The Darkest One

The Darkest One Ch. 29 End of a Brother (Part 1) (Edited)

Chapter 28 End of a Brother (Part 1)

I had barely gotten to my feet when it happened. A loud, cursing, groan resonated from behind me and then the audible crack. The heaviness no longer impeded me and I spun around. The whole time I thought I had been in a clearing. I wasn’t, we were at the wall.

I watched as one jagged piece fell to the ground and was followed by others. Then the water came.

I felt myself fell to the ground, it was unforgiving, and rolled on my back. My wings were tucked awkwardly beneath me and Grimshaw stood above me, “You pushed me!” I yelled.

“I have done much worse,” He said, “And you can’t win a war without a little pushing.”

Slowly, I stood back up. “What are you doing?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Grimshaw motioned to wall but I didn’t dare to turn my back on him again. He was dressed lavishly, as if he was attending a grand ball. “We are finally giving the world the justice it deserves.”

“Way to be cryptic.”

“Oh, that’s right,” He said apologetically, “You’ve been out for a while haven’t you?”

Looking behind him, everyone had gone into a panic. I saw Emma fighting with a few other witches and blue wisps of magic would join the red ones. Tyler and Vincent were holding their own against a few wall patrolmen. Other witches and warlocks were running all about; fending off other wall patrols and my family was still bound, but moving. Damien was nowhere in sight.

“Emilia! Pay attention.” Grimshaw snapped, “I shall only say this once.” He lunged. I dodged. He lunged again. I dodged again. It became an intricate pattern of sidesteps and lunges until we faced off with each. He took a step left and I went right.

“I thought you were trying to gloat before you killed me.” I struggled to distract him. I wouldn’t be able to beat him, not in a fight. He was a demon, and I couldn’t even beat Damien.

“Well, if I must. You see, I taught Damien a very neat trick a few days before you ran off with Kole.” He started. “I call it amoveatur onus, or removing a burden. Basically I taught him to remove yours, and Kole’s burden.”

“You mean our power to control water and fire.”

He nodded, “Once it was out, it had to go somewhere. That kind of energy is unstable in the world. Naturally Damien took the bullet and the energy surged through him.”

“You make it sound like he made a huge sacrifice.”

“You don’t believe me.”

“No.”

“You really should. Amoveatur onus, is a very trying process. It is not hard to remove the burden, but that energy is displaced, even if it absorbed into something else, like Damien’s own body. That energy will only ever have one home, the host. The host is the only one that can dispel the energy without any harm coming to him, or her, or the world. Damien and I were very tempted to just let the energy he gathered from you wreak havoc, but we needed your powers.”

“Why would you need my powers?”

“Why wouldn’t we need your powers?” Grimshaw said cheerfully, “Water covers 75% of the world. Wouldn’t it just be horrible if it somehow all got displaced somehow?”

“What did you do?” I was horrified. He looked so damn happy to see the end of the world coming.

“Damien has set the world ablaze,” He grinned. “It was quite easy. Damien had all three powers, earth, water, fire… All he had to do was use them. And he used them very well. Huge earthquakes, in key locations; popular cities, important monuments, areas that would displace large quantities of water; you get the drift?”