She had just enough time to secure the rope by tying his hair into a knot before he teleported away. The rope was short, with only two metres of leeway, but she secured the loop on the other end around her wrist.
Their original plan had been to anchor him to something, but Emerie had other ideas once she saw Lindiwe’s barrier. A link was created between them, one that would stop him from materialising behind her. Wherever he went, Emerie would go too.
When Emerie teleported back into the room, her spinning sight searched for the woman with a bow and arrow.
Now Delora just needs to...
She winced when she saw her body lying on the ground, while the winged Demon, the only one remaining, held her decapitated head by her shoulder-length hair. When it started withering away into ash, it tossed it like it’d lost interest before stalking towards them.
Despite how much it would have hurt, Delora was gone, and that was what she needed.
“Emerie,” Lindiwe called, and she spun to her.
Jabez had her by the throat until she became intangible and floated back. He gave a menacing snarl.
“I grow tired of this. Two are dead, Witch Owl. All that is left is you and this human.”
Lindiwe and Emerie shared a look, and a thousand silent words were spoken. Thank you. I’m sorry. These were the two sentences that were the loudest from Lindiwe.
Emerie gave her a weak smile.
Lindiwe floated up and up, and Jabez watched her with shoulders heaving from heavy breaths until she disappeared through the ceiling. The barrier flickered, allowing her out before reforming to keep everyone inside. However, it’d grown much smaller during the fight.
Hopefully it was enough to keep them all contained within its slowly shrinking trap.
Jabez turned to Emerie, and he burst into a fit of laughter.
“She fucking abandoned you.” He pointed a claw at her while covering his stomach. “I bet that betrayal cuts deep, human. I always knew she was a self-centred vermin at the core of her righteousness.”
To be honest, at first, Emerie had thought the Witch Owl’s request was self-serving. But the longer she dwelled on it over the course of the past few days, the more it settled in that Lindiwe was... desperate. She knew what she was doing was wrong, but she was a mother who just wanted to protect her children – even if it meant hurting one in order to save them all.
Not just them, but her grandchildren as well. Those who were small, sightless, and vulnerable.
I hope... she finally gets a chance to be with them properly. Without any more fear for them, without any more painful sacrifices.
Digging into her pocket, Emerie pulled the sun stone out and kept it hidden in her fist. With her right hand, she slipped her obsidian dagger from its halter and charged. She’d dropped her whip when she’d threaded the rope through his hair, realising it had been useless to bring it.
Jabez chuckled low and deep as he stepped back with each of her slashes to dodge. He didn’t attack, and she instantly saw the game he was playing.
“You smell like the raven-skulled Mavka,” he commented as he dodged her strikes. “How is he after my minions killed his brother?”
“Be better when you’re dead,” she answered, trying to keep him close.
She eyed the barrier, deciding to let it get smaller before she made her final move. She didn’t know how big the blast would be.
I need to give Lindiwe time to escape.
The area felt cold now that it was just the three of them. The winged Demon had halted to watch, letting its master have his fun with the puny human plaything before them. The quietness was unnerving, and her hot, airy breaths echoing through it were... harrowing.
He teleported when she came too close to slicing his face, and she went with him.
Jabez jerked in surprise when she appeared right in front of him; he’d likely been expecting her to be on the other side of the podium still. Her momentum wasn’t lost. She swung her arm outward across her body and slashed his face apart from cheek to nose.
He hissed and stumbled back. When she got too close, he kicked her in the stomach, sending her flying. With a surprised yell, he went with her when the rope connecting them yanked his hair.
She almost lost the stone while airborne, but managed to tighten her grip on it as she hit the ground.
Come on. Take the bait, Emerie thought as she staggered to her feet.
Her prayers were answered. Jabez grabbed their link and yanked her off the ground again when he pulled her closer with his inhuman strength. Her throat landed directly in his clawed hand, and he tightened it on her.
He snarled down at her with red eyes full of hate and spite.
“So, they know, do they?” He reached back and swiped his long strands in front of him to inspect the rope knotted in his hair. He bounced it in his hand. “Elves... such a stupid weakness.”
Now that she was close, and the barrier was small and hopefully still enough, she raised her fist. The winged Demon was forced to shuffle forward when it was pushed by Lindiwe’s dome.
She should be far enough away, right?
Jabez’s gaze lifted to her closed fist in curiosity, his twisted expression falling.
Her heart clenched in fear, in sadness, in hopelessness. The anguish of it was unbearable as she trembled in the Demon King’s grip.
“Bye, Ingram,” Emerie whispered, as tears welled even though a smile curled her shaking lips.
She threw the stone against the ground between them, and the shatter of it was lost to the blinding white light that exploded and pierced... everything.
The last thing she felt was Jabez shove her between him and that light. The last thing she heard was a boom and a high-pitched ringing that felt like it vibrated and disintegrated her bones. Heat blasted her from within as well as all around.
The millisecond of her remaining consciousness beyond the impact didn’t even have a chance to think anything other than, for the first time in her life, she was terrified of the light.
With an annoyed huff, Ingram turned to Orpheus and Magnar instead of going down the decline leading to the Veil’s forest.
He couldn’t fault them on their desire to hunt. He, too, wanted to care for Emerie in this way.
But now that he knew he could love both Emerie and Aleron indiscriminately and in different ways, he wanted to link them. He’d spent the last two days burying his cock in her any way he could, secretly hoping their essences would just... combine.
That, somehow, the universe would tether them together without his knowledge. On a physical level, they had been one, so why could it not seep beneath their skin?
Obviously, that’d been unsuccessful.
But he’d been craving it, while unwittingly suppressing his affection for the pretty female in worry he’d be betraying Aleron somehow.
When I return... I will ask. As soon as he did, in fact.
He was impatient, as always.
He could almost picture it.