NOVEL NEXT Chapter 71: Together
Rowan had watched Claire's ministrations enough to know that he wouldn't have much of a shot without proper medical care. Rae's blow had knocked him unconscious briefly, and when he came to, the world was falling apart. Dimly, he grabbed a dagger from his waist and used it to slice a piece of his cloak off, pressing the fabric as hard as he dared into the wound.
His shoulder seared, a lancing pain that made his vision fade at the edges, but it would be the only way he would live—provided the knife hadn't hit anything important.
He wasn't entirely sure about that part of it.
Still, with only one good arm, he couldn't wrap his shoulder, and the pressure on his wound was the only thing keeping his lifeblood from spilling out onto the stones. As it was, he already lay in a puddle of it.
He would never have the opportunity to tell his father of his success, or to show the world what Fulminancy was really meant to do. Clouds, he might have even been able to get it back. He was dizzy with the possibilities. Lying in a pool of his own blood, death not far away, all Rowan could think about was what he would research if given another chance. He could redeem his lights and maybe even himself. It was as if Rowan had been living on a tiny hill his entire life, oblivious to the giant mountain behind him. He felt something like peace lying there.
He had been right.
Maybe Niall would continue his research, or another young scholar with better luck than Rowan. Maybe the secrets wouldn't die with him. Maybe Kess would get out of this and tell the world what they had discovered.
Weakly, he turned over, watching Kess and Rae fight. Even from this distance, he could see the anguish on Kess's face as she struck, each blow driving Rae back towards the staircase Downhill. She was still beautiful somehow, he realized, even as blood decorated her face and tears ran down her cheeks. I wonder if we would have… His thoughts trailed off as he watched her.
Kess was beautiful, talented, and smart—more than that, his world seemed to light up each time she smiled. But if he lived, what would Rowan have offered her? He had no title, no lands, and was decidedly ordinary. Maybe it was best he wouldn't be around to mess up what they had together. Kess had a dark past, but Rowan had wanted, at least, to work things out with her. At least it didn't matter now.
Dimly, he registered Blueblades approaching and hoped they would ignore a dying man as they closed the perimeter. Tucked as he was against the wall of the Archives, he was hard to spot, anyway.
The wind picked up, whipping Rowan's damp curls from his head, and overhead, lightning crackled in a strange pulsating way that Rowan had never seen before. The Fulminant soldiers fired at Kess as she landed a blow on Rae with a crunch.
That was when she jumped.
The Fulminancy hit Kess as she seemed to hang in the air, staff in hand, each bolt enveloping her body in a blinding surge of light. Metal clattered to the ground around her. Overhead, the lightning from the corrupted Drystorm joined in as well, swirling around the woman in a colorful cocoon of Fulminancy.
She let out a yell, and tendrils of lightning snapped from her body, dropping the soldiers where they stood. She landed, still holding her staff, but had mere seconds on her feet before Rae slammed into her, cocooned in her own crackling lavender Fulminancy. It was dimmer than Kess's, but that seemed to matter little as the two women rolled forward, Kess breaking free to stand before Rae could.
She heaved shaky breaths, her hand trembling where her Fulminancy gathered, her staff lost to the previous blow. Rae's conjured weapons were shorter now, but no less deadly. She slashed at Kess, who dulled the blow with a strike to the woman's forearm, but not before it left a gash in her side. Kess slammed her fist into Rae's jaw and sprung back just in time to catch Rae's blow on one of her own stunted daggers.
Rowan blinked. She hadn't known how to do that before. Both women circled, breathing heavily. Rae's smile from earlier was gone, and blood dripped from her mouth. She slashed towards Kess, who ran parallel to the strike, just letting it graze her, then sunk her own dagger into Rae's shoulder, directly where Rowan's wound was.
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Rowan smiled in spite of himself. It was a message, however small, that she was fighting for him. Maybe we were good together after all, he thought. He lay his head back against the Archives, eyes dimming. Overhead, lightning flashed again, and Kess let out a cry, but Rae was already on the ground. Rowan was losing track of who was winning the fight, but well, would any of them walk away from this alive? He closed his eyes and let darkness take him.
Kess let her knees hit the plaza with a crack. Her breathing came in ragged gasps, and she tasted blood in her mouth. Behind her, Rae sat sideways, her body a sad and slumped thing as she tried to pull herself back up. Kess heard the shuffling and thumping behind her and knew that Rae had failed.
She pressed her back against Rae's slumped figure and felt the weight of the woman there—her enemy—yet somehow solid and comforting as the storm raged overhead. Kess knew she'd gone too far this time. Mariel or not, there would be no reprieve from the burnout she'd created this time. She would die here with Rowan. She only wished she could be by his side again. What she had with him was very much real—she had just been too foolish to see it.
At the edges of her vision, more Witchblades approached. These were heavily armed, less foolish, and much more experienced than their previous counterparts. They also outnumbered the last group tenfold. No, Kess would not be walking away from this one.
Lightning arced across the sky as she tilted her head back towards it, letting the mild breeze of the Drystorm ruffle her hair and cool her skin. Rae's breathing was a slight movement against her back, obviously too gravely injured to move. Kess found it just as well, because without the woman's weight at her back, she knew she would no longer be sitting up.
"Do you hate yourself?" Kess asked, her voice rasping. Rae let out a soft, pained laugh behind her.
"Hate myself? Why would I hate what I am?" Kess frowned, her eyes blurry. I wish it were that simple, she thought. "No, Kess, I hate what they force us to become," Rae continued. "I hate that what I have doesn't belong to me—that from birth, it was considered someone else's for the taking."
The clouds beckoned overhead, warm and inviting. It wasn't such a terrible place to die—this plaza, high in the city, close to the clouds she'd spent her life watching. "Whenever I use it, I feel like it's eating me alive," Kess said. "Like if I keep using it, it'll just keep asking for more until I have nothing left to give."
"When I use mine, I feel free," Rae said quietly behind her. Kess had to strain to hear the words. "For the first time in my life, I feel free."
Silence stretched before them, but for the clanking of the soldiers' armor and the rumbling storm overhead. Rae, with her freedom, Kess with her shackles. Which of them was right? Blessing or curse, they'd both ended up here tonight—and they would both die. What difference had it made, anyway? Kess smiled faintly, taking a deep and pained breath.
"We're truly knee deep in shit, aren't we?" she asked. A weak snort erupted from Rae.
"Not my best idea."
"To attack me or to do it here in the middle of the city?"
"Either, I suppose."
Kess swallowed, trying to come to terms with her own death. And yet, her thoughts fell on Rowan. He deserved to live—to learn all he could about Fulminancy and make the world a better place. The world needed more men like him, like Draven, and now he was gone. They were both gone. And Oliver…she'd fought so hard to see him again, but had he ever been hers to begin with? She closed her eyes. She'd never left the ring after all.
"You don't have anyone coming, do you?" Kess asked quietly.
"No," she replied. "I'm not sure I've ever had anyone."
Though she'd just watched Rae stab the man she loved, though the woman had killed her and ruined every last one of her plans, something twisted inside of Kess's chest—a familiarity. Somehow, she knew this loneliness. We can't save them. Rae's words. Everyone we bring into our lives only suffers because we're there. Her mind flashed back to dark nights in the ring, fighting for survival, fighting to escape her past, and fighting most of all to keep everyone else away. Maybe Rae is no different, Kess thought.
It was then that she did something that surprised her. Kess reached out to her side with the last vestiges of her strength, her hand flopping weakly into a shallow pool of her own blood, collecting in the stones.
"We face it together then," she said, tasting blood in her mouth. For several seconds, the thunder rumbling overhead was her only companion. Then Rae spoke.
"You'd really offer me that?" The words lay unspoken between them—of worlds separating the two, of highborn and lowborn, a gift of Fulminancy and a curse.
"Yes," Kess said, her voice low and strong. Her fingers twitched, and Rae's hand found hers, her grip as weak as Kess's own.
"Together," Rae said firmly.
"Together."
Perhaps Kess couldn't save everyone. But she would start with her enemy. Kess smiled as the world shattered into a thousand pieces.