Chapter 15

Avar

U nease prickled through me when I left Maddy alone in the dark hall of the monastery, but I needed to know what was in and around the building where she took shelter. I had to make sure it was safe for her to spend the night here.

I saw the beast devouring the two werewolves who'd captured Maddy. In that way, he actually did me a favor by doing my work for me. Those two deserved nothing less for the way they treated Maddy.

If the monster hunted for food, the flesh of the High Lord's scouts should satisfy him. I hoped he'd be back in his lair anytime now, falling asleep with his belly full.

Maddy was safe on her own for the few minutes that it'd take me to make sure nothing dangerous was lurking in the building. The advantage of having no physical presence in this world was that I could move freely through walls. Closed doors didn't stop me .

I swiftly went through the monastery's large gathering hall, then the dining hall. There were praying rooms, each with a shrine to the Moon Goddess Ghata with a figurine or a picture of her.

All the rooms were empty. The nuns might've gone down into the cellar to hide after hearing the howls in the woods. They had cages underground where they stayed during the full moon, as according to a scroll I read, this order practiced peace and refrained from murder and violence, even in their werewolf form.

Next were the nun's private rooms.

I slipped through a closed door and nearly gagged. Despite the broken window, the air in the narrow dorm was saturated with the warm, heavy stench of blood.

A woman lay on the floor by the bed, her eyes frozen open in horror. Her chest was torn from her chin to her waist, her nightshirt soaked in blood, her throat ripped out.

A growl came from outside the window.

The monster jumped onto the windowsill, his bulk obscuring the moonlight. His red eyes roamed the space as if searching for something, but they didn't stop on me. Just like everyone else in this world, he couldn't see me.

I saw him perfectly well, however.

It was no man and no beast, but an ugly, grotesque mix of both. Backlit by the moonlight, he gripped the window frame with his right hand. His pale skin glowed in places where it wasn't covered by black fur. Black lines of a tattoo stood out, covering his entire right arm.

"You're one of Ghata's bracks , aren't you?" It dawned on me. "Or you used to be. What forced you to go berserk?"

Bracks , the goddess's monks, were marked with a large tattoo around their necks and down their right arms. They mostly look like humans. However, this one appeared like a creature from a nightmare.

The monster jumped into the room, ignoring the dead nun. Clearly, he didn't hunt for food. He killed for blood, for the sheer brutality of murder and mutilation. With him here, nobody of blood and flesh was safe.

"Maddy!" I rushed back through all the rooms to her as the monster howled behind me.

She stood by the dresser, alarm etched on her face.

"Run!" I shouted.

She grabbed an animal from the dresser.

"Is that a racoon?" I yelled, dumbfounded.

What was she doing?

"It's a cat." She went to move the dresser while holding the cat under her arm.

"Leave it. You have no time. You need to get out of here. Use the window in this room to the right."

Thank goodness, she listened, leaving the dresser but not letting go of the damn cat. Pressing it to her chest, she ran into the front room. The window here was broken too. A dead nun lay under it in a puddle of blood, her throat slashed with ragged wounds. Another one was by the door, her head ripped off her shoulders.

The berserker had been here before, spreading violence and death. He came back just for Maddy, and he wouldn't stop hunting her until she was dead too.

She gasped, momentarily frozen in horror at the sight of the dead bodies.

"Out the window, Maddy," I hurried. "Run back to the gate."

She snapped out of her stupor, climbed out, and ran outside .

"Now where?" She turned around just past the gate, looking disoriented.

Sadly, even after losing the visibility and strength of a physical presence, I didn't gain the ability to soar or fly like a spirit. But the building stood on a hill, and I was significantly taller than her. I saw the shimmering line of the ocean in the distance.

"To your left and down the hill. Run!"

She sprinted in the direction I told her, chased by the frustrated roars of the beast searching for her inside.

"Run, sweetheart, run," I begged in my mind. "And be fast. Your life is in your legs right now."

Death was just a transition, a passageway from one world to another. But dying from the monster's teeth would hurt, and I couldn't stand the thought of Maddy getting hurt in any way.

Fear I never knew before haunted me. We were in another world, one that had its own afterlife that didn't include Purgatory. If Maddy's soul left her body here, would it remain trapped here for eternity?

What if I risked losing her forever?

Dread sliced through me like a knife.

Run, Maddy.

She did. She dashed like a woman possessed down the hill, weaving between the trees and jumping over fallen branches.

The moonlight and the glow from the moss gave just enough light for her to find the way.

"Keep to the left," I said, noticing that she'd strayed off course a little.

She corrected her direction, not slowing her pace.

The dreadful howl came from the woods behind us. It was much closer than the monastery we'd left behind. The brack was on Maddy's trail .

"Keep going," I urged.

She was fast, but I feared not fast enough. The monster was gaining on her. The cat squirmed in her arms, unhappy with being jolted around like that.

"Drop the cat, Maddy."

It would make a good snack for the beast. Maybe the cat would distract the monster enough to buy Maddy a few precious seconds to escape.

"No," she punted, pressing the damn thing tighter to her chest.

"I'm not losing you over a fucking cat. Drop it."

She just glared in my direction, pressing on down the hill.

The beach was close. I could already hear the swishing of the surf from behind the trees.

"Almost there, sweetheart," I urged her.

But the beast was getting closer too. The crushing of underbrush came from right behind us.

Maddy ran onto the beach, and the brack leaped out of the forest after her.

"Don't look back. Run!" I yelled.

The shimmer of the portal beckoned. Safety was just a few steps and a couple of swim strokes away.

I jumped between Maddy and the brack , desperately trying to shield her from his sharp claws and poisonous teeth. But he leaped through me as if I were nothing but air.

"Fuck you, brack!" I yelled at its deformed face. "You're nothing but a mindless puppet of Ghata. You're less than an animal. Fight me! Look at me!"

See me.

Maddy ran into the surf. Water slowed her down. The monster leaped across the beach, landing at the water's edge. Ghata's bracks came from werewolves, and werewolves disliked water, but the monster hesitated only for a moment. His bloodthirst clearly overpowered his fear of water. Just one more leap, and he'd catch her.

She was up to her shoulders in the ocean now, holding the screaming, clawing cat above the surface. I pressed my invisible self to her back, wrapping my arms and tentacles around her in a cocoon, wishing with every fiber of my being to protect her, to keep her safe, unharmed, and happy.

Her fear, her desperation, her pain tore me apart. I never felt these emotions as acutely as I felt them through her now.

I would give everything, every single thing I owned, my very existence, for her to survive this unscathed.

All my emotions boiled into one, spreading through me in a new, beautiful feeling. Warm and light, it grew, taking over my entire being.

Love.

I'd never felt it this strongly before, but I recognized it, nevertheless.

It grew so big, if I had a heart, it'd break. But I had no heart to contain my love for Maddy in it. It spread through me, uncontained. It filled me whole, transcending the worlds.

They didn't believe in me in Nerifir, but there was faith in love everywhere. And it gave me substance, at least in light.

A bright purple glow exploded through my shape. The beast howled mid jump, but not in bloodthirst this time. A stunned whimper mixed into his terrifying howl. In the darkness of the night, my light blinded him.

He stumbled, reaching for Maddy with his clawed hand. It went through me with no resistance, but instead of ripping her head off, his claws only ripped the tunic on her back, leaving deep, bloody grooves in her flesh.

"Maddy!" I yelled in anguish.

She gasped a breath and went under. Pushing with both feet against the bottom, she propelled herself toward the shimmering column of the portal in the ocean.

A pink glow surrounded us. And the River of Mists took us.

We floated in its magical stream.

"Breathe, Maddy," I said.

Please, still be breathing.

Her chest expanded as she inhaled. Her hand fell away from the cat's face, and the fucking thing screamed at the top of his lungs, proving he was still alive too.

The cat scrambled out of Maddy's arms, but there was nowhere for him to run. Time hung suspended here. Gravity didn't exist. Kicking and screaming, the cat floated nearby.

"Come here, kitty," Maddy called softly.

If it was up to me, I would've left the furry thing back at the monastery. He'd already proven he had enough brains to survive a monster attack. He'd make it just fine on his own. But Maddy wanted him for some reason. And if she did, I'd give it to her. I'd give her anything.

I reached with my tentacle, grabbed the cat, and dragged him to her.

"There you go," she cooed, cradling the creature in her arms again. "It's all good. See?" She scratched behind the cat's ear, calming him a little. "Avar." She tilted her head, looking up at my face. "I can see you again."

She smiled, and I couldn't hold back anymore. Grabbing both her and the cat, I kissed her.

The chill air of reality invaded the peaceful magical pink flow of the River of Mists.

"Hold your breath again, Maddy."

She sucked in a breath, then placed a hand over the cat's face too .

Feeling the hard ground under my feet again, I rose up from the river, back into the human world. The blood from the wounds on Maddy's back mixed with the water sluicing down my arms, and I didn't even bother walking out to the riverbank.

Instead, I went straight home. To Purgatory.