Chapter 141: Gone without a Trace
[Gideon].
“Victor,” I say as I turn around. “I was wondering when you would show yourself.” I try not to look anxious but I am wondering where Axel is. I could use his help right about now.
“Gideon.” His grin is too wide, too white, and too pleased with his current situation. “I would say the same about you, but I can see that time hasn’t treated you well.”
“What are you doing here, Victor?” I demand although I already know the answer. He is here for Rosie, his “daughter" whom he constructed out of spare parts and let loose into the world with no sense of who she is or what her place is in the world. He allowed her to be abused by her 'mother' who tortured her from the moment she was born.
He doesn't deserve to be called anyone's father. He is no more a true father than he is a true witch.
“You know why I’m here,” his grin grows impossibly wide as a small ball of darkness forms above his fingertips. “The only reason you and I are talking is because I want to make it clear to the rest of your little…coven…that coming after the two of us is not only pointless but a big mistake. Rosalynd is mine, an offering I created for the lord of the void himself. Regardless of what claim you may think you have on her, it is nothing compared to the deal I made with him.”
The Lord of the Void. Hades. Satan. Death. It doesn’t matter what you call him, it all equates to the same thing.
He sold his daughter to the darkness itself.
“Why?” I ask him honestly. “Why go through all that effort to do that, wasting so many lives, just to make a person to give as a present to an entity that does not care a bit for you or me?” I stare at him incredulously. “You should know that deals with gods always lead to bad ends. Why on earth would you make this deal?”
“Power, of course.” He closes his overly long mouth.
“False power,” I laugh. “Gods never share, Victor. And if he said he was going to, he was lying. Whatever happened to the man who was fighting the darkness as he attempted to save witch-kind? Wasn’t that your entire motivation for starting down your path to begin with?”
“It was,” he admits. “But I was also young and naive. I had so little understanding of how the universe works. There is no point fighting something so big and beyond our understanding as darkness itself. I was stupid to think that the work of one witch would be enough. In my hubris, by trying to fight against the darkness for all those years I was doing a better job of serving than many who pursue that path willingly,” he chuckles. “Eventually I was shown the error in my logic. Sometimes when faced with impossible odds, the best thing you can do is join the enemy.”
“So you want to give Rosie over to the darkness," I attempt to move closer to Rosie with the hopes that I might, by some miracle, succeed at keeping him from taking her away. "What were you promised in exchange?”
He shakes his head back and forth as if the answer should be obvious. “And to think, you used to be my brightest pupil." He sighs. "Well, the gods cannot walk on this plane of existence with their own two feet. Did you know that? They say it is to keep any of them from modifying the “grand experiment," but I think it is because their bodies are incapable of understanding our world. The why of it doesn't matter as much as the how of it..”
I gasp as I realize what he is implying. He is attempting something that should be impossible, something that most of us witches dismissed as “You plan to be its avatar.”
He nods his head appreciatively. “Good job, student. I am glad to see you learned something from me during our time together."
He takes a step closer to the bed. My whole body flinches.
“It was nice talking to you again, Gideon. Now go to sleep so you can explain all this to the others when they arrive.”
I open my mouth to question him, but as he snaps his dark-stained fingers, my eyes close and I hit the ground.
***
Axel kicks me awake. The sun is shining, my head is pounding, and the hospital bed, that once contained our sleeping, comatose wife, is now empty and cold. While Evander is standing next to the bed inspecting the covers, Axel's canines are extended as he reaches his foot back to kick me one more time.
"Rise and shine, Motherf..."
"I'm awake!" I sit up suddenly. A little too suddenly because my whole world starts to spin. Placing my head between my knees I manage to duck Axel's attempt to make me see stars courtesy of his steel-toed boots.
When my head stops spinning, I look up to find Axel towering over me with murder in his eyes.
"How. Could. You. Fall. Asleep?!" he growls through gritted teeth.
"I didn't fall asleep," I slowly stand to meet his gaze. Even though he is much broader in the shoulders than me, I am just as tall and can easily meet him in the eyes. "I was attacked by the grand warlock himself, Victor Vex. The only reason I am still alive is because he wanted me to be.
"Convenient, don't you think?" Axel takes a step forward, his muscles bulging. "When Evander was attacked, he ended up blind. When Victor comes to pay you and Rosie a visit, you are miraculously unmarked," he observes, inspecting my appearance from my toes to the tip of my head. "I think there is something strange going on here. Why is it that when your old coven leader shows up you manage to remain in pretty damn good health," he takes another step forward, cracking his knuckles to intimidate me?
I am about to say something to redeem myself when Evander comes between us. At first, I thought it was to keep the peace, but then I realized too late that it was to stir things up more.
"Are you accusing my husband of helping our enemy steal our wife?" His eyes are bulging red with both anger and sadness. "That sounds a lot like a challenge, cousin. Are you sure you want to travel down that road with me today?"
"Try it, Elf," he barks, back to his old bigoted mindset when under pressure. Evander's cheeks begin to turn red.