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My eyes travel down to the bite mark on my wrist; that scar on my skin that reminds me of the one on my soul. To my shock, it’s gone, and Balor’s influence over me is gone too. Now I can think clearly and in doing so, I realize what I was about to do—what I was in the process of doing.
And yet Derith seems to know, to understand what I’ve just gone through, in looking at me, and the expression on his face blends many emotions.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.” His voice cracks as he speaks.
“You saved me,” I reply, my tone haunted. “You taught me what love is.”
The sword drops from my hands and in the next moment, we’re in each other’s arms. It’s as if time hasn’t passed at all—as if all those years separating us in death never existed. I don’t know how long we spend standing like that, holding each other, tears gushing from both our eyes. Perhaps it’s only a few seconds, perhaps we spend the rest of our lives there.
Finally, we reluctantly part.
“We have to take care of Balor,” I say, swallowing hard. “He sent me here to kill you.”
“I know.”
I shake my head. “And he… he clouded my mind—made me feel and do things against my…”
“I know.”
I look at him, at this man who has loved me all this time and I nod. “He won’t rest until you’re dead. Again.”
Derith nods but pauses. “He had to have known who you were when he killed your family, Jo.” Then he runs a hand through his hair as that information sinks in. “He bit you. Tasted you. There’s no way he could not have known who you were. But he didn’t kill you.”
“Haven’t you worked it out yet?” The man’s voice comes from the shadows in the doorway as Balor steps out of them, followed by his monsters that flow past him into the hall. “You were always slow, dear brother.”
Chapter Sixteen
“You used the bite to control me!” I point an accusing finger at him as the dawning of realization captures me and I’m suddenly furious again, only this time at the right brother and the feelings are true.
Balor responds with an airy gesture. “To some extent. For the most part, it wasn’t necessary. You did what you wanted to do with your life and only occasionally did you need any mental prodding from me. I think you’d have become a monster hunter whether I desired it or not.”
Dimly I begin to see the plan of the elder D’Orsay brother. “You knew I was the only one who could kill Derith…”
“Of course,” Balor nods. “But as a child, you were in no condition to see that mission through. I needed you to become a fighter. Specifically, a monster fighter. And you did. With, as I said, very little prompting from me. Though, of course, I provided the monsters to assist your development. Without knowing it, you spent years of your life training for the very task I had in mind; killing my brother.” He rocks his head side to side. “It was a long-term plan, but I’m still proud of it. Then you fucked it all up in the dying seconds.”
“It was Suisse who thwarted your plan,” I say proudly, shaking my head. If she hadn’t shown me that memory when she did, I would have killed Derith. Balor’s lies—fizzing in my brain—would have forced my hand.
“I thought I had kept that bitch quiet,” snarls Balor, petulantly.
He’d allowed some of Suisse’s memories through, but just those which backed up his twisted version of events. But somehow the sight of Derith about to die at the end of my sword had unlocked all of it, had allowed Suisse to overcome Balor’s mental suppression, so I had access to what had actually happened in my past life, and in a single split-second, that information had flowed through me; not like something I was remembering, but like something I had always known. Perhaps because Suisse had once before seen Derith about to die, and seeing it again had brought that moment and that night back to her. It gave her and me strength.
Whatever happened—and I am no expert in such things—it had saved Derith’s life as well as my own.
“Your plan has failed, brother,” says Derith.
A thin smile traces across Balor’s face. “It seems as if you have badly misinterpreted my presence here as some sort of capitulation. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
I look at Derith and find his attention firmly planted on his brother. His hands are balled into fists and his stance is rigid—as if he’s ready to pounce. Meanwhile, Balor begins pacing the room, throwing each of us a smile every few seconds.
“I knew there was a chance my plan would not succeed,” he continues. “So I had a back-up, and here we are.”
“Your monsters have tried to kill me before,” says Derith. “They are not good at it.”
“But now they have an advantage,” smiles Balor. “They don’t need to kill you; they just need to threaten her.” Then his attention turns to me and that smile deepens. “To save her, I think you would do anything, give up anything. Even your life.”
“They’ll have to catch me first.” I don’t like being a pawn in Balor’s plan yet again.
“I have allowed for that.” The smile on Balor’s face is starting to get under my skin. “We have come in force.”
