Quite possibly the most humorous thing about the beginning of the new year was the fact that Amy truly believed that she could kidnap Jay and get away with it. The morning of the fifth of January would have been quite standard if it had not been for the frequent loud knocking sounds coming from the door to my room. It was only about eleven o’clock on a Sunday morning, so I had not been expecting to have been woken up for a little bit longer, so as I clambered out of bed and towards the front door, I felt so dazed that I tripped at least twice on thin air.
Upon opening the door, I found Quinn, whose eyes were wide with panic. He looked at me frantically and the two of us maintained eye contact for a whole three seconds, which was the longest since before I had been Claimed.
‘Jay…’ he gasped frantically, clearly, he had just run up the stairs to get to me. ‘Jay…he’s…kidnapped…’
‘Pardon?’ I asked, rubbing sleep from my eyes.
‘Amy…she just…appeared with some…other guy,’ Quinn panted. ‘Took him somewhere…Henry says he’s at their…base.’
Immediately, I darted back into my room. I hurriedly ripped off my pyjamas and pulled on a T-Shirt and joggers. I grabbed my magical belt, a gift from Grandad, off of the sofa and pulled it on before dashing back into my room and slotting my swords and wand into their designated pockets. I stared at the three smoke balls on my drawers that Asbel had gotten me for Christmas. I gently picked them up and put them in one of the pockets on my left. If I was going to fight for Jay, I was going to do it right.
I ran out into the corridor and took the lift down. Halfway down I realised that this was a mistake. It would have been much quicker to run down all of the stairs than to take this lift, which now seemed unbearably slow.
The moment the lift doors opened, I saw Henry opening the front doors of The Tower, evidently about to leave.
‘Wait!’ I called. ‘I’m coming with you!’
Before even turning to see who it was that was running towards him, Henry formed an answer. ‘No, no, no. You’re not. I can’t take a kid with me.’
‘Well, you are,’ I said determinedly as Henry turned around.
His eyes widened slightly when he saw me standing there with my magical belt, two swords and a wand around my waist. I must have either looked stupid or courageous. I seriously hoped that it was the latter.
‘You weren’t seriously thinking of going by yourself, were you?’ I asked, raising an eyebrow. ‘You need backup.’
‘Backup would have arrived at the scene shortly after I did,’ Henry said, his face turning slightly pinker.
‘Well, hurry up!’ I said hastily. ‘Who knows what they’re doing to Jay as we speak?’
Henry sighed, looked up to the ceiling and whispered, ‘Steven, forgive me,’ and then he left The Tower and gestured for me to follow. I, of course, obliged.
The cold air jabbed through my body once we were outside. The sky was grey and there were few people out on the street. Whoever it was that had kidnapped Jay, they certainly had not done a good job at cleaning their trail. All along the High Street to the left of us, there was a path of destroyed cars and smashed windows.
‘Well, I presume that they went that way,’ I said awkwardly, beginning to dash up the road shortly before unfolding my wings and lifting up into the winter sky.
‘Be careful!’ Henry called up. ‘I think the guy that took him is one of Amy’s top fighters! Meet me at the north side of the Valley!’
After that, he Dis-Apparated. I beat my wings powerfully, soaring upwards towards where Henry had just ordered me to meet. Adrenaline coursed through my veins like a wildfire. I felt determined, I felt ready. Top fighter or not, we could beat him. We’d beaten Robert twice now, and we’d even beaten Amy herself once, arguably twice.
The cold wind felt so refreshing on my wings that it was not unlike being born again. My fringe flew backwards off of my forehead and I beamed. It was an unusual circumstance to be beaming, but I beamed. I was flying. No matter how regular this became, it would never get old.
Once at the northern side of the Valley, Henry called up to me again.
‘They will most likely have taken him to their nearest base!’
‘And where’s that?’ I shouted back.
Henry suddenly looked sheepish.
‘You okay?’ I called.
‘How much weight can you carry?’ he asked, not looking at me.
I understood. ‘I can carry you.’
‘Do it!’
I soared down, tucking my arms under his and joining them together underneath his chin. It was slightly harder to regain altitude once I was carrying Henry, but not so much so that it was unbearable. He didn’t appear fearful in the slightest, but he was definitely embarrassed.
‘Just keep flying straight,’ he murmured just loud enough for me to hear over the wind.
I did just that. After a certain distance, the entire world felt dangerous. Like we were where we shouldn’t be. Some fighters threw spells at us, but I effortlessly weaved between them, even with Henry in my arms.
‘When they discovered where you were, they built a small camp out here, about two miles north of the City,’ Henry explained as we flew. ‘It’s only about two and a half miles. Only a few buildings I believe. He’ll probably be in the main building because that’s the most guarded one.’
‘And what if he isn’t?’ I asked.
‘Then we have made a terrible mistake.’
Well, that certainly sent a shiver down my spine. I don’t think that the sudden numbness of my body had anything to do with the biting wind.
Sure enough, after flying for about two and a half miles, we were there. Five black, cuboidal buildings stood on the field. They were arranged like the number five on a die, with four smaller buildings marking the corners of what they clearly thought was their land, with one larger building in the middle.
‘I take it we’re going for the one in the middle?’ I said, trying not to gulp.
‘Yep,’ Henry said, and my spirits dropped. ‘It’ll be impossible to breach from the top so just land out the front and don’t get shot out of the-’
Pain rocketed through my right wing. Glancing at it, I saw blood pouring from an open wound. Somebody had taken off the tip of my wing. I took a few shaky breaths. Looking down, I saw two guards outside the front of the larger building, and one of them held a steaming wand that was pointing directly at us.
If Amy had wanted an ominous building that struck fear into people’s hearts, she had certainly gotten it when she built whatever sat below me. It was like staring at Tartarus. A huge black box surrounded by smaller black boxes. The huge windows running along what was clearly the three floors were tainted black. They could see out, we couldn’t see in.
I desperately tried to keep me and Henry aloft, but that proved to be a stupid thing to do. It was nearly impossible to fly with one wing, any bird would tell you that. We tumbled through the air and the ground rushed closer and closer towards us. Grunting, I managed to land in such a way that put all of the pain on me and left Henry unharmed.
Immediately, Henry jumped to his feet and began engaging in a violent duel with the two guards. Shakily rising to my feet, I tucked my wings in painfully. Every movement of them caused me pain.
‘T-That’s my wing…’ I snarled, unsheathing the sword on the left side of my belt: The Santrrer Sword.
I took a deep inhale, holding it in for a few seconds before letting it free. One of the guards turned to me, firing an orange spell. I brought my sword up quickly. The spell bounced off of the blade and smashed into the wall above the guard’s head.
Not giving him time to react, I ran at him. It may have been foolish, running at somebody with a wand whilst wielding a sword yourself, but I was never known for decisions that suited the situation. I always went for whatever I saw as the quickest end to the problem.
I swung my sword around, creating a gash in the guard’s stomach. As he raised his wand to fire another spell, I brought the sword up once more, creating another, shallower gash that ran from the right side of the guard’s waist to his left shoulder.
I took another deep breath. The grass around me seemed to dance. Blades of it shot upwards, entwining around the guard’s ankles and wrists. As he tried to help in shock, a blade of grass elongated and broadened before wrapping around his mouth, muffling his scream.
Closing my eyes, I jabbed the sword forward into the guard’s neck. Before even opening my eyes, I realised what I had done. I heard the grass whoosh back into place before it was followed by a dull thud. I had just killed the guard.
The guard that Henry had been duelling met the same fate. Bloodied and exhausted, his lifeless body collapsed to the ground in a disgusting heap.
Henry himself looked fine. He was panting slightly, but it seemed like he had no major wounds. At least the two of us were physically fine. Mentally, I felt like I wanted to vomit.
‘What now?’ I asked.
‘We go in,’ Henry said, blasting a spell at the door. It bounced off and I jumped out of the way to avoid it.
I thought about what I had just done with the grass. It may not have been my intention to weaponise blades of grass, but surely I could make it my intention.
I tightened my gut and pictured the grass doing the same elongating and broadening movement, seeping through the gaps at the sides of the doors and pulling them off of their hinges. The grass perfectly mimicked this image playing in my head. I watched as those actions were repeated in real life. It was tough to pull off those huge doors when you were using grass as a tool. My head began to throb through pure effort, but I managed it.
And the moment that the doors blasted off of their hinges, five spells simultaneously hit my stomach, with a sixth one hitting my neck. Henry called my name, but he sounded distant, unreal. Pain rocketed through my body. I wasn’t dying, but half of me wanted to, just to end the pain.
Blood soaked through my T-Shirt, and I realised that it would stain. As I fought desperately to keep myself standing, Henry valiantly fought against my six attackers. I raised my sword, frantically trying not to collapse.
I charged forward. I slipped into the building. The inside was similar to the outside, and by that, I mean that the walls were so dark that it was a miracle I could see at all. Overhanging ceiling lamps were the only source of light in this wretched building. I appeared to be in a meeting room of sorts. Numerous wooden tables sat around the room, with a larger table with ten seats decorated the back wall. In either corner at the back were a set of stairs. I had a sinking feeling that Jay was on the top floor.
‘That’s Santrrer!’ I heard one of the attackers shout as he turned to me.
He was a man of average build, with close-cropped black hair and a thick beard covering the bottom half of his face. His brown eyes were manic with anger as he glared determinedly at me.
I ran towards him, taking deep breaths as I did so. Then something strange happened. My entire body felt huge. I didn’t physically grow, but I felt as though I had doubled in size and the additional parts felt empty. The darkness seemed to grow thicker, and I was certain that the lights dimmed. Belts of pure darkness seemed to swirl around my sword as I clasped it with both hands, bringing it above my head.
‘What the- Vel-’ the fighter began, but I was just a second faster.
I brought my sword down with terrific power. My arms rattled from the sheer force. The blade glided down his body like butter as thick blood spurted from his wound. The belts of darkness scurried away from my blade, and the room lit up, showing me the pure fear in the man whom I had attacked.
‘What?’ he said weakly. ‘You’re just a- a kid.’
I stared at him. ‘Top floor?’
He was silent. I could tell that he was about to drop. I lunged forwards, driving my sword into his chest.
‘Top floor?’ I repeated angrily.
He nodded slowly. ‘You’re…a descendant of Titan…You’re too…power-’
He fell slowly and silently.
‘You little rat!’ another one screamed, pointing his wand at me. ‘You’re not even supposed to be using a sword!’
He fired a spell at me and it hit my right knee. I felt my entire right leg become weightless, causing me to drop to the ground on one knee. I didn’t hurt, it was more so just not there.
As he fired another spell at me, I used my left leg to roll to the side and out of the way. I readied my sword like a javelin, taking a deep breath. As I exhaled I flung my sword forwards. It soared through the air shortly before impaling his left thigh.
I grabbed my wand from my belt, pointing it directly at his chest.
‘Velere!’
‘Immitis Occisio!’
A red jet from my wand collided with a green spell from his. They bounced off of each other and hit the walls on either side of us. I tried yet again.
‘Exarow!’
‘Detognis!’
The words that he was saying sounded alien. I had never even heard of spells that sounded remotely like that before. Clearly, they were some advanced jinxes.
Our spells ricocheted off of the other’s and the two of us began furiously firing whatever we could at each other.
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‘Exarow! Velere!’ I bellowed furiously as red jets of light erupted from the tip of my wand, clashing with his.
He was shouting spells that I didn’t even know how to spell. Green and blue jinxes flew at me and it was all I could do to shout ‘Exarow’ and ‘Velere’ until my throat went raw and I was moving my arm so quickly that it became a genuine concern that it might fall off.
‘Avis Levare!’ I shouted, on the off-chance that it would actually land.
And the Gods must have been having a good day. A jet of green flew from the end of his wand and whizzed past my right ear.
I watched as his body rose high into the air as he looked around wildly for help. His two remaining colleagues were desperately trying to fend off Henry, who had evidently killed two of their fighters already.
‘Exarow!’ I shouted.
Red light flew towards him, striking his wand, causing it to fly upwards and then back down to the floor.
‘Velere!’ I called again.
Another red jet of light streamlined towards the man, striking him in the chest after a short moment. I lost control of his body as it went limp and he dropped to the floor like a sack of bricks.
Crawling over to his body, I tucked my wand back into my belt and yanked my sword from his thigh. It still felt as though I did not have a right leg, but I managed to weakly crawl over to behind Henry’s duel. He looked at me, silently pleading for me to get away, but, of course, I didn’t listen.
Amidst the chaos, one of the fighters that Henry was duelling flicked his wand back. A spell hit my left ear and pain soared through my head. Shakily pressing my hand against the spot where my left ear should have been, I was horrified to realise that it was gone.
I jabbed my sword deep into my attacker’s calf. She howled in pain, dropping to her knees, giving Henry the opening that he needed. Green light flashed and my eyes widened. The woman screamed, pleading for mercy before her voice was cut off. My breaths became shallow. Cursing myself, I furiously shook my head. I had to keep fighting.
Now that it was just one-on-one, it was not even a real fight. One swift flick of Henry’s wand and the last remaining fighter dropped to the floor, lifeless.
‘What’s wrong?’ Henry asked, staring down at me.
‘He hit my leg with a spell,’ I explained after a moment of silence, sweating. ‘I can’t feel it. And I can’t move it.’
‘I know how to fix it, don’t worry,’ Henry said, hastily pointing his wand at my leg.
It felt like someone had pinched my leg and I had to muffle my shocked gasp as the usual feeling returned. Henry helped me to my feet and I looked up at him.
‘There’s no way that’s it. They wouldn’t leave just that to defend their biggest and most valuable building.’
‘You’re right,’ Henry said, gazing around the dark room. ‘Something’s off.’
‘Jay’s on the top floor,’ I said quickly. ‘One of the men told me before I- I- I killed him.’
‘Then that’s where we’ll go,’ Henry said. ‘Oh, Immitis Occisio.’
The body of the man that I had held in the air gave a quick jolt before becoming truly lifeless. I gulped.
‘Quick!’ Henry said, beckoning me forward as he ran towards the stairs.
‘Can’t you just Dis-Apparate?’ I asked.
‘There are special enchantments over this place,’ Henry said through gritted teeth. ‘I’m sorry. I can’t.’
The first floor was strange. Upon reaching the top of the stairs we were left with a thin corridor and two choices: go through the door right in front of us, or take the stairs at either end of the corridor. We didn’t even consider the door. Henry and I made a hurried beeline for the stairs.
The second floor was much the same, but it didn’t have any more stairs, and the door was definitely locked. Now, the last time I had broken down a door I had been attacked by six different people, so I had more than enough reason to be hesitant about breaking down this one. Henry did the honours.
Before he blew up the door, he performed the universal shushing sign, which I found strange. How could he expect to be quiet right before blowing up a door?
But something felt off. Eight people defending the building that they were holding Jay captive in? Either we were in the wrong building, or some unspeakable horror was waiting for us on the other side of the door.
Before I had a chance to ask Henry to maybe consider what we were getting ourselves into, he had done it. A loud bang echoed throughout the empty corridor, and before the smoke had even cleared, Henry blindly fired spells into the room. Judging by the sounds that followed, about half of his spells hit an object, whilst the others were deflected. Someone was in there.
Henry darted in, and I soon realised that I had no choice but to follow. The room inside was clearly designed by some sort of edgy teenager. It was dark and had crimson lights running along the edges of the ceiling and the corners of the walls. And once the smoke cleared, it took effort to hold back my rage.
A man stood there. He was around Henry’s height of five-foot-ten and had short blond hair. I could see his green eyes sparkling even in the dim lighting. He wore the typical attire of Amy’s fighters: all black. His face was masked by a sickeningly smug smirk and I felt my anger rise. His wand was raised, perfectly aimed at Henry’s chest.
My anger rose even more so when I saw what was behind him. Four huge iron chains were connected to the corners of the large room. Who was bound by these chains? Jay. He was in the spot where the chains met, his wrists and ankles bound by ginormous iron clamps. His eyes widened when he saw me and Henry, and I nodded slightly. I noticed that there was a faint trickle of blood dripping down Jay’s face, and that certainly did not make it any easier to control my anger.
‘Ah, Henry,’ the man said in a soothing voice. ‘I had a feeling it was you making all that noise.’
‘Eric!’ Henry bellowed. ‘I thought Amy disposed of you!’
What?
Dismissing Henry’s comment, Eric continued. ‘I didn’t expect RoCity to resort to child labour. How are you, little guy?’
My rage continued to build. I was itching to get it over and done with. End him here. Now.
‘Who’s Eric?’ I whispered, just loud enough for Henry to hear.
‘Let’s just say,’ he whispered in return, ‘if Robert is Amy’s number one, then Eric is her number two.’
‘So he’s powerful?’
Henry’s silence was more than enough answer for me. I glared scornfully at Eric, whose eyes were unfazed by my display of resentment.
His smirk grew slightly larger. And then it began.
Despite the fact that Eric fired the first spell, Henry was definitely prepared. He returned fire almost immediately. Spells of just about every colour flew around the room, bouncing off of each other and flying into the walls.
The moment the duel began, I ran to the side. My goal? To sever the chains bounding Jay. I was sure that it wouldn’t be easy, but what was shocking was how quickly I was stopped. How easily Eric was able to stop me and deflect Henry’s spells at the same time.
He flicked his wand out to the side, and it was then that I noticed a small wooden table sitting behind Jay. I only noticed this table as the sets of chains that had been lying on it suddenly flew towards me.
Trying to keep my breathing steady, I thought back to the times when my sword had been coated in flames. That was enough. Fire danced up and down the blade of my sword as I swung it up towards my face, shielding myself from the first of many chain attacks.
Whilst I struggled to push the chain away from me, I noticed that another one was flying towards me from my left. Thinking fast, I hurriedly swung my sword diagonally downwards and caught the second chain. However, the first one was now flying at me from ten inches away and two more were coming at me from my right.
I managed to bat away the second chain as I ducked to avoid the first. I then leapt over the other two and charged towards the first of Jay’s chains.
Behind me, Henry and Eric still furiously duelled. The two of them managed to simultaneously scream insults at each other, and I doubt that I am allowed to repeat most of the words that were exchanged. Henry was profusely bleeding from his left leg, and Eric appeared to have a deep gash in his stomach.
My sword was still alight, which made it somewhat easier to deflect the chains, but the sounds that were produced when the two clashed were enough to make my toes curl, and I had literally just finished killing someone.
Upon reaching the chain that was binding Jay’s left wrist, I brought my flaming sword down upon it with tremendous force.
‘Chain!’ Jay called. ‘Behind you!’
I ducked. And exactly as I had planned, all four chains, which had evidently been soaring towards me from behind, struck the larger chain. It may not have been a huge help, but it certainly made progress. The chains scattered in different directions, and I even saw one fly over to where Henry and Eric were duelling, and I prayed that Henry was skilled enough to fight Eric and an iron chain simultaneously.
Not even taking a moment to pause, I hacked and slashed at the chain with my still-flaming sword. I was certainly making progress; the chain was strong but it was now heavily dented and smouldering.
‘Chains!’ Jay called again.
I was too slow. One chain pierced my left shoulder from behind and it came out my front. Trying to ignore the gaping hole in my shoulder, I whirled around to deflect the other two chains, but I was too slow again. One of them came from my right and slid across my stomach, creating a huge gash. I cried out in pain, bringing my sword up and blocking the final chain. I was locked in a stalemate with a damn chain. My shoulder was throbbing and blood poured out onto the floor, but I held on.
Jay warned me again, and I jumped up into the air, bringing my sword away from the chain. The two other chains flew into the place where I had just been standing. Thinking fast, I whirled my sword in a circle above my head, feeling the flames grow warmer. Screaming in a mixture of pain and rage, I thrust my sword downwards and the flames flew off of it, shooting towards one of the chains. Said chain became enveloped in fire, seeming to writhe for a moment before hitting the ground, charred.
However, I still had two more to deal with. Not even pausing for a moment, I spun around in midair, throwing my sword like a javelin at the spot that I had previously been hitting. And it worked. As my sword hit it, I watched as the chain fell into two pieces and Jay regained control of his left arm.
I grabbed my other sword out of my belt with my left hand and dropped to the ground, landing on my feet. Pain soared through my left arm, and I hurriedly switched my sword over from my left hand to my right. Charging toward Jay, the panic in his eyes told me that the two other chains were hot on my trail. But I already had a plan. And Jay would not like it.
Once I got to Jay, I tossed him my sword and he caught it with his left hand as I continued to behind him, where The Santrrer Sword had flown to after destroying the chain. I picked it up and regrettably stopped for a moment to admire its gleam. The two chains flew at me, and I had a close call with them. They grazed my left ear, so close to my head that my brain seemed to shut off completely.
I ran back towards Henry and Eric.
‘Try and cut the other chains!’ I called to Jay as I ran. ‘I’m going to help Henry!’
‘I can try!’ Jay cried back weakly.
Steam poured from the wounds in my shoulder and stomach, but I continued pushing forward. Henry and Eric were still duelling furiously, screaming things at each other that I now definitely can’t repeat.
Henry was now worse off than he had been the last time I had checked. His left leg was still bleeding, but now he was missing his left hand and there was dried blood coating the side of his face.
Eric, on the other hand, hadn’t changed much. He still had the gash on his stomach, but other than that the only other wound he had obtained was a graze on the left side of his neck; the wound so insignificant that it wasn’t even bleeding.
Right as I came over, a spell hit Henry’s left eye, and I watched as his entire eyeball fell to the ground. Henry did not even cry out in pain as blood gushed down his face.
I noticed that the chain that had previously flown over now darted at Henry from his right, so I darted towards it, bringing down my sword with horrific power. Surprisingly, the chain snapped in half as though I had cut a piece of paper.
‘What?’ Eric yelled over the chorus of spells. ‘What are you doing here, child?’
I remained silent. My heart felt as though it were about to beat straight out of my chest. Concentrating hard on prioritising the healing of my left shoulder, I frantically thought about what the next step of the plan was.
Rolling to the side so that the two remaining chains sailed past me, I decided on what to do. It might have seemed stupid to others, and that’s because it was. I ran straight towards Eric.
My left shoulder was now mostly healed, so I dug my hand into one of the tool belt’s pockets and gently grabbed one of the smoke balls that Asbel had gotten me.
Then Eric fired another spell. Not at Henry, but at me. I am not sure how to describe what it did to me. The spell hit my stomach and seemed to go straight through me, creating a hole big enough for me to stick my fist in.
‘Albert!’ Henry screamed, his voice raw.
My whole body felt ready to give up. Even my brain was reeling; how was I supposed to fight with a hole in my gut? Jay could have stuck his hand through my stomach and waved to Henry, who was behind me.
But I still ran. Dazed and a bit slower than before, yes, but I still ran. I pulled the smoke ball out of my pocket. It was only small, but it intrigued Eric enough so that Henry could land a hit on him. Eric’s left hand vanished with a bang.
I threw the ball up into the air and then sliced through it with my sword. The effect was instant. Grey smoke flooded the area, and even I couldn’t see. But I knew where Eric was. And I knew what I was going to do.
I ran forwards slightly so that I was only about two feet away from where I knew Eric to be. Then, I ducked. And sure enough, I heard the chains rattle as they zoomed past my head, and I heard the thud as they collided with Eric’s body. And I heard the howl of pain that followed. And I heard the droplets of blood as they hit the floor.
I ran to the right and heard a bang as Eric fired a spell at the place where I had been standing just half a second ago. Grunting, I ran to a spot behind where I now knew for certain that Eric was standing.
Taking a sharp breath in, I coated my sword in flames once again, slicing downwards, feeling my sword making contact with Eric’s back. I dragged it from where his right shoulder must have been down to the left side of his waist. I felt him turn around and I rolled to the side once more as he shot a spell at where I had been standing.
The smoke was still as thick as it was when it had first appeared. Swinging my sword again, I slid it across his stomach and heard him scream in pain once more. Then I jabbed it through his stomach, piercing him all the way through.
‘You basta-’ he yelled before his voice was cut off.
I heard a dull thud. It felt like an hour before the smoke cleared when in reality it was only about thirty seconds. I kept my sword buried in his stomach the entire time, but Eric was silent.
And then the smoke cleared.
Eric’s head lay at my feet, my sword piercing his decapitated body. About a foot away from me on my left stood Jay, who held my other sword which was now covered in Eric’s blood. He was panting and holding my sword limply at his side, evidently appalled by what he had just done.
Looking around, I saw that the remaining two chains had fallen to the ground, presumably because the person controlling them was now dead.
I yanked my sword from Eric’s body and then it collapsed onto the ground in front of me. I stared down at it with nothing short of wonder. What had we just done?
Henry was panting, too. He seemed to be in a state of silent shock, but, of course, he was. He’d just lost his left eye and it was a miracle that he was still standing. If that was Amy’s second top fighter, then we would need the Gods’ help to survive her wrath.
‘Jay…’ I murmured weakly. ‘You…you killed him.’
‘And what?’ Jay said quietly. His words may have been angry, but his tone was far from it. ‘He had just started to torture me and then you broke down the door.’
Eric’s blood formed a pool around my feet.
‘We need to get out,’ Henry said faintly. ‘I think we weren’t supposed to get past him. There are most likely re-enforcements on their way.’
Not wanting to fight any more people, Henry, Jay, and I all promptly exited the room and walked as quickly as we could down to the ground floor.
We only encountered one more fighter. He panicked when he saw us, and I ran over to him, jabbing my sword through his back, and he was finished.
My head was throbbing. I had killed people today. In the moment, it felt fine, it felt like nothing could stop me, but the after-effect was so mentally crushing that it felt like I would collapse under its weight.
From there, Henry used the last of his energy to Dis-Apparate the three of us back to The Tower, where everybody else had been waiting for us.
Grandad was pacing back and forth, running his hand over his head. Natasha was sat with Asbel, anxiously biting her nails. Ethan and Maltor were determinedly staring at the walls. Quinn stood in a corner by himself. And Charlotte was trying desperately to calm everyone down.
Upon hearing the crack that signalled that me, Henry, and Jay were back, everybody snapped their head to stare at us. Henry dropped to the floor with a thud and Charlotte quickly began checking him over. All of my friends rushed to Jay except Ethan, Maltor, and Quinn.
Maltor and Quinn didn’t move a muscle after seeing us, but Ethan instead rushed to me.
‘Well, damn you,’ he said, smirking. ‘You did it again. You cheated death.’
I smiled at him. ‘It’s what I do best.’
Jay passed me my sword back. ‘You were great, man.’
‘Nah, you did the most,’ I argued reasonably. ‘Cutting your chains with your left hand? And killing Eric?’
‘Eric?’ Grandad and Charlotte gasped together.
‘Yeah,’ I said, turning to them blankly. ‘There were eight guards at the door, but Henry and I took care of them. And then some Eric guy was in the room with Jay. Henry said he was Amy’s second top fighter or something?’
‘And…and Jay killed him?’ Charlotte said shakily.
‘Oh yeah, Asbel,’ I said, turning to him. ‘Sorry, but I had to use one of the smoke balls. It let me and Jay sneak up on him. I stabbed him with one sword and Jay took his head off with the other.’
Grandad laughed so hard that he began coughing. ‘Eric’s dead!’
But then Natasha asked me a question which she had evidently been grappling with since I arrived. ‘What’s with the holes in your shirt?’
Before I even had the chance to answer, Jay did it for me. ‘He got impaled twice by flying chains.’
Everyone stared at him and then me.
‘I did,’ I confirmed, and their stares widened.
‘Don’t worry about using one of the smoke balls,’ Asbel said, looking at me in nothing short of pride. ‘That’s exactly what they’re for.’
Then it happened. The final Claiming. A translucent golden hammer formed about two inches above Asbel’s mop of messy black hair. He seemed to sense what was going on as he immediately looked up. Upon seeing the hammer he let out a little squeal of excitement.
‘Thank you for your gift, Asbel Jacobs, son of Hephaestus,’ Charlotte said, bowing her head.
The rest of us followed her action, even Maltor and Quinn. When we looked up again the hammer was gone but Asbel’s smile certainly wasn’t.
‘I got Claimed!’ he yelled in pure joy.
The rest of us laughed.
‘Of course, you did,’ I said, smirking. ‘If it hadn’t been for your invention, Henry would be dead.’
Realising what I had said, I wheeled around to see Henry, lying face-up on the floor. He looked horrible. His left eye was gone, and an entire piece was missing from his left leg. And, of course, there was the wound on his head and his obvious lack of a left hand. But he was breathing. Barely.
But now the tension was gone. We had just killed one of Amy’s top fighters and now we had all finally been Claimed. And we were all alive.
Maltor and Quinn weren’t talking to anyone. They slipped up the stairs, unnoticed by everyone but myself. I began to consider what they always secretly talked about before cursing and reminding myself that it was none of my business.
I had a sinking feeling that the worst was still yet to come. I also knew that the next time Amy and I crossed paths it would not be so easy for me to cheat death again.
My head throbbed with everything that was going on. So much in such a short period. And I was getting so sick of fighting. I just wanted it to be over.
And if that meant I had to take off Amy’s head with a flaming sword then so be it.