Nine
Vow of Vengeance
“Adarias, I’ve got you.” Saber struggled to hold onto his brother while fluorescent green hellfire spit, hissed, and sucked at them with eager claws, but then Adarias’s agonized gaze met Saber’s. The depths of despair in his brother’s eyes pierced straight to Saber’s soul. He knew the instant Adarias gave up.
“No, don’t do it, please,” Saber shouted and struggled to pull his brother free.
Adarias shook his head. “Little brother, save yourself.”
“No!” Saber screamed, more determined than ever, yet knowing he’d already lost. Still he fought to hang on, until Adarias shook his head and let go of him.
“Don’t leave me,” Saber cried. The ground buckled and threw him back. He drew on his power, shifted into his half-form, and hovered as the rolling folds snapped shut with a deep, harrowing rumble. Magical waves continued to rip through the earth as everything went back to the way it had been before, as if it had never happened. Yet it had, and now Adarias was trapped in the fiery bowels of Hades.
Blinded by uncontrollable rage, Saber shot flames at the heels of the soldiers as they fled in terror. Then he sank to the ground. “Adarias?” There was no return answer.
Though nearly paralyzed with shock, he shifted back into human-form and roared his vow of retribution at the fleeing cowards.
My brother, I will find a way to free you from your prison. Saber had no idea how he was going to keep his word, and he didn’t care. He’d die before he stopped trying.
He scanned the area. Searching … for what, he didn’t know. Not even the bodies of the Ilyium scattered everywhere was enough to appease him.
Over the years, one by one, his family had been taken from him. Most killed by the very foe who had just taken Maya and now Adarias. Don’t forget about Cass.
Saber swore. Both Adarias and Cass had been his best friends. Now they were gone. What would he do without them? Sure, there was still Zales, and the rest of his sisters and brothers, though he’d only kept in touch with a few, and had no idea where the others were. It didn’t matter, they all had their own lives and didn’t need him interfering in them.
Agony and depression sucked at him, pulling him down, until a new kind of torment pierced his skull. Saber winced, wondering what was happening. He hadn’t been wounded. Yet as slices of past battles and death slid like a mosaic through his mind, he understood. This was the beginning of the end. The first signs of his humanity disappearing.
Now? Fuck. Saber scowled at what this meant. The only person powerful enough to end his existence when he turned rogue had just been sucked into Hades, and no one ever returned from there.
It was just his fucking luck. Beyond done, Saber welcomed the physical torture. It dulled the loss of his brother and niece. Something bit into his fist and he opened his palm. Right before Adarias let go, he had pressed a medallion into Saber’s hand. Saber refused to think of what it meant. He glanced at Maya, expecting to find her mutilated. Instead, she lay as if resting.
Saber gazed upward. Why? How can you let this shit happen? Haven’t we fought long enough? Will it ever end?
It didn’t matter that he knew it was the curse that kept the war ongoing. Hate-filled words spewed from the mouth of a crazed Ilyium witch over a thousand years ago. Words that landed them all in this heaping pile of shit. Only a miracle of epic proportions would ever change their circumstances.
Saber didn’t know how long he sat, but then thunder rumbled in the sky, and with a sharp crack, the heavens opened. As rain pelted from above, the words spilled from his soul. “I’ll not stop until I avenge you, my dear Maya.
Once the rain abated, Saber rose to his feet. He wished he could run away from his next task. Blue eyes blazing with renewed anger, he slid the medallion into his pocket, then gently scooped up the broken body of his niece.
At least they hadn’t managed to behead her. Then Saber glanced at the body that had been beheaded. Good, he thought.
With a swirl of power and a coldness the likes of which he’d never experienced, he shifted into his dragon. With a last calculating sweep, Saber imprinted every detail and every scent, and let it burn into his mind and soul. Then he took to the sky, hatred blazing throughout him.
Saber ignored the urge to fly far away and instead landed near Maya’s village at the base of Fallen Mountain. Shifting back into his human-form, he faltered at the wrenching cry that sounded eerily like Cass.