Chapter 18

Piper saw him fall, his body crashing against the stone floor, red spilling out around his motionless form from the wound across his chest and creating a lake of darkness. The enchanter was staring at the blade in his hand, a blade rich with warm blood. He was smiling.

"No!" Piper heard someone scream Raoul's name; it was only later that she realized it was her mouth forming the word.

Somehow she made it to her feet, limping over to him, her whole body shaking.

"Get away from him, girl!" the enchanter said suddenly, roughly grabbing at her arm. She looked up at him through a haze of tears. It seemed as if his unnatural lavendar eyes were frightened.

"You have done enough harm," Piper whispered, her voice shaking. "Leave me. Leave him. Leave us be, you monster!"

Anger surged through her body; anger—and sorrow—made her violent. She turned and shoved him with all the strength she possessed.

He stumbled backward, not expecting the gesture. For a single moment, his fingers slipped from the knife he had held so loosely in his grasp. For an eternity, time was frozen, the knife suspended in the still air. Piper found she could not tear her eyes from it.

The knife fell.

The very tip grazed the enchanter's palm. Blood—the tiniest drop—pooled at the cut.

The enchanter cursed and his lavendar eyes turned to Piper, dark with hatred. He made a movement with the knife. Piper flinched, ready for the downward blow, her body arching over Raoul's.

The blow never came. Instead, a scream utterly unlike anything Piper had ever heard, a scream like a dying animal's, issued from the enchanter's lips. The knife dropped from his grasp; he was clutching his wrist, staring with unconcealed horror at the little cut.

And Piper saw that he was burning. Smoke, dark and ominous, rose from the cut. As Piper watched mutely, the cut sizzled and burned, spreading across the enchanter's palm.

"What magic is this!" the enchanter screamed, waving his hand in the air. It was a futile gesture. The sizzling slowly made its way down his arm, consuming the flesh and filling the air with the sharply acrid smell of burning skin. Soon there was nothing left but a stump of an arm. And still the burning came, travelling across the enchanter's body.

"It is no magic," Piper whispered.

"Tovu!" the enchanter cried. The manservant stood stockstill, staring blankly at the man who had been his true master all these years. In that moment, he knew the magic that caused such fire to burn in the enchanter's blood. It was the magic written in Piper's eyes as she stood beside Master Raoul; it was the magic etched across Raoul's face whenever he was in Piper's presence; it was the magic buried deep inside them both, inside the castle, even deep within the servants, that made the enchanter's skin burn, for it was a magic utterly foreign to an ageless man riddled with jealousy, hatred, and malice.

Tovu knew there was no such magic within himself. There never had been any. There never would be any. He had spent so many years with hatred in his heart that he did not know anything of this magic.

The enchanter screamed. His body was a writhing mess of black ash—all except for his face. The lavendar eyes held Piper's in a death embrace.

And then the fire consumed the face. Nothing remained except for a creeping tendril of black smoke.

The room was silent. Piper found that she was indescribably weak, as if she had just battled a thousand dragons. With a soft cry of pain, her knees gave way and she sank down next to Raoul.

Raoul …

Piper turned to him, her eyes searching his white face for signs of life. Fingers trembling uncontrollably, she touched the cold face, brushed his hair from his forehead.

"Raoul," she whispered. "Raoul, please say something!"

She could hardly see anymore; her eyes were clouded with tears. She choked back a sob.

"Raoul, I'm sorry," she found herself saying, the words coming without thought, her fingers clenching his shirt front desperately, as if somehow that would keep him from leaving. For he was leaving. She could feel the life slowly draining from him. She fought to hang on.

"I thought that I could never learn to care about you," she whispered, her cheek coming to rest on his chest, the blood warm against her cheek. "I thought you were a monster." The tears were coming faster now, resting lightly on her cheeks. "You were a beast to me. I did not think there was any goodness in you." She shut her eyes. "I think so differently now, Raoul! Please, you mustn't leave. I have to tell you. Please, Raoul!"

He was dying. The soft breathing was now almost gone. Piper lifted her head and looked down at the still face, her heart aching when she thought of never seeing that flash of shy innocence in his dark eyes or that soft look whenever he thought she wasn't looking.

"Raoul, I must tell you!"

Her fingers tightened around his shirt front as she leaned down, her mouth near his.

"I love you, Raoul," she breathed, tears warm on her face as she bent down and kissed him.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Tovu saw Piper lean down over the master, heard the whispered words almost as if they had been magnified across the room. So it was as he had always suspected. Piper loved the master.

Was that satisfaction somewhere deep within? For a moment, Tovu wondered at it as he stood poised at the edge of the balcony. Was he happy for the master?

Happiness was so foreign. The small man stood still for a moment longer, as if contemplating the meaning of the word. Had he ever been truly happy?

Imagining the master's downfall, he thought but it did not bring him that flash of cruel pleasure as it had done in times past. He was left only with emptiness. And that, he realized with sudden clariy, was what he was. An empty man full of empty hatred.

He did not wish the master farewell. But he turned and lifted his hand in a half-salute to the pile of ash on the floor where an enchanter had been once. To ruined lives, he thought—to my own ruined life.

The ground yawned before him. The last step was a long one.

He breathed in deeply and took the last step.

This is kind of an odd chapter; I hope it's not too depressing and that the characters keep their character--if that make sense. Thank you to everyone who made it this far!

Almost done. :)

em