Chapter 39

“Marlowe?” Minnie’s asks in a panicked voice.

I force my eyes open.

“What happened?” I croak.

“I don’t know. You passed out,” she murmurs, gently touching my face. “You’re warm to the touch too.”

“I feel warm,” I mention and try to get up.

My head still hurts, and I feel a debilitating weakness in my limbs. But I manage to get to my feet without falling again.

Minnie regards me with a worried look.

“Here,” she says, cutting her wrist. “Drink some of my blood. Maybe you caught one of your human colds.”

“Maybe.”

I grab her wrist and bring it to my lips, then suck on her blood.

Before, this had an immediate effect on my body. Now? Not so much.

“Are you good to continue walking? We could rest a bit longer until you feel better.”

“No. I’m good,” I lie. “We need to go now before those soldiers track you. With our luck, they’re probably not far behind.”

“Are you sure? You’re a little pale,” she whispers.

I nod tightly. “I’m fine. Let’s go.”

She grabs my arm, almost as if she’s suspecting I might topple over if I don’t have any support.

I force my legs to keep moving, but it’s a struggle.

What the fuck is happening to me?

I was completely fine just moments ago.

We walk for a few more minutes before we’re forced to stop again. I’m breathing hard, and my chest feels constricted.

Finding a tree, I sit down and lay my back against the trunk, taking in big gulps of air.

Minnie paces around in front of me, fidgeting with her hands.

“You’re not well, Marlowe. And my blood didn’t help you at all. How is that possible?”

“I don’t know.” I close my eyes briefly. “I don’t know,” I repeat numbly, unable to even articulate my thoughts.

“There was nothing wrong with you before. Nothing,” she continues. “So what?—”

She suddenly stops. Her eyes grow wide as she hurries to my side. She pulls up my sleeve and inspects my arm.

“Oh, Marlowe,” she mutters in disbelief.

I look down and I don’t even have the strength to be shocked at the sight.

The place where Katrina tattooed the rune onto my skin is covered in dark spots, and they’re spreading. Already half my arm has turned black.

“I should have never allowed her to do this. I should have trusted my instinct,” she whispers.

“I don’t understand.” I frown.

“Me neither. Unless…” She trails off. “This was a release rune. I’m certain of it. It wasn’t a protective one.”

“What does that mean?”

Her lips flatten as she touches my arm softly.

“It’s not a rune that’s used by itself. It’s a pair. For a release rune to work, something must be contained first.”

“A disease?” I ask weakly. “Is this a sickness?”

“Your phone. Give me your phone,” she says.

Since I don’t have the strength to look for it myself, she pats my pockets in search of it. Once she retrieves it, she scowls at the shattered screen.

“What are you doing?”

“Your mother. Call your mother.”

“Press two and hold,” I tell her. “She’s on speed dial.”

Minnie nods and presses the number two, though it takes her a few tries to get it right due to the damage to the screen.

Eventually, she manages to start the call and put it on speaker.

“Marlowe? Is that you, darling? Where are you?” My mother immediately picks up.

Minnie shakes her head at me. If I speak, she’s going to know something’s wrong and she’ll worry.

“Simone? This is Minnie.”

“Minnie? Good God. Is Marlowe with you?”

“Yes, yes. He’s sleeping. We’ve decided to elope. I hope you’re not too mad about this.”

“Of course not, darling. But… Has he heard about Julien?”

“We have. I’m so sorry for your loss, Simone,” Minnie says.

My mother goes into a long monologue about how much Julien meant to her and how hard she’s taking his death. Minnie does her best to console her, hurrying through the conversation since I’m getting more feverish by the second.

“And then I couldn’t get in touch with Marlowe and I feared the worst. Oh, Minnie, thank you so much for calling.”

“Actually, I called because I wanted to ask you something,” Minnie says.

“Yes, go ahead, dear.”

“This might sound strange, but when Marlowe was a baby, or anytime during his childhood, did you take him to see a”—she pauses as she searches for the right words—“a mystic of some sort.”

“A mystic?” My mother echoes. “Of course not. We don’t believe in that sort of thing.”

“Then was he ever sick as a child? Something that the doctors couldn’t treat?”

There’s a pause on the other line.

“Now that you mention it, he was. I think he was around three. He got this awful fever that wouldn’t go down with any medication. The doctors didn’t know how to treat it. They even claimed he was not going to survive it. But why do you ask?”

“And how did he get better?” Minnie asks.

“It was such a lucky thing. There was a doctor from Boston who came all the way up to New York to see him. She’d been working on a new treatment for pediatric fevers, and she wanted to see if she could help him. The treatment was successful from the first try. That dear woman didn’t even want to accept any payment. She said she was just doing her duty. The funny thing is that after that illness, whatever it was, Marlowe was never sick again. Not even a common cold. It was a miracle.”

Minnie freezes. She meets my gaze and I know what she’s thinking.

The word duty is awfully familiar, is it not?

“And this doctor. Who was she? What was her name?”

“I don’t remember. It was twenty-five years ago,” Mother answers.

“Can you tell me anything about her? How did she look? Anything that you thought was out of the ordinary?”

“Why are you asking about this, Minnie? Is my son all right? Did something happen?”

“I’m fine, Mother,” I call out, struggling to keep the tremor out of my voice. “Please answer Minnie. This is important.”

“She was in her forties, I think. Lovely lady. But she only stayed in town for a few days. When Marlowe got better, she left.”

“Nothing strange at all?”

My mother takes a moment to think.

“Not really. I suppose it was a bit odd that she used a quill to write down her notes. I mean, who does that anymore?” She laughs. “Even twenty-five years ago, that seemed rather ancient to me.”

“A quill? I see. That was everything I needed to know. Thank you, Simone.”

“Thank you, Mom,” I say. Then, before I can lose my courage—or before this strange illness overtakes me, I say something I don’t ever remember saying before. “I love you.”

“Marlowe! Ah, my darling. I love you too, baby! Please come back to visit soon, all right?”

“All right,” I croak.

“We’ll talk to you later, Simone. Thank you for this, and I’m sorry about Julien. Please take care of yourself.”

Minnie hangs up and the phone falls from her hands.

“A quill,” she repeats. “As in a feathered pen.”

“You don’t think that…”

“Whatever she did when you were young stopped this illness. Now? It’s back. But I don’t know what it is, Marlowe. Or how to fix it.”

“We should try to go. The portal should be an hour away.”

“You’re not fit to walk an hour!” she cries out.

“I must try.”

“No.” She shakes her head. “We need to go back and ask Katrina what she did to you—ask her to reverse it.”

“Minnie… We’ll get caught.”

“I don’t care,” she adds, her lashes filling up with tears. “I don’t care about any of that. She just needs to fix you.”

She presses her palm against my forehead and gasps. Tears roll down her cheeks.

“You’re burning up, Marlowe. Even for my elevated body temperature, this is hot. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

I grab her hand and hold it to my face. Leaning into her touch, I take a deep breath.

“We need to go.”

“Where do you think we’re going? Look at yourself, Marlowe!” Minnie grits out as she unbuttons my shirt.

The dark spots have already extended toward my chest and neck.

Is this…necrosis?

It’s almost as if whatever this illness is, it’s eating all of my healthy cells.

I grasp onto the trunk of the tree and force myself to my feet.

“Marlowe, please,” Minnie whispers.

“Let’s go,” I strain out.

She places my arm over her shoulder and we slowly start walking.

“I can teleport to Katrina’s house and ask her?—”

“No. You will get caught. You can’t do that.”

“But, Marlowe. You’re getting worse,” she murmurs.

“We need to get to the portal, Minnie. That’s all that matters.”

She grumbles under her breath, but with enough coaxing, she acquiesces to my wishes and we go on.

The way to the portal is grueling, but I do my damn hardest not to show it. I can tell she’s one second away from teleporting both of us back to Katrina’s house, consequences be damned.

But I’m not about to allow her to place herself in danger.

This…illness, whatever it might be, will pass. If she gets caught, that’s the end for her.

She shoulders half my weight as we walk, and every ten-fifteen minutes, we take a small break.

“Here,” she says as she hands me some water.

Taking out some food from the bag, she unwraps a sandwich and brings it to my lips for a bite.

I force a smile.

“Have I told you how beautiful you are today?” I whisper as I stare at her. “You’re so beautiful. And I’m so lucky to be with you.”

“It’s the delirium speaking,” she mumbles.

I shake my head as I slowly munch on the sandwich. I don’t have much of an appetite, but this might help me regain some strength.

“It’s not. I’m serious. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” I tell her sincerely.

“Am I?” She bites her lip. “Because if it hadn’t been for me, we wouldn’t be here in the first place.”

“You heard my mother. I was sick long before I ever met you. This isn’t your fault.”

“But if we hadn’t come here, Katrina wouldn’t have made you sick again,” she whispers.

I squeeze her hand.

“The more important question is why she cured me in the first place? Why contain the illness only to release it twenty-five years later.”

“It must have something to do with your blood and what happened to those demons. But for the life of me, I cannot figure out what might be the cause. You’re not a deity. You’re not a demon. So what are you?”

“If you don’t know, then how could I know?”

“Can I… Can I try something?” she asks in a small voice.

I nod.

Creating a small pin out of ice, she grabs my black arm and sticks the sharp tip into my skin.

“Does this hurt?”

I shake my head.

“What about this?”

She pulls the pin downward, creating a small gash.

I shake my head again.

Blood pools to the surface, but it’s not red.

It’s black. Tar black.

Minnie’s eyes widen.

“Marlowe…” Her voice trembles.

“What is it? Why is it like that?”

She gently swipes her finger over my wound, gathering some of the blood and bringing it to her lips for a taste.

She chokes and bends over, heaving as she tries to spit it out.

“Minnie?”

“I… Give me a moment…”

She takes big gulps of air. Tears coat her lashes as she wipes her mouth with the back of her hand.

“What is it?”

“It’s foul. Noxious,” she mutters, wincing as she spits the remainder of the blood.

“But it was fine yesterday.”

“It’s this…” She points to my rapidly expanding dark spots. “It’s poisoning your blood.”

“Poison?” I croak.

Fucking hell.

I curse under my breath and lay my back against the tree. The gravity of the situation is slowly dawning on me. My body is becoming increasingly weak, and as the dark spots expand, pain echoes in my limbs. I can feel this spreading all through my body. My chest is almost fully covered by dark, painful spots. Probably my legs, too.

“I don’t know what type of poison. But it’s…” She squeezes her eyes shut. “It hurts.”

“Here.” I hand her the water.

She gulps it down, trying to wash the taste of the blood.

“What the hell did she do to you, Marlowe?” she asks, her expression terrified. “It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

“I’m dying, aren’t I?”

“No, no. Don’t even say that. Don’t even think about that. We’ll figure it out somehow.”

She stands up, pacing around. She scrubs her hands over her face.

“Minnie…”

“Don’t speak. I’m trying to think.”

“Don’t do anything stupid on my account, Minnie,” I grind out.

She doesn’t listen.

A blue mist surrounds her body, and within seconds, another person appears.

Molokai.

He narrows his eyes at Minnie, but as he slides his gaze toward me, surprise flares in his features.

“Kai. I need your help,” Minnie says as she rushes to her brother.

“What’s this?” he asks as he studies me intently.

“We don’t know. But it’s spreading fast. I fear that…”

Kai steps toward me. Crouching next to me, he takes my arm to inspect the dark spots.

“Walk me through what happened,” he says.

Minnie recounts everything that happened in the last few days, including the conversation with my mother and the fact that we suspect Katrina may have contained my illness as a child, only to release it now.

Molokai grunts, his expression pensive.

“Witches are not allowed to harm humans,” he notes.

“Would it be considered harming if she cured me when I was young?” I ask, taking big gulps of air in between words.

“If she did it with the intention of making you ill, yes.”

“But why? Why would she do that?”

His eye twitches. He uses his dagger to cut my arm, seemingly thinking to do as Minnie had done and test my blood.

Minnie stops him.

“I already did that. It’s noxious. The mere taste of it made me retch.”

Molokai frowns, but he doesn’t stop. He cuts through my afflicted flesh, coating his blade in my black blood and dripping it onto the ground.

With a different blade, he cuts his own palm and squeezes a few drops of blood on top of my own.

The effect is instantaneous.

My blood acts like an acid, burning off the cells in his blood. Fumes erupt from the chemical reaction until the black blood has swallowed his red blood fully.

“This is what it did to the demons, too,” Minnie whispers in shock. “When his blood touched them, they dissolved.”

Molokai brings his attention back to my arm.

The cut he’d made has already healed, an oddity in itself.

“It’s a poison, isn’t it?” Minnie asks.

“If it is, I have never seen the likes of it before,” he adds in a rough voice. “And if it dissolves my blood, too, then it means it can kill deities and demons alike.”

“I don’t care about that. It’s killing him!” Minnie exclaims.

Molokai clicks his tongue against his teeth. With his blade, he cuts through my shirt, throwing it to the side until I’m naked from the torso up.

The dark spots have now reached my neck and are quickly spreading to my face.

Molokai studies my torso. His expression is blank and I find it hard to read what’s going through his mind. Does he think I’m going to die? The bastard is probably rejoicing at that little fact.

Fuck.

He’s probably going to kill me himself now that I’m so pitifully weak I can barely move. That way, he can protect his precious sister from a puny human like me.

I groan in pain as I try to shift, but my body doesn’t want to obey me.

“I wonder about that,” Molokai muses. “Look.” He points with his blade to my chest. “Going by the visible pattern on his skin, the poison must have already reached his heart. He should have been dead already. Yet he is not.”

“What are you saying?”

“Whatever this is—whatever he is.” He pauses, his lip twitching. “Those demons must have known something, which is why they tried to capture him. And in the hands of the Son of Tenebreis, his blood could be the end of us.”

“What can we do to help him? How do we get rid of the poison?” Minnie asks.

“We don’t,” Molokai replies, standing up. “Surely you see how dangerous and advantageous something like this could be, Minerva. It can help us get rid of all the demons in this universe,” Kai says in a cold voice. “I must report it at once.”

Her eyes widen in fear.

“You will do no such thing,” she cries out and pushes him out of the way. Placing herself in front of me, she covers me with her body. “Don’t you dare, Kai!”

“Stop the theatrics, Minerva. You’re doing yourself and him a disservice.”

“You… You want to use him? To use his blood?”

“If not us, then the demons will. He is a liability. At least with us, he’ll serve a greater purpose.”

“What’s wrong with you?” she spits out.

“Nothing.” He shrugs. “I’m just laying out the facts. Demons will keep coming after him, and when they do capture him, it will prove deadly for Aperion.”

“I’m not letting you take him or do anything to him.”

He stares at her, his mouth set in a grim line. His eyes flash a deep blue in a code-like pattern.

Moments pass before he utters, “You don’t have to let me do anything. It’s already done.”

Minnie frowns. “What are you talking about?”

Just as the words are out of her mouth, three figures appear in the distance.

Minnie steps back, her entire body trembling.

“You… You betrayed me?” she whispers, her voice breaking with pain.

“On the contrary. I negotiated with Commander Azerius on your behalf. Aperion will get the human, and you will not be executed.”

Steps thud onto the ground as a huge man strides toward Molokai. He’s wearing a dark bulky iron armor, and at his waist is a bright white sword that gleams in the sun. Half of his face is covered in a myriad of tattoos resembling runes. His eyes are dark and unfeeling, his expression entirely blank.

The atmosphere immediately grows heavy, the air harder to breathe.

A chill runs down my spine. With each step the man takes, a piercing pain reverberates in my chest, making me gasp for air.

Behind the newcomer trail two men of similar height and build, both armed. Their armors are different than the first man’s. One of them is wearing a burgundy armor while the other has a dark green one. They’re both half a step behind the first man, suggesting the power hierarchy.

Minnie gasps as she steps back, falling next to me as she loses her footing. She reaches for my hand, holding it tightly as her entire body is racked by tremors.

“Commander Azerius.” Molokai inclines his head.