Page 55 of Blood Red Woes

Her skin pales, grows wispy. The process is slower than it was for the sick animals I encountered before, but the end result is the same.

Gladus is on her knees before me, a bloody hole in her armor. She lifts a hand toward me, even as that hand and the arm it’s attached to starts to disappear, fading to ash. “I’m sorry,” she whispers, her strong voice spoken. “Tell her… I’m sorry I could not fight harder.”

I don’t know what she means by that, or who she’s talking about, and I don’t ask.

The warrior empress smiles as she shuts her eyes and leans her head back to let the sun hit her. “Silence. Finally, after all this time—” She doesn’t say anymore, because after that she’s nothing but ash in the wind.

I’m seconds from saying how close of a call that was when something hits me. Something invisible slams right into my chest and nearly knocks me off my feet. The mark on my wrist sizzles, and I’d be lying if I say it’s not painful.

I fall to my knees as I grab my forearm, grimacing as I stare at the tattoo. It’s glowing, but Rune’s not talking and I’m not using magic, so how—

The pain abruptly halts, and when the tattoo’s glow fades, I find it has expanded, traveled down my arm further, all the way to my elbow now. My eyes widen as I study it. “What…” I can’t say more, because right then the mark glows.

And small sparks of bluish lightning dance across my fingertips.

“It seems you absorbed Gladus’s power,” Rune remarks. “How fortuitous. That might help in the long run.”

I turn around and aim at the wall-less side of the room, flicking my fingers toward the opening. A bolt of blue lightning surges out from my fingertips.

Holy shit. I leveled-up. I don’t even need to summon a storm to use it.

Just to make sure I can still use my golden magic, I try to bring forth a small ball of light with my other hand. Just to, you know, make sure it’s not all electrical power now. A ball of light forms above my left hand, no larger than a softball.

Shit. Two kinds of magic. How cool is that?

I let the bright ball dissipate as I turn around and face the area where Gladus vanished. All that’s left is her sword’s hilt, and I move towards it and pick it up. The metal is a grayishblack depending on how the light hits it, and much heavier than it looks.

I bet Kretia would recognize this. It’s the only way she’ll ever believe I killed Gladus.

The thought hits me as the pain from the slice in my arm reminds me of the same: I killed Gladus. I killed her. Sure, she may have deserved it, but that doesn’t change the fact that I was the one who did it.

With the hilt in my hand and blood dripping down my arm, I shuffle out of the wet throne room and head toward the door that opens out into the stone stairs. I go down, step by step, in a daze, after grabbing my satchel.

I don’t know how far down the steps I am when the weight of what just took place, of what I just did, becomes too much. I freeze, and suddenly it’s too much for my shoulders to bear. Without a word, I sink down to my ass and sit on the stairs.

My now-larger tattoo lights up as Rune asks, “Are you all right, Rey?” For once, he sounds gentle, like he really does care about the answer.

“I… I don’t know,” I answer him honestly. The hilt in my hand feels too heavy, the stinging cut on my upper arm a reminder of what I just did. Not once in a million years did I ever think I’d become a killer, but that’s what I am now.

I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all. That’s not who I want to be.

“Listen to me,” Rune says, though the intensity in his voice is diminished somewhat by the fact that he’s not here physically. “You did what you had to. Killing Gladus stopped her from hurting anyone in Laconia ever again. What happened to Prim won’t happen to anyone else. You did what no one else in this kingdom could. Yousavedthem, Rey.”

“Did I?” I ask with a frown. “As far as I know, there’s still an empress in Magnysia and that jerk of an emperor in Acadia.”

“True, but remember the emperor wanted your help. Perhaps we should go to him, show him the hilt, and see if ridding the kingdom of Gladus is enough to help him off the throne.” His suggestion makes sense, but… no.

I shake my head and stand. “No, I need to go back to Laconia and make sure Prim is all right.”

“Fair enough. After, then, we can return to Acadia and see the… jerk, as you put it.”

As I leave the castle, as I leave the small village inside the castle’s outer walls, I don’t say a word more. I’m too trapped in my own head, too worried about where this could lead next. I have the feeling this kingdom won’t want me to stop with one empress.

Gladus said I’m here to annihilate them all. At the rate I’m going, it might be true.

Chapter Seventeen

On the journey back to Laconia, Rune tries to cheer me up. He tries to get me talking about my old life and the things I miss. I answer him, but I’m not really there in every conversation. I don’t want to talk about school or my dad or how much my life changed when he died. I sure as shit don’t want to talk about how bad things got for a while.

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