AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Since she had married into the family and wasn’t a blood-born Graykey, I knew she wasn’t held under the thrall of bloodlust. Like Mama, she was probably only fighting right now to either defend herself or someone else.
My entire body began to shake. I knew she needed help. But I was so scared. I couldn’t seem to make myself move. If I left my hiding spot, I’d surely die. But if I lost Aunt Taiki on top of Mama, and Daddy, and Grandma, and Grandpa, and Quatro, how could I live, anyway?
Realizing I physically could not handle losing anyone else today, I found the will to move and shoved my way to my feet before darting out from under the stone stairwell.
Uncle Palmer had Aunt Taiki backed into a wall. Her sword lay nearly ten feet away, and blood seeped from a wound on the side of her face as she slipped down to sit on the ground and was barely able to lift one limp arm to defend herself. She looked defeated. Done.
With a sneer of triumph, Uncle Palmer lifted his own sword and reared it back to deliver her death blow. “I’ve wanted to do this from the moment I met you,” he announced.
“No!” I screamed.
Lifting both hands, I spread my fingers wide and—palms aimed in his direction—I pushed the air at him, compelling it to blow until it rushed right into him and shoved him off his feet and away from his wife.
Surrendering to my gift of persuasion, the air made a mighty, roaring wall, flowing up and separating him from Aunt Taiki so he couldn’t reach her again after he regained his footing, no matter how much he hollered and fought against it, trying to break through.
In return, Aunt Taiki scrambled from the floor and snatched up her fallen sword with both hands. Screaming a warrior’s cry, she summoned all the strength she could muster and swung the weapon, spinning her body in a full circle before she let go of her hold and threw the blade forward.
The sword sailed through my wall of air and caught Uncle Palmer right in the chest. He choked out his surprise and clutched the metal before tipping over backward, plummeting to the ground, dead.
“Aunt Taiki!” Letting go of my hold on the air, I rushed to her, needing someone to hold me and take care of me before I fell to pieces.
“Quilla.” Opening her arms, she slumped to her knees and pulled me close, hugging my face to her and nuzzling. “You’re still alive. And unaffected. Glory be.”
“I—I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” I sobbed, gripping the back of her dress and holding on for dear life. “I didn’t mean to kill him.”
Voice trembling, I pulled my face away from her to glance toward Uncle Palmer’s body. He gaped up at the ceiling of the corridor with his mouth hanging open wide and eyes fixed and glassy with the death stare.
My stomach revolted.
“What? Oh! No, my dear sweet child.” Aunt Taiki smoothed her hand over my hair in a reassuring manner. “You didn’t kill him, baby. I did.”
A shudder worked through me. “But I-I helped,” I argued, feeling wheezy. “I held him back so you could—”
“Did you know what I was going to do when you pushed him away from me?”
I blinked. “Well, n-no.”
I never would’ve guessed she’d do that.
She clasped my face between her hands and looked intently into my eyes. “Then you had no part in his death. Now, come.” Grasping my hand hard, she pushed to her feet, already searching the hall for the best escape route. “We need to get out of here and find—”
“Taiki!”
Aunt Taiki spun toward the call, and a sob rose from her throat. “Lain,” she breathed, her eyes filling with tears. “Thank God.”
Letting go of my hand, she dashed toward the other woman with the long, flaming red hair who was racing toward her, and they met in the middle, hugging and sobbing and then kissing, gripping each other’s cheeks as their lips clung with a panicked but also relieved kind of urgency.
I blinked, dumbfounded, as Aunt Taiki continued to kiss Aunt Melaina. On the mouth. Passionately. When Aunt Melaina pulled away, she swiped her thumb over the cut on Aunt Taiki’s cheek to find that it had been healed.
My mouth fell open in shock, realizing they were soulmates.
I had never known that. I’d just known that both my father’s brothers had not married their wives for love. They bragged about it all the time, in fact. Uncle Palmer and Uncle Pallo had picked women of strong magic who would breed mighty future generations of Graykeys, and then they’d kidnapped them and bound them to our house so they could never leave the family under their own free will.
Uncle Palmer had put a spell on Aunt Taiki that would kill her if she ever tried to abandon him, and Uncle Pallo had done the same, plus used dark, forbidden magic to suppress good emotions like compassion, empathy, and kindness from Aunt Melaina’s soul until she just couldn’t be nice. It caused her great pain when she did manage to feel something sweet and kind.
Which was probably why tears of blood poured down her face when she pulled away from Aunt Taiki. “I thought I’d lost you. I thought—”
“Shh,” Aunt Taiki assured with a gentle smile as she wiped the blood from Aunt Melaina’s eyes with her thumbs. “I’m right here. I’m fine. Now, stop this, my love, before you hurt yourself.”
