A Darkening Honor

Chapter 17

Callum hadn't recognized what was in the vial Lydian held, but her words had made him uneasy. He would have to find out what she meant later, after he had completed his mission. It was the only way to keep her safe. His mother had sent him a message, while Lydian was dreaming. She knew about Lydian, and that Callum would protect her with his life.

Callum reformed from smoke in the hallway leading to the throne room, and quickly and quietly killed the soldiers guarding the doors. He had been forced to make a deal. In exchange for Lydian's life, one last mission. Then he was free. He just had to survive his task.

He heard the running of footsteps down the hall, but he paused to take a deep breath, slow, purposeful, before brandishing his knife and entering the throne room. They hadn't cleaned up the Dreambender's blood.

Callum was faced with an immediate onslaught of soldiers, but he simply smiled and dissipated, reforming behind the closest one and knocking him out with the hilt of his blade. Before the others could reach him, he had grabbed the man's sword and barred the door with it to keep their backup out.

He dissipated once more, hearing the men's shouts of confusion, but he paid them no mind. They could not harm him. Outnumbered, in a locked room with the most powerful man in the world and three of his soldiers, and Callum was still the most dangerous one there. He was going to succeed, felt it in his bones as he stalked the King in his throne from behind, who was starting to panic, looking wildly about the room for him, reached his arm around the chair and placed his blade deftly under the man's chin.

The soldiers froze. Even their backup stopped pounding at the door. Callum stared at the men in front of him.

"You come closer, I kill him." The men nodded. "Throw down your weapons." This they hesitated at, but the King barked at them to do so, and they slowly, one by one, dropped their blades to the floor. Callum held up his unoccupied hand. "Sleep," he commanded, and they did, dropping like stones to the floor.

The King was scared now, Callum could feel it in the way he shook under his touch.

"You killed the Dreambender," Callum said. "You burned my people, murdered them, try to eradicate us every day. This is your recompense."

Just then, a side door Callum had forgotten about, burst open, and Alexei ran in, already pulling his sword out when Callum tilted the blade ever so slightly, so that it caught the light, and Alexei blanched, and froze.

"How did you get out?" he whispered.

"I'm demon, yes," Callum said. "But I'm man, too. Those cuffs won't hold me." He grinned. "They never did." He felt the King shake with anger beneath his arm.

"You killed my sons," he said. Callum nodded, watched Alexei's face twist into rage.

"I did," Callum claimed, and then he slit the man's throat, and let him bleed onto the floor. His blood mixed with the red of the Dreambender's. He would have hated that.

Alexei screamed, wildly, and charged, but Callum melted into smoke and reemerged behind him.

"Is she safe?" Callum said, and Alexei turned. Callum though he was supposed to have better instincts than this.

"She's dead," Alexei said, and Callum felt his gaze swim, fell to his knees. "Swallowed poison rather than serve... me," he said, as if just realizing.

"She can't be," Callum said. "She wouldn't." He had promised he'd come back for her. But he thought of the vial she held, and her being so determined not to let Alexei have her.

"She's dead, demon."

Callum wept, then, and Alexei seemed taken aback, but Callum didn't care. Lydian was dead, because he had left her alone. It was his own fault. He rose then, and Alexei started, clearly expecting an attack, but Callum simply turned to smoke, and floated away.

"No matter where you go, demon, I will hunt you. I will kill you." Alexei's words followed Callum into the darkness, as he, finally, made his way home.