Chapter 59 The Mountain

Chapter 59 The Mountain
We had to walk the last mile of our journey because Cassandra's sister's house was located at such a high altitude that the road ended at a distance of about a mile. We walked through the snow reaching us up to the knees. Our breaths froze in our throats while the weight of the iron I carried in my jacket burned my chest. The house was small. It was built of dark timber with the smoke coming out of the chimney. The woman standing on the porch had sharp cheekbones, pale eyes and dark hair cut short. Her appearance reminded me of Cassandra, although her demeanor differed greatly. When we approached her, she didn't smile but simply examined us struggling with the last feet of snow.

"Cassandra," she greeted her sister.

"Did you bring trouble to my doorstep, Cassandra?" she looked past Cassandra and at the rest of us, taking in our bandaged wounds and bruises, the exhaustion on our faces and the iron I was pulling out of my pocket.

"I have brought you a demon that needs to be killed, Elena," Cassandra replied as she climbed the first step, leaving her deep prints in the snow.

Her eyes fell on the iron I carried in my hands and something changed in her expression. "Get inside," she commanded.

It was warm inside the house despite the snow outside. There was the fire burning in the stone hearth and various weapons and old books lined the walls. "Place it there," Elena ordered.

I put the iron on the wooden table while it started to vibrate and hum. Mira flinched in place, close to the door and pressed her hand to her temple. "He's louder. He's screaming in my head," she said.

"We're almost done with him," Zoe reassured.

Elena went to the fireplace and took a long iron poker heated in the fire. "The forge is in the shed behind this cabin. It has been blessed by me for years and I have been preparing it just for an occasion like this one," she turned to me and continued. "However, the ritual you want to conduct requires a sacrifice, something that would mean more to you than your own life and would prove to the universe that you are serious."

I took my mother's ring out of my pocket and placed it on the table next to the iron, which was already vibrating in place and was emitting some pressure into my palms. "This is mine," I said.

Elena picked the ring up, examined it carefully and placed back on the table. "This is your mother's ring," she identified it.

I nodded.

"Follow me," she said and led the way to the forge.

There were black walls covered with soot in the small shed behind the cabin. The heat hit us the moment we entered. A massive stone oven was situated in the middle of the shed and it was glowing brightly with orange and red colors. The air inside was smoky and smelled of burning metals. Elena took the iron tongs and picked the iron I gave her. She slid it into the fire.

The metal screamed.

It wasn't actually a scream, it was a pressure into my brain, which made my teeth ache. It went down my spine and into my bones. "He's fighting," I managed to say to Dorian who grabbed me by my sleeve. "He's trying to get out," I explained.

Elena pushed the iron further into the oven. "Sacrifice yourself now. While he's distracted," she said.

I picked the ring up and held it above the fire, which started to lick at my fingers. "I'm sorry," I whispered to my mother's ring before letting it drop in the fire. It was consumed instantly. White fire flared and then turned blue before changing into the red again. The iron groaned.

Raze screamed.

It was a sound that I heard this time. It echoed in the air around me and it physically threw me backwards, making my ears ring and my vision swim. The black smoke started pouring out of the forge and filled the whole place with sulfuric stench and the smell of burning hair. Zoe yelled Mira's name from somewhere behind me. "He's trying to escape. He's coming out of her head," Mira's voice was steady and clear.

Elena picked a blessed spike from the workbench and drove it into the iron, which cracked. A line appeared on it and the smoke poured even faster. Jenna pushed me aside and came with another spike in her hand. "Kael, now. Do it now," she shouted.

Kael limped to us with a spike and hammered it into the crack in the iron. His broken wrist was rested on his chest, his face tight in pain. The iron broke in half.

The smoke stopped pouring.

The heat ceased.

The forge went dark.

Elena stepped back from the flames with sweat dripping on her face and panting hard. "It's done. It's over."

The silence that followed the chaos was heavier than the sound had been, as if it was pressuring us from all sides. I could hear my heartbeat, the wind outside and Mira's ragged breathing. "He's gone. He's not in my head anymore," she whispered.

Zoe hugged Mira and she started crying quietly, her shoulders shook and her face was buried in Zoe's neck. "You did it," Cassandra said from the doorway of the shed. "You actually did it."

"Yeah," I confirmed as I stared at the forge, at the cracked iron lying on the stones and at my mother's ring turned to ashes and scattered across the floor. "We did it."

Dorian moved next to me and grabbed my hand, squeezing it. "Are you alright?"

I didn't reply immediately, I just held his hand and watched the smoke curling upwards.

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The drive down the mountain was silent, the snow had stopped falling, the sky was clearing and Cassandra was driving with her eyes fixed on the road. Vance was sitting in the back of the car along with Mira and Zoe. He was holding the closed grimoire in his lap, his face was tired but calm. Kael was sitting next to the window and was looking outside. His broken wrist was resting on his knee, he was frowning with pain.

Jenna was sitting in the passenger seat with her head resting against the glass. "What happens now? Where do we go from here?"

I looked at my hands, at the ashes of my mother's ring under my nails. "Now we have to find out what to do next," I answered.

"What else?" Dorian squeezed my hand. "Together."

"We will inform the Council that Raze is dead," Cassandra informed me from the rearview mirror. "They won't forget what you did to them," she added.

"I know."

She didn't press me with her questions, she just kept driving.

It was sunset by the time we arrived to the hostel's parking lot and it looked the same as we had left it before – it was dark and cold, the front door hanging wide open. However, this time it didn't feel like a trap. It felt like home.

We entered the building and our boots echoed in the hall, the stairs creaked under our feet and Jenna unlocked her room. We walked inside and laid on the floor, on the couch and on the bed.

I laid on the floor next to Dorian, looking up at the ceiling. The room was warm due to the fire and the sound of breathing surrounded us. He turned to look at me. "We made it," he said.

"Yeah," I turned to look at him. "We did."

"I wonder what we should do now," he asked and reached over to take my hand.

We closed our eyes. "We will rest and then we will figure it out," I answered.

The fire popped, the wind was howling outside. I held his hand and for the first time in weeks I could breathe.

I felt like we could finally rest.