Black Magic
2
Knowing why I feel so weak should have made me feel better, if anything could, but instead the lead inside me hardens still. I so wanted to believe that this was a mistake, that Bones was wrong, but my undead husband was pacing the floor in anger. I could feel my insides clenching tightly In what I recognised eventually as fear. I hadn't felt fear for Bones since we first met.
"What is his game?" He wondered out-loud, his voice trembling with the building rage. He hadn't been this furious in all the time that I'd known him, and the rage burned brightly in the eyes he turned to me. "You don't think..." he paused, his throat rippling as he swallowed thickly, "that he intends to..." But he seemed unable to continue.
"Get rid of me?" I guessed, the pain in my stomach from earlier morphing into something stronger and even more disabling. I didn't bother to check behind me for a chair before I began to sit down. My backside hit the hard, dusty, mottled floor with a thud. I might have made a sound, but whatever it was I sure didn't hear it. Instead, all I could hear was the echo of my stilled beating heart. If I had no chance against Bones, how could I ever even hope to fight his grand-sire who was many, many times stronger?
"Yeah, this way you're fair-game." He told me.
Fair-game. What did that even mean? Images of Mencheres wielding a shotgun and wearing tan shorts flooded my mind, but that didn't seem likely. I wondered why he would want me dead, and came up with nothing. Did my weakening powers mean that he would no longer concern himself with what happened to me, or even to Bones?
"But don't get me wrong, love," he said, his eyes at last meeting my own, "Don't think I have any intention of not giving all I've got to protecting you." He smiled, but the anguish still swum in his eyes and reflected the light from the moon. My own distress burned behind my lashes. I knew, deep in my heart, that all Bones had would not be enough to win a fight against a god.
"What do we do?" I ask, my mind unable to fathom a place where we could hide, "Part of me wants to fight him, but I know that I don't stand a chance. You're no match for him," Bones opened his mouth to interrupt me but I cut him off before he could make a sound. "You're not, Bones, you know you're not. I don't want to lose you – you're all I've got."