer?”

“Don’t you say their names,” I said, but the words were weak and halfhearted. As my bones reformed, I reached back and drew the blade from its sheath. I needed more energy.

Ithreal’s black arm flailed forward and wrapped itself around the glass, trying to pry it from my hands. “Enough of that trinket.”

I pulled back, using every ounce of energy I could muster. A steady flow of power began to fill me up. My wounds healed, my energy returned, and I pulled back, challenging his strength and drawing him forward.

A low growl rumbled in his throat and the other tendrils wrapped around it, jerking my body left and right, but even as my body flailed, I wouldn’t let go. Power surged into my soul and with each passing second, I grew stronger. The next time my feet hit the ground, I pulled back, tearing Ithreal off his feet and into the air. I lifted the blade and swung it down, smashing him into the earth.

Ithreal released my blade and rolled away, staggering to his feet. He stumbled back a few steps and used the black arms to balance himself. His body had begun to break, cracks forming in his skin and black ooze pooling out. He examined the wounds, anger warping his face.

“You dare steal from me?” The tendrils swam around him, looking thinner than before. The blackness had faded and streaks of grey now adorned them. The veins that bulged in his face and torso had shrunk, but his eyes were as pure and dark as ever. “Steal from a god?”

Ithreal stumbled forward and threw his magic at me. I moved the blade to try and block them, but there were too many. They all entered my body, drilling through the fleshy surface and wrapping themselves around my bones. The scream I unleashed made my splitting headache even worse, and black and white flashes blanked out my vision. Ithreal’s power flexed and he pulled at my body, physically pulling it apart.
 

“Give in to me, Chase. Now. Spare yourself this torture!”

“No,” I whispered.

Ithreal stomped his feet and screamed. “Have it your way then.” He looked to Rayna, then to Tiki, and finally Marcus. “We’ll start with this one, shall we?” A black arm swatted the demons away and tore Marcus from the ground. His dark body flailed, blood running from his ears and mouth. One of his eyes was swollen shut and his lips were split open.

“No!” I screamed.

Ithreal hesitated, watching Marcus as blood ran from his mouth. “No?” he asked. “That’s not the word I want, Chase. Say
yes
. Let me in and end their suffering.”

“No,” Marcus whispered, hacking and coughing. A wave of blood spilled from his lips.

Ithreal pulled the remaining tendrils from my body and I cried out in pain. He wrapped them around Marcus, leaving only his head exposed. The power tightened and Marcus’s body jerked, his face paling and a whimper slipping from his mouth.

“No!” Rayna screamed. Ashes and flames fell around her, the Queen’s thorny crown tumbling down the side of the cliff and vanishing into the portal. The Visceratti all fell to the ground once again in a hiss. “Chase, save him.”

“Don’t make me do it, Chase. You
can
save him. You can save all of them.” Ithreal’s face was completely blank. “Save him like you failed to save Willy and your mother, and all these fallen souls.”

“No,” Marcus choked out the worlds. “My life is not worth everyone’s future. He needs you, Chase. He needs you to say yes. Don’t…” his voice was raspy and choked, gagging on his own blood.

“Silence!” Ithreal slashed Marcus’s face and Marcus heaved, drool and blood exploding from his mouth.

“Wait…that’s it, isn’t it?” I asked. Ithreal’s head snapped to the side and his gaze narrowed. “You need me to let you in. All this talk about forcing yourself into me…it’s a lie.”

“No!” Ithreal barked. “I am merely trying to spare you pain.”

I shook my head. “You can’t summon the gods without me. And if the gods don’t show, you can’t kill them and their hold on you doesn’t weaken. You need me,” I crawled to my feet, my elements charging inside. “If I don’t agree, you will never have the chance to free your true from. Your soul pieces, your essence, they’re all bound to Riley’s now and imprisoned in that body. You let part of yourself out of one hell just to enter another…another one of Serephina’s prisons.”
  

“I will kill him!” he growled. Two tendrils grabbed Marcus’s head and he turned it an awkward angle.

Marcus whimpered and pain struck my heart. Willy’s face flashed in my mind and I felt like my life was on replay.

“Kill him,” Marcus said, but the words were slurred. Ithreal’s tendrils smashed into Marcus’s face again.

I shook my head. “Marcus, I—”

“Do it!” Marcus tried for a scream, and the command sounded weak and broken. “Do it,” he whispered.

“Enough of this!” Ithreal’s tendrils devoured Marcus and between the sound of bones crunching and grinding against one another, there was a muffled scream, followed by silence. The black arms unraveled and the contorted body of Marcus hit the ground.

“
Nooo
!” I limped toward him, trying to run but the wounds were still too raw.

A dark arm hit my chest and batted me back.

“Who’s next?” he asked, his eyes panning the earth.

Nothing mattered anymore. The pain was nothing, the fear was empty, and the loss never-ending. I couldn’t keep doing this. I couldn’t endure any more. This ended now.

I fell to the ground, my knees having grown weak. The elements swelled in my arms and rage had taken over. The very emotion I’d tried to swallow and curb all this time was ripe and fresh. It grabbed all my elements at once and squeezed them together. Power merged inside of me and a searing pain exploded from my back. Bright white ember arms swam around me and the same white glow ignited over my hands. I struggled to my feet, but the white tendrils helped push me up. Ithreal’s back was turned as he scanned the crowd. As the power built in my hands, the earth shook.

The clouds rumbled with anger, and a monsoon of rain began to fall. The earth became a pit of mud, brown ripples rolling across it as it shook. Lighting reached from the heavens, destroying demons with every flash. The wind tore across the ground in a physical force. It pushed Ithreal’s warriors to one side, and pulled my allies to the other. Streaks of fire rained down from the sky, mixed with the rain. Each flaming drop that hit me stung, forcing the anger inside me to swell. Balls of power charged in my hands, and it grew and expanded, electrifying the air.