Forty-Four ◑ The Chase

Keiran stumbled back just in time to avoid his stomach from getting sliced open. He opened his mouth to yell at the men, but he was quickly silenced by a spear jabbed at his way.

Lucille screamed and tried to block the blow, but Dimitri got there faster than anyone. He yanked the spear off the man's grip, snapped the shaft across his knee, and tossed the pieces over his shoulder.

Needless to say, the men didn't like that.

"Call the others!" one of them ordered, and another immediately blew into a horn.

Meanwhile, the rest of them lunged.

Lucille took the sharp half of the discarded spear, but she didn't want to hurt any of them. She settled with swerving and avoiding, using the blunt end only to hit anyone who got too close. After all, they were the protectors of her kingdom.

Unfortunately, Dimitri and Keiran had no such qualms. Dimitri disarmed one guard and was now sparring with four guards at once, keeping them away from Lucille. Keiran was using the other half of the spear shaft to pummel the remaining men in the head, taking off their helmets for maximum impact.

The ones without helmets crumpled, and Lucille was able to see that they were adolescents. Young men that were most likely barely eighteen.

Instantly, for some reason, they made her think of Agnes.

"Let's go!" she yelled at the two gods, grabbing the back of their clothes with her good hand and pulling them towards the entrance of the forest. "Don't hurt them!"

With one last swipe of his sword to drive the enemies back, Dimitri retreated, taking his brother by the arm and dragging him along as they made a break for it.

Just then, more men appeared, heavily armed this time. Arrows whizzed past the three of them now, one almost hitting Keiran's head.

"Oh, you got to be kidding," Keiran muttered, chucking his stick at the archer before getting yanked by his twin.

The forest was a nightmare, not only for Lucille's lungs but for her entire body. The air was so hot and thick that it felt like she was inhaling steam. Rogue, low-hanging branches scraped her arms, legs, and face. Tiny stones dug into the soles of her feet as she sprinted on the dry land. Her arm was smarting. Her wrist began to bleed again.

The guards' footfalls echoed behind them, heavy and swift. Dimitri took her hand and helped her pick up the pace.

She was panting now. The world was reduced into this green and brown path that stretched beyond with no clear direction.

They trudged on, sweaty and ashamed of almost getting killed, until they shook off their attackers and landed in a clearing deep into the forest.

The canopy of trees casted a shadow over them, on the stream that cut across the clearing like a scar. This area was cooler than the rest of the place, and it was peaceful.

So much so, that upon entering the clearing, Lucille fell to her knees and promptly collapsed on the ground from exhaustion.

When she woke up, it was already dark. The moon and the stars were almost alarmingly bright on the inky black sky. They glowed over the trees, but what illuminated the entire clearing was a fire in a freshly dug pit.

Lucille was vaguely alarmed that this might get them detected, but all that vanished when she turned around, feeling Dimitri's coat slide on top of her.

Below a large olive tree were the brothers.

With the sword, Dimitri was cutting strips of fabric from Keiran's jacket. Keiran himself was cradling a leaf, on top of which a small slab of meat was resting. He stared into the fire, eating slowly with a stick.

Dimitri spotted her just as she sat up. "You're awake. Come and eat while I clean your cuts."

"Did you enjoy the bed we made you, Princess Lysandra?" Keiran asked, gesturing at the makeshift mattress she was lying on, which was made of moss and leaves. "I'm sleeping there later."

Lucille didn't say anything. She just obeyed Dimitri and sat on a protruding root as he began to wipe her right arm with a fabric strip that he dipped into the stream.

To her surprise, her arm didn't feel broken anymore. Her shoulder had put itself back into its socket. Only the distinct cut around her wrist was fresh and stinging. She tested her shoulder, rotating it as carefully as she could. Everything seemed to be in order.

She wanted to question it, but she was thankful enough not to.

Keiran watched as Dimitri moved the bracelet around to clean the welts it had left. "So that's the talisman that blocked me from seeing your fate. I assume it's preventing you from using your powers too?"

"Yes," Lucille answered shortly, feeling ashamed all over again.

"Who could've seen it coming," he mumbled. When Dimitri shot him a glare, he raised a hand in surrender and handed Lucille a piece of meat on a leaf. "Now fill yourself up with this and don't forget to thank Chef Boy Scout over here."

"Will you stop calling me that?" Dimitri demanded. "Without me, you'd be dead."

Keiran pouted. "No need to get personal."

She bit off a tiny strip from the meat. "What's this?"

"You're better off not knowing," Keiran said.

"Wait." Lucille set the leaf down. "It's not human, is it?"

Dimitri frowned. "That's disgusting. That's from a boar that wandered in the wrong hands."

That put her off, but at the same time she knew they had to be practical, so she finished her meal in record time and concentrated on not throwing up.

"I'll finish this," she told Dimitri, taking the fabric from him. "You go eat."

"Okay," he said, and with that he tended the fire once more.

She wiped the blood off her legs and her feet, which were littered with dirt, small rocks, and dried blood. It didn't hurt as much as she expected, but it still stung. She kept a straight face, though. She knew very well that Keiran was watching her, assessing her with those cold blue eyes.

While she dipped her feet into the stream, the questions that she'd been suppressing since last night began to invade her head.

Lucille turned to Keiran. "How was he able to live all this time?"

He blinked in feigned ignorance. "Who?"

"You know who." She swallowed hard. "Cadmus. Cade."

"It's because of our little friend over here," he replied, opening the golden box and showing her the candle. It was surprisingly intact, but what she found alarming was the pool of melted wax around it. It was only about two inches tall.

Yes, that wasn't a big difference from the last time she'd seen it, but to think that her life was solely dependent on that stub of wax . . . well, it was a bad feeling.

"This is the core of your lives: you, Cade, and Agnes." Keiran closed it and set it on her lap. "All of you are tied. If one of you kills each other, the one who dies won't have an afterlife. The one who survives would live a long, happy mortal life and transcend into an even happier afterlife. Once the candle is completely melted, all of you will regain your memories. All of you will be vulnerable to each other. You can kill them. And they can kill you."

Lucille swallowed hard. She thought that the candle was a mere time bomb, a reminder of the past she chose to forget. She didn't realize it held so much power.

"Why did it have to be a candle?" she asked despairingly.

"Don't ask me." He shrugged. "I don't make the rules. I'm just the facilitator in this."

She put the box on the ground, her stomach rolling. "Why did they try to take the candle if they knew it's going to make them vulnerable too?"

"Because it's the two of them versus one of you," he said impatiently, as though this should be obvious. "Once the candle is in their possession, you won't be able to extend its longevity. You won't be able to do your little blood voodoo to add to the candle's wax and protect yourself from them. You'd be at their mercy, and did I also mention that they want you dead?"

"But why do they want me dead? For them to be together? They're already together!"

A smirk spread on the god's lips. "No, they aren't. With you alive, they could never be together. And you will never be free when they're trying to be together. Like I said, you're all tied."

Lucille swung her legs off the water. "But that's—"

"Terrible? Cruel?" Keiran smiled dryly. "That's fate for you. Remember, the three of you are only getting what you deserve."

She had no response for that. She still wanted to ask more, but she wasn't sure she wanted to know. All of the answers would be about the past, and she wanted to avoid that. She wanted to move onwards without knowing anything more.

Keiran leaned towards her, his expression now grim. "The only thing you need to do now is take us to the present and get rid of who caused this to you, to us. Only you can do it. Once and for all."

"What if I don't bring us back? What if I can't do it?"

"We'll be gone forever," he said airily. "They won't even need to get rid of you. You'll stay here, a by-product of your own misery, until you fade and disappear."

Lucille forced herself to meet his gaze. "How do I bring us back?"