Lord of Eternal Night by Ben Alderson

21

With the days that passed, and the lack of Katharine’s presence, Marius fell into a dark cave of worry. His mood changed entirely. For a man so still, he did not stop moving. He would disappear for hours, sometimes even entire evenings, and return to climb into bed with me before morning arose.

The curtains in the bed chamber had been kept drawn for so long that I could not remember a time that they were ever open. The thick material kept all daylight from breaking into the room, making time harder to grasp a hold of.

I was thankful when Marius pressed his cold body against mine and finally gave into sleep, I was at peace when he was.

As Marius struggled with the internal storm of his worry for Katharine, I dealt with my own raging emotions. Knowing the final day was growing closer and with it the pending doom of what was to come.

One evening I woke in bed alone. Although I could not recall my dreams, I was certain they had been bad for I woke with a heavy chest and full mind. It caused my body to ache, as though I had been through a fight. Or worse.

Rolling over, I half expected Marius to have shifted to the furthest spot away from me. But the sheets had been left rumpled as Marius had slunk out of the room. Only his lingering scent was left behind.

I swung my legs over the bed and pressed my feet into the cold floor. For a moment I sat like that, fighting a yawn as I also fought at the iron webs of anxiety that had settled within me.

Perhaps he had gone to welcome Katharine? At last. Yet deep down I knew that was not the case. Her absence worried him terribly, and there must have been a reason for it. Not that he dared say it aloud.

Like I did most evenings when I woke alone, I sauntered over to the drawn window and slipped between the heavy sheets of material. The window frame had been upholstered with a faded, blue cushion. A place, I could imagine, reading from and admiring the once beautiful grounds below.

Now I just knelt upon the built-in seat and peered out the foggy windows to see Marius pacing the dark paths. His bloodhounds sulked behind him, their whining only adding to the atmosphere that seemed to spread through the castle.

He did this. Every night. Scouting the grounds as if Katharine had simply got lost among them.

“Victorya,” I called, letting my breath fog on the windowpane.

From the reflection I noticed the wisp of grey shadow form into view behind me. “Things are no better.”

I had called upon Victorya a lot during the past few days when Marius had left me for stretched periods of time. She ensured I had food and drink, although I had noticed the supplies dwindling as the days went by. Explained from the lack of Katharine’s visit. Without her bringing food from the town, there was nothing edible to eat inside the castle.

But hunger was the least of my concerns.

“You are certain I cannot leave for answers?” I asked her again, merely echoing what I had already found out from Marius days ago. “If I can get into town I can find out what has kept her from visiting.”

“You cannot leave,” she said, floating across the ground to where I knelt. “I can keep telling you, but the answer will remain the same each time.”

“I know,” I said, pressing my head into my hands. “I just… I cannot keep seeing him in such a way.”

“This is nothing compared to what he has been through before, Jak. This mood is a mere wave to the tidal storms we have endured. It will pass, and if Katharine does not return, another will in her place. It has been that way since the beginning.”

Victorya had been an open book, answering the questions I had for her. At least in some poetic, twisted way. Sometimes her riddles would stay with me throughout the long evenings, as haunting as my ignorance before she provided me with answers.

But the more I had come to learn, the deeper the seed of anxiety felt within me. Threatening to blossom into an uncomfortable, devouring sapling at any moment.

“It is not in my nature to simply wait. I want to help,” I told her, leaving Marius to his pacing as I faced the ghostly girl.

“Can you not speak with your… those who wait on the other side of the water? Ask them to locate her?”

“And give away my concern?” I snapped, realising immediately that I had done so. I peered down to my feet, teeth chewing at my lower lip. “I am sorry, but I cannot do that. Believe me, the thought has crossed my mind. But I cannot let Mother know that I hold some concern for Marius.”

The scrying bowl had stayed hidden ever since Marius had been occupying the room with me. Not by myself, as Victorya had explained. She had been the one to store it away to prevent him from finding it.

“Some concern?” Victorya tilted her head and narrowed her opaque eyes. “Even the dead can see you have simply more than just some concern. You care deeply for him and do not want to voice that you are dying inside at the thought of what you have to do.”

“I know you want the same as my mother does…”

“If Marius knew the release you could give him, he too would be more than thrilled at the thought. I have seen him beg for his suffering to end. Believe me, you do not want to experience it.”

“That is not the point!” I said, louder this time. “Have you ever had to kill someone you—”

I silenced myself, releasing to whom I spoke to.

“You forget that I was not blessed with the years of living as you have been, Jak. No, is your answer. I have not had to do the unspeakable because I was never given the chance. You must do it,” she seethed.

I bowed my head, unable to apologise to her again. “I feel helpless.”

“And pathetic seeking advice from a child, I suspect?”

“I will take the advice where I can these days. Even if it is from you.”

It was almost wasted that Victorya did not stick her tongue out and pull a face. But as she had explained before, she may have been stuck in that form, but she was far from a child now. Not after what she had seen.

“I know little of your kind, only that it was believed you should not have access to magic. But here you are. Is there not some spell you can do to find out what is happening with Katharine?”

“My magic does not work like that…” I said. “It is control over the elements. Mother never taught me spells for it was not required. The point of my power is to kill Marius. Not hexes and potions.”

“To me it sounds like you have simply been leashed. Taught what they wanted you to know, not what you needed to know.”

I sighed. “I worked that out years ago.”

“Yet you did not demand more knowledge?”

There was no demanding when it came to Mother. Or her coven. Only Lamiere dared whisper about the other possibilities her ancestors had access to before my ancestor took it away from them all.

“Making me admit aloud how terrible I had it with my family is not going to help us find answers to Katharine’s disappearance. If I cannot leave and seek answers myself we will just have to wait for her to turn up when she is ready.”

A roar pierced the night, shaking the very foundations of the castle. I first thought it was an illusion brought on by my tiredness, but Victorya’s reaction was painfully real. She looked, eyes wide, to me as I felt as though my entire body vibrated.

“Marius,” we echoed, already moving for the door of the room.

* * *

I foundhim at edge of the castle where the overgrown paths rolled over to the bridge which connected us to Darkmourn. He stood with his back to me, yet sensed my presence from the slight turn of his face.

“Stay away, Jak,” he warned, voice a rumble of thunder that shook the very shadows around us. “Please…”

“Tell me what is wrong.” I ignored him, testing another footstep closer to where he stood. Peering over his shoulder, I could see the faint glow of the few buildings that had not yet closed down for the evening. Even from my distance I could imagine the local tavern and the bustling crowd whom would be singing and dancing whilst spilling tankards at such a late hour.

“Tell me, Marius, I am here to help.”

“Katharine…” he growled.

I stopped dead in my tracks, my legs going numb. “What do you…” Before I could finish, Marius stepped aside, revealing a mound that lay untouched on the ground before him. The closer I got to it, the clearer it became. A bundle of hair lay by Marius’s feet, gathered by a black ribbon that held the loose strands together. It was not just a cutting of hair. It was every strand possible that would have been attached to her head. The blood-stained ends told a story of struggle.

Marius was stiff beside me. Tension rolled off him in waves. But it did not last long. One moment he was still, the next he was slamming his fists against a wall of air before him.

I stumbled back in shock as he battered the unseen barrier that kept him from leaving. Kept us from leaving.

“Let me out!” he screamed. Roared. His voice blended in with the night, causing his hounds to howl.

I clapped my hands over my ears, shying away from his anger.

“Katharine!”

He punched at the barrier, over and over, kicking and throwing his entire body weight against it. All the while screaming her name. “Katharine!” Over and over, he did not stop. Not until his voice scratched along his throat, cracking with each shout.

“Marius, you need to calm down.” I reached for him, slowly, only to snap my hands back as he turned on me. His entire face was pinched with lines. They covered his head, clawed at the sides of his eyes and tugged at his lips. In the faded light he look… monstrous. His eyes were as dark as the night around us. His lips almost non-existent as he hissed and snapped fangs at me. Marius was hunched, breathing heavily as he studied me. I saw the disregard in his gaze. How he studied me as if he did not know me.

This was the monster of the curse.

Wind picked up around my body, rushing in familiar and guarding torrents. I fisted my hands, trying to calm the fear that had stunted my ability to take a full breath. Not now.

“Marius, it is me.” I kept my voice as quiet as I could muster whilst the fear raged wildly through me. “It is me.”

He snapped his head to the side, dark veins bulging in his neck.

“Jak, it is your Jak.”

My name seemed to anchor him back to reality for a moment. His expression softened, only enough for the whites of his eyes to return. Then his raspy voice broke out of his snapping jaws. “I… want… I want to hurt.”

I almost heard the threads of his jacket burst as he slammed his fists into his chest. Pounding one after the other.

I buried the fear and moved for him, throwing myself at his body to stop him from hurting himself anymore. It did not matter to me if he did not feel his actions, if that was the entire reason for doing what he did. I could not watch it.

I wrapped my arms around his waist and buried my head into his chest with my eyes pinched closed. It happened so fast that I readied myself for the slams of his fists into my back. Wincing in anticipation for the pain.

But it did not come. I waited, holding my breath, only to have his hands run softly down my back.

“It…I…Jak, it is me.”

His words almost shattered me entirely. I could not speak, instead only tightening my hold on him as if I could never let go again.

I melted beneath his touch as he traced his fingers down my spine and held onto me.

“I am sorry if I frightened you.”

I spoke into his body, voice muffled. “I am not scared of you. Only what you wished to achieve by hitting yourself.”

His hand stroked the back of my head, as I gripped onto him for dear life.

“That was not even a slither of what I will become, Jak. You need to know that.”

“I do not care.” Tears slipped from my eyes, wetting the material of his jacket beneath my face.

He took my shoulders and pried me from him. “That was me losing control. But when the final moon rises, I do not simply lose control. That suggests I can find it again. You… I cannot explain.”

“Then don’t.” I stared at him, thankful to see his face soften, erasing the harsh lines that had creased across it.

“You are cold,” Marius announced, rubbing his hands up and down my arms.

It was not the cold that made me shake, but the subtle detail of the ribbon that held Katharine’s sheared hairs in a bundle.

I had seen it the moment I had laid eyes upon it. Marius showed no sign of noticing what I had, nor did I point it out.

Marius wrapped his arm around my shoulder and guided me back towards the castle, leaving the horror far behind us. I was thankful for the quiet as we walked. Not even the blood hounds that hid among the shadows of the grounds dared make a sound.

I needed the silence to make sense of what was revealed.

Embossed at the end of the black ribbon was a faint marking of a symbol. One I had seen many times throughout my life.

A pentagram etched like a puckered scar across the ribbon’s material.

It was a sign. For me.

A message from my mother. A wordless warning.

She had Katharine.