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Chapter 63

And the Beast stops, suddenly, it's foot still suspended inches over Coal's bloody form, as if the creature has indecision. Terrified, my fingers still clutch the hilt of the blade, even as blood soaks my hands and sleeves by the second.
For one heart pounding moment, the Beast is frozen, deathly still, and I'm horrified to think it might not be dead, or worse, might collapse on top of Coal. Then it's entire form sags, all the muscles giving out, and enormous, monstrous Beast falls to the ground with a thud that rattles my teeth.
I blink, stunned that I actually did that- I, me, Ash of the Wold, I killed the Beast that even Coal the great warrior Prince couldn't do away with. Me!
My eyes fall on Coal, and I suddenly want to run to him- But I can't, not yet.
Straightening my back, I yank the blood-soaked sword from the Beast's bruised and bloodied corpse, and raised my chin, lifting the crimson blade and glaring out defiantly at the now-silent audience, daring them to charge, and I spin slowly in a full circle, until I once again facing Coal.
I'm all too aware that the whole thing is a major bluff- Me and Coal gave all we had to tear down one of these things- Now take an entire army, all of them focused on us- No, if they charge, it will be the end. The very end.
But, after a moment, one of the Beasts whimpers, and scurries- if 'scurry' is the right word for a three-ton monster- away, into the mist that conceals the edge of the Bowl from view. After that, the crowd rapidly dissipates, shrinking, until the very last monster has turned and hightailed it away. We've killed their Alpha... That makes us a threat. Mostly because they're not smart enough to realize I was, like, totally bluffing.
I stand for a moment in disbelief, still trying to comprehend what just happened, before Coal moans to my side, loudly, and I jump, jerked out of my trance. My mind registers the blood, and I'm there in a heartbeat, kneeling by his side because my legs really can't support me anymore.
"No..." I murmur, staring blankly down at Coal's shredded chest. Three long, jagged claw-marks run from his right shoulder down to his left hip, having torn right through vest, shirt and flesh. The size of the red rose blossoming on his chest quickly grows, until his entire shirt and his vest are both dripping crimson liquid onto the stone.
Forcing my fumbling, shaking fingers into action, I go to strip off his shirt, before realizing I'm still holding his sword, which I cast away to the side, desperately ripping the shredded, bloody rag from his body with a strength I shouldn't have. Once I throw the remnants of his fancy shirt to the ground, I immediately regret it for multiple reasons... Bare-chested Coal= No focus for moi... But mostly (I said 'mostly'!) because the wound looks even worse now, when it's truly unveiled.
The center scar is almost two feet long, the scars on the side slightly shorter. Each of them is about half an inch wide, and twice as deep. In other words, it's as fatal as a wound can get without instantly killing you.
"Coal..." I mumble, my face suddenly feeling numb. Oh my God- For the first time, I feel like I'm actually losing Coal. This isn't like all the other times- Because those times, I had hope. But now, when I look down at him, his face turning white from blood-loss, I feel as if I'm like that, the hope draining from me.
He opens his eyes when I utter his name, squinting up at my face, even though there's hardly any sunlight, and any that makes it through the clouds has lost it's blinding qualities.
"What... How...?" He barely moves his lips, his voice ragged, but his eyes dart about, taking in the scene, the dead Beast, the absence of the pack. His eyes... Focusing.
"I- I did it. With your sword." I stammer, scared half to death that he's going to die on me. When I search myself for a reason, however, all I find is confusion... Why do I fear for him? He's a lying scoundrel, and I need Stone, anyways, not Coal... So all evidence says I shouldn't care, shouldn't give a crap if he dies. But I do.
He manages to raise an eyebrow, but he doesn't remark on my feat. Even when he's on death's doorstep, he refuses to acknowledge my accomplishments. See!? This is exactly what I'm getting at! Why should I care if he dies?
"Ash," He startles me when he grips my arm. I try to pull away, but he holds me with a firm grip, too strong for me, which I find insulting, because I'm not the one on my death bed. Well, I guess I really am, but at least I'm not bleeding a waterfall. "I need you to do something."
"N-" I start, sick of him telling me what to do, but he continues as if I haven't spoken- Or maybe he just knows I'll argue anyways.
"For me."
I feel like retorting, "How the heck should that make a difference?!" But I don't. Maybe it's because Coal is amazingly good-looking and persuasive, and somehow manages to look hot even when he's dying and covered in blood... Or maybe I see a little bit of Stone flash in his eyes, that same gentleness... Whatever the reason, I say instead, "What?"
"Kill the Rulers." He says with surprising resolve. My heart stops. That's exactly the same thing Clay said to him, when he was dying, lying there, on this same mountain... And now that Coal is dying, the task comes to me... What would Clay have said if he had known the young man with the wolf-ears was actually a Ruler himself?
"Kill them, and the Order dies with them. With no Rulers, the Royal blood line will be dead, gone." He seems to forget to mention that the Royal bloodline will only truly be gone with him dead as well...
"I- I'll try..." I answer just as he answered to Clay... How long ago was that? Days? Hours? Or was it years? I can't even remember... My mind feels blurry...
"Good," He grunts, looking relieved. The scar on his face is vivid against his blanched skin, like a bolt of lightning striking down from the dark thunder clouds that are tufts of his hair... No, that's stupid, forget I even said that... "And-" He winces in pain, closing his eyes, when a sudden and harsh gust of wind blows in, striking the raw and exposed tissue on his chest.
"And?!" I urge him on, desperate to know, for some reason. I figure my life is so messed up, there's no point anymore to even try and figure it all out, so I'm just gonna go with from now on.
"And..." He opens his eyes, staring up directly into mine, giving me that weird sense of vertigo again, like I'm falling, forever and ever, tumbling for an eternity into their endless depths... "I-I-I think," He stammers, but neither of us blink, or try to draw our gaze away from the other. I won't break the spell, the spell that shows me Stone's eyes again. Another gust of wind blows by, but he doesn't react this time, which should concern me, but his eyes hold me, even as his hair rustles and blows over one.
"I think I-I might-" He grimaces suddenly, in pain, closing his eyes, and when he reopens them, it's Coal, and his eyes are hard, impossible to penetrate. "Like you. I think I might like you." He finishes lamely. I snort.
"You think you might like me?!"
He looks almost hurt. "Is that a bad thing?"
I laugh out loud, albeit somewhat hysterically. "A bad thing? I don't know, you tell me!"
"Wh-" He begins, confused, but I cut him off.
"Do you even know how much I love-" I close my eyes for a second, but I can't say the word. Maybe, once, I could have, but that was before I saw who he really was... Who Stone, really is... "-ed you?" I force myself to choke out the word anyways. "I loved Stone, Coal! I loved you! But..." My eyes venture to the scar running up his face, to the spiky black crown branded on his neck. "You're not Stone..."
Eventually, in the silence, broken only by the rustling of the wind, and the strange moaning sounds it makes through the Bowl, I look back up into his eyes. "Why did you do it? Why did you lie? Why didn't you kill me when you had the chance?"
"Well," He coughs, and, is it my imagination, or is his voice slightly fainter, like he's fading...? "One thing," He raises one hand and runs it through my long brown hair, which cascades over my shoulders, caked with mud and blood and any other crap we've come across in the past week. "You're- You're not bad... You're actually, a little... A little beautiful..."
I raise an eyebrow, not convinced, even though he's still bare-chested... Though, I admit, that gives him the unfair advantage of persuasion... You can't argue with a male-model. But I'm still mad. So he didn't kill me because I'm 'not bad'?! What the heck!?
"A little?" I press instead, staring doubtfully into his large eyes, in which I can see my reflection, and, let me tell you, that's not my idea of beautiful, even a little bit.
"But you're more than that," He continues as if I didn't speak... I'm beginning to doubt he can hear me anyways. "You're... You're smart- No, cunning, deceptively clever," Suddenly it's all tumbling out in a rush, like he can't stop himself from praising me... Which, I don't object to, for the record... "You're untrusting and distant, which just makes me have to try harder to get you to like me! You're good enough with- Whatever, to escape from the freaking Exams, which is impossible! Even I couldn't do that!" He says incredulously, like I should be extremely proud especially if the amazing Coal couldn't do it. "You're not bad with a bow, you're tough enough to handle an infected bullet wound without tears, sensitive enough to cry over Bow and Clay's deaths, but you're hard-core enough take out a fully-grown Beast in hand-to-hand combat! You're the only girl I've ever met who can freak out in front of a crowd one day, then stand and give a speech the next! You have..." He looks me up and down, brow furrowed, as if searching for anything else he can say to describe me. "Cat ears..." Suddenly, I snort, then find myself cracking up, my chest shaking so hard it's painful. My arms shake, I'm forced to prop myself up on my elbows next to him. For some reason, the statement just strikes me as funny, and he's smiling too, through his impassive mask, and I don't know anymore if it's Stone or Coal or if there ever was really one or the other or they've always existed inside the other...
"I couldn't kill you, because I fell in love with the cat-eared girl." He finishes quietly, half-hoping I won't hear him. "And now everything's how it should be."
My laughter vanishes at once. "Don't say that!" I would punch him, lightly, but I can't see any place on him that's not bruised or broken or bloody. "We're both dying!! How is this right!?"
"No, I'm dying." He says sharply, glaring at me, his voice growing fainter every passing moment, his breathing shallower, his face paler, the ground becoming more red. "You're going to live on and start the rebellion that vanquishes the Order."
"How is you dying right?!"
"I have to die..." He says, more to himself than anybody. "For the Order to fall, the Royal line must also die... Once I'm dead, you have to take down the Rulers..." I notice he doesn't even refer to them as his parents. They don't seem to mean much to him.
"But you're only half-Ruler!" I protest, simply arguing for the sake of argument.
"I have to die, though..." He says softly, staring up at some spot in the sky which is apparently quite fascinating. "If I don't, even if the Rulers are defeated, the Order won't fall, because the line will still live on... And if I were someday to have children," It might just be me at this point, but I can swear his eyes flash over to me for a second, before he focuses again on his favorite patch of sky. "The line would be continued... We can't let that happen..." His eyes meet mine again. "Ash, you have to keep going." He says simply, and I'm about to harp on him for getting to the point now, when his eyes close.
My scream is silent, because then the dark clouds at the edges of my vision cloud everything, and I can no longer see anything, I'm blind to the world. I don't even remember collapsing, but I must, because suddenly I have no power over any of my muscles, and the last thing I see is Coal's face, inches from mine...
All is dark and silent.