Mythic (NaNoWriMo14)

Chapter 38 - Ashes

Cayden...

Cayden couldn't breathe. Each one choked in his throat. It was a struggle to draw the next lot of air, to force it down as his eyes stung. His fingers clenched around the kitsune's motionless body, digging into her still seeping fur. There were so many. So many gouges that ruined her fur, so many that shouldn't have hit, brought on by the valkyries vindictive judgement. 

He stroked Rena's fox-like face with a shaking hand, half believing that her chest would rise any moment, that she'd open her eyes or lift her head. His mind refused to accept that she was gone. It didn't seem possible. Didn't seem fair. 

Cayden squeezed his eyes shut, releasing droplets that clung to his lashes. When he opened them again, he wasn't brave enough to look at her body. Instead, he turned his head away, directing his gaze at something, anything that wasn't her, only to find Nazine's eyes locked on Rena's body. 

Two Unbounds marched Nazine from the portal's edge and tried to slot him into a free space in the lines of the kneeling, surrendered Mythics and bound ley guards alike now audience to the portal. As they placed a hand on his shoulder, forcing him to his knees, Nazine broke free of their grip and ran towards Cayden, stumbling over more than one person in the process. 

The Unbounds chased him down, but as Nazine crashed to his knees beside Rena, Cayden caught their shared glance, their uncomfortable gazes as they decided to leave him and returned to their posts. 

"Rena," whispered Nazine, running his fingers over her side, staining his skin with her blood. Tears escaped from the corners of his eyes. "Cayden, please, tell me she isn't dead. Please." 

Cayden just shook his head. "The djinn told the Unbounds to kill me. She took them down, but it cost her. The valkyrie got her revenge."

Nazine curled up on his shins, wrapping his arms around his bent knees and pressing his forehead to the ground as silent sobs wracked his shoulders. 

Cayden felt nothing. He was empty as he'd been when the bond had broken, when Rena's thoughts, however primal, had been torn from his own. The difference was significant. 

Over the heads of the kneeling audience, Cayden saw the djinn take the edge of the portal and spread his arms wide the way he did whenever he was about to tell the world how bad the humans were and how justified the Mythics were in taking as many lives as it took--even the lives of their own kin. 

"Brothers and sisters!" he said, sending a hot coil of anger through Cayden's gut. He had the nerve to call them that when he'd just as soon turn on his own because she'd associated herself with a human, regardless of the purpose behind it? "I understand you must be frightened, and I understand how you must be feeling, on your knees before an unknown power. But I ask of you, have you not been living this way your entire lives?" 

Confused murmurs rose up from the crowd as the djinn began to pace, little sparks of ley flying from his robes as his white hair gleamed under the portal's light. 

"The Order," said the djinn. "From birth, they have raised you. Trained you--not to embrace your own abilities, but to fear them. Suppress them, or face the consequences. Unbounds go missing. They disappear."

Someone in the crowd disagreed. Cayden didn't hear what they said. Only the djinn's voice carried over the distance with any clarity. 

The djinn scowled. "I am not speaking to the human scum that hold you. I am speaking to the Mythic inside each of you. The Mythic who has yearned for control, for freedom! I am here to give you that, to release you from the shackles the Order has placed upon you!" 

Cayden tuned out the speech. He'd heard it all before. If it followed the same format as the first time, after the speech, the djinn would claim the 'defilers' needed to pay for their crimes and promptly execute them. Maybe for this special occasion, he'd keep them to witness his reclamation before he killed them.