Page 70 of Jacob Michaels is Dead

Bloody Bones’ skull tilted back towards the heavens, and a long peal of laughter escaped his maw. In the corner of my eye, I could see Oma standing at her post, looking concerned. Obviously, no one had faith in what I had said.

“It’s been eleven years since I’ve met a witch in battle.” His coarse, gravelly voice met my ears. “I forgot how entertaining your kind can be.”

“You want a show?” I snapped, my arm beginning to rise.

“I’ve learned from my mistakes in the past.” Bloody Bones said. “And a few new tricks.”

Before I could even blink, Blood Bones’ arm snapped up, and an orb of sickly green light burst forth. I didn’t even have time to raise my arm. I certainly had no idea how to counter or block a spell. If I had a memory of being trained to do such a thing, it was failing me. All I had time to do was to realize that this was it. Maybe I had killed a few wolves…but I definitely was no match for Bloody Bones. Especially now that I didn’t have a reservoir of magic the well had provided. I wasn’t ready. And that was how I would die.

“NO!” Lucas screamed as magic flared in the air around us.

And then I was falling to the ground in a heap. The air was knocked from my lungs, and my vision blurred as a starless, moonless, black sky looked down on me. The world seemed to slow as my head swam from smacking against the ground so forcefully. Muffled sounds filled my ears.

Did you see that?

Shaking my head to clear the sounds and the confusion, I pushed off of the ground, rage filling me again as I came to my knees, my vision clearing, though I was still trying to catch my breath. Bloody Bones was still across from me at the garden fence…and he was smiling. Oma was standing a few yards away, a few feet within the fence perimeter, her mouth hung slack, her eyes wide and terrified.

All I could think was that, yes, Bloody Bones had knocked me on my ass…sent me reeling…but I was still alive.

But then I saw Lucas standing to my side. Looking up, I saw that he was looking down at his stomach, which he had his one good hand against. As I looked up, his head turned to me. His face was ashen, and a single tear was sliding down his cheek as his eyes met mine. Then he crumpled to his knees beside me. My voice caught in my throat as my face twisted in horror and disbelief when I saw the blood gushing out from between the fingers of the hand against his stomach.

My arms went out to catch Lucas as he fell into me, blooding streaming down the front of him. Lucas’ body was nearly dead weight in my arms as his body slumped against me, turning just enough so that he could look up at me, his face pasty white, his eyes looking dim, though they were wide open. His lips quivered, and his mouth opened as if to say something to me, but nothing came out, though another tear escaped his eye.

“Lucas.” I gasped, holding him tightly, struggling to keep him off of the ground but also figure out what to do to help him.

Then Bloody Bones reeled back with an evil laugh, his arm held up aggressively. Another orb of sickly green light flew at us.

And nothing happened.

Bloody Bones jerked, and somehow, his skull-like face looked shocked.

“I told him ‘no.’” Lucas croaked from his place in my arms, making me look back down at him.

Lucas’ eyes searched my face as his blood oozed from his stomach and trickled between us, dripping onto my knees and the ground below. Reaching out with some part of my magic that was instinctive, something told me that there was nothing to be done. My boyfriend was dying right there in my arms as Oma watched—because that’s what The Guardian does. It’s what The Guardian has always done. And he had been killed by Bloody Bones. Because that’s what Bloody Bones does. That’s what he has always done. Tears welled in my eyes as I looked down at Lucas, trying to find the words to tell him how much I loved him. How sorry I was—how everything in this moment was my fault and no one else’s.

Instead of my voice filling the space between us…faint green light did. And it wasn’t coming from another offensive spell from Bloody Bones. It wasn’t my magic. It was Lucas’ eyes. They were glowing—like I had only seen them do once before. As if trying to communicate with me, and not having the use of his voice, Lucas’ eyes searched my face, desperately trying to get me to understand something. For what seemed like hours, but was probably less than a second, I tried to understand what Lucas’ eyes were telling me. Then, Lucas’ fingers slithered across my forearm, smearing it with blood. Weaker than ever before, I felt Lucas draw my magic down my arm, almost like a trickle from a faucet…and his eyes glowed red.

A sudden realization went through me, and I gasped as I held my dying boyfriend.

As above, so below.

All things have to be equal.

And I was holding something that still contained part of Bloody Bones’ stolen power. A piece that had refused to serve him. Someone who was going to die…no matter what I did. I could make things equal again. A tear slithered down my cheek as I looked down at Lucas in my arms, my lips slowly curling into a sad smile. Lucas somehow found the strength to give me a single nod, though no words escaped his lips.

“I love you,” I said.

He nodded once more.

When I looked up from Lucas, my eyes settling on Bloody Bones, I knew that my eyes were glowing red once again. Underneath us all, the ground started to rumble and shake, and from the look that suddenly flooded Bloody Bones skull-like face, I knew that he knew someone else was the cause of it for once in his long life.

“Ohhhhhh, shit.” I heard Oma crow, though I was too focused on the man made of bones in the black hooded cloak to search her out with my eyes. “You done pissed him off good, Red Eyes.”

I want to say it was fury once again that filled me from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. But it wasn’t. It wasn’t a desire to make things equal due to altruism. It wasn’t anger or rage.

It was vengeance.

And that would have to be good enough.