Chapter 18

Chapter

Eighteen

CALLISTO

I break through the surface of the water as a vine wraps around my wrist, dragging me out of the water and up onto the shore.

The landing hurt, but it was nothing compared to the way the jarring made my side ache from where I'd been stabbed. For a moment, I just wallow on the shore, wet, cold, and in a bit of agony. I cup my side and bite back the pain, hoping it'll pass quickly.

Something lands on my face, and I open my eyes to see that it's Titus fluttering around. He looks a little soggy, telling me he'd gone under with me.

I give him a teeny pat. "I know, I'm fine."

I look up the ravine, but I can no longer see anyone up there. If Silas and Dandelion pulled themselves up… were they able to get away from the others? I have to assume they did, right? Dandelion could have run so hard to get away, and he has those mighty paws I'm very acquainted with.

And… I should get away too. Get as far away from Dandelion and Silas as I can before I get them killed. I need to get away… but I don't want to be alone again. I don't like being alone.

I hear the chirping of a bird and look up to see Markson's red bird has returned. It hops this way and that on a branch above me.

"Sorry you got shot," I say, not quite sure how that works. Is it the same bird? Does Markson make the birds? Am I talking to a random bird that has no fucking idea what I'm going on about?

Using a tree as support, I get myself to my feet and wave the bird on. "Let's go."

It hops this way and that, like it's looking for something.

"Is there someone watching us? It's fine. Just… go," I say, wanting to get out of here before Dandelion and Silas make it down.

Still the bird doesn't move. I look around, and while I don't know the best route like the bird does, I know that where I want to go is northwest, so I check the stars in the twilight sky and start walking.

The bird seems displeased as it flutters from branch to branch before disappearing. Holding my side for a little extra support, I keep going, absolutely alone. I mean… I still have Markson. I'm not completely alone. It's fine.

All of this is fine.

As the night stretches on and the cold eats through my wet clothes, the bird returns. I notice it has a letter, so I reach down and pull it out. I don't even need to prick my finger to supply it with blood, since my side is oozing a little from my fall.

With fingers so cold I struggle to unroll it, I manage to get it open and look down at the note.

Don't be a dumbass. Sit tight and wait to be rescued like a good boy .

What a dick.

The bird supplies me with a quill that seems to have its own ink as I write back a simple: Fuck off. I don't need to be saved.

And send it off.

Not too long after, the bird returns. I'm tired and exhausted as I lean against a tree to read it.

Won't kill you to rely on others for once in your life .

I quickly write back: It might not kill me, but it could kill them .

The bird looks irritated as it flies off this time, but it dutifully returns.

You have been stubborn since the day I met you. And don't assume you know everything. There is a rumor that the god of death will kill the prince. Sounds like a tragedy. Wouldn't it be better to be with someone else than to carry that burden alone?

I stare at the ridiculous cryptic letter for a long moment, then look back the way I came. It's quite clear where I came from; all the plants are dead where my footsteps landed. Silas and the people hunting me wouldn't even have to struggle to find my trail, I've laid it out for them.

Fuck.

I sink to my knees and pick up a plant that withers and dies in my hand.

All I knew for so long was death. Death… everywhere was death. How old was I the first time I actually made a flower bloom? I thought that wasn't even something that I could do.

The noise of the forest grows quiet as I listen carefully.

Someone is coming and it sounds like too many people to be Dandelion and Silas. What if they got captured, and I was a fool for thinking they got away? What if I made a mistake and in thinking that I was helping them, I was leaving them to the enemy's mercy?

I want to run, but I'm afraid that I'm wrong, that they've captured them… and I've allowed them to get hurt.

Honestly, there's no sense in running, since they're riding on the backs of beasts and horses. About ten of them encircle me before dropping off their mounts.

"Stop resisting," a woman orders. She's fae, but I don't recognize her. The rest are a mix of humans and fae, but they all reek of magic.

"Then let me go," I say.

"There's nowhere left to go," she retorts as she steps right into the dark circle of dead plants on the ground. Either she's oblivious or thinks she doesn't need to care as she walks up to me, sword out and prepared to cut me down.

"You pushed me off a cliff, you clearly don't care about my life, so why capture me?" I ask.

She ignores me until I slam my body against hers, wrapping my arm around her neck, but before she can gut me, I simply press my face against hers, filling her with poison. Ripping away from me, she falls down. The men who step into the circle immediately pull back. The poison on the ground isn't enough to immediately kill them, but they fear it might. When I step toward them, they draw back, fearing death… fearing me.

One is brave enough to face me, but a vine grabs his wrist before his sword can make contact and with a simple touch from my lips on his forehead, he drops to the ground at my feet.

The remaining men scatter, fearful of the poison that currently has taken hold of them, unaware that it isn't enough to kill them, but they're so afraid they flee. Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath before walking a few feet away and then kneeling on the ground.

What a fucking mess. I really need to get away, but why's it so hard to when I want Silas so badly? It reminds me of the last time I'd been caught between forcing myself to rely on others and rushing off to deal with everything on my own, as I always had. The time when I'd been hit on the head by those soldiers before that strange man took me and saved me.

When I open my eyes, I assume I'll find myself in the middle of the battlefield. I don't like sleeping among the dead, but sometimes I don't know where else to go when they're so much safer than the living.

But instead, what looms over me is surely Death himself. Cloaked all in black and prepared to reap my soul.

I scream before I start flailing and kicking. There's no goddamn way Death is taking me without a fight! I've seen death. I've lived among death, and I'm prepared to beat the hell out of Death if it means I get to live.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" he growls.

"I told you not to take a fae in. This is karma. Karma, I tell you," another voice says.

Death pins me down and I claw at him before realizing how close his hand is and chomping down on it.

"It fucking bit me!" Death exclaims.

I snarl at him as I jump up, but since he's blocking the only door out, I scurry over to a corner and scowl at him.

"It's fucking feral. What did you expect from saving a fae?" the human man says as he scrutinizes me. "Just kill it or toss it back out in the world."

"He's a child. He's what? Eight?"

"Is it a boy? Its hair is so long and matted I couldn't tell. Either way, it's a monster, that's what I've decided."

I glower at him before realizing how badly my head hurts. So then I curl into a ball and stare at them, just daring them to get close to me. Because if they do… I will bite them again.

"He's just scared," Death says.

"But he also stinks," the human retorts.

"Well how the hell do you expect me to make him smell better?" Death says before throwing something at me. It hits the ground because I refuse to touch something he gave me but when I see that it's a loaf of bread, I quickly pick it up before realizing that this could be a trick. Now that I'm fully awake, I'm well aware that this isn't the actual Death , even if he looks like it all in black, cloth over his mouth. The only things I can see are his eyes and hands.

But I still don't trust him. I don't trust any of them. Especially not a human.

I hold the bread tightly in my hands as my head hurts and pains tear into my stomach. I don't know what to do with it, so I only nibble the edge before hugging it to my chest.

I startle back awake when I feel hands on me and begin to fight.

"Oh, knock it off," Death growls as he smacks my hand down. He wipes at my face, probably wanting to peel my skin off like these humans surely did to their enemies.

"That's fine if you don't want to like me because I'm a human, but don't forget the people who did this to you were fae," he says as he dabs at my head. "What's your name?"

I ignore him and squeeze my bread.

"Are you going to eat that or just hug it until it molds?"

I glower at him, just daring him to take it.

"You have quite the angry face. But I don't know what you think you're going to scare off with it. Rabbits, maybe? Eh… maybe a chipmunk."

I glower some more. He has no idea I can kill him with my poison… if I could figure out how to get it to work every time… but… I suppose I shouldn't kill him… yet . Maybe he has something valuable that I can steal as soon as my head doesn't feel like it's exploding.

Yes. Yes. As soon as he sleeps, I'll steal his stuff and be on my way.

Yessss…

"Did the feral creature calm down enough that he's sleeping on you?" the human asks.

I jerk awake, horrified that they think that I'd dare sleep on a human . I glower at them both, but before I can scurry off, Death tears the bread out of my hands.

"That's mine!" I cry in disbelief that he'd take it so easily.

"Oh, so you do speak," he says as he rips off a piece and stuffs it in my mouth. "Then you should eat."

I chew it and find that it's the best damn thing I've eaten in forever, but I want it back.

"You're weak because you're starved and that asshole tried busting your head in," he tells me as he stuffs another piece in my mouth.

I grudgingly chew and swallow it, but when I'm done with that, I roll away and lie on the floor, feeling half dead and furious he took my bread.

"There, you've doctored it and fed it, now toss it outside," the human says.

"He's fine."

"He is a fae."

"He was wandering around the battlefield. I doubt he's part of the upper class we're fighting against."

"Or he could be a spy for them. They're not against using and abusing children for their gain."

"I'm well aware of that. It's why my face is covered so he can't discern my features and tell anyone."

"You are the only reason we could win this war."

I glance over at him, wondering who exactly he is. If he's so important, maybe I could kill him and present him to the king, and they'd dub me the savior and feed me. Yessss, yessss. My plan has now fallen into place! I will save everyone from this war! They will declare me a hero and I'll never want for anything ever again.

But… how the hell do I get his body there? And what if he's a liar like that man who came to our village telling lies about how he'd protect us, but the moment the soldiers descended on us, he did nothing but run and hide.

I bet this man is a liar too. Very much.

But if he's not…

Hmmm…

"That child is plotting your murder," the human says.

"I am not!" I announce and snatch my bread back before curling up. "But if I was, I'd get rid of you first." I jab a finger at the other human.

Death starts laughing, clearly finding something I said amusing, so I glower at him again.

When I wake up, I realize that… maybe killing Death, dragging him onto the back of a horse, and presenting him to the king for treasure would be a bit hard. So I tuck my bread in my shirt and crawl across the dark room where I slowly stand up when I reach the table. There's a really nice-looking dagger in the middle of it that I reach for. It'll sell for something, at least.

"Are you stealing from me?"

I jump, startled, and look into the darkness toward where Death was sleeping. "Maybe."

"That's how you're going to thank me for my help?"

"It is. This is now mine."

I snatch it up and run toward the door but before I can get far, he grabs me before cupping a hand over my mouth. "Shhh…"

His entire body is tense, and I want to fight against him until I hear something. I pull back so I can speak.

"I saw some night raptors scouting this area," I say.

"Fuck." He kicks the human and picks me up before speaking to him. "Warn the others. It's an ambush."

I don't know how many others there are, but I assume I'm now going to be left alone to steal shit and hide. Instead, Death grabs me and carries me outside. He reaches a horse that is already saddled and throws me up onto the horse's back as I see the other humans climb up onto wyverns, including the annoying one. Real wyverns! I bet if I stole one of those, I'd have lots of money!

"Why don't you have a neat wyvern?" I ask.

"Because I'm boring," he says as his horse paws beneath us. He holds me tightly, protectively, but I have no idea why. What's he care what happens to me?

"Maybe they've come to rescue me from the disgusting humans," I announce.

"Or maybe they'll bash you over the head again and try to sell you like the last batch. But if you'd like to take your chances, I'll dump you off right here."

I hesitate before deciding that maybe I'll just stop talking.

This isn't a large group of humans, surprising me that the fae would even care about them, but when I see how many of them are rushing over the hill, I realize that maybe I really do want to be with the fae. There are hundreds that have surrounded us, and here, there are maybe twenty people.

"I really don't want to die," I whine.

"Shh, don't panic," he says, voice steady, hands steady.

I've seen war and I've seen death… but I always wander in after. And right now… as their mounts rush toward us and they unleash magic arrows that glow in the night sky, I realize that I should never have come here.

"Barrier now," an older man shouts, voice steady. "Archers, prepare."

The wyverns take to the air as someone uses some kind of magic that stops their arrows short.

"Get me to the front," Death says.

"There are too many," a woman shouts.

"I know. But I'm going to create an opening and you're going to get the rest out of here. Take him." He tries to pass me off to some woman, but I kick her hand the moment she reaches for me.

"I'm not going anywhere! They'll kill me! They're evil humans!" I say, trusting absolutely no one here… but maybe trusting Death a smidge more since he did give me the bread.

"What the hell do you think he is?" she asks as she waves toward the man holding on to me.

"Fuck. It's fine. I'll… make sure he's alright," Death says before urging his horse forward. Now I'm starting to think that maybe I shouldn't have kicked the woman off. Who the hell just trots on up to the enemy like this? And alone!

But before I can make my new stance clear and tell him that maybe I'm going to change my mind, he wraps a hand over my eyes.

"What are you doing!" I growl.

"Making it so you can't watch," he says as I fight against it.

"I've seen death! I'm not afraid of dead people!" I insist.

The horse lunges forward and I hear the sound of the blade slicing through air before I hear screams.

A strange feeling hits me, like I've suddenly found myself falling into the deepest pit of despair. Like everything horrible that's ever happened is suddenly welling up inside me. I shift my head just enough that I can see a little as darkness pulses around me like I'm temporarily blinded every few moments.

It's as though none of them are even attacking Death. Instead, they're trying to flee this fear, but they can't as this darkness tears through them, rips them to the ground and leaves them lifeless.

Maybe he really is Death?

"I told you not to look," he growls, hand clamping harder over my eyes, and this time, I don't fight it. I squeeze my eyes shut and try to stuff down that fear creeping inside me. I don't know if I'm scared of the darkness… of the man holding me… or the strange overwhelming idea of death.

And then his hand drops and the world shifts back into place.

His horse is uneasy, but we stand absolutely alone. The other humans have fled and all that remains around us are the dead… just like the battlefield. Did this man… singlehandedly kill hundreds… alone? Did I miss a whole battle while my eyes were shut… or did he really kill them all?

Death is quiet as he urges the horse on and when I glance back at him, all I can see are his eyes. They seem to be fixated on what's before us, but I can feel the way his hands shake. The horse slowly walks through the dead and silence hits us as we disappear into some trees. We don't make it far before Death fumbles off the horse, walks a few feet, and pulls the cloth around his mouth down so he can throw up.

I'm left sitting on the horse and fumbling with its reins.

Maybe I could steal it and sell it and…

He heaves again as he leans against a tree.

I don't get why he's so sick. Isn't that all the humans do? Kill and fight?

Or maybe that's all the fae do? Or maybe that's all everyone does… It sure seems like everywhere I go, that's all I find. When did I get so used to it?

He staggers over to a small creek and splashes water onto his face.

The king really would reward me handsomely if I brought him this man… but I don't quite know how I'd get him there. And… if I want to get him there. And… I mean… he's a monster. He'd just kill me!

I slide off the horse and sit down in the grass as he kneels on the bank for a long time. I hug my bread and stare at him while wondering why I'm not running off. Surely, I could find some safer way to make money than being near this man.

He stands and covers his face again, making me perk up as he turns back toward me and the horse that's wandered over to some grass to graze. On his way over to me, he steps down on a beautiful flower, crushing it beneath his foot.

He stops and lifts his foot before looking down at it. "All I can do is kill and destroy," he mutters.

Tucking the loaf of bread back into my shirt, I crawl over to the crushed flower and pick it up. And for some reason, I push life back into it before holding it out to him.

His eyes widen before taking it.

"You haven't killed me yet," I mutter.

He gently takes the flower from me. "You're very right, I haven't. Now let's go. I'll find you someplace safe to go."

"There's no one among your kind who will care for a fae. I might as well go back to the battlefield and look for things to sell."

He twirls the flower between his fingers before his horse drapes her head over his shoulder and chomps down onto the flower, tearing its head off and merrily eating it.

For a moment, we're both awestruck before I start laughing and pointing.

"She ate it!"

"Hey! That was mine!" Death protests, but the horse cares very little as she chews. "I don't suppose you could fix it from this?" He holds the stem out to me, but I shake my head.

"Nope, but I can make more," I say as I press my hands against the ground and flowers spring up all around us. I'm not exactly making them; I'm just pushing them further along to force them to bloom.

"That's pretty impressive. I bet it's nice to give things life. Maybe instead of stealing from the dead, you could sell flowers."

"Then someone will hit me over the head and try to sell me again," I say. "I'd rather be alone."

"I'm sorry that's how you're forced to live." He reaches to pick me up and I glower at him.

"I can get on the horse without being carried like a baby," I say as I charge over to the horse. It's a rather tall horse but that doesn't matter. I will get on her! "And then I'm going to steal her and sell her!"

"You are devious."

"Am not."

"You are."

I lift my foot for the stirrup, but I can't reach so then I just leap up and catch onto whatever I can. It leaves me dangling and flailing.

"Oh wow. How will I ever keep you from stealing my horse?"

"Then I'm going to take you hostage and sell you to the fae king, and I will be swimming in gold. They'll like… give me tubs of it. They might even make a statue of me!"

"Oh, that's impressive," he says as I swing and kick and flail.

"Why's your horse so damn tall!"

"Why are you so short?"

"I'm not short! You're short!" I snap as I end up kicking the horse a little. She doesn't seem to notice or care as she consumes the new flowers I'd brought to life. I then decide to press my feet against her front leg to clamber up. With that, I hoist myself onto her back before I feel something funny in my shirt and pull out my bread that's been absolutely crushed.

"My bread!" I cry.

That gets him laughing. "Your face."

"But my bread!" I wail as I hold it before myself. It's as thin as paper now!

"Oh heavens above. Your face. Why did you keep it in your shirt and not eat it?"

"B-Because if I eat it all… then I'll be hungry tomorrow. I'm not a fool!" I say, embarrassed about telling him. "Go, horse. Go."

I give her a kick so I don't have to be laughed at, but the horse is too busy eating to care.

"She's been trained to only listen to me," he tells me. "How about I get you a new loaf of bread?"

"It's still edible," I say as I chew on it a little before stashing it back in my shirt.

"Stop sticking it in your shirt!"

"I don't know where else to put it!"

"Just eat it and I'll get you another one."

I eye the suspicious man but hesitantly pull it out. My stomach aches as I nibble on it a little more. "You promise?"

"I promise I'll get you more bread."

"Okay," I say as I enjoy it, and for the first time in weeks, my stomach feels full.