Chapter 39
Des
One minute Des was gripping onto Aurelie’s waist, hardly daring to believe her plan had worked, and the next she was a dead weight in his arm, sagging to the floor.
Behind her was Everard, still holding the heavy wooden beam he’d used to knock Aurelie unconscious. He took another swing, aiming for Des, but he was too fast.
“What the hell are you doing?” Des shouted, leaping out of the way as Everard swung again.
But in his effort to avoid Everard, Des had made a foolish decision in leaving Aurelie’s side. Everard threw the wooden beam aside and grabbed her, scooping her roughly into his arms and carrying her to the portal. The demon was on the other side now, but as far as Des could tell, there was nothing keeping it there. They needed to destroy the portal now, before it was too late.
For one sickening moment, Des was afraid Everard was going to toss Aurelie into the vortex, but instead, he stretched his palm wide, reopening the wound he’d cut earlier.
“Stop!” Des roared, his sword leveled at Everard’s throat.
“I cannot control the portal without a soul,” the man rasped. Though he’d survived the goring, he was still pale and bleeding, clearly wounded by the demon’s attack. “And since I don’t have one, it must be Aurelie’s.”
Cold horror spread over Des as he realized what had been staring him in the face all along. “You always knew you needed a soul to control the portal, didn’t you?”
Everard gazed down at Aurelie almost reverently. “Of course I did. And who better to take it from than a girl who talks to demons? Thesomnia, even thenatia. They tried to protect her from me. I learned more about demons by seeing them through Aurelie’s eyes than I’d ever imagined. I think if anyone would want this, it is her.”
“No!” Des stepped closer, his sword arm trembling. “She doesn’t want this. She wants to be free, to learn, to grow, to change this undeserving world. Give her to me, before I slice your fucking head off.”
“If I don’t do this,” Everard said, his voice pitched low, “then there is nothing stopping demons from entering our world. This portal is a doorway through the veil. It will remain open, no new creations required. Is that what you want?”
“I want todestroythis portal. If it was good enough the first time, it should work now. Let her go!”
“Revenin destroyed the first portal with magic, something neither you nor I have. Aurelie must make a bargain with the gatekeeper, as I did with Kobal, in order to control it.”
“What were you hoping to do? Force Aurelie to use the new gatekeeper to do your bidding?”
“There will be no forcing once Aurelie has given away her soul. Power will be all she craves.”
Des could feel his panic rising, something he had little experience with. There had to be some other way. But he wasn’t like Aurelie,full of creative ideas and solutions. He was the sword, his actions dictated by strategists and tacticians, not the one who came up with battle plans. He had no doubt he could take Everard in a fight. The man may be able to heal from a hole in his chest, but he doubted he could regrow his damned head. But as long as Everard was holding Aurelie, he couldn’t risk attacking.
Everard had to be wrong about her. It was impossible to imagine her no longer caring about others, turning into a monster like Everard. Impossible, and yet not something he would ever willingly risk.
“Then take mine,” he said, laying down the sword slowly. “My soul will work as well as hers, won’t it?”
Everard tutted in mock sympathy. “Oh, my dear boy. You’re in love with her, aren’t you?”
Des hadn’t put words to his feelings for Aurelie. How could he, when he’d never experienced them before? But as soon as Everard said it, he knew it was true. Until he met Aurelie, he’d consideredlovea hyperbolic descriptor for an emotion that made humans act like animals, and perhaps it was. But that didn’t make it any less true. He loved her, and he couldn’t regret anything about their time together, even if it had led to this. His only regret was that he hadn’t told her how he felt.
He blinked back the tears in his eyes. “Just tell me, will my soul work?”
Everard nodded. “Of course. One soul is as good as another.”
“I’ll die, then?”
“No more than I’m dead,” Everard said.
Des’s stomach hollowed out. Everard was as good as dead inDes’s eyes. He had no compassion, no conscience, no ability to care about anything beyond his own aims. But he would get to see Aurelie live, and that would be enough. It had to be enough.
“All right,” he said. “Now please, just put her down.”
Everard nodded and gently laid Aurelie at Des’s feet. “Come here, boy.”
Des took a single step over Aurelie, and then Everard’s hand gripped his, his blade flashing so quickly Des had no chance to even cry out, his plans to grab Aurelie and run dissolving into smoke. Everard thrust Des’s hand into the vortex of the portal. Wild with panic, Des tried to pull back, but then the gatekeeper was on the other side, its red eyes boring into his, and it ripped a hole in its own hand with its teeth, pressing its bloody palm to Des’s within the space of a single breath.