Nevermor (63 page)

“Ah, the Wolf
Pack, standing up for your leader, despite the dog that he is.”  He shook his
head at them.  “I want you to know that it won’t last forever. 
Nothing ever
does
.”

“As long as
we’re together long enough to kill you for good, that’s enough,” Nix growled,
and the others agreed in unison.  The Scourge only laughed.

“You can’t kill
me,
pups
.  You think you’re wolves?  I can give you
wolves
!”

Before they’d
had time to prepare themselves for what was coming, the Scourge had changed
shape, opening himself wide as a deep pit, and released a pack of great, black
wolves that leapt out from inside him.

The creatures
were fast, slick as shadow.  One had lunged at Rifter immediately, but he would
not fly away.  He wouldn’t let his brothers take the full impact of this
fight.  If he could take at least one of the wolves down with him, that would
aid them.

He caught the
snarling beast by the neck as it knocked him over, but he didn’t fall
completely.  The jaws snapped near his head and the nails scratched at the
boards, but Rifter let himself float up and took the nightmare off its feet.

For being a mere
shadow creature, it was weighty and solid, but he managed to flip it over and
slam it back down onto the deck.  The Scourge’s sword was in his hand and he
stabbed the beast in the throat with it, after which it turned to shadow vapors
once more.  That was a small help, but he had to redirect his focus now.

When Rifter
looked up, searching for his enemy, he could no longer see the man.  The
Scourge had gotten lost in the fray.  Rifter turned his attention to the most
important thing – the girl tied to the mizzenmast.

She was gone.

3

Henry had never
seen such a thing in all his life.  He’d fought the nightmares with the others,
but to see this man who could control the shadows was brilliant and terrifying
all at once.

Henry had flown
here to this ship and he could fly still.  He used that to his advantage when
he darted out of the way of the shadow beasts’ weight and jaws.  The others
were using these skills to their advantage as well, and Henry didn’t fear for
them.  He could hear their guns going off and their blades ripping flesh.  The
twins had even taken one wolf over the edge.  The shadow had little trouble
chasing them, since it was not bound by gravity, and the twins thought this was
an amusing time.

“Look at us!”
they called to the others, but Finn was quick to scold them.

“Kind of busy!”
he grunted, pressed against the cabin wall.  A wolf had its paws against his
shoulders, snapping at his head.  He put his gun in the wolf’s mouth and fired,
causing an eruption of black mass to burst from the back of the skull.  The
thing fell in a heap, writhing on the deck.

As for Henry, he
was content.  He was flying and fighting.  This was adventure, but it was also
a dire time.  This was no empty battle.  There were lives at stake.

The others had
warned him about death in this world.  They had told him that he had to be
ready to give his life for what was important to him.  He’d always known that. 
He’d always been willing, even before coming here.  He was not a coward, and he
would not be one now.

He trusted Rifter
to take care of the Scourge, but he wasn’t sure if Wren would be cast aside in
the midst of it.  Henry’s aim was to protect her, even if Rifter lost sight of
that.

Rifter had been
attacked by one of the wolves head-on, and Henry was given cause to leap out of
the way and land on the railing as Rifter flipped the beast over to cut its
throat.  Henry was absorbed in watching – but that was before he remembered the
spot of white at the corner of his eye.  It was moving.

Henry lifted his
gaze to see the Scourge with his hands on Wren, urging her toward the side of
the ship.  Rifter wasn’t aware yet.  As soon as he had looked up, another wolf
had leapt in and tackled him from the side.

Henry didn’t
know what was best to do, but he didn’t think about it long.  His time here had
not taught him against being impulsive, and he knew only one thing then: that
evil man was going to throw Wren over the edge, into the lava pit below, and he
was the only one who could stop it.

Without giving
it more thought than that, Henry was rushing toward them with his sword drawn,
giving no regard to the true danger of his actions.

4

The dark man
shoved Wren toward the edge of the floating ship as the others were occupied
with the hounds he’d unleashed on them.  She didn’t try to struggle, knowing
that it would do no good.  Instead, she screamed for Rifter, but she was
certain that her voice was lost in the fray.

The Scourge held
her firmly at the back of her neck, her hands bound behind her.  He pressed her
toward the glowing pit of lava beneath them, hot as hell itself.  She could
feel the heat from here, rising upward, and she could hardly breathe just to
stand over it.  He didn’t have to speak before she knew what he intended, but
she didn’t understand the purpose.

“I’m not going
to force this on you,” he said, “but I expect you to go all the same.  It’s not
personal.  I told you that.  It’s just all part of what has to be.  I knew the
mountain would respond to our battle.  I intended for it to split apart like
this.  I’ve opened the mouth of hell, and it won’t be for naught.  I need this
sacrifice, and I can’t think of anything more perfect than you.”

Sacrifice?
  For what?

“Dying won’t be
so terrible.  What do you have left, after all?  He can’t give you what you
want from him.  A pretty girl like you has aspirations.  You’d want stability –
a family.  You’d want to grow up and embrace responsibility.  He doesn’t.  What
would it be like if you stayed here, caught right on the verge of growing up
but never quite getting there –
forever.
  Or at least until you fall to
something that’s even worse than this.  Either way, you will never be someone’s
mother.”

Even though he
was only trying to confuse her mind, his twisted logic made sense.  What was
forever?  Was there anything beyond that?  She would never have her own
children – never be a mother, able to watch them grow up to see what they would
become.  She would never have that with Rifter, at least.  That was why she had
wanted to leave.  Was death better than an unfulfilling eternity?

Why, Wren, my
girl,
the woman in her mind said proudly. 
Perhaps you’ve grown up after all.

“You’re giving
yourself for your brothers,” the Scourge went on, complementing that other
voice.  “Isn’t that what you always intended?”

He pressed her
forward, forcing her toes to meet the edge.  He was behind her, but he held her
by the arm, as if unsure whether or not to let her go.

“I feel that I
loved you,” he said quietly into her ear.  Her first instinct was to take it as
a lie, but he sounded so sincere that her heart ached.  “But it has to be this
way.”

She was stricken
to tears.  It was so strange, but as he said it, it was as if Rifter had spoken
those words to her from somewhere in the distant future.  He’d said that he
couldn’t lie to her and she didn’t know why, but she believed him.

“I love you
too…”

The man put a
little pressure at her back, urging her to walk on – and then the Scourge drew
in a hiss of breath and lurched backward in pain.

“
Let her go
!” 
She knew the voice well, but it filled her with immediate dread. 
Henry!
 
The Scourge turned, and she was able to see what had made him wince.  There was
a flow of dark blood running out from the man’s side.  He’d been stabbed.

Henry was
standing there a few feet away.  His eyes were blazing and a sword was in his
hand, dipped in blood.

“Let go of my
sister!” he said as threateningly as a twelve-year-old boy might.

The Scourge
observed him, but though he had been stabbed, he did not lose his grip on
Wren’s arm.

“I’m afraid
you’ll have to kill me,” the Scourge responded.

“Henry, don’t!”
Wren screamed, but it was too late.  Henry was coming at them, his sword
raised, aiming for the man who had her.  He knew better than this.  He’d been
warned.

Don’t take on
the Scourge.  Don’t try to be brave.  It always ends the same way.

“I’m sorry,”
Wren heard the man say, and before she could beg –
No, please, no!
– he
had drawn his sword and thrust it toward the boy who advanced on him, stabbing
Henry roughly in the chest.

Wren wasn’t even
sure what had happened at first, and then the Scourge was pulling his blade
back and Henry had dropped his own sword as his body fell limply to the deck. 
It only came home to her when she saw the blood.  Her eyes bulged and she drew
in a breath that she thought might be her last.

“
Henry!  No
!” 
She fought herself free and fell on the boards beside him, but there was
nothing she could do to take the moment back.  The blood that pooled around him
was thick and continuous.  The boy was pale and empty, his eyes wide but
unseeing, and even though his chest rose and fell with breath a few times more,
he was not aware of her any longer.  He was gone.

No…  It wasn’t
supposed to happen this way.  No!

Wren was still
in shock, her hands in his blood, but she didn’t have time to grieve properly
before her brother’s murderer was pulling her up by her hair.  He wrestled her
back toward the edge, holding her by the throat, but she was weak.  There was
no strength left in her.  She was staring at her brother’s body as she was
pushed backward toward the edge.

“I’m sorry,” he
said again, looking at her face one last time – and then he let her go.

Wren fell
backward off the ship, down toward the blistering heat.

1

Rifter had
scarcely thrown off the second wolf as it was shot down by Nix, and when he looked
up, he caught sight of his enemy again – but that was not all that he saw.  The
Scourge was holding Wren near the edge of the ship with the obvious intent of
throwing her off, and behind him, Fang was rushing in with his sword raised in
an attempt to stop it.

Idiot boy!

Rifter was up in
an instant, shooting toward them, aiming to stop what was bound to happen, but
the Scourge had already seen the boy’s intent.  It was too quick to interrupt. 
There was a thrust of a sword, a deep groan of pain, and then Wren’s horrified
scream.  It hurt Rifter’s ears, but that did not make him able to stop it.  The
boy had already fallen and Wren was on her knees beside him before he had
gotten there.

No!

Rifter saw the
way she broke down in tears, and that affected him in a way he couldn’t
describe.  She wasn’t supposed to cry like that.  Maybe he had made her cry
before, but he vowed that it would never happen again if he could just make it
right this time.

The Scourge
grabbed her up and forced her back to the edge.  Rifter had been aiming for
him, planning to grip him and plummet over the rails with his enemy, but that
was before the man had let Wren fall over the side.

Rifter saw Wren
go over the edge, and he did not give another thought to whether or not he
should go after her.  He hadn’t been able to save her brother, but he could
still save her.

She had a lead
on him, but he plunged downward as fast as he could, slicing the humidity.  The
heat was growing more intense the farther he let her slip away, but he would
catch her.  He was gaining.

It wasn’t until
he had his arms around her that he realized she hadn’t even screamed.

He swooped
upward swiftly, rising with the heat.  As he held her close, he looked into her
eyes, and he didn’t see any fear there.  There was only sadness as glittering
tears rolled down her face.

“Henry,” she
said, burying her face near his throat.  He could hear her crying quietly, but
it was for her lost brother, not because she might have died just now.

Rifter was so
sorrowful and angry that he thought his heart would burst.  His battles with
the Scourge had been fun before – even his hatred had been enjoyable – but
things had changed this time.  It had ceased to be a pleasure the moment that
the dark man had brought her into it, and Rifter’s entire outlook had changed.

“I’m sorry,” he
said breathlessly into her ear.  “I’m so sorry.”

He realized now,
as he was carrying her away in his arms, that he loved her more than himself.

2

Even amidst the
chaos with the wolves, the Pack had still seen their brother fall.  It was Finn
who had noticed it first, yelling out against it, but of course the protest did
no good to save the boy.  One by one, their attention was drawn to it.  They
saw the sword withdrawn, watched his body fall onto the deck in a growing pool
of blood.  Rifter hadn’t been able to get to him in time to stop it.