Engines of Alchemancy (The Alchemancer Book One)

Chapter 19. The Last Hunt

FLAMING DEBRIS FELL LIKE RAIN around Aaron, Ensel Rhe, and Serena while heat from the furnace that Wildemoore had become blasted their backsides. Aaron, who huddled on the ground with his arms over his head, dared not remain so a moment longer, for in the microcosm of time right before Ansanom's manor had exploded, he'd seen the houndmaster coming for them.

Coming for him.

Still coming, Aaron saw, as he raised his head to see that the blast had done nothing to slow the houndmaster's advance.

Aaron pushed himself away from the others, who were unmoving, and tried to rise. But quivering legs would not support him, and his whole body shook as echoes of the explosion coursed through him. There was nowhere to go, anyway. On one side, tongues of flame from Wildemoore's burning wreckage licked the sky. On the other, twin embers from beneath that terrible horned helm burned into him. Aaron need not turn to see those eyes, for he felt them, singeing his skin, burning him, causing him pain. So much pain he almost found himself unable to do anything but writhe on the ground. He rolled to his back, though, just in time to see the demon with his butcher's blade standing over him. Ember eyes flared, and Aaron, unable to stand the pain any longer, cried out.

Pain.

He realized he'd not truly experienced it until now. Pain wasn't a simple cut or bruise. It wasn't the name-calling he'd endured, or the bullying, or even the isolation of not fitting in. Real pain was watching someone you loved slip away without being able to stop it from happening. Real pain was seeing your home laid waste, witnessing the deaths of so many, then being chased across Uhl for reasons that made no sense. Real pain was betrayal. Aaron had endured all of it. He had survived, but only because of others. Now, those others were gone or debilitated. There was nothing separating him from what came next. Nothing except for the charm given to him by the witch, Ursool.

Aaron's hand went to the tooth that still hung around his neck. By reflex, his hand shot away, for it was the source of his sudden pain. A shocked instant passed before he grabbed hold of it again. This time, he ignored the sensation stabbing into him. He saw right away it was stained with blood. His blood, from the wound on his hand that still oozed. He'd touched the tooth down in the laboratory once free, and again as they'd run up the stairs to escape before the extraction engine exploded. But though the houndmaster had stood nearly this close to him before, the tooth had previously remained inert. The difference now was Aaron's blood coating the smooth, enameled surface and mixed with the dark stain that had already been there since he'd received the charm from Ursool. The witch had called the tooth a middling charm. Though Aaron had puzzled over the distinction before, only now did he grasp its full meaning. Blood was the activating agent, and the tooth was a middling—a connecting medium—between two entities. Those two entities were Aaron and Krosus. But they had not completed the connection between them. Not yet.

Realization alone would not sway Krosus's sword and so his blade fell. Aaron scrambled away, just avoiding it. As the houndmaster readied his weapon for another attack, Aaron jumped into a crouch, then leaped at him. Holding the tooth like a knife, he slashed Krosus's unprotected thigh even as he squirmed between the demon's legs. Aaron kept moving, putting some distance between them before he finally stood. As he turned, he held the tooth up, elated and dismayed at the same time to see the demon's blood mixed with his own. Krosus's crimson eyes flared. The sword drew back and the hounds, who thus far had been content to let their master complete their task, grew unsettled. They were behind Aaron, cutting off escape. It didn't matter. Aaron wasn't running anymore. He held the tooth before him as if it were a knife and waited for whatever came next.

What came next was nothing. Krosus and his hounds stopped.

Aaron let out a slow breath, wondering if any sudden movement of his might undo what he had just done. He took another breath, realizing for the first time how thunderous his heart beat in his chest. Though several of the dogs pawed at the ground and whined with steaming breaths, there was no untoward movement from either them or their master.