Page 62 of Custodian

Lark shook his head, “I’m not the one who’s weak. Beating on a child who is less than half your size? Let’s see how you do now with a man.”

The battle was fast and furious and after barely a minute, Lark was littered with bruises and bleeding cuts. But his plan to draw his father in so he could observe his moves had worked. Lark knew exactly what Isaac’s tactics were and he was now easily able to predict his moves. It took him two pathetically easy strikes before he felt the hot spray of carotid blood against his face. His father was dead before he even hit the ground.

***

Beyden suddenly cried out as the most gut-wrenching agony flared through his leg. Looking down, he saw a chade with its claws buried all the way to the bone in his ankle. Blinded by pain, he did the worst thing a soldier could do in battle; he dropped his weapons. A large shadow fell over his shoulder from behind, and he fleetingly thought that it must be death peering over him and preparing to haul his useless butt to the underworld. But the shadow turned into Darius and the air paladin jumped in front of him, cutting off his attacker’s head and turning it into nothing more than foul-smelling air.

The relief Beyden was hoping for when the claws were removed didn’t come, however, and he risked a glance down. He promptly fell on his arse, clutching his calf muscle. His foot and ankle were completely macerated.

“Bey!” Darius cried out, swiftly removing his shirt and wrapping it around Beyden’s ankle.

Beyden gritted his teeth against the pain, his eyes widening in horror as he saw a black-eyed paladin rise up behind Darius. Darius must have seen the warning on Beyden’s face because he quickly turned and lashed out with both scythes. Unfortunately, he was too late and Beyden screamed as Darius took a deep lash to the abdomen.

***

Axel charged past Lark and Ivy, who were handling themselves just fine, if all that blood was anything to go by. He kicked over the headless body of the piece of shit Terran and kept right on going. Axel was on a mission to rid the world of an evil arsehole. Not a chade or an infected paladin, but a psychopathic arsehole. Axel had spotted Ignatius among the dozens of other evil souls and he wanted nothing more than to take a little vengeance on behalf of his liege and friends. His progress was slowed a little when he spotted a chade rising to sink deadly claws into the back of Nikolai’s skull. Launching one of his scythes with all his strength, he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the offender disintegrate in a puff of smoke.

Nikolai gave him a thankful salute as he flashed by and Axel returned it. Seeing his original target up ahead, he cried out when he saw twin ropes of fire lash out; one from Ignatius and one from his grandmother, Cinder. Axel pumped his legs faster, but he knew he was already too late – both fire wardens cried out simultaneously as their weapons hit their targets. Cinder collapsed to the ground, nothing but a smoking mess of charcoal, just as Ignatius went up in flames. His body burned long enough that Axel could hear his screams getting quieter as he drew nearer. By the time he reached the scene, all was silent.

“No!”

Axel turned, hearing the devastated cry from Blu. He was just about to go to him, when pain sliced through his leg. Looking down he saw a small throwing knife lodged deep in his thigh. Gritting his teeth, he yanked it out and looked around for its owner. Marco’s hate-filled eyes met his and Axel knew he would have a serious fight on his hands. With his brother and grandmother dead, the man was now beyond pissed.

“Want this back?” Axel asked, holding up the knife.

Marco screamed and ran at him, aiming a kick directly at Axel’s injured leg. Axel dodged the blow but still cringed when all his weight fell on the wounded limb. The knife had gone deep into the muscle and obviously done some damage. Marco punched him, causing Axel to drop one of his weapons. Axel didn’t mind. Although he loved fighting with the two blades, he was more than able to fight with just one. The two danced around each other a little, exchanging blows, until Axel got in a lucky shot, slicing Marco deeply behind the knee. His adversary cried out, falling down, and Axel raised his scythe, prepared to deliver the killing blow.

But just before his blade could pierce Marco’s heart, Axel caught the man’s sob. Looking up, he was surprised to see that Marco’s eyes had returned to their normal brown-colour and were no longer black. Axel reviled the man in front of him but he couldn’t kill in cold blood. Shaking his head, he turned away, only to have his kindness repaid with a knife to the back. At least, it should have been had not Knox seen what was happening and commanded the air to block the killing wound. The chaden warrior, then flicked his wrist and Axel heard Marco’s neck snap.

“Much appreciated,” Axel slapped Knox on the shoulder.

Knox smiled at him and gave him a thumbs-up before he jumped back into the fray, his identical sons at his back.

THIRTY

Max watched as he stalked out of the trees. She knew Emmanuel had been watching and waiting, biding his time until he thought he could strike – and win. He had not even shown himself when Mordecai and Diana had killed his parents. Instead, Max knew he had been enjoying the violent scenes in front of him. He looked good – fit and strong – and Max knew he had been feeding off all the death taking place.

“Well, here we are my little Goddess,” Emmanuel offered, pleasantly.

Max swallowed hard, forcing herself to ignore the carnage going on around her, and focus on the being in front of her. “Here we are. What now?”

“Now?” Emmanuel raised perfectly shaped eyebrows, “Now I thought I would kill all those you love in front of you before I take you within myself and reduce the world to ashes.”

“Yeah, that’s not going to work for me, sorry,” was Max’s dry response.

“Still with the banter? Haven’t you seen enough yet? Haven’t youlostenough yet? Look around you, little Custodian, you’ve seen the ending to this just as I have. Accept it. Embrace it. Embraceme,” Emmanuel urged, stretching out a perfectly manicured hand.

Max ignored the hand for the time-being and instead looked around, her eyesight so acute that it missed nothing of the ravaged land or the people who fought valiantly upon it.

Diana was trying furiously to staunch the flow of blood from Beyden’s shredded leg with Darius’s shirt; Darius was standing behind her, protecting her from the onslaught of chades, who were like vultures trying to pick at the dead. They could smell the death on the beast paladin just as surely as Max could and were determined to finish off their prey. Darius took a nasty swipe to the stomach as a result of his refusal to move from his post. He didn’t go down but Max knew it was only a matter of time before the poison did its job and entered his bloodstream. There would be no help for Darius, let alone Diana or Beyden, once that happened.

Max spun around, hearing Dex’s cry. He moved faster than the wind to reach his brother, just as Darius fell to his knees. Dex was, as yet, unscathed in a physical sense. But Max could see his soul getting thinner and thinner from the continuous use of his altered vitality. With no paladin available to recharge him, it wouldn’t be long until the insidious beast within his soul made a comeback. Max had healed the blemish on Dex’s soul – that predisposition was gone forever. But she couldn’t stop Dex from using up all of his energy, thus, rendering him vulnerable to long-forgotten urges.

The singing of metal against metal had her focusing on Lark, who was in a feral battle against his father. Isaac was furiously attacking Lark with unrelenting force, but Max wasn’t worried. This at least, was a battle Lark would win. She continued watching long enough to see Lark slit his father’s throat. The spray from the ruptured artery hit Lark full-force, covering his entire front as his father fell awkwardly to the ground, his death gurgles echoing across the field despite the ferocity of the battle. Max saw the look of triumphant satisfaction on Ivy’s face as her lover dispatched of his nightmare for good.

Ivy herself was in a deadly game of cat and mouse with Terran, who, when he saw his Captain go down, lost his concentration enough to allow Ivy’s sickle to slice cleanly through his head. Max saw Axel helpfully kick over the headless body, launching one of his scythes at the chade standing directly behind Nikolai. Nikolai was in a deadly battle with three chades himself, and Max knew Axel had just saved the man’s life. Axel flew past the Commander of the rangers, grabbed his scythe on the run, and pumped his legs clearly hoping to reach Cinder in time. But Max knew it was pointless. Her grandson had already killed her. Poetically, Cinder had also succeeded in killing him in return.

More friends dropped to the ground, lifeless eyes staring in accusation – or so it seemed; Fawn and her paladins, Cayson, Cinder, almost every single member of the local council … and Dave. It was all happening just as she had seen. Every day and every night, she had seen this exact same fight. Millions of times, she had seen this scene play out in horrific detail. The only difference each time? The ending.

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