CHAPTER FOURTEEN: THE BLAME
1189 Words
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: THE BLAME
Elara pov
The moonfire hit the tree behind Kael.
The impact so violent I felt it in my bones, wood exploding into charred splinters, smoke rising black and thick into the morning air.
Kael rolled to the side, barely avoiding the flames.
Seraphina moved my body forward, each step predatory and wrong.
"You let our daughter die," she said with my mouth, venom in every word.
"You let me die, and you think bringing these girls here will fix it?"
"Seraphina stop," Kael backed away, hands raised.
"This isn't you."
"Isn't it?" my hand raised again, silver fire crackling across my palm.
"You made me this way Kael, you cursed me to this existence, you bound my soul to that castle and left me to rot for centuries."
She threw more fire, Kael dove behind a fallen log, the flames scorching the air where he'd been standing.
"I was trying to save Elena," he said, his voice raw.
"I was trying to save you both."
"By trapping me?" Seraphina laughed, cold and bitter.
"By turning me into a monster that feeds on innocent girls? Is that your idea of salvation?"
Inside my own mind I was screaming, trapped behind my eyes like a prisoner, watching her use my hands to try and kill him.
I pushed against her control, throwing everything I had at the walls she'd built around my consciousness.
The body jerked, flames flickering uncertainly, my hand dropped an inch.
"Still fighting?" Seraphina muttered, annoyed.
"You're stronger than the others I'll give you that."
I pushed harder, remembering who I was, Elara, not Seraphina.
My body not hers, with a scream that existed only in my head I shoved back against her control, felt something give.
My eyes flickered, silver to brown and back again, the moonfire sputtered out, I gasped, falling to my knees.
The ground hard and cold beneath me.
When I looked up my eyes were my own again.
Kael stood a few feet away, burn marks scarring the earth around him, trees smoking, his shirt torn and singed, I'd done that, almost killed him.
"I almost killed you." I whispered, horror crawling through my chest.
"But you didn't," Kael said gently, moving closer but not touching me.
"You fought her off."
"This time," I said, my voice shaking, "what about next time, what if next time I don't fight hard enough?"
"You will," Kael said but I heard the doubt underneath his words.
I pushed myself to standing, my legs trembling, "this is all your fault.
" I said, anger burning through the exhaustion like wildfire.
"You created this curse, you bound her, you made her into this monster and now I'm paying for it."
"I know," Kael said, something breaking in his expression.
"I know it's my fault."
"Then why?" I demanded, taking a step toward him.
"Why did you do it, why didn't you just let her go?"
"Because I loved her," Kael said, his voice cracking, "and I couldn't let her die alone, even if it meant damning us both."
"You damned more than just yourself," I said bitterly.
"You damned twelve women before me, and now me, how many more Kael, how many more have to die because you couldn't let go?"
"I'm trying to break the curse," Kael said, "I've been trying for a century."
"By sacrificing us?" I asked, "that's your solution?"
"No," Kael ran his hands through his hair, frustrated, desperate.
"I brought the brides because the curse needs a descendant to complete.
I thought if I could find the right one, if I could break through to Seraphina's humanity before she took over completely.
I could end this."
"Well it's not working," I said, looking down at my hands, fresh blood covering them again, more than before, thick and dark.
"What did she make me do this time?"
We searched, following the trail of destruction, found two more animals, a deer and a fox, both torn apart with brutal efficiency, claw marks across their bodies, throats ripped open.
"She's getting stronger," Kael said quietly, staring at the c*****e, "every time she takes over she learns more, stays longer, becomes harder to push back."
"How long do I have?" I asked, the question I'd been afraid to voice.
"Before there's nothing left of me to fight back?"
Kael met my eyes, "I don't know," he admitted.
"I'm sorry Elara, I don't know."
Tears burned down my face, hot and angry.
"I hate you," I said, the words ripping from somewhere deep and raw.
"I hate you for bringing me here, for lying to me, for making me into this thing."
Kael said nothing, just stood there taking it, what could he say, what words could possibly make this better.
"I trusted you," I continued, my voice rising.
"When you said you'd protect me, when you promised I was safe.
I actually believed you."
"Elara," Kael started.
"Don't," I cut him off, "don't say my name like that, like you care, you don't get to care about me now, not after everything."
Before Kael could respond, arrows whistled through the air, three of them embedding in the tree beside us.
We spun around, guards emerged from the forest, at least twenty of them, weapons drawn, faces hard.
Torren stood at the front, his expression cold as winter.
"The king and the abomination," Torren said, his voice carrying through the clearing.
"By order of the Wolf Council you're both under arrest for treason."
Kael moved instantly, stepping in front of me, protective, but I pushed past him.
"Good," I said to Torren, my voice steady despite everything, "take me, execute me if you want, at least then she dies with me."
"Elara no," Kael grabbed my arm.
I jerked away from him, "I'm done running." I said, looking between Kael and Torren.
"I'm done being your pawn in whatever game you're playing with her ghost."
I held out my wrists to Torren, the silver marks crawling up my arms glowing faintly in the morning light.
"do it," I said, "arrest me."
Torren's eyes flickered to Kael, something passing between them
I didn't understand.
"You're both coming with us," he said finally, gesturing to his guards.
"The Council will decide your fate."
"The Council has no authority over me." Kael said, his voice dropping into something dangerous.
The Alpha rising.
"They do when you've committed treason." Torren said.
"When you've unleashed a curse that threatens the entire realm, when you've let twelve women die and are about to let a thirteenth."
"I'm trying to stop it," Kael said.
"By running?" Torren asked, "by hiding in the forest while she transforms?
That's your plan?"
"My plan is none of your concern," Kael said.
"It is when it affects all of us," Torren said, then he looked at me.
"The girl wants to come, let her, maybe the Council can do what you couldn't, maybe they can save her."
My vision blurred at the edges, that familiar pulling sensation, no not now, "we need to go.
" I said urgently, "now, before she."
My eyes flashed silver.
- Writer
