The Weight of Tired Blood
I took the knife.
The blade was warm. Not metal-warm. Body-warm, like it had been pressed against skin for hours. The symbols carved into it twisted when I looked directly at them, rearranging themselves into patterns that made my eyes water.
"What do I do with this."
"Cut your palm." Seris pointed at Kira's unconscious form. "Then hers. Press them together. The bond will do the rest, assuming it recognizes her as viable."
"Assuming."
"I told you. No guarantees."
Seraphine stepped between me and Kira. "You will explain what happens if the bond does not recognize her."
"Then Jake bleeds out trying to force a connection that cannot form, Kira dies anyway, and the incomplete bond structure destabilizes." Seris said it like she was reading a grocery list. "The three of you will have perhaps a week before the bond tears itself apart trying to find equilibrium. You will die screaming."
"Fantastic." I moved around Seraphine. "Love those odds."
"Jake." Elara caught my wrist. Not hard. Just enough to make me stop. "You do not have to do this. We can find another way."
"There is no other way." I pulled free, gentler than she'd grabbed me. "You said it yourself. Remove the mark, she dies. Leave it, she dies. This is the only option that doesn't guarantee she's dead."
"It might guarantee you are dead instead."
"Then I'm dead." I pressed the blade against my palm. "I've been tired for a long time anyway."
The knife bit deep. Blood welled up, darker than it should be, and the symbols on the blade started to glow. Not with light. With absence, like they were drinking the space around them.
Elara's hand tightened on my shoulder. "What did you mean by that."
"By what."
"That you have been tired for a long time."
I didn't answer. Couldn't answer, because Seris had already grabbed Kira's hand and sliced her palm open with a second blade I hadn't seen her draw. Black blood mixed with red, and the demon mark on Kira's chest pulsed like a second heartbeat.
"Now," Seris said. "Before the demon realizes what you are doing."
I pressed my bleeding palm against Kira's.
The bond hit like a freight train.
Not the gentle warmth I'd felt with Seraphine and Elara. This was fire and broken glass, a connection trying to force itself through a space that was already occupied. I could feel the demon contract, a writhing mass of hooks and chains wrapped around Kira's soul, and I could feel the bond trying to burn through it.
Kira's eyes snapped open. Black, completely black, no whites at all.
"Get back," Seraphine barked, but I couldn't move. My hand was fused to Kira's, blood and magic welding us together.
Kira's mouth opened. The voice that came out wasn't hers.
"Foolish." Multiple tones layered over each other, grinding like metal on stone. "You think you can steal what was promised to us? She is ours. Bought and paid for."
"Contracts can be broken," I said, and my voice didn't sound like mine either. It echoed, resonated, like Seraphine and Elara were speaking through me.
"Not this one." Kira's body convulsed. The black veins spread faster, racing up her neck, across her face. "We will take everything before we let her go."
The bond surged. I felt it pulling power from Seraphine and Elara, channeling it through me, using me as a conduit to burn away the demon's hold. But it wasn't enough. The contract was too deep, too old, woven into every part of Kira's soul.
"More," I said. "I need more."
"You are already pulling everything we have," Elara said, and I could hear the strain in her voice.
"Then I'll use mine."
"You do not have power," Seraphine said. "You are the anchor, not the source."
"Wrong." I could feel it now, coiled in my chest where the bond lived. Not borrowed power. Mine. Raw and unformed and absolutely massive, like an ocean I'd never known was there. "I've always had it. I just didn't know how to use it."
I pulled.
The world exploded.
I was floating in nothing. No ground, no sky, no sense of up or down. Just void, and in the void, three lights.
Seraphine burned gold, steady and controlled, a sun that never wavered.
Elara shimmered green and silver, wild and beautiful, a forest in moonlight.
And Kira—
Kira was drowning in black tar, a tiny spark of white light struggling against chains that wrapped around her like a cocoon.
I reached for her.
The chains lashed out, wrapping around my wrists, my throat, trying to drag me down into the dark with her. I could feel the demon on the other end, ancient and hungry, pulling back.
"She is ours," the voice said again, but quieter now. Uncertain.
"No." I grabbed the chains and pulled. "She's hers."
The power in my chest uncoiled. Not fire. Not light. Something else, something that felt like connection itself, like every bond I'd ever formed and every person I'd ever cared about compressed into a single point of absolute certainty.
The chains shattered.
Kira's light blazed white-hot, and the demon screamed.
I woke up on the floor with Seraphine's knee on my chest and her hand around my throat.
"Do not move," she said.
"Wasn't planning on it." My voice came out as a wheeze. "What happened."
"You happened." Elara knelt beside me, her hand on Seraphine's shoulder. "You pulled so much power that the wards around this room shattered. Half the palace felt it. They will be coming."
"Is Kira—"
"Alive." Seris stood over Kira's body, checking her pulse. "The demon mark is gone. The bond took hold. She is the third point now."
Relief hit so hard I almost passed out again. "Good. That's good."
"No." Seraphine's hand tightened. "It is not good. What you just did—the amount of power you channeled—that should have killed you. It should have burned you out from the inside. But you are fine. More than fine. I can feel your power still, and it is not diminishing. It is growing."
"So I'm a battery. Great. We can use that."
"You are not listening." Seraphine leaned closer, and for the first time since I'd met her, I saw fear in her eyes. "That much power in an untrained vessel is not a gift. It is a weapon. And weapons get used."
The door exploded inward.
Guards poured in, a dozen of them in full armor, weapons drawn. Behind them came a man in robes so white they hurt to look at, his face hidden behind a silver mask carved with symbols that matched the ones on Seris's knife.
"Archmagus Kross," Elara said, and her voice was ice. "You have no authority here."
"Forgive me, Princess, but you must understand—we felt the surge." The man's voice was soft, almost gentle, but it carried like he was speaking directly into my ear. "Such power, uncontrolled and wild, cannot be allowed to exist within these walls. For the safety of the kingdom, we must contain it."
"You mean contain him," Seraphine said.
"If that is what is required, yes." Kross gestured, and the guards moved forward. "We take no pleasure in this, but the council has been clear. The summoned one is too dangerous to remain free."
"The council." Elara stood, putting herself between me and the guards. "The council does not command me."
"No, but they command the kingdom." Kross tilted his head. "And the kingdom demands protection from threats, even those we have invited into our midst. Especially those."
"He saved her life," Elara said, pointing at Kira.
"And in doing so, revealed himself as a threat greater than any demon." Kross's voice never changed, never rose, but somehow it filled the room. "We have seen what happens when power like his goes unchecked. Cities burn. Nations fall. We cannot allow history to repeat itself."
"You will not touch him," Seraphine said.
"We do not wish to. But we will, if we must." Kross raised one hand, and the air around him began to shimmer. "Stand aside, Commander. This is not a request."
Seraphine's hand went to her sword.
Elara grabbed her wrist. "Do not. You cannot win this fight."
"I do not need to win. I need to buy time."
"For what?"
"For him to run."
I was still on the floor, Seraphine's knee having finally lifted off my chest. My hand was still bleeding, and I could feel the bond thrumming in my chest, Kira's presence settling into place alongside Seraphine and Elara like she'd always been there.
"I'm not running," I said.
"You do not have a choice," Seraphine said.
"Actually, I do." I stood up, slower than I wanted to, and faced Kross. "You want to contain me because I'm dangerous. Fine. I get it. But you're making a mistake."
"We do not believe so."
"Yeah, well, you're wrong." I took a step forward. The guards tensed, but Kross held up a hand to stop them. "You think I'm a weapon. You think I'm going to lose control and burn everything down. But that's not how this works."
"Then explain how it works," Kross said.
"I can't." Another step. "Because I don't know yet. But I know this—locking me up, treating me like a bomb waiting to go off, that's what's going to make me dangerous. You want me to be a threat? Keep pushing. See what happens."
"Is that a threat?"
"It's a fact." I stopped an arm's length from him. "You felt what I did. You know what I'm capable of. So ask yourself—do you really want to find out what happens when you try to cage that?"
Kross was silent for a long moment. Then he lowered his hand.
"You make a compelling argument," he said. "But you must understand—the council will not be swayed by words alone. They will demand proof that you can be trusted."
"What kind of proof."
"The kind that can only be given in blood." Kross turned toward the door. "Three days. You have three days to demonstrate that your power can be controlled. If you cannot, the council will vote to execute you, and there will be nothing the Princess or the Commander can do to stop it."
He left, the guards following behind him like a white-robed tide.
The door closed.
Seraphine breathed out. "Three days."
"Better than three minutes," I said.
"Barely." Elara moved to Kira, checking her pulse again. "She is stable, but she will not wake for hours. The bond is still settling."
"Then we have time to plan," Seraphine said.
"Plan what?" I looked at her. "How do I prove I can control something I didn't even know I had until ten minutes ago?"
"You do not." Seris spoke from the corner, where she'd been standing so still I'd almost forgotten she was there. "You cannot prove control. But you can prove necessity."
"What does that mean."
"It means the council wants you dead because you are dangerous. So you make yourself more dangerous to kill than to keep alive." She smiled, and it was not a nice smile. "You make them need you."
"How."
"By doing what you do best." Seris walked over to Kira, running one finger along the place where the demon mark had been. "You connect. You bond. You make yourself indispensable to the people they cannot afford to lose."
"You mean Seraphine and Elara."
"And Kira. And anyone else you can tie yourself to before the three days are up." Seris looked at me. "The council will not kill you if it means killing half the kingdom's leadership in the process."
"That is manipulative," Elara said.
"That is survival," Seris countered. "And unless you have a better plan, it is the only option."
Seraphine's hand found mine. "She is right. We do not have time for honor. We have time for results."
I wanted to argue. Wanted to say there had to be another way, something that didn't involve using people as shields. But I could feel the bond, could feel how close I'd come to losing Kira, and I knew Seris was right.
Three days to make myself unkillable.
Three days to figure out how to control power I didn't understand.
Three days before the council decided I was too dangerous to live.
"Okay," I said. "Let's do it."
Elara opened her mouth to respond, but the words never came.
Kira's eyes opened—bright blue now, clear and human—and she grabbed my wrist with a grip like iron.
"Jake," she said, and her voice was raw. "I can feel them. The others. There are more people bound by demon contracts. Dozens of them. And they are all dying."
The bond flared, and suddenly I could feel them too. Distant sparks, flickering and fading, scattered across the kingdom like dying stars.
"Where," I said.
Kira's hand tightened. "Everywhere. The capital, the outer provinces, even the border towns. The demons are calling in their debts. All of them. Right now."
"Why now," Seraphine said.
"Because of what we did." Kira looked at me, and there was something like awe in her eyes. "We broke a contract. We proved it could be done. The demons are panicking. They are taking everything they can before anyone else figures out how to fight back."
"How long do they have," Elara said.
"Hours. Maybe less." Kira tried to sit up, failed, fell back. "We have to help them."
"We cannot," Seraphine said. "We do not have the resources, the time, or the knowledge. What we did here was a miracle. We cannot replicate it dozens of times in a single night."
"Then they die," Kira said.
"Yes."
"No." I pulled my hand free from Kira's grip. "We're not letting them die."
"Jake—"
"I said no." I looked at Seris. "You broke one contract. You can break more."
"Not alone. Not that many. Not that fast." Seris shook her head. "I am good, but I am not a god."
"Then we make you one." I could feel the power in my chest, still there, still growing. "You said I'm a conduit. Fine. Use me. Channel whatever you need through the bond, and we'll break every contract in this kingdom before sunrise."
"That will kill you," Elara said.
"Maybe."
"Not maybe. Certainly." Seris stepped closer. "What you are suggesting—using yourself as a focus for that much magic—your body will not survive it. You will burn out."
"Then I burn out." I met her eyes. "But I'm not letting people die because I was too scared to try."
"This is not about fear," Seraphine said. "This is about reality. You cannot save everyone."
"Watch me."
The bond pulsed, and I felt Seraphine and Elara's emotions crash into me. Fear. Anger. Desperation. And underneath it all, love so fierce it made my chest ache.
"Please," Elara said, and her voice broke. "Please do not do this."
"I have to."
"Why."
I looked at Kira, still weak and barely conscious. At Seraphine, hand on her sword like she could fight off the inevitable. At Elara, tears tracking down her face.
"Because seven years ago, I tried to kill myself," I said. "I was nineteen. Depressed. Tired of being tired. I took a bottle of pills and went to sleep, and I was okay with not waking up."
Silence.
"Obviously it didn't work. Someone found me, called an ambulance, and I woke up in a hospital with a tube down my throat and a psychiatrist asking me why I did it." I laughed, but it came out wrong. "I didn't have an answer. I just knew I was tired, and I wanted it to stop."
"Jake," Seraphine said, but I kept going.
"I've been tired ever since. Every day. Every hour. Just tired of existing, tired of trying, tired of pretending I'm okay when I'm not." I looked at them. "But right now? Right now I'm not tired. Right now I have a reason to be awake. And if using that reason means I burn out trying to save people, then at least I'll die doing something that matters."
"You matter," Elara said.
"Maybe. But they matter too." I turned to Seris. "So what do you say. You want to save some lives tonight?"
Seris studied me for a long moment. Then she smiled, sharp and dangerous.
"I suppose I do." She pulled out another ritual knife, twin to the first. "But if you die doing this, I am going to be very annoyed."
"I'll try not to."
"See that you do not." She handed me the blade. "Now. Let us see if we can break a kingdom's worth of demon contracts before the council decides to break you."
I took the knife.
The symbols on the blade began to glow, and somewhere in the distance, I heard screaming.
The demons knew we were coming.