Chapter 83 The Cost
ZORA
"You need to listen to Marissa." Ivan piped in.
"Now is not a good time." I snapped back.
"You have to kill me, Zora, or get the hell out of here!" Ryker rasped out.
"Stop talking," I snapped, took out a pocket knife from the training ground stash, and entered the circle with him.
To kill him, my blood on a knife along with a burst of my power was enough, but to heal him, it was much more complicated but still involved my blood.
"Twenty seconds left." Marissa announced.
I made a cut in my palm and on his chest, then infused our blood together, more like making sure my blood entered his bloodstream.
My eyes were a hue of different colors aside from red.
My tattoo glowed radiantly, I could feel my power, the energy coursing through every part of my body.
I have to do this, I need to do this!
The silver threads surrounded him, waiting.
I began chanting.
"Aelunthra, lumen matris. Sana corpus, sana animam. Redde vitae filum argentum"
"Ten seconds left," Marissa announced.
A sense of urgency filled me, I focused all my energy on him, reaching directly for his soul.
"Aelunthra, lumen matris,"
"Sana corpus, sana animam,"
"Redde vitae filum argentum,"
Nothing happened again.
"Selunaris Veythra," I continued, delving into the other incantation,
"Vita et Mors in uno filo,"
"Redde lumen electo,"
"Et consume inimicum sub nocte."
The circle caught fire.
I blinked, and Ryker was gone.
The beast was staring down at me, and I could have sworn it smiled.
"No!!!" I screamed, "Come back, Ryker. I can save you!!"
The beast walked out of the circle effortlessly, walking away from and picking the first person in its way, a servant.
Time stopped, and my eyes were completely white.
"Congratulations, Zora, you've doomed the world and yourself. Why didn't you listen to your wolf?" Semya said coldly. She looked angry.
"I thought I could offer my price later after I've saved him."
"But you didn't save him, did you? Now you unleashed a beast in the world. Know why the beast didn't attack you and those closer to you? Why it with for that servant instead? Because it is saving you all for last and no, no matter what you do, you'll never escape. It would seem like an apocalypse befell the earth?"
"What do I do?" I asked, I wanted to cry, but I didn't have it in me to, either I was in shock, or too much adrenaline was pumping through my veins. "How do I make it right?"
"How do you make it right? You have to kill him a day before you do that, you should know that if you kill him, one of your children would die as a price and if you can't bare for your child to be sacrificed, you're dawning the earth and you won't have any children in give or take, three months from now."
I gasped out, my hands clenching my chest.
I've failed, both as a mate and a mother.
I'm going to lose two people I love because of the world?
This is all that woman's fault. If only I had more time. I could have saved Ryker, and all these would have been avoided.
I tried.
I really tried my best.
"No need for self-pity or blames," Semya's voice broke through my thoughts, "I'm going to make the beast freeze near you but I can only hold him in for five minutes. So you have five minutes to kill the beast and have one of your children die, or you run to your children and go in hiding. Five minutes is all you have."
"What about me?" I asked, "Can I sacrifice myself instead of my child?"
"No.... you can't." She replied,
Then she disappeared.
I fumbled on my feet.
She was right.
The beast was looking at me and frozen to a spot. The only muscle the beast could move was its eye muscle.
"What happened?" Marissa asked, shaking my arm.
"We have to go." Wesley snapped, "Let's get out of here and save as many people as we can."
"I was given two choices." I said in a monotone voice, "Kill the beast, lose a child or run away and die later."
"You're joking, lose a child? What did you pick?" Marissa asked.
"Obviously, she chose to run away. Now let's go before the beast starts moving and attacks us next." Wesley half yelled
"It's not going to touch us. It's saving us for last, and now, I have four minutes to decide."
"We are running away, right?" Wesley asked.
I blinked back the tears gathering in my eyes.
"We are, right?"
"I have to choose between the world and a child."
"You're not actually thinking about this, right?" Marissa screamed, "You're going to kill your child and your mate."
"He's going to wipe the world clean." The first tear escaped my lids.
"Ask yourself, WWRD." Wesley said flatly, "What would Ryker do?"
"Ryker would take his chances and go into hiding with his children." I replied because I know that's what he would do.
"Good!" Wesley snapped his fingers.
I have two minutes left.
I picked up the knife I earlier cut myself with and made another bigger cut to have the knife completely filled with my blood.
"I have to do this," I whispered, "For the sake of everyone. I don't have to be selfish."
"Selfish is exactly what you should be!" Wesley yelled.
I stared at him.
Ryk— The beast.
I walked closer to him, ignoring the protests of Wesley and Marissa.
The beast looked scared, as if it knew what I wanted to do and was begging not to. But I knew Ryker would want this.
I tuned out everybody.
It's just me and Ry- the beast now.
My insides were trembling
My chest was so tight that I could barely breathe.
Ryker wasn’t just another enemy, even though he's taken another form now.
He has to be in there somewhere.
I know he's in there.
This beast wasn’t some faceless monster I could rip apart without thinking.
It is still him.
The man I hated and fell in love with.
The father of my children.
"You can’t do it, can you?" Ivan asked in a small voice.
"It's hard." I admitted.
"If you don’t, more will die," Ivan whispered, "Semya is right."
Tears blurred my vision, hot and betraying.
My hands shook badly.
"One more minute," Ivan reminded gently.
I took a deep breath and used my silver threads to get few feet off the ground.
I was directly opposite him now.
I exhaled loudly, closed my eyes, and pushed the knife in through its armor like skin.
He didn't react and he was still very much alive. Heck, I haven't even activated the spell.
I place both of my hands over the hilt of the knife, infuse it with my energy.
The silver thread covered both of us as I made the incantations.
"Tremor in ossibus, vox in pectore clausus. Bestia nomen habet, et nomen deleatur. Silentium posco, esto mutus, esto velox, esto finis."
I took a deep breath and continued, my voice rising with each incantations.
"Bestia occiditur. Vota rupta, mundus sanatur, sanguis colligitur, lumen refovetur. Ego iuro, et finis recidit."
"Protu filiorum, custodio pactum. Umbram devoro, faciem bestiae frango; sanguis servat viam. Nexus bestiae dissolvitur, caro revertatur ad cinerem.
Pax per sanguinem, silentium aeternum."
My tears were falling uncontrollably as I muttered the last phase of the spell.
"Voco tenebras, frango vincula, muta est vox tua.
Amor manet, anima remanet, ego solum finis."
Through my blurry vision, I noticed a tear slide down the beast's face before it fell with a thud, transforming back to Ryker.
The knife was buried deep in his heart and his body was pale.
I listened for a heartbeat.
It wss silent.
He's dead.
Ryker is dead.
"Mum?" Leah appeared from the entrance, Courtney and Tyler in tow, "I don't feel too good."
"What's wrong?" I asked, panicking.
Was it her?
Is whatever deity that's accepting sacrifices taking Leah away? Already?
Can I have few more days with her??
"Why are you crying mummy?" Leah whispered, cleaning my tears, "Don't cry. I saw a woman. She said she's taking me somewhere safe and I can't be with you. Is it true? Is that why you're crying?"
I broke down and hugged her to me.
Who did she see? Was it Semya?
"Stop crying mummy." She whispered, her voice n a slur,
"I love you," She added and went limp.
I tried consoling myself that I did the right thing. A selfless act but now I'm not so sure.
My daughter is dead, so is my mate.
I saved the world at the cost of them.