Page 37 of Once Upon a Dark October

Chapter Thirty-Seven

I t was the worst sound I’d ever heard. I wondered if Sonia was rending Morrigan’s soul as she’d once done to Clarabella, and that screaming—that horrifying, broken torment—would be all that I’d hear of Morrigan if I survived eternity. Her restless soul trapped within these ruins. Mine bearing a sorcerer’s scar that wouldn’t heal and would instead remind me of this nightmare every time I summoned power into my veins.

I couldn’t bear even the thought.

Morrigan’s blood was overpowering, nectar-sweet and divine and spilling from her much too fast. I stretched for her without looking, following the scent of her alone, the slowing beat of her heart. A grazing caress of her veins—bleeding a new torrent—and I recoiled, her warmth stolen away. Sonia’s cold punctured deep, claws and teeth hooked into Morrigan’s heart. So close to it, the pain echoed within me, seized in my chest. I willed the blood back, tried to staunch its hemorrhaging flow. Sonia cut the tether loose, and I was unceremoniously flung back into awareness.

Gwen, yelling for Morrigan, picked up fractured glass and tried to make another run at Sonia. She didn’t let her guard down this time, instead striking with her other hand. Gwen cried out, her ankle twisted at an unnatural angle. She dropped, shouting a string of curses.

Morrigan , I begged. Just hold on…

But her pulse sputtered weakly. I couldn’t find a way in again.

“A hundred and fifty years,” Sonia said, her voice a whistling rasp from the burns, “and still you haven’t learned, have you, Morrigan? Your heart will never sustain me, but it will be a victory to finally hear it silenced.”

Morrigan slumped forward, her hands braced before her in the pooling crimson. It looked stark as ever on her skin, even beneath the moon’s waning glow. With her hair hanging in front of her eyes, her face was hidden from me. Her spine curved a painful arch, each breath heaving shallower. She clutched at her chest, black clothes plastered to her body, glossy from the blood soaked into them. Her necklace had slipped out, the gold pendant dangling, kissing the lurid red that bloomed around her.

Josephine’s alchemy thrummed, the melodious chord quivering down the back of my neck. “Go to her,” she shouted at me. “Won’t be able to hold this for long.”

Sonia’s body twisted away from Morrigan, her fangs clenched, a groan stifled between them. Morrigan wobbled and collapsed onto her back, unmoving. Her name a sob on my lips, I covered the distance separating us and fell at her side, skirts and petticoats swallowing her blood beneath me. Her pulse was faint but still there, stretching for each beat. The red of her eyes had dulled. I touched a hand to her forehead and Morrigan startled as if she hadn’t even known I was there.

“Elspeth…”

I hushed her and raked my trembling fingers through her hair. “You did everything you could. Now let me help.”

Gwen joined me a moment later, crawling to the other side to clasp her hand around Morrigan’s. “Freezing cold…she needs blood. ”

I’d already sliced open a gash above my wrist, though I was lightheaded from wounds that were still stitching back together. “She’ll have to drink from me.”

“Be quick about it, Ella.” Gwen craned her neck, glancing over her shoulder to where Josephine was forcing her sunlit alchemy into Sonia’s veins.

I held my arm over Morrigan’s mouth, gripped her chin in my bloodied fingers to steady her head. “Drink, Morrigan, please.”

Another sob caught in my throat when she pushed my hand away, her head slumped to the side to find me. Her skin was stained with drying blood. The glow in her eyes had waned. A stray tear meandered down the sharp rise of her cheek as she laced her fingers between mine. She brought our entwined hands to the center of her chest, where I felt the sticky mess of her blood.

Her heartbeat was so near to the surface that it finally wrenched a dreadful weeping sound from me.

“Take it from me,” Morrigan said, no more than a rattling breath. “There’s not much time.”

“No,” I sobbed. Her blood-slicked fingers began to slip from mine, so I grasped them tighter. “I can’t.”

She squeezed with the last of her ebbing strength. “You have to,” she commanded. It pained her to speak. “She cannot have us both.” Blood bubbled and spilled over her lips, and I bent down to meet them, as though a kiss would send it back into her veins. “Please, Ella. Take it. It belongs to you already.”

I shook my head. “You’ll heal.”

“Not fast enough.”

I could barely see her face through my useless tears. “But you…you don’t know what you’re asking of me.”

“It’s yours.” She pressed my fingers against her heart’s dying pulse. “It’s been yours ever since you sought my help. You must do this, Ella darling. ”

Morrigan reached for me until her hand cradled my cheek. I’ll be with you still. I’ll be in your veins when you destroy her.

I looked past Morrigan’s tearful, pleading eyes to Gwen, who gave a weak nod, a hand clamped over her mouth. Sniffling, I untangled myself from Morrigan, furiously trying to blink the tears from my vision. With tremulous fingers, I worked the buttons of her waistcoat loose, then pushed it aside to open her shirt. I thought I’d be prepared for what I’d see, but I wasn’t—I wasn’t in the slightest, and I couldn’t fight the wailing noise that fell from my lips this time.

Gwen had to avert her gaze from the gaping hole Sonia had left in Morrigan’s chest, though her hand remained wrapped around Morrigan’s. Another breath rattled out of her. Between her breasts, Sonia had peeled back flesh and muscle and cracked bone, the cavity of Morrigan’s chest a gory, open wound.

I saw her heart struggling to pump the last of its blood.

Josephine’s yelling drew Gwen’s sudden attention. “Go on, Elspeth. I’ll get you another minute or two.”

Limping, she fled Morrigan’s side, and I grabbed her cold fingers where Gwen had left an absence. I didn’t know if she could feel me anymore. I pushed my hand beneath her shirt, fingertips grasping her side, counting the space between her next breath. Leaning closer, the scent of her blood suffusing my senses, her heartbeat an ebbing tide, I let the craving take hold so I lost sight of what I was about to do. The first lick of Morrigan’s blood stoked the hunger within me, ravenous and insatiable.

Feral instinct consumed me. I felt Morrigan’s fingers thread into my hair, gathering me to her, burying my face in the yawning cavity of her chest. I lapped up the gushing wounds, tasted them like I’d been starved for a hundred long years, like I’d spent a lifetime aching to be inside her this way. My vicious inheritance, our monstrous love. Morrigan’s fingers curled into my blood-matted hair. A last gasp, a moan so near to pleasure sobbed from her when my fangs finally pierced her heart .

I drank in its last feeble pulse, inhaled Morrigan’s final breath. My fangs dissected the muscle and sinew with ease. She was tough in my mouth, though the taste of her was still wine-sweet. I swallowed hard around each bite. And with every sanguineous piece of her I consumed, I felt her sorcery unfurling within me. Morrigan was in my veins, her warmth whispering into my blood. Her pulse beating anew in my own.

Morrigan’s words came back to me once more, fueled the sudden tide of her sorcery. She hasn’t seen how dangerous love can make us.

I laid her hand over the gold pendant. Her heart left in tatters inside that horrific wound, I didn’t have time to mourn. The monster within me had never been so close to the skin. My own wounds had healed remarkably quick, vengeance singing in my blood. Sated on Morrigan’s heart, it was as if I’d opened my fledgling eyes again for the first time.

Instead of Morrigan’s pulse, I tasted the heartbeat of our enemy, heard its brutal, undying rhythm. I hungered for it with a bloodlust that was all-consuming, devouring me as Morrigan’s sorcery continued its great conflagration.

Josephine had weakened Sonia, but the alchemy, for all it had done inside her body, hadn’t killed her. Gwen was still limping about, trying to draw her ire—but Sonia lashed out at an exhausted Josephine, who was standing firm despite the sheen of sweat on her skin, the slight tremor in her graceful conducting. Her eyes blazed with a radiant sunlight, golden and steadfast.

Sonia’s arm slashed across her body, billowing smoke toward the ceiling. Josephine gave a cry and buckled, freeing Sonia from the alchemy’s inferno. Shouting my name, Gwen ran to her, and my heart gave a pang—my heart and Morrigan’s—at the ruin Sonia had made of our coven.

I wanted her to see me first. Wading through the darkness, moonlight spilling more blood-red upon my skin than her poison had wrought from the harbor to paint her throne room. The blood of the woman I loved in the folds of my dress, in the grotesque footprints I left in my wake, staining my mouth. Beating inside me. I hoped she could hear it.

Sonia turned to me with an appraising smile, a demon in the flesh. What was left of her, anyway—a layer of bloody pink skin and blistering like fungi clinging to rotten wood. She was a scorched corpse, blackened at the edges, the bones of her fingers exposed to the night.

“You’ve the courage she never possessed,” Sonia said, her voice creaking and whistling through her. “But that sorcery will devour you, little fledgling.”

“It seems I’m not the one who’s been devoured,” I said. “You’ve always feared an alchemist’s touch, haven’t you?”

Sonia snarled, fangs bared past her cracked, bleeding lips. The sorcery moving swiftly through me drank in her rage, aching for her frantic pulse. It wanted her blood to drown the room in a tidal wave.

But I wanted her heart.

Her power nudged against my veins, pressure constricted around my ribcage, trying to get its greedy hand into my lungs. For all the fiery pain Josephine had forced into her blood, her touch was still cadaver-cold, perhaps her own sorcerer’s scar to bear.

I pushed her out with such a brutal shove that Sonia stumbled backward, fresh crimson leaking from her nose. Her laughter came with hesitation now, thin and weary through her split lips. I savored every drop of her pain, vengeance boiling in me.

“You’ll never open a wound deep enough,” she taunted. “Her weakness is yours now.”

Yet hurting her wasn’t a wound upon me. Whatever immortal injuries she’d inflicted, they’d been healed by Morrigan.

“I’ve never seen anything but strength from her, even at her lowest,” I challenged. “And her strength is mine, as it has been—”

“I nearly ripped the heart from her, child. ”

“But you didn’t,” I said, voice rising as I tapped my fingers to the middle of my chest. “She’s here with me. And Morrigan was right—she’ll certainly be the death of you as long as I have her in my blood.”

Sonia lurched forward on stumbling legs. We struck at the same time, a volley of sorcery whipping an unearthly gust around the room. I felt her claw-sharp in my belly, lacerating, almost dragging me into my knees. I bit back a groan as I thrust a fist into her, the chill rooted in her veins sending a shiver right through me. A shadow still there, making its presence known.

Raking my fingers without care, I twisted and crushed whatever I could, delighting in every vein I burst open. A shower of dark red drained from her lips. Sonia’s knees buckled.

She stretched out bony fingers, flesh still sloughing off them, as she attempted to evaporate what was pouring out of her. I curled my fingers tighter, squeezing, knuckles stark under the crust of dried crimson-rust. The edges of my vision blurred red, the air balmy and bloodstained. A splintering pop of bone and Sonia howled, grasping at her side. She spat another mouthful onto the marble and I reached out with a craven, starved touch, salivating for it. Its raging thrum alive in my palm, I called for her blood, and it answered to me.

I cupped my hands, gathering it into my awaiting palms. Sonia couldn’t reach it anymore, her breathing labored, her pain too miserable to see past. Her blood pooled ice cold, a shadow still marring its scent. A rot even the magic of Clarabella’s banshee shriek couldn’t dispel. Wrinkling my nose, I brought her foul blood to my lips, drinking her down until there was a fine, glistening coat left upon my hands.

Sonia threw herself onto her hands and knees, crawling toward the bloodied hem of my skirts. “You deceitful child, I’ll—”

Her empty threat became nothing more than a hoarse whine. I was the monster looming over her now, immortal and devoured by ancient power. My vision ran red, but I felt her ticking heart, chiming like the clock toward midnight. I rushed at her—an unstoppable storm, a drowning swell she couldn’t escape. I remembered that night down by the wharf, Morrigan almost killing herself to obliterate a vampire. That rage, that lust for revenge, bitter and dark, coursed through me now.

Even if all the stars damn me, I’ll have her heart.

It already sat in my palm, safe while the rest of her body collapsed under our will. Mine and Morrigan’s. Her heart and mine, together as one, eternal.

Her healing had been too lethargic to fix the damage from Josephine. She was no better than broken driftwood in my hands, at the mercy of a sorcerer’s storm. I felt her breaking inside, pieces of her bursting open, weeping the life-blood she’d tried to keep clinging to her veins. My fangs ached for every drop. Her screaming turned me into a vile, thrashing beast. If I could’ve devoured the sound, I would’ve. Sonia writhed until she couldn’t anymore, her last scream gurgling out of her, her insides a gush of fleshy, charred pulp and rotten blood.

I gritted my fangs, fists tight at my sides with the effort. It was my scream that rent the throne room now, a cry half in grief, half in righteous vengeance, hands thrusting forward to make her kneel under my violent caress. Her heart gasped in my palm, Death’s shadow falling. An implosion knocked against my chest, whistled past my ears. Morrigan’s power incinerated the air—I scented her there, mingling with ancient power, a scorching kiss upon my cheek.

I breathed out deeply, cleansing my lungs. When I returned to myself—more Elspeth than monster—Sonia was nothing, a scattering of dark red, an abstract of the long-ago past. Clumps of bloody flesh and viscera were all that remained. And there, sitting among the gruesome mess, was her heart.

It gave a feeble beat as I fell to my knees before it. With wide eyes, I saw Sonia’s blood leeching back into her heart, sluggish but increasingly desperate, a slow, receding tide. Under the fading light of the Blood Moon, it awakened a visceral fear from deep within. Her heart pulsed again, and I wrenched the terror from my body in a feral yell, scooping the bloody organ into my palms. It was a burden to carry, a primordial stone to the fatigue that weighed heavily in my limbs.

I struggled to my feet as the red in my vision begin to clear, harbor fog disappearing with a new day at the horizon. A glance at the clock towering over the room told me we had moments left until it began to herald the midnight hour.

Josephine and Gwen waited for me beside Morrigan’s body. They each held one of her hands—I was relieved to see them healing despite the broken looks on their faces, tears washing away the blood. Josephine’s fingers carded absently through Morrigan’s scarlet-flecked hair. One of them—Gwen, I imagined—had buttoned Morrigan’s shirt to hide the wound, but I still scented its sweet, cloying anguish.

I dropped beside her still body, Sonia’s heart cradled against me. I barely had the strength left to speak, but I couldn’t keep the words from trembling out of me. “Hold her head straight,” I told Gwen quietly. “She needs all the blood I can give her.”

The throne room’s clock began its booming count toward midnight. Sonia’s heart pulsed weakly.

Gwen’s eyes sparkled. “Elspeth, there’s—”

Josephine shook her head, a spark in her gaze that defied the tears streaking from her chin. “She’s right.” She turned Morrigan’s head for me, holding her so she didn’t roll back to the side. “Morrigan needs blood. Gwen, lower her chin, keep her mouth open.”

Another pang seized my chest as I looked upon Morrigan’s lifeless body, her chest unmoving, her eyes clouded over with the pall of death. I was afraid Sonia’s heart would drain blood from anything it touched, so I balanced it in one palm while I tore open a vein above my wrist. Sharing a glance between my coven-mates, I held it aloft over Morrigan’s open mouth .

I’d always wanted to know how it felt to have her take from me instead. But I’d never wanted it like this.

Watching the blood run a steady stream, the clock continued to chime bold, echoing strikes, closer and closer to twelve. As the warmth and salt and iron fell upon Morrigan’s tongue, Gwen tilted her chin so it slid down her throat. I offered her every drop I could, counting the clock’s urgent chimes. Morrigan’s face swam in and out of focus, blurred by tears that prickled my eyes and stung at my raw throat.

Please, Morrigan , I begged into her silent thoughts. Please come back.

Wavering from blood loss, I swayed on my knees. No more to spare, I clawed at Sonia’s heart, which seemed to recoil at my tearing, angry fingers. I pulled apart muscle and stringy sinew and fed chunks onto Morrigan’s tongue. Josephine and Gwen worked to make sure she didn’t choke on them, even as they were swallowed whole.

Come back to us, Morrigan , I pleaded again. I could hear my blood trickling through her, faint but alive, a gentle, feather-light caress of power. I cannot let you go. I won’t. I know you’re still there.

The clock struck midnight.

My hand stayed poised at her mouth, another gory scrap brushing against her bottom lip. Gwen and Josephine watched the clock face while the last chime echoed on through the room. I didn’t—couldn’t—look away from Morrigan. Her motionless body, her bloodless lips, pale as moon glow between the mists. I cast aside Sonia’s dead heart, its anemic beating now ceased, and threw myself onto Morrigan with a desperate, broken sob.

I tucked my head softly against her chest, my ear pressed to the hollow cavity, listening to the gentle susurration of my blood and our sorcery. Her body was so deathly cool beneath me that I was overcome with furious weeping, aching to feel her breath on my cheek, her fingers warming my own, her arms wrapped around me .

Morrigan… I called again, one last time. Where are you? Our coven needs you here with us. Please…

Her chest quivered under my ear. A rasp of something, faint and scraping like wind through barren branches. But I’d heard it. I lifted my head, a sharp inhale lashing through my weeping. My fingertips skirted carefully down her sides to feel the next tremulous breath expand between her ribs.

“Morrigan?”

My hands were shaking so badly that they were stubborn to cooperate. Another breath from Morrigan, stronger this time. Josephine and Gwen both heard it, a stir of air from her nostrils and mouth. The next came wrapped up in a moan, a tremor working through Morrigan’s bottom lip.

Gwen cried in relief, clutching at Morrigan’s hand, while Josephine’s fingers continued their idle combing of her hair. I finally got her shirt unbuttoned, smoothing a palm underneath to feel her returning breath, her slowly warming skin. The three of us looked upon her beating heart—whole, alive, strong—while the gaping wound began to close, regenerated with blood and sorcery, resurrected from hope and unyielding will.

Morrigan’s groaning turned into incoherent words. When at last I found her eyes, they were bright again, pomegranate-vivid. She blinked up at me, a crease between her brows, as if she needed a minute more to shake herself free from a place we’d never touch again. She searched our faces until they became familiar, then she eased herself from the floor, fingers brushing my tear-stained cheek.

I cradled her face with a palm crusted in dried blood. Morrigan’s nostrils flared at its scent. But before she could ask, I brought her mouth to mine and she sunk into our kiss as if a lifetime had passed since she’d tasted me. I dragged my hand through the damp waves of her hair until I cupped the back of her neck, breathing her in while her tongue caressed mine.

She only broke apart from me because she needed to steal a breath. Not content to let her go just yet, I draped my arms around her neck and pressed my forehead against hers. Morrigan grinned, nipping a playful bite at my lips.

“I thought I heard a clock chiming somewhere,” Morrigan breathed. “Is it midnight?”

I kissed her again. “It’s past midnight.”

Morrigan exhaled a century and a half of pain. Her eyes were still weary, but her grin made my heart flutter. “Is it really?”

Gwen’s sudden triumphant scream turned to delighted giggling as she shot to her feet, evening gown swaying around her ankles. “It’s past midnight. And look at us—no wings, no snouts…no fur!”

As though the realization had just completely dawned, Josephine patted herself down, sliding her hands along the contours of her body, scrutinizing her fingers and legs, wrinkling her dress in her fingers.

Gwen pulled Josephine to her feet, then twirled her around in a wide arc before the two of them swept across the floor, giggling and dancing like that afternoon on the beach. While Gwen stooped to check on a dhampir slowly rousing from unconsciousness, Josephine wrenched her fingers from Gwen’s grip. Her eyes sparkled as if she still had a twinkle of bright daylight in them.

“Clarabella,” she yelled, frantic, shaking Gwen’s shoulders where she stood. “I have to get home. Now. ”