Page 105 of How To Take Down A Cult At The End Of The World
“You made me do this,” she whispers and raises her hands. I only have a half second to react before I realize what she’s about to do. Power sparks in her hands and then it’s moving faster than light. I know her target.
“Jaak!” I scream. I run for him but the god’s magic is faster. “Jaak, no please!” Who I’m begging, I don’t know but it’s me that my husband looks at when the magic strikes him and he falls.
Chapter Forty One
For a second, I think I black out. That the bond between Jaak and I just took us both out when Eleanor attacked him. I don’t black out, it’s the bond that goes out. He watched me until the end.
I run for Jaak all the while reaching for the bond. “No!” I reach for it and try to pull it in but there’s nothing there. I fall to my knees beside my husband and grab his shoulders.
I shake him. “Jaak! Wake up. Open your eyes.” He doesn’t move. He doesn’t open his eyes. Jaak lays there still and quiet. The place where Eleanor’s magic hit him shines silver but there’s no blood, no bruises, no broken bones to show me that my husband is gone.
I smooth my hands over his face, his hair. “Please, everything’s going to be okay. It’s okay, please.Please.”He’s not breathing. I throw myself down on top of him, press my ear to his chest but there’s silence. No heartbeat.
“So long as my heart beats I will always be at your side, Meadow.”
“You promised,” I whisper.
“Even if hell opened itself up to claim me again, I would fight my way back to you.”
“Fight! You promised me. Come back!” I sob. “Come back.Come back to me.Please!”
Everything slows down as I scream. I scream so loud and so long that I don’t hear anything else. My throat goes raw from grief. I double over my husband and pull at his shirt. I try to bring him closer, but I can’t. Jaak is dead. He’s gone. I’ve lost him. My true love.
“See,” a voice says, “he was never yours. He was mine in the end.”
Something in me snaps when I hear that voice. That evil, fucking, voice. The part of me that always wanted to be good, to find the happily-ever-after, the rainbow at the end of all this suffering goes quiet. Vengeance has no place for mercy and that part of me would give mercy, the light in me, dies. It goes to the grave beside my still husband and I lift my head from Jaak’s silent chest. He’s still warm. If I didn’t know better I’d think he was sleeping.
Eleanor, Eri, whatever the fuck ass goddess she is, stands right where she was when she killed Jaak. I raise my hand when she opens her mouth to speak. I never let her get a word out. My magic moves quick as a snake and lashes across her face. It hits her again before she can move, this time across her chest and then wraps around her throat.
I stand up. “You killed him.” I squeeze my hand tighter and my magic does the same. Eri, I decide on Eri…she’s not a person. She’s old and ancient, fickle, selfish, a nightmare. I want her to die with the name Jaak called her by ringing in her ears. I want to be the last voice she hears before no one ever says her name again.
Eri claws at my magic but she can’t break it. “Release me!”
“Make me,Eri,” I snarl and send her slamming into the wall behind her. “You killed him!” I throw both hands out and force her back into the stone. It cracks and breaks, pieces falling downaround her. Eri tries to free herself but it doesn't work. I’m too strong. She screams in rage, and I smile because I know that feeling. I savor the sound and fling her across the room. She hits a pew and splits it in half and the rest of the pews in the aisle fall and scatter.
Two mages run towards me with knives in their hands. All it takes is a snap of my fingers before they turn to dust. Nothing at all, just a pair of dusty robes at my feet.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” I sing as I walk towards Eri. I want her to know I’m coming. I want her fear. She’s crawling, trying to hide from me in the pews. I hear her hands on the stone.
“Back off, Meadow!” Someone hits me across the back with a chair. It falls to pieces when it hits me. I didn’t feel it at all. There’s nothing this world can do to me anymore. There’s nothing left in me to hurt. I turn my head and see it’s Roy but it’s also not Roy.
He’s staring at me with an open mouth and wide eyes. He looks terrified.It’s beautiful.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“You scared?” I ask and grab him by his robes, pulling him to me. The material shreds beneath my grip.
Roy whimpers and tries to push me away. “Y-you’re a monster.”
Power pulses through me. Roy’s right, I am a monster but so is he.
“Takes one to know one,” I whisper in his ear and snap his neck. I let his body go and continue on towards Eri.
“Bitch, if you don’t get the fuck up!” I scream and sweep the pews aside. I throw them left and right looking for her. “Where are you? Come out and fight me.”
“Meadow! Help!” It’s Charlie. I scan the room and see him cornered by a handful of mages. He’s trying to climb down atapestry but it’s rough going with his bow. His quiver is empty. Mort’s close by fighting off a group of mages but he’s not close enough to help in time. I grab the pew closest to me, it’s heavy. Perfect. I lift it over my head and take aim. You would think it would be hard to aim a pew built for twelve with accuracy but you would be wrong. I hurl the pew at the mages with a scream and watch with satisfaction as it hits the lot of them length-wise. They fall down like a bunch of bowling pins. The pew is solid, it doesn’t break but it does pin the mages to the back wall.
“Thanks, Meadow!” Charlie gives me a thumbs up and a smile. There’s no way he’s realized what happened to Jaak. I fill his quiver with fresh arrows and a second later he slides safely to the floor.
