MALCOLM
I groan and roll to my back, but damn, the ground is hard. I pry my dry eyes open and groan again. “Ow.”
The sky is hazy gray. That’s the first thing I notice.
I am laying on rubble. That’s the next.
I force my body to sit up, muscles stiff and sore, head throbbing again.
I pull in a breath as I finally take in my surroundings. Smoke and shattered glass and destroyed buildings. There’s nothing left. The mountains around the town remain the same, but everything else is nothing but ash and rubble.
I press my hand to mouth. Among the rubble there are bodies. Blood is scattered everywhere.
My breath quickens.
A whimper sounds behind me, and I whip around to find one living soul. A girl sits with her arms wrapped around her knees, rocking back and force, face hidden beneath her arms.
“Julie?”
She looks up. Eyes red, face streaked with ash and tears. “They’re all gone,” she says.
“Everyone?” My voice breaks.
I made them all pay, the voice is louder now. Stronger. It presses into my mind, making it hard to focus.
Julie doesn’t respond, but I know the answer. Everyone is dead. Every single soul, except for Julie and me. Including my uncle. Her mother.
All gone. The bad, the good. Every soul snuffed out.
It’s what you wanted.
Is it? I ask. Part of me did want that. But the reality is so much different than I’d pictured.
Now what? I ask the monster. There is nothing left for us here. We have no choice but to leave.
We find a new town to rule. There is so much out there, boy. So much we can do together. I will show you.
I shiver, guilt pressing down.
It’s too late to change your mind now. Come.
My arms jerk. My chest twists unnaturally. My body rises without my permission.
“Come, girl,” the monster says through my lips. “If you remain with me, I will keep you safe. I always keep my bargains.”
I have more to show you, child. This power of mine is limitless, even with your frail body as its host. Come and see. The monster leads my body, pulling each limb in awkward steps over the rubble of what was once the capital building and into the tree line. Some of the trees remain intact. Others simmer with black fire.
I allow him to push my body because I have no strength to fight it.
Relax and work with me. Accept this power, and you can use it.
Nausea rolls through me, but I try to block it out. I try to block it all out. The pain, the fear, the guilt, the rage.
It will become easier with time. Besides, this new trick I am about to show you will be a fun distraction. Come and see.
We reach the stone valley, except now, the black magic is absent from the cave mouth. Because… it’s inside of me.
There is a perfect circle of dead bodies lying in the middle of the opening.
The monster positions me next to it. Tell them to rise, he whispers in my mind. An instruction, not a command.
My eyebrows pull down, but I obey. “Rise,” I say. And they do. The bloated limbs of the dead guards, the dead mayor, my dead tormentors rise from the ground. Including one with a dismembered head. The head rises too, floating awkwardly and it lands on its body’s bare neck.
“They obey me?” I whisper.
Andrew’s blank stare looks straight at me.
Yeeees, the monster says, pleased at the sick enjoyment that rushes through me.
“Turn,” I say.
The whole group turns on its heel in unison.
“You can create an army. And these, your first soldiers.”
I pull in a long breath, my revulsion now mixed with excitement. I know I shouldn’t feel it, but it’s there all the same.
“There is no greater punishment,” I say.
Now, you understand.
I swallow. This was never what I wanted, but here in my hand is the kind of power I hadn’t even dared to dream of, and it is now mine to wield.
All I wanted was to no longer be a victim. But now… I can be a ruler.