Chapter Twenty
My eyes widen as Daniel charges towards me. I feel the arrow slicing the air, way too close for comfort as I duck and dodge. "Daniel! Stop!" I cry out as he regains his composure and lunges again, this time the starshot sliced the sleeve of my parka coat before I could dodge. Way too close! I quickly grab the sword from Arriane's side and shakily point it at him as he turns to face me. My eyes widen as I notice the grey-violet eyes that I love so much have darkened into black pits of nothingness. Not one emotion to be seen. A sly grin twitches at his lips. "What have they done to you?" I whisper in shock "Why, my love. Don't you like it?" He sneers as he steps closer. "Daniel, It's me. It's Luce! Snap out of this!" I say helplessly as he takes another step forward. His eyes narrow into slits and his teeth bare at me like a rabid wolf. "This…...is all on you." He says waving the starshot in the air obviously motioning to the wreck that is our camp. "None of this would have happened if it wasn't for you! You just had to be different didn't you! Adoring God when we were in Heaven simply wasn't enough for you, you had to fall in love and bring everyone down with you! I lost everything because of you!" He snarls. My eyes narrow in response. "This isn't you." I say through clenched teeth. "Are you sure about that?" He smirks. "Maybe this is me, Luce. Maybe this is who I'm supposed to be. Everyone has darkness within them, some just have it suppressed deeper within themselves." He smirks as he lunges and grips the blade in his hand and pulled it from my grip, Blood poured from his hand and pattered noisily on the frozen earth. Daniel hunches over slightly groaning in pain as one arm circles his chest, the other throws the blade down towards the ground, blade tip embedding in the ground as he quickly takes a hold of the sword properly, the blood from his hand running down the swords grip before he raises it and points it at me. Red blooms through his freshly applied bandages, he must have pulled one of his stitches. "Daniel, please stop his you're hurt." I say weakly, my arms outstretched in front of me, my palms facing him in a form of surrender. "You!" He hisses stretching his arm out, raising the sword so it was level with my rapidly rising and falling chest. "Do you have any idea how miserable I have been and it's all because of you. Damn I even threw myself off a cliff because of you…Broke every single little bone in my body then Gabbe told me not to lose 'hope'." He smirked as he paced, holding the sword pointed at me. "What an idiotic concept. Hope. For what? That you'd overcome the curse and lead your friends, the ones you love to all of this? This misery, Warriors have lost their Commander. Loved ones have been lost and all because of you! You and that snake!" He hisses. Lucifer. He's talking about Lucifer, about our toxic relationship that swallowed me whole before Daniel found me. I was speechless, all I could do was watch the sword as it gleamed menacingly in the candlelight of the tent. I could see my hands tremoring in front of me as every single bit of advice Michael had given me for if I ever found myself in a situation like this, left my head. "Daniel, please. I know you and this isn't you!" I whispered as I tried to swallow the lump in my throat. The sword inched slower and I instinctively retreated a couple of steps. Daniel's lips split into a nasty ear-to-ear grin as he noticed. "Oh, but this is me, Love." He leered as he continued to step forward, causing me to retreat with each of his steps. My back hit something and I glanced behind me to see Raphael's medical cabinet. A tear slide down my cheek as I flattened my clammy palms against the cool wood. "Please. Daniel, please. I love you." I gasped only to be met by a sly smirk as his hand clutching his chest reached out and took a strand of my Midnight-Black hair between two of his fingers, before turning his black eyes back to me. His eyes captured mine and my only request would have been for his eyes to have stayed the same colour, even if they were full of hate. At least I would have gotten to see his eyes as I drew my last breath "Times up, my love." He jeered as he drew his arm holding the sword jerked forward.
Within a blink of an eye, rough hands seized me and pulled from the swords path. The sword thumped into the cabinets door, soon followed by a snarl of frustration by Daniel. "What the actual hell, Daniel!" Roland snapped at him. "What're you doing?! It's Luce!" He asked incredulously. Daniel ripped the sword from the door and pointed it in my and Roland's direction. "That thing is worse than the devil!" Daniel snapped gesturing to me with the point of the sword. "What?" Roland asked glancing from me to Daniel. "Daniel, it's Luce! What's gotten into you?" Roland scoffs in disbelief. "Brother, help me. All this will end once she's gone." Daniel continues. "Okay, what the actual hell Daniel! Snap out of whatever illusion you're under. If Luce dies so does the whole freaking world." Roland states as he steps so he's in front of me more. "Roland, don't test him." I beg as I grip his arm. Daniel releases a deep breath and looks almost sad. The only emotion I've seen on his face since I came back to the tent. "I'm sorry, my brother. I really am." He sighs as he advances, Roland draws his own sword from his hip and takes a step forward pointing his sword out and very quickly both Daniel and Roland are engaged in a deadly swordfight. Daniel swinging to brutally hurt or kill and Roland swinging to block and disarm. I remain speechless. I know I should fight with Roland. Help my friend. I should at least do something; Run, Distract Daniel, Move Francesca, Steven, Raphael and Arriane's unconscious bodies out of the way but I'm rooted to the spot. Even when Daniel finally catches Roland off guard. Roland had tried to parry Daniel's last strike but Daniel had bested him and shoved Roland's sword away with such force that it caused him to stumble and turn ever so slightly allowing Daniel enough time to deliver a blow to Roland's right arm. The arm he's fighting with. Roland cries out as his grip on the sword loosens and the sword falls and clatters to the ground. "No!" I cry as I finally move, rushing towards Daniel, trying to catch him off guard so Roland can recover but he merely bats me aside, my body slams into the metal table, Daniel had laid on when Raphael was removing the shrapnel of the arrow from his chest. Intense pain blooms in my side as I fall to the ground, gasping for air and turn just in time to see Daniel thrust his sword into Roland's chest, driving it far enough that the hilt hits Roland's chest, as the bloody blade protrudes. Roland's uninjured hand lands on Daniel's shoulder. As he looks into his friend's black eyes with a shock, pained face, before Daniel twists the sword within him. Roland lets out a choked gasp before Daniel rips the blade out and Roland falls forwards to the floor, groaning as he hits the floor. I stare at him wide eyed as Daniel turns on me, his sword dripping with Roland's blood as he moves towards me when suddenly Daniel is sent flying across the room, crashing into the side of the tent. I look back to see what caused him to do that only to find a man with wavy amber hair and icy blue eyes. Lucifer. His eyes never left Daniel as he walked towards me and took me by my upper arm and hauled me to my feet and pushed me behind him. Daniel slowly rose to his feet with a growl but didn't make move towards us. His eyes merely burned into Lucifer's. "Until we meet again….my love." He smirked before his wings unfurled and he ran for the entrance and his wings gave out a powerful beat and took him up into the Alaskan night sky. I quickly went to Roland who was lying in an expanding puddle of his own blood. I drop to my knees at his side and pale at the blood surrounding him "Roland." I whispered as I pushed up his shirt to look at the wound. "Luce…. Luce. There's nothing you can do." He whispered as his blood wet hand gripped mine. "Promise me, that you'll bring him back. That's not him, that arrow must have been laced with something. But if worst comes to worse, you kill him. End his misery, he may already be dead for all we know. But if anyone is going to bring him back it's going to bring him back, it's you Luce!" Roland whispered weakly his voice fluctuating between clear and a low barely understandable mumble. "I promise." I whisper back. "I'm so sorry Roland, so sorry!" I sob as tears stream down my cheeks. "You deserved better." Roland's lips twitch upwards. "As do you, Luce. As do you…." He sighs weakly his head lolls to the side slightly and he looks over at Arriane. "Take care of her for me, will you? She needs someone to keep her out of trouble and tell her I'm so sorry and that she was right." He asks softly as his eyelids narrow with loss of strength. "Of course, anything you want." I say as I tighten my grip on his hand. "Thank you." He says with a slight smile as his eyes finally close. His body becomes almost too bright before there is nothing beneath my hand but a layer of dust.
I lie in my bed, a sliver of sunlight beating against my closed eyelids as I replaying everything that happened last night. The horn, Gabbe's reappearance, Daniel's mini surgery, Bad Daniel, Lucifer swooping in, Roland's death. Afterward Roland was gone, Lucifer hadn't known what to say or do, so he simply left the tent though not before giving my shoulder a dainty squeeze. I knelt there, my shaking hands and knees covered in Roland's blood and the dust that once was Roland as Arriane and the others came to. Arriane had noticed me before the others, Francesca and Steven had drawn in a sharp breath. They probably thought that Daniel, their son had met his demise. Arriane had slowly approached and she wrapped an arm around me, whispering how sorry she was in my ear before I broke down completely. I wiped away the snot that dripped from my nose and the tears before explaining the whole situation to them. Arriane's tiny frame had tensed at the news, her eyes growing shinier and shinier before I told her that Roland had said that she was right and the tears began to fall. We clutched at each other and cried over the loss of our friend. I had never really been close to Roland but then again, I had never been all that close to Molly or Gabbe either but their deaths hit hard and Roland had been one of Daniel's best friends and was the Clyde to Arriane's Bonnie. He was one of the tricksters in our small family, an irreplaceable member who would leave a hole just as Molly and Gabbe had. Whatever Roland was referring to when he had hold me to tell Arriane she was right, it had hit Arriane hard. Annabelle had come and switched places with me and tried her best to console her sister but nothing could do it. I went to Francesca and Steven and explained what had happened and they told me what had happened after I had left. Maybe two minutes after I had left, Daniel's temperature began to climb and he started to convulse, Raphael had injected him with something to calm him but it didn't work and then as sudden as the convulsions had begun Daniel had stopped moving, his eyes closed and when he woke, his eyes were black and he had knocked Raphael unconscious first by smashing the basin over his head and then had fought both Francesca and Steven before managing to know both of them unconscious. Raphael once awake and able had taken one of the obsidian shards and started doing all sorts of chemical tests. He then confirmed that the arrowhead was laced but with a substance he had never encountered in his long years of practicing medicine. Francesca, noticing that my shaking didn't seize lead me back to my tent to rest, Steven decided to go to Cam to relay to him the events that had occurred since I had left him. Once in my tent, Francesca helped me into the bed and sat by my side and soothingly stroked my hair. "Nothing he said was true. You know, that right? That boy loves you more than life itself. Before you broke the curse, I remember the night he came to me. He was so concerned that you weren't adjusting to Shoreline. That you felt isolated. I assured him that you had made friends and were doing well in all your classes. His eyes were so sad and heavy looking but when I saw you both in that cabin at the site of the Fall. His eyes even though they were filled with concern held a happiness I had never seen before as you nestled in his arms. When you were asleep, we…. well I had asked if all this was worth it and he said, 'Every single moment.' He was only miserable when he was separated from you. Even this summer, you have no idea what he was like during the summers before this when you were both separated and then this summer, he was like a completely different person when he showed up with you." She smiled. I said nothing as she continued to stroke my hair. "Lilith knew what would hurt you and so she put those words in his mouth, as she would with any of her minions." Francesca promised. She then stood and went to get my flask from the table adjacent to my bed and set it on the floor by the bed. "If you need me for anything, just give a shout, I won't go far." She said giving my cheek a quick stroke before exiting my tent, I had heard commotion outside. I thought I could hear Cam's voice and then Francesca's but no one had entered the tent
Did she leave me ten minutes ago? An hour ago? "Lucinda?" An all too familiar voice called hesitantly. "Come in." I called back softly and watched as the devil ducked into my tent. "Well you look like hell." He grunted as he leant against one of the supporting wooden beams to my tent. "What do you want?" I asked as I propped myself up on my elbows. He tilted his head slightly as his icy eyes roved my face. "Are you okay?" He grunted uneasily, rolling his shoulder. It was obvious that the devil wasn't used to caring about anything. I arched an eyebrow. "I was nearly killed and one of my best friend just died." I replied, glaring at him. "Jeez, Sorry for asking." He replied narrowing his eyes at me. As he sighed. "What are you even doing here?" I ask. "Well Lilith's been getting under my skin and I want to make sure she gets taken care of…...but you don't even look fit to rip the head from a teddy bear." He countered. "Which makes me wonder, what else is going on? Normally you'd be enraged if any sort of injustice was committed against your friends and yet here you are moping around feeling oh so sorry for yourself." Lucifer continues. "Definitely not the Lucinda I knew." "You mean the Lucinda, you tricked into helping you rebel against the Throne? The Lucinda, you 'loved' yet made suffer by making her endure a horrible curse for seven millennia. The Lucinda, you basically told what to do?" I snarled at him. "Well, Thank the heavens! At least I'm not that gullible or stupid anymore." "There she is, There's the Luce Price version of Lucinda." Lucifer chortled to himself. "You really screwed up my life, you know that right?" I sighed. "Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, I'm not the one who forced you to become humans and who helped you realise what you were. You can thank your friends for that." Lucifer snapped. "Yes, she can." Another voice spoke up as five figures entered the tent. An angry looking Cam and a still grieving Arriane clutching Annabelle who was watching Lucifer suspiciously and a disgusted looking Francesca and Steven "She needed to realise what she was or she and Daniel would have died and you know it." Cam said to his superior. "Perhaps but now, your 'love' is going to tear the whole world down just to finish the task she first set out to do." Lucifer said bored as he pushed off the post. "Listen, if you should ever need me. I'II be around, watching but to be honest. I don't like her odds but the best of luck to you." He stated before leaving the tent. "The nerve of him." Annabelle hissed as her eyes followed him as he disappeared into the ruins of the camp. "And you chose his side?" Annabelle asked Cam incredulously. "Seemed like a good idea at the time." Cam said as he regarded me. "But he was right, Luce. You're acting weird. I know Daniel just tried to kill you and Roland died but normally you'd be gung-ho on fixing the mess ahead of you." Cam said as he approached the side of the bed, taking the seat that Francesca had previously occupied. Annabelle and Arriane both sat on the side of my bed but Francesca and Steven stayed put observing from just inside the door. I shifted uncomfortably. "You can tell us anything, you know that." Arriane smiled weakly as she took my hand. "We can't help you Luce, if we don't know what's wrong." Steven adds. I sigh as I sit up properly. "Well, I've been feeling weaker than usual lately and I spoke to Raphael about it not last night but the night before and he ran a couple of tests and well…" I start and take in the concerned faces of my friends. "I'm pregnant."