Page 30 of Soul Hate

“M aineri! Patricelli! Halice!”

The chant is deafening. It bounces from every surface. It echoes in every corner. The city is shaking with the strength of its people. They refuse to be conquered. They refuse to surrender.

Their defiance and strength is true divinity. The most incredible privilege to experience, an honour to witness.

I’ve done all I can now. The rest is up to them.

I have little doubt of the outcome.

Bellandi is pale as stone, marching across the tiled floors. His ridiculous black and white robes flail around him, the hems still spattered with Collier’s blood. He grips his head, spinning on the spot as if the answer might magically appear.

The Militia gripping me are not kind. Their fingers bite into my arms like teeth, yet the pain doesn’t stop the smirk painted across my lips. Seeing Bellandi’s distress is a savage kind of nectar.

Bellandi spots me, fear fleeing from his face. With teeth bared and eyes narrowed, he stalks towards me. His skin slowly turns red.

“You think you’ve won? You think you’ve done something? The army will be here soon. I just have to wait it out.” Spittle flies from his lips, eyes bulging from their sockets.

“Even if you can, your Militia can’t,” I chuckle. “When that army arrives to see closed gates, then receives word that you are dead, that the city chewed up your zealots and spat them back to the gutter … do you really think they’ll continue? They aren’t expecting a real fight. You didn’t pay them for it.”

Bellandi’s back hand comes with such force I’d have been swept off my feet if it weren’t for the Militia’s painful grip on my arms. The slap ricochets around the hall. My head is flung sideways, my jaw straining under the jarring motion.

Pain floods my face, my cheek raw and stinging. My lips split open and copper coats my tongue.

I turn back, a laugh spilling from my broken lips and swirling with the blood.

“Isn’t it funny how facing the truth can bring out the violence in weaker men? They rarely react so viscerally to lies. But the truth? Even if they’re afraid to admit it? Oh how they erupt,” I muse softly. “Violence is the mark of a weak man’s truth.”

I look him in the eye. If this is my last moment, I’ll make it strong. If this is it, I shall die on my feet. Fighting till the very end.

I dig deep into the adrenalin flying around my body. My heart hammers like a stampede.

Banging starts at the doors. Dust falls from the ceiling. Windows start to smash as projectiles are launched inside. Diamond fragments fall in a river of gushing sunshine. Violent screams ring around this hallowed chamber. Bellandi grabs my face with one hand, digging his nails into the soft flesh of my cheeks. Metal, sharp as a razor, is pushed against the base of my throat and a trail of hot, sticky blood slowly starts to leak down my front.

“You think you’re better than me?” Bellandi snarls. “Huh? You’re going to die here, just like me. You’re going to bleed out on this cold, unforgiving stone. I’m going to kill you, just like I killed your father. You’ll die here, alone and in agony.”

Disgust itches at my fingertips. Bile slowly crawls up my throat. My breath turns blistering and sharp.

I smile, embracing that familiar fire. “I’m not alone.”

Bellandi wrinkles his nose. “Well, there’s some good in this. At least I can finally shut you up.”

Bellandi pulls his blade back, ready to strike.

Idris leaps down from the balcony around the bells, crashing on top of Bellandi as he falls. Bellandi slashes the knife wildly at me as they tumble. Agony explodes from my thigh and a shrill scream leaks from my lip. Crimson runs from the wound, the handle of the knife still protruding from the deep gash. I collapse to the floor, barely able to stand the pain tearing up and down my body. Bellandi kicks Idris off him. Two Militia grapple with Idris as Bellandi sprints off towards the stairs.

I grit my teeth and wrap my hand around the knife handle. I suck in a breath and yank hard, a roar escaping my lips as I spin and drive the dripping red blade into one of the Militia’s back. I tear it free, wrapping my arm around and slicing at his neck. The solider stops fighting, clawing at his throat as fresh, dark blood explodes forwards. A weaponless Idris quickly manages the last one, slamming his opponents head into the ground over and over.

Bile claws up my throat. My leg screams. My fingers itch with rage.

What’s a little more? It would be so easy. No one would ever have to know.

Just some more blood.

More. More.

Idris gets to his feet, and I roll over, clenching my eyes shut.

“Get him! He ran to the stairs!” I pant, hand clamping over the wound on my leg.

“Together. Come on! We need to finish this together.”

“I can’t—” I gasp.

Idris stalks towards me, collapsing to his knees. He grabs my face with both hands, slamming his mouth down against mine. A bonfire surges through my blood. The rage, the fight sinking its teeth into every fibre of my being as he rips his punishing mouth from mine.

“You are stronger than any gods-cursed bond. Fate’s Fury I would know,” Idris says, gently shaking my head as he speaks. “Now get up and finish this!”

Finish this. For my father. For my friends.

For Halice.

I lock my gaze on the stairs Bellandi ran for. A surge of energy floods through my limbs. Fresh tears well in my eyes, frustration, loathing, grief, all brimming over. Above them all is rage. Fierce and brutal.

Idris grips my arm, hauling me to my feet. Gasping for breath, fresh pain splinters up my body. I take a step. My heart hammers in my ears. My skin ripples with sparks. My pulse itches at the tips of my fingers.

Half running, half lurching, we hunt down Bellandi. Idris is in step beside me, that familiar dark magnet always hovering at the edge of my vision. I know he’s holding back, making sure I’m with him every inch of the way. But for once, I can’t hear the whispers. That itching has faded into the background. Instead, I’m consumed with a visceral urge to avenge my city. The need to find justice for my family thrums in every step.

In tandem we march up the spiral wood staircase towards the roof, Bellandi’s only possible path. Gasping for breath, my lungs ache as my feet hobble over the wooden stairs. Blood slips down my leg, leaving a bloody footprint trail in my wake.

“Come on. Come on,” encourages Idris, as I use the banister to haul myself faster and faster up the steps. Teeth gritted, my face slick with tears and sweat, I scream with effort and leap for the door to the roof.

Nothing.

I turn the handle.

Locked. Bellandi locked it.

“Together,” shouts Idris, launching his full body weight at the wood. Nodding, twisting my head away from him. I summon my strength and drive my shoulder into the door, the hinges cracking.

The hinges.

Behind me, Idris slams his body into the door again as I reach for the hinges with my blood-coated fingers, yanking out the pins. I shove it ajar. Idris does the rest, forcing the door away as in tandem we strike across the roof.

The sunshine is blinding. Above us is nothing but raw blue sky. In the centre, the glass dome of this building towers over us, our small section of roof overlooking the technicolour square.

At the far end of the building is Bellandi, still as a statue and staring over the crowd. They’re raging against him, booing and hurling slurs. Calling for his blood. Trying to launch objects at him but he’s too high.

Idris and I stalk towards him. The second we’re in sight of the crowd, they go wild. It’s deafening. Their voices crash over us like a tsunami, thrumming with my galloping pulse. We ready ourselves facing Bellandi, who slowly turns to see us.

He trembles, swallowing softly. He raises his hands to us, each digit shaking.

“You can’t kill me. The Holy Mother will never forgive you.”

“I can live with that,” Idris answers, cold steel etched into his tone.

“Halice will be excommunicated,” Bellandi breathes.

“Then we’ll handle that too,” I rebuff. How, I have no earthly idea. We’ll have to cross that bridge later. But when I do, I have no doubt Idris will be there, like he is now, fighting right beside me.

“Alive, I’m a bargaining piece. You could trade me back to the Holy Mother in exchange for leniency.”

Idris steps closer to him, and Bellandi falls silent, eyes wide with fear.

“You slaughtered our families. Our friends. Do you think you get to walk away from that?” Idris’s calm tone portrays the inevitability of the outcome. Bellandi shakes his head, face twisting as he launches for us. Idris tenses and tackles him to the floor. I dive left, grabbing hold of a discarded maintenance rope from one side. Idris wrestles Bellandi onto his front, flat against the roof. The whispers run rampant in my mind as the shadows of my Soulhate and my nemesis grapple. I tighten my fingers around the dry rope, before marching closer.

“No! No, please!” shouts Bellandi as I tie one end of the rope to a hooked anchor driven into the roof. Typically they’re meant to support decorative banners. Today, it will be my gallows.

The other end, I deftly fashion into a noose. Idris wrestles Bellandi to his feet, and walks him towards the edge of the building. I march forwards, slipping the rope around Bellandi’s neck.

“I, Member Renza Di Maineri, last standing Electi of Halice, sentence you to death for treason. May Fate grant you mercy, for I have none.”

I step back.

“No! No, you can’t! No!”

Idris boots Bellandi over the edge of the roof.

Bellandi screams all the way down.

Then snaps silent.

The crowd erupts, cheering and waving.

“Maineri! Patricelli! Halice!”

“Maineri! Patricelli! Halice!”

Panting, my chest swells and my eyes sting. Tears blur the edges of the world as I fight the urge to double over and sob.

It’s done. We did it.

Halice fought back.

With Idris to my left, we both stare out over the people. Our people. Their love. Their strength. It’s more than I could ever have imagined.

“The people … they fought. For us,” Idris whispers in awe.

“We’re Halicians. We look after each other.”

I wrap my fingers around his hand. I launch our linked hands into the sky, fingers interlocked tight.

Because we did this together. No gods in heaven, nor monsters on earth were strong enough to break us. They did their best.

We did better.

And the whole world will know it.