Secrets and Sins Part 2: Finding Mary

Chapter 55

~Beatrice~

“AVA STOP!”

Her shout slowed the younger woman’s arm but didn't completely halt the killing blow. Beatrice rushed towards her girlfriend, wounds screaming at her to cease. The floor was as slick with blood in here as it was out in the hall, but the sister warrior didn’t let it reduce her speed.

Beatrice was within a few meters when it became apparent that she would not reach Ava in time to physically stop her. Her only option was to get the Halo bearer to look at her, even for just a moment, and try to convince her to spare the Pope’s life.

“Ava, please stop! For me! Please!” She begged, her feet caught on something white lying in her path, tripping her.

Stopping her fall with her hands, Beatrice’s gaze was torn from her girlfriend when a jolt of pain ripped across her chest. Trying to breathe through the agony, her eyes found what she stumbled on, and she gasped with horror.

Is that…?

She would recognize the snow-white feathers anywhere, even now when they were drenched with scarlet and not attached to their owner. Her heart climbed into her throat.

“Bea?”

Beatrice’s eyes snapped forward at the familiar but dissonant voice and her breathing stuttered. Ava was facing her now and the sister warrior nearly recoiled in terror. The younger woman surveyed her with solid gold eyes, expression twisted into one of grief and rage. With her mismatched wings, her taloned hands and the eerie glow emitting from her skin, the Halo bearer looked otherworldly in a wild, sinister way. 

What happened to her?

“Ava…” Beatrice couldn’t remember what she was going to say, the words dying in her throat at her girlfriend’s alarming appearance.

Ava regarded her for a moment longer before her face changed, all anguish and fury evaporating, leaving behind an impassive mask. Beatrice felt sick, seeing the younger woman cold and emotionless was somehow worse than seeing her suffering. Ava was not Ava if she wasn’t wearing her heart on her sleeve.

“You’re not real. You’re dead.” Ava began to turn back to the Pope, who had been trying to discreetly drag himself away from her.

“No!” The sister warrior struggled to her feet, the room spinning around her, “I’m real, I’m here…”

Ava ignored her completely, sword raised once again.

Beatrice staggered closer, she couldn’t let this happen, she refused to. The interruption had given her the time she needed to close the distance between them.

Here goes nothing…

Gritting her teeth to shut out her pain, the sister warrior seized her girlfriend’s wrist. It was like holding a metal cable, stiff and unyielding under her fingertips. Ava’s skin was hot to the touch, almost uncomfortably so. And as she held onto her, Beatrice could see little snakes of golden power travelling through her girlfriend’s veins down to where they had contact. She sucked in a sharp breath as the first one reached her hand and gave her a zap, not unlike a shock from an electric fence.

It’s trying to force me to release her.

“Let go.” Ava’s unnerving voice was almost inaudible when she spoke, the Halo bearer kept her solid gold eyes trained straight at the Pope’s terrified face.

“No. I won’t let you do this.” Beatrice knew she literally had minutes left before she lost consciousness, the sister warrior wasn’t really even sure how she had made it this long.