Page 23 of Fates of Monsters

Grey, horrible magic explodes from him and right into me. I block it with the sword, pushing against the stream of magic and taking one step forward at a time. The magic cuts at my skin, lashing at me, but I don’t stop walking to him. With my other hand, I flex my fingers and close my eyes. I pull the other crowns, sensing them out on the battlefield, all around me. They fly through the broken walls of the mountain, cracking and floating around my hand alongwith the melted bracelets from Emerson. The metal burns under my fire, melting into an incomplete blade. Louie has the final crown. Once I get Louie’s crown, the sword will be whole again. Louie screams. “How are you doing that? STOP!”

“Never!” I shout back at him. He roars at me, throwing so much magic my way. “I am the one who is destined to hold the swords and to stop you. I am sorry that I couldn’t save you. I really am, but it’s over now, Louie. It’s over.”

“It’s not over!” His head thrashes over and over, his magic getting louder and harsher, but it’s not stopping me. The sword cuts through it with me as I pull ice and fire, lacing it around me in a protective wall. I walk through Louie’s magic, my heart cracking with what I have to do. I tell myself over and over it must be like a nightmare for him. I’m ending a nightmare. Louie is already gone. It doesn’t stop the tears from streaming down my cheeks.

When I’m in front of Louie, I can’t see through the pure hate for everything he has done to even pause. I grab my sword, my heart breaking, and I slam it straight through him. He cries in pain, the final crown leaving his head and falling onto my sword. It glows as it completes, becomes whole, the crown pieces all back together. I grab the second sword and slam that straight into his heart with my own cry.

The magic stops instantly, and he falls forward on his knees, black blood pouring from his mouth. I pull my swords out, a sob leaving my throat. His body fades away into ash and grey dust, and swirls round, leaving almost like a hollow version of him as a child in front of me. I fall to my knees at the sight of the little boy I loved, the swords dropping out of my hands as tears stream down my face. My voice gets completely clogged with emotion. “Louie,” I whisper. “Goddess, I’m so sorry. Please, please forgive me for not finding you in time. It’s all my fault.” I can barely even get the words out. “I failed you.” I failed him so much. Failed this little boy who was my ward, in my care. He was like a brother to me.

The soul of Louie, or whatever he is, touches my cheek. He is warm. “You didn’t fail me. You tried to save me, my sister. You did save me in the end. I’m free now because of you. I love you, Calliophe. You’re the best sister I ever had. Don’t cry.” A sob echoes from me. “I get to be with my mum now and my dad. They’re waiting for me. I’ll wait for you one day too.”

I can’t breathe through my sobs. Warm hands wrap around me from behind, and I feel Emerson at my back. Holding me up. “B-be happy with them, please. Please. I will always miss you, Louie. I wanted you to have a future. I wanted so, so much for you.”

He is still touching my cheek. “I will if you do something for me.” He smiles at me, and I can’t stop crying. I haven’t mourned him, not really, because a part of me always thought there would be a way to save him. To bring him back. Hope crushes grief into the back of your mind, and when hope is gone, grief swallows you.

I touch his hand on my cheek. It feels like touching smoke. “Anything.”

“Remember me as when we sat on the roof on Nocturno and watched the fireworks across the city for the celebration. Remember how happy we were that night?” he asks. I remember that night. It wasn’t long before I met Emerson. We were happy, free, and together. He laughed and smiled all night. The fireworks looked like a million falling stars, and we both made wishes. I wished for us both to be free from the life we had.

In a way, it seems we both got our wishes, just not in ways I would’ve imagined. “Forget the rest, as best as you can, and remember, I love you. Be happy, smile, and set off fireworks for me on your birthday. I might be able to see them from wherever I am going.” He grins at me in the way that I always remember Louie grinning, before turning around and walking away. The dust fades from what is left of his soul, wafting into the breeze, and sunlight shines through the clouds for a moment on him. For a second, I see his mom and dad reach out a hand to him before the light, for all of it fades away into darkness. “Louie.” I cry, turning and falling into Emerson’s waiting arms, and he holds me as my heart breaks. His arms wrapped tightly around me, never letting me fall alone. Louie is gone.

Eventually I lift my head, and Emerson kisses me. Softly. “I’m sorry.”

I nod, unable to say anything about Louie yet. I touch Emerson’s cheek, needing to feel him, know he is alive and okay. “You’re hurt.”

“Healing,” he proudly answers, picking me up with a grunt of pain. He speaks into my mind. “I’m sorry. It was you who had to do that. Had to end it.”

I lean my head on his shoulder. “It had to be me.”

Zurine’s eyes are soft as she walks to me, and I stay close to Emerson. I’m sure she can sense that I’m barely holding it together right now. “He was a sweet boy. We will remember him.”

“Always,” I whisper, looking back at where he was and seeing the two swords on the ground, the tips touching like they never want to be apart again. I reach for the swords, just as the ground shakes violently, and I scowl. What is causing that? Zurine runs to the left side of the mountain, looking over, ash and smoke blowing around her. I quickly grab the swords and run out with Emerson to Zurine to see what is going on. The mountain next to us was never a mountain. It’s a volcano. There’s a figure standing at the top, a male, but he is massive and twice the size of a mortal. His hands are digging into the volcano, ripping a gap in the top of it and making the lava come out thick and fast. Too fast. The lava is not touching him, but something is wrong. The male is fading right before my eyes, and I realize this is where Louie looked.

I frown. “It’s the old god. He is killing himself to do that, but why?”

Emerson’s voice is hollow. “To kill all our people.” I go still as I follow the direction of the waves of lava, which is currently washing over the lands. Wyerns are grabbing fae and flying back to the cities in the distance. The lava is chasing them… right towards the Wyern cities. They will be trapped. Our people will be trapped. “I can stop it, I think, with the swords.”

“No, you’re weak from the fight with Louie, and you said tapping into the sword’s power like that… it would be bad,” Emerson warns me. I know my own warning, but millions will die.

I look into his purple eyes. “I have to try.”

“No,” he answers with a clenched jaw… and I know he would literally let the world burn to save me. I’d do the same in his shoes. Goddess, I’d let them burn too, even if it makes me a monster. I guess everyone is closer than they think to becoming monsters. It turns out true love is the switch. It makes you do anything, rational or not. In the distance, our soldiers flood the city to save the people they love.

“Congratulations on winning the war, king and queen of the Wyerns, fae and mortals,” Air sarcastically cheers.

I turn around to face her. We all do. She isn’t alone. The other gods and goddesses are with her. “It means nothing if he destroys our city. Will you stop him?”

“We will do no more,” Air replies, her voice like ice. “The old god is fading, his magic gone, the last of it used to destroy your cities.”

My eyes widen. I can’t believe they are happy to watch millions be killed when they can help. I look at the fire goddess. “Please, can you not stop the lava? It’s fire, and you—”

“Are not your puppet to wield,” she snarls at me. “No. I agreed to help you win the war, and it is over. You have nothing left to bargain with that I’d ever want or need. Their lives mean nothing to me.”

The water god looks right at us before each of them walk out. “We are free.”

“COWARDS!” Zurine shouts at their backs, but they do not turn. They will not help us, and Zurine is right.

“We have to get out whoever we can,” I state, knowing it’s the best we can do. “If we can’t get them out, then they will die. I will hold off the lava as long as I can with the swords.”

---