Chapter 20

- Jake -

Jake halted long enough at the stairs to look down at the entrance area for a second and determine how wrong exactly things had turned out.

The second army had made it onto the inner court. Royal guards, the Earl's soldiers, the farmers. The castle was rustling full of people at war with each other. As expected from the young Earl, he had iron determination and a lust for bloodshed challenging Nathaniel's.

Jake glanced at the demon.

He was covered in his victim's remains from head to toe. His before white shirt was stained blood red and no matter how much Jake tried not to dwell on it, he could not help but shudder.

The demon gave Jake a smirk. "Think you can do without me now?" he said.

Jake gave a quick nod. He had hoped for less resistance, hoped for less slaughter. But they had been discovered way too early and had needed the demon's strength to fight the way through.

Nathaniel nodded as well and moved to find his true goal of the night as planned. Jake watched him sneak away like a wild animal hunting for innocent prey. Hopefully the demon would not discover much.

"I'm on my way too," Annabelle huffed. She waved for her assigned group of men and. They broke away to gather all necessary court members in place to force them to a coronation ceremony as soon as the King was dead.

Jake signed his own men to get in line. In formation they strode towards the King's quarters.

The corridor seemed endless. Jake had almost reached his goal, yet it couldn't feel further away. His heart was wild and heavy. Resolve, dread, hope, guilt, joy, he couldn't tell what emotion had his blood racing.

Finally in front of the door, Jake signed his men to stop for a moment. Then they fell in with battle cries but startled to a halt.

There was nothing.

The room was empty.

Jake cursed.

They had been too slow. The coup was going to fail.

Upon turning back, the trap fell shut. The King's soldiers stormed the entrance to the room.

Jake rose his sword for the fight.

One soldier stormed him head on, one tackled from the left. Jake spun around to strike one down, but the other one slashed a cut open on Jake's chest. He fell to his knees, the pain shot through his body and burned away all thoughts in his head. His breath startled and he choked. Blood spilled on the floor.

The soldier rose to strike Jake again. He grabbed for his sword and pushed it into the soldier's gut head on. But another slash cut Jake's shoulder and he lost all feelings in his arm.

Jake forced himself on his feet, but stumbled before he caught himself again. His head was spinning.

One of his men rushed to support him. He cursed plenty insults for the bastard King, then threatened to lose hope on the cause upon spotting all of Jake's spilled blood.

"I am fine," Jake pressed out. He patted the soldier's back and indeed managed to stand on his own again. "It looks worse than it is," Jake tried to convince the gawking man, but most likely failed. He had no time to worry about it or even explain that a demon's curse prevented him from dying, even if fatally wounded.

The next soldier attacked.

***

- Elly -

Elly clenched her fists and rose her chin. The way the demon woman studied her was beyond uncomfortable, but she wasn't going to falter.

The woman spotted the necklace with the pearls around Elly's neck. She had put it on to encourage herself, after Jake had said he had no more need for the seals.

The tip of the demon's finger burned upon touching it.

She hissed and flinched back, then laughed heartedly.

"Do something, witch!" the General demanded. He had just sent another group of confused soldiers back outside for the fight and was losing his patience with whatever he expected from the demon.

"Ah - I think not," the woman said and let herself down on a cushioned chair.

"What?" both the General and Elly asked almost at the same time, both surprised about the woman's sudden lack of interest.

"You are not here for me," the demon directed at Elly. "Otherwise you would have acted already."

"I-I don't know what you mean."

"Clearly." The woman rolled her eyes.

Suddenly another group of soldiers stormed in. They resumed to lock the door behind them.

"What are you doing?" the General demanded to know.

The soldiers paid little attention to the man. They looked too scared to think straight. Too focused on barricading the door to listen to orders.

A crack shook the door.

The soldiers stumbled back with screams. The General reached for a weapon he was not carrying with him the first time that night.

The door cracked again. Then sprung open as if moved by an explosion. The furniture used as barricade shot through the air in bits and pieces.

Elly ducked and screamed like the soldiers.

Only the demon woman was unaffected. All she did was raise an eyebrow.

Nathaniel stood at the door.

He was bloody all over, his clothing was torn and his eyes sparkled dangerously. He focused on the woman with a smile that promised nothing good.

"And you might be?" the female demon said, a little annoyed.

"Here to rob the castle off their court magician," Nathaniel said.

The woman snorted. She rose from her chair with such controlled grace it sent waves of dread down Elly's spine. She was about to do something.

Something bad.

Elly stepped back as far as possible.

"Let's be civilized," Nathaniel caught on as well. "How about a deal? You leave on your own free will and I will not resort to violence."

"Free will?" The woman spat the words. Anger twisted her beautiful face.

Nathaniel laughed at her. "As I thought."

Without another breath of hesitation, he jumped her head on. An ugly fist fight started. Nathaniel punched the woman in the gut, in the face, everywhere he reached. She clawed at him and left bloody slits all over his skin.

The General regained his wits. He grabbed for Elly again and she screamed.

"Hands off that girl!" Nathaniel yelled and the man startled, but not long enough. He threw Elly over his shoulder and stormed towards the door.

The female demon jumped in his path. "She belongs to me!" she screamed oddly hysteric and slashed at the General with her bloody claws.

Both Elly and the man were thrown around. She landed painfully, so did he. He grunted and reached to cover a gush on his stomach. The woman dashed for him again, but Nathaniel caught her around her waist and threw her across the room. With a crash she landed on the floor.

"Hands off," Nathaniel snarled. "Of both of them."

The woman grabbed for a sword one of the fled soldiers had left behind. She threw herself with it at Nathaniel, who countered her attacks with bare hands.

Elly would have wanted to run, but despite herself she rushed to the General to make sure he was alright.

Suddenly Nathaniel faltered. He choked up blood without receiving a hit that would have been responsible for it. The woman used that well to her advantage and kicked him. He fell hard. The female demon rose her sword with a scream. She stabbed Nathaniel.

Again and again and again.

Elly choked and had to turn away.

She couldn't watch that morbid brutality. Every new stab sent shudders through her body. Her heart clenched. Desperation settled.

She had to help Nathaniel.

She couldn't.

With the clinking sound of the sword landing on the floor Elly flinched. Footsteps neared her, she could tell but was too scared to look.

The General struggled to rise himself enough for defence.

And then the woman stopped short.

She cursed, then yelled in anger, before turning on the heel and stomping out the room.

Elly sunk in on herself. She wrapped trembling hands around herself.

Nathaniel pushed to his feet with grunts and curses. "I swear if that bloody bastard gets himself killed one more time I'll make sure he stays dead," he grumbled.

Elly stared at the demon with big eyes. She knew he could heal wounds, but she had not expected him to get up again so soon. Or ever again.

"Wait ... Jake? Is he alright?!"

Nathaniel spread his arms in a frustrated gesture upon himself and the state of his body. "Get up," he ordered.

Elly reluctantly did as told. Her knees wobbled and her body hurt.

"You too," Nathaniel snarled at the General.

The man shook his head unbelieving, and when he didn't move Nathaniel grabbed him and dragged him along. The man fought and struggled. Nathaniel punched him in the face and he stilled.

At the door the demon stopped and faced Elly again. "Get going would you?"

"I-I ... shouldn't I stay or hide?" Elly glimpsed around the damaged room.

She really wanted to hide. These last few minutes had been more than she could handle. Never again would she be able to forget this violence. She couldn't possibly go out to experience more.

Nathaniel gave an evil laugh. "I still don't quite know what exactly is wrong with you, but coincidentally you stand in the middle of it all," he said. "Is one of your family of angelic blood? Has a saint spoken a blessing upon you once? You might not even have realized it at that time."

"I ... no ... I don't think so," Elly stuttered confused.

The demon shook his head in obvious frustration. "Lead the way, would you?"

"Me? Where to?"

"It doesn't particularly matter. Any path you could possibly go will be the right one."

***

- Jake -

Jake pushed to his feet. Sweat and blood dripped off his chin and despite the demon's powers he felt dead. Deadly tired. He had reached his body's limit too long ago.

He wobbled when he raised his sword again. No matter how many soldiers he cut down, there was no end to them. He didn't know how long he could keep doing this, keep going, before his body would give up on him.

Another sword struck a painful hole in his defence. He fell to one knee. The enemy's sword neared his head.

Reattaching severed heads is not one of my many talents.

Nathaniel had said that once, Jake remembered. He wondered if that would kill himself or the demon or the both of them.

The soldier was thrown back with a crash. Something shot past Jake. A flash of blood and claws and fangs.

Nathaniel.

"God ... I hate you," Jake mumbled. He leaned on his sword to push back on his feet. Rather entranced he stood and watched the demon at work. Screams of pain and horrible cracking sounds filled the air. Blood painted the walls. The pain of death was everywhere. The guilt was unbearable.

He had known, hadn't he?

That his ambitions would cost him many lives. He had thought he had been prepared.

He hadn't.

"Jake!" Something shook his arm. "Look at me, Jake!"

Elly grabbed his shoulders and forced him to look at her. Only then he truly registered her presence.

She was alive. Well and alive.

He pulled her into a hug, but as soon as his arms closed around her, she struggled herself free again. "Get a hold of yourself!" she yelled in his face. "What is wrong with you?!"

What was wrong? What wasn't?

He had planned this night like moves in a game of chess. And unknowingly he had detached himself from it and its horrors. But now, right in the middle of it, when nothing had gone as planned, it came all crashing back.

Pain and blood and death.

"Nathaniel said we don't have much time," Elly said. Her voice was weak. Too filled with fear. "I think we have to go that way!" She pointed down a hallway.

Jake glanced in the direction. He hadn't been in the castle for many years and a lot had changed. But if he remembered correctly, it was the bathing rooms somewhere down there.

"Why in the world ..."

Elly grabbed his arm and dragged him along. "I don't know. But Nathaniel said it doesn't matter. Come on."

She rustled around to look behind them. "You too, I think."

Jake turned his head. And froze on the spot.

There stood a man in badly improvised shackles with torn clothes and cuts and bruises all over. He had brown hair and beard and coffee eyes with wrinkles Jake didn't quite remember like that.

The world slipped away from him.

His body reacted before his mind could catch up. He threw himself at the man who had little resistance. They fell and Jake grabbed for his throat to choke him. Choke him. Choke him until - until -

He was harshly thrown off, then grabbed on the arm to stand up straight again.

"Yeah, I thought you would be happy to meet again." Nathaniel smirked. "But can we settle that later? In case you don't remember, we are in the middle of a little something."

Jake bristled and stared at the man who was a display of shock and surprise.

"J-Jake?" Elly asked again. She clenched her arms in front of her chest, obviously scared. She was shaking all over, her face was pale with horror. Her beautiful eyes sparkled with tears about to spill.

She wasn't supposed to be there. She wasn't supposed to see this.

"The King escaped," Jake pressed out between clenched teeth. "They set us a trap in his quarters." He brushed a hand through his hair. They came back sticky with blood.

"So then, little maid," Nathaniel gestured for Elly.

"Y-Yeah. That way," she said and pointed again towards the bathing rooms.

***

- Elly -

Not long down the corridor before they stepped into water. Leaking from somewhere unseen, it spread over the floor. Flickering candlelight reflected in the wet, letting it seem like waves of blood crawling over the floor. Every step splashed loudly in the dreadful silence, that tensed the hallway, since the worst fights had been left behind them.

A horrified scream sounded.

Elly flinched and grabbed for Jake's arm. He glanced at her. He didn't look good. Elly had been afraid it would be too much for him, that this was the final straw that had him break entirely. He was too close, she could tell. His eyes were hollow.

Suddenly a man crashed through a wall. The demon woman followed through the hole he'd torn and stood over the lifeless body, before she snorted and looked up at the group.

"Well, hello again," she sang with a tilted head and an evil smile. "Are you here for my master?"

"You don't have a master," Nathaniel said and gesticulated towards his eyes. "And yet, somehow you, do, don't you?" Then he flat out laughed at her. It was a sound of spite and pure evil.

The woman's face darkened. "Don't anger me, boy."

"Where is it?" Nathaniel said, back to business. "Tell me where it is, and we will free you."

The woman shrugged.

A group of soldiers rushed around the corner behind them. Fierce men with wild eyes and weapons drawn. Jake rose his sword to defend. But it was too many. He could have never fought them all alone. Nathaniel was busy with that other demon.

They were caught.

What had Nathaniel said again about choosing the right way? This couldn't possibly be right. This was the end.

"My Lord," the female demon yelled over her shoulder. "We have caught the intruders' leader."

"I hope you don't mean me. I got nothing to do with this," Nathaniel said a little bit too serious for a joke, raised his arms in defeat and stepped to the side.

Jake cursed and stepped closer towards Elly, but there was no side from which he could have protected her. She clenched the back of his bloody shirt in her fists. She needed to hold on to something.

Theys were going to die.

That was the punishment for treason, wasn't it?

Realization hit Elly like a slap in the face. Her feet threatened to give out. She had been stupid enough to get caught up in Jake's ideas. Had let herself be lulled in by the promise of change. That thigs could be better. Now she would die for it.

The soldiers approached carefully, the General stepped back towards them. His face was stone. Elly couldn't quite grasp the connection between him and Jake, but obviously there was one, just as she'd suspected. Otherwise Jake wouldn't have reacted so violently.

"Where?" a voice sounded from the crack in the wall. A second later a man stepped out of it. He was tall, rather bellied with grey hair and a long grey beard. But when he built himself up next to the female demon, he looked easily twenty years younger, stronger, regal.

He wore a crown on his head.

Elly gulped.

The King.

He looked down upon Jake and Elly. "Don't I know you?" he said with a raised brow. His eyes jumped Jake, obviously thinking.

"I sure hope so," Jake snarled. There was something dark and unhinged in his voice.

"You are dead," the man said. "I watched you die! You are supposed to be dead!" he yelled then. His face twisted with rage.

"Not quite yet."

"Give me a sword!" the King yelled. "Someone give me a sword!"

A soldier moved upon the order. Jake stepped back towards the wall and pushed Elly to do the same. She glimpsed around the corridor, around the people. There were only hostile face. No allies in sight. Not the Earl, not Annabelle or David. Not even Nathaniel -

Where was Nathaniel?

Elly glanced at the gathered people again. He wasn't among them. Hadn't he just been with them? He had stood over there, hadn't he?

But he had vanished into air.

The King grabbed for the sword, impatiently, gripped it tight and stormed towards Jake with it. So suddenly he couldn't even raise his own sword properly to defend. A few hits, then -

The General averted his eyes.

The female demon smiled.

The King laughed maniacally.

Jake slumped down in front of Elly.

She tried to hold on to him, grabbed for him, held on tight and sunk to the floor with his lifeless body.

Her heart stopped.

This wasn't happening.

This couldn't possibly be happening.

Nathaniel - he -

Elly shook Jake in her arms. His blood spilled and spilled, drenched them both.

"J-Jake?" Elly asked. Her voice broke.

He didn't move.

But what about the deal - what about Nathaniel.

Tears threatened to roll down Elly's cheeks. Then they did pour down. Big, heavy drops filled with pain and desperation.

Elly's eyes searched the room again. He wasn't there. Nathaniel wasn't there. He had abandoned them in the most crucial of moments.

The King threw the sword to the floor in front of him. "Now, someone get this situation under control!" he yelled at his soldiers that moved upon the command. Even the General nodded and left.

The King crouched down in front of Elly. "Look at that," he said and ripped the pearl necklace off her. "Someone's been busy." The man observed the pearls, turned them in his hands with awe then reached for his neck and pulled out a chain with one single pear attached.

"The seventh seal," Elly breathed.

Too quickly for Elly to grasp Jake reacted to it. He grabbed for the pearls, ripped them out of the King's hand and jumped up.

"You!" the King yelled. He stumbled a few steps backwards, eyes wide with shock and confusion. "How is that possible?"

"Well," Jake said and nodded towards the female demon. "Some of us are better master's than others."

The woman gave an almost polite nod towards Jake.

The King turned to pick up his sword again, but the demon was faster.

She pushed it through the King's stomach. Her face was soft with pleasure, et twisted with evil.

The man stumbled back with a grunt. He reached around him for help. But there was no one there, he had sent the soldiers away himself.

He struggled to his knees. Tried to speak, but only blood gurgled out of his mouth. Then he slumped to the ground face first.

Even before it, the female demon had vanished into the shadows.

Elly gasped for air. She averted her eyes, and almost didn't dare look back up, when Jake moved.

Soundlessly.

He picked the crown off the dead King's head.

For a long moment, he stared down at the thing in his hands with a face impossible to read. His eyes were heard and haunted.

"I-Is he dead?" Elly dared to say. And meant to ask if he would stay dead, apparently, that wasn't a given anymore for people.

"Yes," Jake said. Even his voice was void of any emotion. So much so, it had Elly shudder.

Reaching a goal should have been a happy occasion. But there was no happiness here. There was only death and blood.

Too much blood.

Jake grabbed the crown tight in his hand. He raised his arm with it and strode down the corridor towards the fights that still had to be ongoing somewhere.

"The King is dead!" he yelled.

***