My Willful flame

Chapter Thirty

I was at the edge. Starring at the mountains in front of me, I was out. I was free, and I was back on the bridge. I could finally breathe. The nightmare was over. I had resisted her pull, and she had let me go.

The wind kept hauling around me, going through me.

Nothing mattered anymore, because I was free of her. I took a breath, but there was no taste of fresh air. The wind didn't grab my hair, and I couldn't feel the beat of my heart.

My stomach dropped.

There was no cold and as the sun got to peak through the small clearings I couldn't even feel the warmth. This was hell, I was still trapped there. She said her prison would be mine if I didn't say yes.

The voice of my tormentor erupted faintly from behind me. I turned swiftly.

I was back. Quickly I forgot all else as my focus caught entirely on the scene before me.

It was Djevel who was shouting. Xander was on his knees and hands as blood poured from his mouth. His brothers stood around him, taking turns to strike at him.

"No!" I screamed, running to him. A kick to his face made him fall onto his back. I couldn't run fast enough. "Stop it!" I cried out.

"This day will be your last. I pardoned you before boy, and you fought against your very nature. I can't allow something that weak to ruin centuries of practice. No one can bend our law, not even you." Djevel's words dripped with venom as he stood over Xander, his gaze cold and unforgiving.

Their voices got clearer as I got closer. Running felt like no strain at all.

Xander looked up, "You kill what threatens you so don't pretend it's for the brotherhood." He spat at his feet, the snow staining red.

His defiant retort was met with another blow, and I felt powerless to stop the unfolding tragedy.

Djevel snarled, "On your feet." He commanded.

Xander didn't move a muscle but it didn't matter as he was hauled onto his poor legs.

"No!" I was finally there, behind them, screaming to deaf ears. "Djevel stop."

Nobody moved.

What could I do? I had tried fighting before and I had lost pathetically. What could I do?

"You will be given back to the lake," Djevel continued, ignoring my plea. "Your past unforgiven. Your traitorous acts will be the weights to pull you to the deep. I will not strain myself to remember you, neither will your brothers." Djevels declared as if recounting the words of Mile men's final judgment. He lifted his swords, ready to give the final verdict. Death.

"The blood of your rage was never pure. Your mother tainted it long ago, pretending to love you like you weren't a monster. You have been weak for some time son, that's why you also let her, a mere girl, corrupt you. You let it happen. So you can join her."

"No," I was screaming, throwing myself in front of him. No one reacted.

"I was never weak," Xander's rasping voice managed even though it was practically drowned out by blood.

I was shocked. They were acting as if I wasn't even there.

"I was the worst. " Xander continued, his gaze locked into Djevels. "Weren't you proud every time I returned with a stained sword? Was I not your son when I turned out to be crueller than even you? The sand demon of the century? I have rage father, but not for me, or them." He sneered looking around. "Only for you." He spat.

I shook my head, turning in desperation. "See me," I was staring at Xander's dead eyes. "Why can you see me?" I wanted to cry but I could compel no tears.

"There will be no one like you again." Djevel snickered.

I was unsure if he found that to be a blessing or a curse.

Xander smirked, only for a moment. Something shifted. Time seemed to freeze, the world held its breath as if awaiting a sign. And in that suspended moment, their movements stilled.

"They can't see me," I whispered, as realisation hit me.

"No."

I spun around.

All eyes drifted back, toward the figure walking toward us.

She had black hair, with eyes that were dark and hollow. Tears of darkness fell from her face, and from her hands dripped with black water. And as she walked toward every wound on her body healed. One by one.

She looked like me. The dead shell of me.

"You-," I stammered, unable to find the words to explain.

"You gave in," She interrupted, with a voice that was nothing like mine.

"No," I shook my head, unable to believe what was before me. I couldn't have given in.

"I said I wouldn't." I gasped desperately.

"Words are meaningless if your heart feels the opposite. You wanted this." The goddess nodded her head and I went quiet.

"What in the gods..." I heard Djevel's faint voice from behind me.

"Goddess," she corrected quickly, her hollowed gaze dragging from me to him.

"Sons of mine, traitors of everyone else, your reckoning is here. Now kneel." Her voice suddenly magnified and her command was everywhere. In the wind. The ground. The mountains.

"Kneel" Her words echoed through the very fabric of existence.

"Do not yield," Djevel shouted lifting his blade. His men did the same. Xander couldn't tear his eyes from me, or the monster that looked like me.

"Reagan." The goddess called as if she was speaking to a familiar.

Djevel froze.

"The king of the fort. My son, the pretender, what have you named yourself? Something to inspire fear? To catch up with justice?" The goddess mocked, letting her fingers twirl around.

"You don't speak to me, girl." Djevel hissed, gritting his teeth. His grip tightened around his blade as he faced the embodiment of his rage.

"I remember when you came to me Reagan, just a tiny scared little boy all those years ago. Whipped to the bone. What a coward that boy grew up to be. How do you have centuries of lifetimes and nothing to show for it? Only to be a pretender of his own faith. Someone to rule death on his son like the many before. Will you do the honour this time? Or will you let the others cut off his head?"

"Who are you?" He demanded, his voice trembling with a mixture of fear and disbelief.

"I am your rage. I am the one you speak to when you pray for yourself. When you wish for foolish little things. I am your plague. Your judge. A queen of the rotten men." She took a step. "You have torn apart so many, destroyed hearts, killed your sons and daughters, to steal a fate that will never be yours."

Another step, "Because there is no power to take. No gold that will satisfy. No devotion without question. There is only me, your maker." She stopped. The blackness leaking from her fingertips.

She looked back at me and smiled, "Now watch."

Without a second question, A Mile man with bloodthirsty eyes of loyalty roared a bone-chilling war cry and stormed toward her, a dagger aimed.

The goddess lifted her hand, and he disappeared as if he never existed at all. His body melted into the ground, and a black pool of water was all that was left. The dagger lying on top.

"My children, I have rage to reclaim."