Page 68 of How to Woo the Undead

“You’re right. I was brutish. I dragged each of those paladins out into the field. I broke their legs so they couldn’t run away. I destroyed their hands so they couldn’t cast. And I left them defenseless for her. And you know what she did? After she ripped them to shreds with a rusty knife? After she inflicted all the pain and suffering they’d done to the people of her village?” Austin arched a brow.

Marquis pushed to his wobbly feet, trying to clear his throat.No! No, they’re not here yet. Stop!“I don’t care what a heretic did—”

Austin needed to think fast. Unfortunately, the only solution was the truth.No sugar coating this one.“She killed herself.”

Marquis dropped back down to the stone bench. Austin took sudden, ragged breaths in as he tried his best not to cry again. He’d already spilled those tears for the marked woman ages ago. Knelt beside her, begging her not to be gone, he found her with her neck snapped a day after Sebastian was reformed. Austin did everything he told Marquis, but he didn’t mention dragging the leftover bodies that the woman couldn’t brutalize back to Sebastian. He helped his maker regain his strength, and when he returned with the Lich to collect the woman…there she was. Dangling from a tree, eyes glassy, and life gone. Austin cut her down and held her for a long time. Then he buried her and all the burned dead in the woods near the Old Fae’s cottage so that the spirit of him could still watch over them.

“She couldn’t bear the thought of going on past her revenge. It didn’tfixthe hurt. It made it worse. It consumed her till she was nothing but a husk.” Austin pleaded with Marquis to see the reason. Revenge was the tale as old as time. He’d read so many stories of adventurers who withered away under the pressure to exact revenge. And those who did accomplish it? The heartbreak of realizing that itneverfixed anything. He’d known so many people from the Badlands who ended the same way as the marked woman. Their grief consumed them till there was nothing left and they were just stories. Reminders that revenge is a poisoned dream.

“That’s the difference between you heretics and I,” Marquis growled.No. Austin’s stomach clenched up as Marquis’ fists ignited into two balls of swirling black fire. “My Lord and I do notwantthe hurt fixed…”

Marquis launched two fireballs at the center, igniting the pyre with a roar. Austin howled. Thrashing, he tried his best to free himself, but the chains only burned harder.No! No! They’re not here yet! They don’t know I’m here!Marquis lumbered forward, hisfists covered in flames once more. He pointed them at the logs directly beneath Austin. “I wish to let itfester…until it consumes me and renders me clean once more by His most holy flames.”

Heavy, necromantic smog filled the air around them as Austin was ignited.

Chapter Thirty-Three:

Hyacinth

Hyacinthscruffedtheclericby the back of the neck the second she saw the flames touch the sky. Throwing him over her head, she ignored his screams of terror as he was ripped asunder. Her attention was on the golden light dancing into the sky, she flew forward. Snuffles thumped somewhere below, keeping up in his sleeker body. Her wings stirred up the leaves and snow. The sky overhead was black, crackling with lightning. What sparse trees were around her groaned under the weight of the winds she created as she bulldozed her way to the pyre.

That’s when she came upon the temple. A circular monument built out the side of a large cliff side. An obsidian stone crackling with gold and purple, the same shape the cleric wore in the woods embossed on the pillar outside. There were a few buildings spread around it, but the main one seemed to surround a courtyard that was currently billowing thick smoke.

And screams pierced the sky. Hyacinth didn’t even think before she flew into the massive stone doors at the front. Pressing her whole body into it, she roared as her wings slapped hard against the air.Come on! Let me in-let me in-LET ME IN!

The doors caved in, ripping open as smoke pushed its way out. She tumbled forward, head over foot, in a bundle of lumpy limbs until she knelt before a great pyre.

At the center of it was Austin. “HYACINTH!” he shrieked. “Get out of here!”

But there was no time. Silver chains lashed out from the smoke and wrapped around her. She was undead—pain of the flesh wasn’t supposed to even faze her. Yet, the feel of that cold metal against her flesh was like being carved up by a scalpel. All her nerve endings screamed in agony as the chains burned against her skin. It ran up and down her body.Pain! It’s all pain! Searing, all encompassing, unending pain!It consumed her till she was writhing against the cobblestone. Her fingernails scraped against the gravel for any sort of purchase, but there was none. Back arched, heels dug in, head thrown back, she howled into the night.

“Now…look…who…it…is.” A garbled, choked voice filled her ears as Marquis the cleric melted out of the smoke. His eyes were bloodshot and there were little white, fluffy roots spreading out his nose and ears, but he was standing. A chain of pure silver wrapped around his fist; he put a boot ontop of her chest. Forcing her flat against the ground, her wings rattled like a snake’s tail to no avail. The cleric never intended to see reason.

He coughed hard into his elbow, clumps of mud hitting the gravel next to her. When he turned to glare at her, she saw the roots growing within his maw. They’d knocked two teeth from his gums and ran across the roof of his mouth. She could even see them slithering beneath the skin on his neck.

“You’re sick,” she gasped for air, tears spilling out of her eyes.

“And I know who infected me,” he snarled. She tried to thrash but the chains dug in deeper. Agony in the form of a wail escaped her throat. Hyacinth sobbed, kicking her feet against the gravel. “But that won’t matter soon. Lord Nexxus is most pleased with his offerings. I will put you to the fire and walk outof the flames, cleansed in His name. And once, and for all, all your evil will be purged from this realm.”

Hyacinth kicked her feet, but they couldn’t move more than an inch. He pressed his boot harder into her chest and she heard Austin’s words.Your heart is a very delicate thing. Her attention switched to the flames. She couldn’t see him anymore from the gravel. Everything was golden flames. His howls of pain pierced the roar of the pyre and made her heart ache. The shards of glass that made up her sense of reality grated together. Hyacinth was a shattered, porcelain plate spinning in a hurricane. The sky cracked overhead, lightning striking the temple in five different points. Marquis glanced up, shuffling back from her in confusion. The wind howled against his sanctuary, the flames dancing away from her and igniting the weeds between the cobblestones behind the pyre.

There were no words. The silver burned into her flesh, rendering her helpless…but she wasn’t alone. That’s when the rain began to pour. It sizzled against the golden flames, unable to put it out, but cooling down her skin.

They don’t get to burn him! They don’t get to have him! He’s mine! My Austin!

Snuffles broke through the smoke, of the same mind as Hyacinth. His tentacles wrapped around Marquis’ leg before he could react and sank his fangs into his ankles. The cleric yelled, kicking to knock the abomination off him, but Snuffles dug in with his claws and antlers.

Dryads reached out of the smoke and took ahold of the chains. While her mud snake slithered up Marquis’ body, the trees unraveled her restraints. She cried with each twitch of her body. Every chain peeled away like she was warm wax, taking pieces of her with it. The pain made her body tense to the point she thought her bones might snap. Her threads sizzled and the one on her right bicep nearly broke. It hung on by a singular,precarious stitch as she was finally flopped onto her hands and knees. Her dryads turned to ash quickly after, the silver melting through them.

Hyacinth pushed up on her arms, finding Snuffles ripping a tendon and roots from Marquis’ left foot. “Snuffles!” she croaked.

The rabbit let go, throwing himself back from the cleric as he swayed backward. Her mud snake reared its head finally, facing the cleric eye to eye. His screams of terror died in his throat as it dove into his open mouth. Burrowing down as deep as it could go, paralyzing him and ripping him apart from the insides.

Little white roots poked out from the tear ducts in his eyes. Hyacinth was on her wavering feet just long enough to meet his gaze. Her face was the last thing he saw…before he fell backward into the flames.

“Snuffles!” she cried out, stumbling forward on limp feet. Kicking gravel aside, she shuffled toward the flames. Frosty rain fought against the pyre but couldn’t put it out.Because this isn’t regular fire.A sob fell from her as the golden fire danced higher.Mocking me.Her rabbit emerged near her ankles. Austin’s cries made her tremble down to the bones.I have to get him out.The thunder over her head bounced off every pillar. It echoed in her ears. Drenched in the rain but unable to douse the flames, the only course of action…was to pull him from the fire.

“If I can get to him before the fire consumes his heart,” she choked, looking at Snuffles. “Go get Sebastian! Get Havershum. Please, Snuffles, GO!”