Dimokre Chronicles Book 2: Sarah's Fate

Chapter 29 - Getting Jade Eye Back

Sarah stumbled back into the cage, watching Huntress anxiously. She strained, trying desperately to see the future. Flashes of blood and Huntress's face were all she could see, and they didn't make her feel better.

The gems on Jade Eye cracked and shattered. Sarah expected liquid to leak out. Instead, the gems' colors stopped swirling and faded as soon as they broke. The heat Huntress poured into the hilt spread up to the blade. Sarah felt the heat as her own sword pointed at her.

Huntress shifted the sword to her other hand, revealing she caught most of the broken shards in her glove. Huntress glanced over at Michael's cage to make sure he was watching. Finding that he was, she kicked Sarah in the chest.

Sarah slammed against the cage bars and collapsed to the ground. She got up, raising her fists to protect her face.

"Cute," Huntress said. She lunged forward and slashed Sarah's shin.

Searing pain shot through her leg. She grimaced, clasping her hands over the wound to keep the blood in. Michael yelled for her and grabbed at her cage. He tried desperately to pick it. She tried to yell that she was okay, but Huntress shoved the sword's broken gems inside her mouth. The shards scraped against her tongue and scratched the top of her mouth. Sarah tried to cough, but Huntress wrapped her arm around her head with her other hand clasped over Sarah's mouth.

Tears flooded from her eyes, and she was sure she was about to faint from the pain. Then, Huntress pulled away. Sarah turned and coughed. Shards mixed with blood and spit splashed onto the floor.

Huntress smiled, looking at Jade Eye. Or rather, Michael's reflection in the blade. Sarah could see his eyes becoming black. She tried to tell him she was okay. Her healing fairy will get her through this. But her voice wouldn't come out, and whenever she tried, the gem dust she couldn't get out scraped against her throat and into the cuts and gashes already there.

Huntress squatted down to be eye-level with her. "Sorry, can't let you lie to calm him down. The truth is, Sarah, you don't look so good."

"He'll kill you; stop," Sarah said, but it came out as more of an unintelligible groan than an understandable sentence. She leaned over and vomited. Blood and bile dripped down her shirt when she sat up, and she leaned against the cage's back, exhausted.

Huntress brought a finger to her lips. "Sh, darling. Try not to speak. The pain you're in, it won't last much longer, okay?" Her voice was gentle, like she was really trying to calm her down.

Sarah panicked. She didn't need her future seeing back at full-power to know that her short-lasting pain would be ended by death, not healing. Hyperventilating made her throat hurt more. The air stung her cuts.

Huntress lifted up her hand, tilting her fingers slightly to reveal a long piece of the gem between her index and middle fingers. She flicked it around, pinching it with her thumb, and pressed it into Sarah's wounded shin. Huntress's face was even, blank as she twisted it.

A hoarse, scream-like groan escaped Sarah's torn throat. Sarah's hands clambered for Huntress, desperately trying to push her away, grab her hair, something. However, Huntress simply took her hands and pressed them against the bars, twisting and breaking Sarah's wrists as she did.

Sarah sobbed, and her eyes rolled back, but a smooth, refreshingly cool feeling washed over her, like drinking milk after eating something spicy. Sarah's eyes looked hazily at Huntress's face, down to her hands surrounded by a glowing blue aura.

Is she... healing me...?

"Don't faint, dearie," Huntress whispered to her. "Feeling better?"

Sarah whimpered, trying to get away from her. Her eyes drifted away from Huntress to the man next to her. She didn't notice him arrive, and Huntress didn't seem to notice him at all. How did he get inside the cage...?

The pain melted away, and the man neared.

He was tall and slender. His long, thin black hair fell to his shoulders, and his bangs were lazily pushed back over his head and clipped there. Some strands of hair were messily tied together, dangling past his cheekbones. A silver earring clipped to the top of his right ear. His long-bridged nose was slender and divided his face evenly. He frowned, but it wasn't an angry or upset frown. It was just a... bored, quiet sort of frown. The frown and his scruffy beard were almost hidden by a wide, thin gray scarf that was wrapped around his neck and dangled behind his back. His skin was gray-ish pale, and his narrowed, black eyes looked dull yet gentle. He had a sort of apathetic kindness to him. He wore a black, long-sleeved tunic and black pants that were so long Sarah couldn't see his shoes.

Sarah's breathing sharpened. Help me, she tried to say, but her voice had vanished by now. Based on his facial expression, she wasn't sure he would've helped her anyway.

"You can see him now, can't you?" Huntress asked calmly.

Sarah's eyes slowly returned to look at Huntress.

"You can," Huntress answered her own question, a fond delight in her voice.

Sarah managed to a whimper out faintly, "Yes...?"

"I think everyone's ready then. Are you?" Huntress asked.

I want the pain to stop. Someone, make the pain stop.

Sarah nodded, grimacing at the gem dust grating in her mouth as she did.

"Good." Huntress seized Sarah and threw her body against the cage's side facing Michael's.

Sarah sunk to the ground, unable to move. Pain seared and ached through her whole body. She could feel every bruise, every broken bone, every gem fragment, every cut. She could hear a beast's growl as Jade Eye's blade crashed through her heart.