Violet Eden Chapters 04 - Endless

his hand and positioned it at my wrist, just above the rope and at the top of my silver markings. Then, with as much force as his human body could muster, he drove the arrow into my wrist.
    I screamed.
    But Onyx didn’t stop there. He moved his hand down to the wound and collected my blood on the tip of his finger. He held it up briefly so only I could see the tiny specks of silver blended with the red.
    ‘Heard an interesting story on my travels,’ he whispered, leaning right into my ear. ‘That potion of yours has another name: “the breath of the afterlife”. They say when it took an earthly form it looked like mercury.’ He glanced at my marbled blood on his finger, his brow furrowing and voice becoming urgent. ‘Without you, she cannot be stopped. You must survive.’
    The thirteenth ingredient.
    The silver halls.
    What I seek.
    Beginnings and ends.
    The angels have been trying to show me, but couldn’t tell me.
    It’s in me. All this time, we’ve had the final ingredient.
    The truth hit me hard, taking my breath away. I felt the link between Lincoln and I, and I knew he knew. The difference was – he wasn’t surprised.
    I looked at Onyx, wishing we’d known about this before.
    My eyes flashed to my wrist. ‘Take the arrow,’ I whispered. ‘Give it to Steph.’ If nothing else its tip had some of the silver blood on it. Maybe it would work. ‘You’re a good man, Onyx,’ I nodded at him. ‘No matter what you say.’
    His darkeyes connected with mine for a moment before he spun back to Lilith, gesturing to my wrist. ‘Would you mind if I kept a souvenir?’
    ‘Please do,’ she said, unfazed by our interaction.
    Onyx pulled the arrow out, causing another bout of agonising pain. I bit down hard but couldn’t stop the cry that fell from my lips. Exiles all around laughed.
    ‘As tempting as your offer is,’ Onyx began, ‘I find myself with a humanly debt to repay another. Until then, as your oaths bind you, so mine binds me.’
    I was glad then that I was already crying. I didn’t want them to see my tears were now for Onyx. He had become a better human than most.
    Lilith’s rage at Onyx showed, but she wasn’t about to let his denial derail her. The show would go on. She ordered him out of her sight to wait outside.
    ‘Phoenix!’ she snapped.
    He nodded once, turned back to the golden table and loaded the next arrow.
    I screamed when it hit my stomach.
    He reloaded.
    I tried to breathe and prepare myself. The desire to shut my eyes tight and close myself off from the world – to take myself to that other place – was intense. But I didn’t. I kept my eyes open. I wouldn’t give any of them the satisfaction of seeing my fear.
    The arrows continued to fly – my legs, my arms – Phoenix aiming as carefully as possible, trying to cause the least damage. They hurt more and less at the same time, as new arrows didn’t increase the pain that was already so extreme. But they were starting to wear me down.
    I focusedall of my energy on healing, on regenerating and keeping as much blood as possible inside my body.
    I kept count of the arrows, each one reminding me of another life – another child that would live to destroy these exiles one day. By the twentieth, I was starting to tremble. I was weakening way too soon. I needed to keep going.
    I felt Lincoln’s power pressing at me.
    I closed my eyes briefly. I wanted to keep him strong but I was unable to resist his help any longer. I opened the channel and his power flooded into me, rejuvenating my own power like a breath of fresh air. My healing kicked up a notch, the wounds closing around the arrows. Some of the arrows were even pushed out altogether, clattering to the ground as my body repaired itself.
    Phoenix ignored all of this. He simply reloaded. And fired.
    By the thirty-fifth strike, the world was spinning. I’d developed a cold sweat that felt like my life pouring out from me. I could hear my heart beating, too slow.
    Phoenix fired again.
    I healed myself.
    This time, I felt Phoenix sending me his emotion. Solid determination. I could feel his undiluted belief in me and in my power. So much so, I sensed his belief that I would survive. It made me sad that he could think that, when I knew otherwise.
    He also took emotion from me, like lifting weights from my shoulders, one brick at a time. First, he relieved me of despair, then sorrow, then the well-buried fear. He found them and absorbed what he could.
    By the fortieth