Becoming Fae

Mal

I was screaming. I was aware of it, but I couldn’t do anything to stop it. It was like I had been turned into a spectator in my own body. I also knew that I was in agony, but I couldn’t feel it. It was too much for my brain to process, I guess.

The worst part wasn’t what was happening to me. It was knowing that this wasn’t my pain and agony I was feeling. It was all coming from Fae. Once again, the love of my life was suffering and there was nothing I could do for her. Unlike before, this felt different, though. I knew it was Fae feeling the agony, but something inside of me was ripping and tearing apart. Something important that, if I lost it, I wouldn’t be able to survive.

“Immail!” Blaine bellowed, carrying me as best as he could as I thrashed around. “It’s Fae! Something’s wrong!”

The big demon swore and took me from Blaine who howled and shifted, opening a rift and disappearing.

“Hold on, little fairy,” Immail said rushing me towards a tent for the injured set up away from the fighting. “You have to hold on, Malachi. If you give up while she’s fighting for her life, you’ll both die. Don’t let go. Keep her anchored in this life.”

I tried. I really did. I tried to fight the darkness, but it just kept inching in more and more and the heaviness grew as a chill settled into my bones.

“No! Malachi! Ma- Get me a medic now!”

Blaine

I could feel the connection getting weaker very quickly and as quick as traveling between the planes was, I could feel that I wasn’t going to make it to her before...

Fortunately, she was Bonded. Her heart literally beat for Mal, just as his beat for Fae. I prayed to every god, named or not, that he could hold on to life for long enough. It didn’t need to be long. Even a few fractions of a second would be plenty. I had to get to Fae. I didn’t know why it was so important that I be there, but I just had to be by her side.

The rift opened and I lunged forward, ready to rip and tear, but I froze when I saw Fae and a black soul who I assumed was Wrath. Fae had her fingers on the Throne, barely, and Wrath was in the middle of a lunge with a wicked looking knife in his hand. Both of them were cut and scratched, no doubt from the battle they had just went through and the arm that was extended to touch the Throne was bleeding pretty heavily. But my eyes were zeroed in like a homing rocket where the very tip of the knife had just barely entered Fae’s flesh right over her heart, letting a small amount of blood run free.

They were frozen like that, and I knew I should have asked questions, but that black soul was one small jerk away from killing my sister and one of my best friends. And Mal.

Being bound, I no longer had to worry about my Hell Fury going out of control like it had the night Fae made me her hound, but I could unleash a different kind of fury. And that, in my opinion, was worthy of facing Wrath.

I felt my mouth close around his arm. I felt the bone snap and the flesh part for my teeth. I felt the buzz as I prepared to harvest another soul as soon as I could get my claws on him. All of it was expected. I knew what was going to happen. There was no stopping it.

What I didn’t expect was feeling like I got hit by a truck, followed immediately by the sharp pain of a knife in my side. But the last thing I was expecting to see was Mal standing behind Fae, holding the sword she had dropped when the strange spell that had been holding her and Wrath had been released.

I dug and clawed and ripped, using my own type of wrath, horrified as I watched him raise the sword and then drive it through her back, making her gasp in quiet shock before realization filled her eyes.

I bit down on Wrath’s throat and shook, hearing the crunch of breaking bone before I dropped him to the floor with a paw on his chest and pulled, ripping his throat out then going back for the rest of his head. Just to be sure.

I roared as the bond holding me to Fae snapped and my Fury raged high, leaving nothing but red in my vision.

Immail

Never in all of my long, eternal life, had I ever heard something so... inhuman. The screams coming from Mal, while tortured and full of pain, were a good sign. As long as he lived, Fae would, too. It was when they went quiet that we would need to be worried.

But then... Even I got a chill from the sound he made before his eyes rolled into the back of his head. There were seconds of quiet stillness before the medical tent erupted into activity. Vain, useless, pointless activity. They would try to save him, but I knew better. Fae was dead and now, so was her Bonded.

For the first time in a very, very long time, I sank to my knees and wept. My daughter, the great, grand daughter who had somehow managed to bury herself so deeply in my heart in such a very short time, was gone. I tried to find comfort in knowing that she wasn’t alone. She had her Bonded with her, like it was always meant to be.

The battle no longer mattered. Without Fae, there was no reason for it to continue. There was no reason for any of it to continue. I might not be able to claim the Throne, but there was something I could do. Something I had promised my love a long time ago that I wouldn’t do again and something that I had grown to dislike about myself over the ages.

“Get everyone out of the Pits,” I ordered, standing up and turning towards the castle.

I wasn’t going leave Fae there. She never wanted to be here in the first place but had no other choice. As I walked to the edge of the lava lake, I couldn’t help but replay the memories this place held. Once, a very long time ago, this had been my home. I had many fond memories that came from here. None of them would be nearly as happy now, though.

Once I had her body, I would turn this place into a tomb for that squatter who thought he could simply end one of my children and not summon my fury and rage.

My destruction.

It was time to embrace my creation once again.

Netiri, my love. Forgive me for what I’m about to do.