The Kiss That Saved Me (The Tidal Kiss Trilogy Book 2) (59 page)

SOLUSTUS

The city is dark, no longer a shining edifice of hope, but a mere reminder that nothing can stand against my power. The Necrimad will rise. Tonight.
 

“Solustus. We’re ready. Bring her,” Saturnus pokes his head around the door, commanding me as if I’m nothing more than his dog. Well, fuck him.

“No. Make Vexus do it. I’m not your slave,” I bite out, irritated.

“Very well. VEXUS!” He yells. The pale, tentacled Psiren startles in the corner. We both laugh at the fear in his eyes as they open.

“Bring the girl. It’s time. If I catch you slacking off again, you’ll wake up with less tentacles than you started with.” He snarls, the malice in his eyes immense.
 

Saturnus leaves the room with a flourish of one of his hands. His yellow eyes are unnerving even me in the dark. There’s something about cat’s eyes that I can’t help but find unnatural.

“Bloody prick… I’ll show you what one less tentacle looks like when I cut off your…”
 

“Vexus! Do shut up,” I bark. I’ve had enough of his bad attitude. I haven’t slaved for centuries only to have my shot at being one with such a beast ruined by his insolence. Vex shoots me a look, like he’s debating whether or not he should say something more. I retort, flashing him a warning glance. Starlet is in the corner asleep, or so it would seem. Vex shakes her awake. She moans, opening her eyes. The horror in her pupils grows as they dilate and the octoman pulls her upright. She looks around, startled. She’s mumbling.

“Vex, ungag her. I want to know what she’s moaning about,” I command. Vex rolls his eyes and pulls away the seaweed that’s balled up and planted firmly between her jaws.

“Where’s Oscar? What did you do to him?” She cries out, instantly annoying me.
 

“Gag her again. My mistake. I thought she might have something useful to say.” I order him to resume the silence I had been enjoying.

“Where is the merman?” Vexus looks to me, curious. We hadn’t returned him after we’d first commissioned the giant order for chains and manacles to hold the beast.

“None of your concern. You’ll be seeing him soon enough. Now move,” I draw Scarlette, having had the scythe removed from my possession by Saturnus the second we’d reunited. He hasn’t let the damn thing out of his sight. Pushing the rapier to Vex’s spine, he inches forward, pulsating in motion out of the room. He’s got Starlet by the back of the neck, nice and uncomfortable. She’s squirming in front of him. As we leave the tower which has been the captor’s place of containment, I can see what Saturnus has done with the city in such a short space of time is miraculous. Even to someone like me who is not easily impressed. I had made him, I was his elder, his maker. Why should he impress me after all? Anything he can do, I can do better.

The city is in ruin, and the Psirens are gathered, encircling the space where the seal has been uncovered by weeks of toiling over broken glass, rubble, and bone. Each Psiren holds a candle with magnesium flame, they burn in the water, releasing light that is almost too bright. These candles bring a kind of candidness to what is about to happen, and as I approach the seal I notice the fountain, which had once held a golden statue of the Goddess with palms outstretched, now lies defaced. The statue has been torn from its place and severed in two, eyes scratched out with arrows and flesh scoured with careless blades. I smile.
 

We reach the seal and the crowds of Psirens are radiating out from the space, cleared from the rubble of our victory, that displays the seal. It’s a wicked looking piece of architecture, as one would expect from a God with such a wicked temper. The black metal of its massive crest twists, creating a cyclical symbol containing four crescent moons. Three chains trail across the design, one from the left, one from the right, and one from below, meeting in the middle where the one who is pure of heart must bleed.

“Vexus. Restrain her,” I use my hand to make a grand motion, putting on a little show for the crowds. This is not just a ritual. It is a spectacle.
 

Vexus looks to me and cocks an eyebrow. I stare at him, deadening my expression. I am not amused.

“Do it. Or I’ll do it for you,” Saturnus’ voice shoots over my shoulder, the scent of blood mingling in with the water. Vex moves, forcing the blonde downward and crushing her body flat into the hard metal of the seal. He removes her bindings and places her wrists into the manacles we have forged for her sacrifice.
 

Finally, he catches her tail within the manacle attached to the single shortest chain, making her lie still, horizontal, looking up at the stars for which she is so named. I take my place next to my brother. This is it, my moment. I am given the scythe from Saturnus and I sweep a large circle around the outside of the seal, before diving in and making the first slit. I cut it clean across her belly. Blood plumes into the water like a mushroom cloud, red and sweet. It heals quickly, as to be expected. The exsanguination of such a creature might take a while. But it’s alright. Anticipation is so often the best part of a murder. After all, we’ve got all night.
 

AZURE

The fog rolls in like an unstoppable tsunami of gloom. I cannot stop it, even if I want to. I’ve held it back too long, that was my mistake. I’m overtaken, transported and translated into her head like ancient code. I’m trying to work out what the heck is going on. I was bitching to the mermaids about their obsession with perfect hair and then bam. I’m smashing my head into the ground. Which is really cold by the way. Just my luck.
 

I have collapsed, I think. All I know is I’m not awake now and instead I’m staring through her eyes at the sky. The ocean surface ripples high above. She’s chained down to the earth, suffering the wrath of Saturnus and Solustus. Helpless and screaming. I can feel her pain, it transfigures into my mind, tearing through everything. I take a moment, breathe. I need to keep a clear mind if I’m to understand what I’m supposed to see. If I’m to save her. I will save her.

Caedes is hovering above. That psychopath. He’s giddy and that’s never good. He’s got blood all up his arms, on his face. Oh my God there’s so much blood. Starlet looks down at her body and I can see it’s cut to shreds. Her scales are missing. Torn from her tail and scattered across the black metal beneath her like confetti. Jesus. This must be the ritual. Starlet is chained to the seal. Above her Saturnus and Solustus are watching, with joined hands and moving mouths. Chanting. Waiting. Oh my God, we’re too late. She’s going to die. I’m going to watch. I struggle a little, but then I hear a tiny voice, echoing to me through the dark.

Azure. Sister? Is that you?

“Yes it’s me!” I reply, startled at her presence. We had never been able to talk to one another like this before. So that’s new.

It hurts so much. I’m so tired.
 

“Don’t give up. Don’t let them win!”

So tired…
She breathes, like she’s next to me whispering in my ear.

“Please, please don’t leave me, Star. I need you. I can’t fight it without you
.”

The darkness…
 
She muses the word slightly, she sounds so different, almost like a ghost.
It’s who you are.
She whispers again. I feel my heart break inside her chest.

“No! No it isn’t! I can be good again! I can be good! Just don’t leave me okay, don’t let go!” I’m screaming at her, inside her own head. This is so fucked up.

You’re in my head. Right?
She starts to sound a little more like herself. “Yes. I’m right here,” I reply, making the vow not to leave. I have to stay, for her.

Don’t leave. Stay. It’s important. You need to see…
I don’t understand what she’s talking about.

“What? What do I need to see?”

I’m going to die. But you need to see… it’s important.

“YOU’RE NOT GOING TO DIE!” I yell out. Her body visibly flinches as she lies there, bleeding.

I have to die. It has to be this way.
 

“Why? Because some Goddess said so?” I cry out, wondering when she got so goddamn stupid.

No. Because it’s meant to be.

“Starlet! WHAT DID YOU SEE?!” I’m screaming, not caring that I’m completely encased in her skin. In her body.

Death. Extinction. The Psirens will overrun the earth. The blood. There’s so much blood.
 

“Show me,” I command her. She closes her eyes, playing back the memory of the only vision she has ever kept from me.
 

The Psirens swarm like angry hornets, screaming and cussing. Bloodlust over-taking them. They’re unhinged. Solustus and Saturnus are surrounding the seal, no Starlet in sight. A different future, it must be. They sacrifice one of their own instead… Vex. He bleeds, gritting his teeth and baring the agony with a distorted and twisted smile. Solustus is desperate, his face concerned. He swings the scythe, severing skull from shoulder. The octoman is destroyed. Silence falls. They wait. Nothing…
 

The Psiren army become enraged… uncontrollable under the white glare from a thousand magnesium lit candles. They disperse, but not before tearing Saturnus and Solustus limb from limb, leaving them in a cloud of organs and skin. Nothing more than pink mist in the ocean’s clearness.

Flashes, images of their faces. The hundred nameless human beings being bitten and drained dry. The Psirens are a cancer, spreading their malignancy across the globe. Black eyes open under blood red skies. The end is Nigh.

The vision brings with it a strange realisation. It’s not about the Necrimad at all… this is about what happens if that beast doesn’t come. If we don’t have a chance to stop it. If we don’t have a chance to defeat Solustus and Saturnus, the Psirens will kill everyone. Regardless of whether the demon rises or not, their numbers are too dangerous. They need to be destroyed. “So you’re saying that this ritual, the Necrimad, it’s distracting them from going on a killing spree?” I ask her this question and she responds immediately, her voice is so tiny, like when we were little girls.

Yes. If Saturnus and Solustus fail to bring forth the beast. The Psirens will revolt. They will be set free on this earth from Solustus’ command. Everything will fall.
 

“So the Necrimad needs to come?”

You need a chance to get them in one place, unite them with a cause, a leader, and make a final stand.
 

“I don’t understand.”

Without the Necrimad, they will lose faith in Solustus. He may be strong, but they outnumber him now. They need to believe. They need to be contained.

“Starlet! NO! You can’t let this happen.”

She showed me. All will be well.

“You’re speaking like a goddamn martyr. Now snap out of it. You will not be pulling a Callie Pierce on me today! NO.”

I’m sorry. It’s too late.
I watch as Saturnus comes forward, as he slits her wrists with the scythe. It’s not my body but the blood-letting is painful to watch. I can feel her writhe, trying to stop the agony, the draining of her life force with each new cut on white flesh.

“I feed you this blood, from the pure of heart. So that you may be birthed from the earth. In flesh,” Saturnus’ voice reaches me through Starlet’s ears. She’s bleeding out, faster than her skin can heal. He opens up more wounds and she screams.

“Oh, I’m so glad I let him ungag you. Hearing you scream makes this all the more rewarding,” Saturnus, the sick fuck, licks his lips. God I want to kill him, shred his oesophagus into dust and stab him with his own ribs after I pull them from his worthless skin sack. But I can’t. I’m trapped in her body. A prisoner to watch this sick spectacle. Why would the Goddess do this to me? After everything, I guess I’m still irredeemable.
 

The pain lasts longer than anything should. Blood lost, litres, gallons. From thick like syrup to thin like water. What doesn’t change though is the colour. Scarlet plumes like an explosion.