Page 14 of A Game of Monsters (Realm of Fey #4)

I propped my arm beneath Rafaela’s neck and lower back as I held her afloat in the pool of azure water in the Below. Her eyes were closed, the water murky as it cleaned new and old blood away from her wounds. I’d covered her body in a white sheet, securing her modesty.

Everything down here was so silent. In the quiet I could remember the time I had washed in this pool. I was alongside many other prisoners, no room to be conscious about my body or situation. Jesibel had been here, shadowing me during my stay in the prison, breaking the noses of those who had threatened me.

The past was a painful thing. It was easy to forget the possibility of a future when I was haunted by so much hurt and loss. And yet, looking down at Rafaela’s peaceful face, her eyes closed and lips slightly parted, I reminded myself why I was here.

Because Rafaela could secure the future. She was the key to it, and the lock to secure it.

Once I was satisfied the waters had washed her down, the high salt levels working against any infection in her new wounds, I drew her out onto the rocky shore and laid her down on a bed of blankets and spare sheets I’d found.

There were enough belongings from the Below’s previous tenants that I found healing salve that should help numb the area at least.

Time moved slowly down here. If I didn’t leave soon, Erix would come looking and my proposal to Cassial would be ruined. I couldn’t have him finding out the horrors that happened here without breaking the weak promise I’d made. Yes, I would tell them I found her and make excuses for Cassial’s lies, but the moment they knew about her state, it would ruin the securing of peace.

It was the best I could do.

But leaving Rafaela now was impossible. I waited, partly to see if she would live through this, but more because I selfishly needed my answers.

When a groan escaped her lips, the lines formed over her forehead and her eyes fluttered open, I finally let out a breath that I didn’t know I’d been holding.

“Steady,” I whispered, brushing a soft hand down the side of her screwed up face. “Take your time.”

There was no screaming as she came to, no reaction of terror and pain. Just as she had during rest, there was a peace to Rafaela as her obscure eyes settled on mine.

“You should not be here, Robin Icethorn,” Rafaela said, her voice rasped from pain and suffering, yet still as assured as I last remembered it to be.

“Neither should you, Rafaela.”

Weak hands reached up and pushed at my chest. “Go… you must leave.”

I shook my head, refusing to acknowledge her words. “I should have never let you go back to them . What Cassial is doing – how they are treating you is–”

“Justified.” She closed her eyes, brow furrowing deeper. “I betrayed my kin.” Her voice was broken and tired, something I related to. “But most of all, I went against my Maker’s desire. I deserve my punishment, and I accept it gladly. Given the chance, I would do it again.”

Her sudden smile shocked me to the core. It was twisted and violent, but most of all, it sang of pride.

“Why does it sound like you are trying to convince yourself more than me?” I slumped backwards, picking at the skin around my nails just to give my hands something to do. “This is wrong, Rafaela. No god who vows to protect his people would want them to experience treatment like this.”

I’d worked out soon after Cassial departed that Rafaela’s wings hadn’t just been cut off. In fact, the remains left around her curled body were minimal. Old scars were scored across her back like the criss-crossed marks of a game board. This was Cassial attempting to remove her wings as they grew back, which meant I had no idea just how many times it had happened before I found her.

Two, three… ten… more? How much pain had Rafaela experienced, just because she went against the Nephilim and destroyed the keys she was meant to protect?

Something Duwar had said to me replayed in my mind.

“Altar desired a failsafe . He knew that he’d need me one day.”

“Why did the Nephilim want to protect the keys?” I asked, banishing Duwar’s taunt from my mind. “When destroying them long ago would’ve saved the world from Duwar ever being a possibility of destruction?”

Rafaela winced as she shifted on her side. I peered over her back and saw that the sheet was already stained red. Her wounds would need healing again, and soon. “I think you know the answer to that question, Robin.”

I swallowed the lump in my dried throat. “Because they wanted the keys alive, in case they needed to use them one day?”

“Not ‘in case’, but more like ‘when’ they wanted to use them. But that is no longer an option.” Rafaela held my gaze, her pride refusing to crack. “I did what I had to do, and now the world is forever safe from evil, even evil you cannot see so plainly.”

Duwar had said that Altar made the keys as a failsafe, a way of using Duwar if and when the fey god required it. But then why did the Creator also want this? What had happened between the gods that turned them each against one another, plotting and planning?

“You believe your purpose is complete,” I said. “But you are wrong.”

Rafaela didn’t stop smiling. “The Creator gave me life, and I took it and did what I felt was right. My purpose has been fulfilled.”

“What do you mean when you say the Creator gave life to you?”

Rafaela leaned back, eyes lingering upwards to the far-off top of the cave. “The Creator chose me from all of his fallen because I died in His name – for Him. And I was made into His warrior. I proved myself worthy, showed the Creator that I was selfless. He took my mortal soul and made me stronger, imbuing me with his power. That is how the Creator made His Nephilim – the favoured children. And yet, in the eyes of my fellow kin, I have gone against him. My wings, my power, must be stripped until I can prove myself again. Only then will He free me, when my sins are cleansed. And I have no interest in fitting that mould anymore – I have nothing left to prove. I am done, Robin. With everything.”

“I don’t believe that,” I said. “I can’t and I won’t.”

“It is true.”

“No,” I snapped, furious at such an evil act against his most loyal warrior. “Because if that was true, your wings wouldn’t grow back. Your flesh would not heal. Rafaela, you are no mortal. You are a Nephilim. Remove your wings, take away your hammer, and you are still who and what you are.”

“You will never understand,” Rafaela rolled over, not without gasping in pain. “Please, now. Let me rest. Enjoy the world I helped secure. Live life, take it and cherish it. Whatever awaits me, I welcome it gladly.”

It took effort not to unleash the sickness that stormed through my stomach.

“I can’t leave you.”

Rafaela’s back was exposed to me now, the wound not as angry as it had been. She was healing, slowly, but faster than the mortal she believed herself to be again. More proof that the Creator had not turned His back on her.

“I need you, Rafaela,” I persisted. “The world still needs you.”

“The world is perfectly fine without me.” Her voice broke as if she too couldn’t quite believe it. “Please, Robin. I am tired. I must pray in peace and beg for His forgiveness loud enough that Cassial is convinced he does not need to visit.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her that it was no longer required. Rafaela was leaving Lockinge, with me. And yet something told me not to tell her, to ruin this clarity she believed she had here.

Rafaela was almost… comfortable.

“What… what if I can help you get it. That forgiveness.”

“This is not your responsibility–”

“Yes,” I interrupted before she could say another word. “Yes, it is.”

Perhaps it was the urgency in my tone, or the desperation, that had Rafaela looking back to me. I buried my face in my hands until she reached up and peeled my fingers away.

“Something plagues you,” she said, reading me with those all-seeing dusky eyes. “I sense a darkness in you, a plague of worry that you should not host.”

“You’re right,” I said, bringing my voice to a whisper. “It brings me no joy to admit this, believe me.”

“Admit what?” Fear flashed behind her eyes. “Tell me… Robin.”

I leaned in, preparing to say the very thing I’d come all this way for. But being here, kneeling beside her, I didn’t imagine this would be the situation we’d find ourselves in.

“Duwar… is here,” I mouthed, fearful that the admission would echo out of the Below and fill Lockinge Castle until everyone heard.

Rafaela laughed, her sickly tinged skin creasing. “The gate has been closed forever, three of the keys destroyed. Duwar is no longer a threat to this world.”

I laid a hand on her arm, begging her to believe me with my stare alone. “Duwar is here, Rafaela. I swear it.”

Perhaps it was the hot, vicious tears running down my face which convinced Rafaela, or something else, but her laughter faltered, her sore lips straining into a pinched line.

“Where?” She looked around me, snarling as though she wasn’t pained and suffering. Rafaela looked like the warrior she was, with or without her wings.

“It is…” I choked, bile burning the back of my throat. I pinched my eyes closed, seeing Duncan’s body in the dark of my mind, tied down to a bed, weak and close to death. “It’s inside of Duncan. Possessing him, controlling him.”

I watched as the pieces of a puzzle slotted together in Rafaela’s mind. How Duncan had disappeared into Duwar’s realm, only to be saved by Erix. The clawed mark across his chest, the agony and suffering he experienced in the days he was unconscious back in Rinholm.

“Are you certain?” Rafaela asked, voice soft but deadly.

I nodded, because I feared if I spoke again, I would crumble to nothing but dust

Rafaela took her time to sit up, wincing as she did so. “Duwar possesses a mortal’s body, because it could not leave its realm entirely – not without the use of the final key.”

I nodded again, numb to the core.

“Then Duwar is weak,” Rafaela growled. “If it is in a mortal body, then Duwar is subject to mortal wounds. You must kill it – before they find out.”

She had just confirmed my previous theory, whilst also confirming how I could not do that.

“This is Duncan we are talking about, not some nameless mortal. I cannot just kill him,” I said through gritted teeth. “That isn’t the advice that I have come to you for. Nor will you slaughter a human, or anyone else offering. Not if there is another way to solve this issue.”

“There is no other way.”

I bristled. “You vowed to protect humankind.”

“If Duwar is here, in our world, all vows are null and void. They will bring ruin to everything.”

I scrambled with my words, rushed and desperate to get them out. “You once told me of people in Irobel who conversed with Duwar and were bound in labradorite. An eternal prison.”

Rafaela’s eyes widened, working out the very plan I’d formed in my mind. “You wish to bind Duncan in labradorite?”

No , not Duncan. “Yes. And I need your assistance with doing it. That is why I am here, Rafaela.”

Rafaela took my request in, working out the possibilities silently in her mind. “It is out of the question.”

“Help me, please. If you truly believe you deserve this punishment, then prove the Creator wrong. Fix these wrongs, with me, and you will be branded in His glory again. Please, Rafaela. Help me bind Duwar.”

Rafaela laid a hand on mine, her trembling fingers clasping mine tight. “What you are asking of me is no different to death. If you do not want to kill Duncan yourself, then why choose this option?”

The final secret I harboured showed some resistance to come out. I had to prepare myself, force the words out before I never had the confidence to share them.

“Because Duncan will not be the body being locked in labradorite.”

I knew Rafaela already worked out the next answer, but she asked me plainly for it anyway. “Then who will?”

I held her stare, blinking away the tears as a wave of confidence and strength crested over me. “Me. I will take Duwar into my body, and you will lock me away, forever so no one can ever claim access to such a dark power. If that doesn’t work, you kill me. But not him, not Duncan.”

I expected Rafaela to refuse me, but she didn’t. Instead, her grip on my hand tightened, proving more that she was still strong, even in this state. “I will help you, Robin.”

“Thank you.” I sagged forwards, pressing my forehead to hers. “Thank you, thank you.”

“Do not thank me yet,” Rafaela said, grief evident across the pinch of her face. “The road we face is painful, hard. It will require more sacrifice than you could ever imagine.”

“I will do it. Any of it. You’re not the only one with penance to pay.”

Rafaela laid a hand on the back of mine. “Why give yourself up so easily?”

“Because I cannot bear to live in a world without him. Duncan is my life.”

“What do you think he would say, if asked the same question, if given the same choices?”

My heart skipped a beat. We both knew that Duncan would choose the same fate. “Enough people have sacrificed themselves in my name. You have faced unjust punishment for your involvement in destroying the keys, it is time I also pay.”

“From what I can see, Robin.” Rafaela dusted her fingers down the side of my face, clearing tears. “You have suffered greatly already. But I will help you, if you are certain this is the path you wish to take–”

“It is the only path I know of, and we don’t have time to locate another.”

Rafaela bowed her head. “Then this is what we are going to do. To achieve what you desire, we must go to Irobel. Immediately.”

Irobel – home of the Nephilim.

I held my breath and listened to Rafaela’s plan, finding comfort in her assistance. Even if her words solidified the end of my story, and how soon that end would come. I would pay it, tenfold.

For Seraphine and her found family. For Althea and Gyah, Elinor and the life that was taken from her for so long. For Duncan, because he had suffered so much, and deserved a chance at a life that Abbott Nathaniel would’ve wanted for him.

For Erix, the man who would be pacing the floor at my absence, the man who would give anything for me.

And for every life that wished to truly enjoy this new world. I would give myself up a million times over, just to solidify it for them all.

“After the wedding, Cassial will send you to Icethorn with me,” I said, hearing the foolproof plan repeat over in my mind. “It has been agreed between us, a way to keep you safe from his… twisted ways.”

Rafaela picked at her nails, eyes wide and wild with unspoken thoughts. “Then you have a handful of days to make your peace and say your goodbyes.”

I smiled, glad for the closure that would follow. Life had been so unkind, but I’d found so many wonderful people along the way. And Rafaela was right. I had a few days to ensure those I loved knew I loved them, and that the memories I could leave for them would help them understand what I was preparing to do, and why.

“Rafaela… I don’t trust Cassial.”

“Because you are a good judge of character. You shouldn’t trust him. Any of them.” Rafaela finished with a snarl.

“He’s been calling himself the Saviour, acting both in favour for peace and against it.”

Rafaela spat on the ground. “Cassial is no Saviour. The promised Saviour has yet to show themselves.”

“Promised?” I shook my head, originally believing the title was just given to boost Cassial’s ego. “So, the title isn’t something Cassial’s ego dredged up?”

Rafaela shook her head. “No, not amongst the Nephilim.”

“Who are they?”

Rafaela leaned in close, dropping her voice to a husky whisper. “The dawn of the day when Gabrial was chosen as His script, she prophesied a person made from both realms, who would bring an era of peace for the Nephilim. Cassial believes that he is that Saviour, but he is wrong.”

“Then who…” I said, feeling my heart beating in my throat.

Rafaela rested a hand on my shoulder, her grip faltering but still strong. “I see a man, born from two realms, who wishes to save them both. Perhaps it is you, Robin. Maybe not. I suppose time will only tell.”