“Couldn’t agree more.” I grimaced.
“Hold your tongue, Jenus,” Tejus replied in a bored voice. “The Impartial Ministers want you released. I’m looking forward to the moment they lay eyes on you.” He smirked at his brother. “You look very kingly, I must say.”
“Ah ha!” Jenus cried, practically foaming at the mouth. “Failed the Imperial trials already, fool brother? I have heard the trees whispering of your misdeeds…ice fires, rains of blood…it seems death follows you, Tejus. Oh, corrupted one!” He laughed madly for a few seconds, and then began to pace up and down, the chains sliding along in his wake.
“Wow,” Hazel breathed.
“Ignore him.” Tejus addressed us. “I need to remove the boundary and then we’ll tie him to one of the horses. Ruby, will you ride with Ash?”
“Of course,” she agreed quietly. Her eyes hadn’t left the mad mass of sentry flesh that was Jenus of Hellswan.
“Release me! Release me so that I might show you how it is done, brother! Hellswan should have always been mine—it was promised to me!”
Tejus rolled his eyes as he removed the borders and then stepped inside to gather up the chains. Jenus lunged for him as soon as he did, but Tejus was prepared, sidestepping his attack so that his brother fell forward and landed with a smack on the ground. Jenus lay there for a while, laughing.
Tejus gathered up the chains and then hauled him back up.
“Will you control yourself?” he hissed at his brother. “You are no more mad here than you were at home.”
He dragged his brother over to Ruby’s horse, and I pulled her away.
“Keep out of his way,” I muttered. “He’s obviously volatile.”
“Yeah,” she agreed, watching Tejus tie him to the horse. Jenus now had his gaze fixed on Hazel, smiling as she stood with her arms folded, glaring at him.
“I don’t know why you’re so angry.” He smiled at her. “I let your brother live. He was nothing more than an amusing toy—a little puppet on strings…a little—”
“You do not get to mention my brother,” Hazel growled at him.
“Or you’ll do what?”
Tejus laughed out loud at his brother’s challenge, and started tethering Jenus’s horse to his own.
Jenus cried out in pain, collapsing forward on his bull-horse.
“STOP—please STOP!” he yelled, clutching at his head.
Tejus pulled on the reins of the bull-horse, and we started walking out of the forest. Jenus groaned, the pain of the syphoning carrying on.
“Brother,” he cried, “stop—I beg you!”
“It’s not Tejus, it’s me,” Hazel retorted, her pert nose wrinkling in satisfaction, “and this is payback.”
Jenus whimpered once more, and then fell silent. When we reached the edge of the forest, Tejus looked back at his brother, laughing.
“Hazel, enough now. If you carry on he won’t make it back—he’s weak enough as it is.”
“Okay,” she agreed, sighing.
A few moments later, Jenus started to stir. We were back riding through the cornfields now, not far from the storm cellar. Any pity I might have felt for Jenus was immediately erased. He had used all of them like playthings for his political gain, and as far as I was concerned, Jenus deserved everything that was coming his way.
Jenus started giggling again, and I let out a breath. Ruby rested her face against my back, turning it away from Jenus. I held her hands against my waist, idly rubbing my thumb against the smooth shells of her nails.
“Tejus, Tejus, what have you done?” Jenus laughed uproariously. Clearly he had lost all reason. If he had any sense he would keep his mouth well and truly shut. “Monster begat monster! How his lovely angel has fallen! My brother, the cancer that has corrupted beyond imagining…oh, how the mighty fall!”
“Ash, will you gag him?” Tejus muttered.
“Absolutely.”
Rose
I paced up and down the abandoned pub that we were using as our base. We were waiting for Mona to arrive with the other witches and GASP members. It would only take a few moments, but I still felt it was too long. I wanted to get back out there. I just couldn’t accept the fact that the portal wasn’t opening.
“They’re here,” Corrine announced, walking toward the door. Before she could reach it, Mona stepped inside, followed by the coven and Ashley and Landis, then Claudia and Yuri.
“I’m glad you found it,” Mona said, greeting Corrine and then glancing around at the rest of us. “We could have been out at sea for months.”
“But it’s shut,” I replied, unable to look on the bright side at that moment.