Page 70 of Stitches
The flash was so blinding, the push so powerful, that Ashmedai flew backward through the air and landed hard on his outstretched wings. The light faded quickly, however, for the violet-colored crystal was turning black, and Cullen, eyes wide in panic, was being consumed by it as if swallowed by a ravenous fiend until he vanished into the void.
“No!”
“Ash…?”
Ashmedai jerked his gaze from where he was sprawled on the ground before the blackened gemstone. Braxton appeared from the other side, stunned and clearly wary, but not seeming as afraid as Cullen had been.
Braxton was a good man, a good friend. He was the first person Ashmedai had met when he arrived in the Amethyst Kingdom.
“Brax,” Ashmedai lamented, his voice otherworldly in this form, making Braxton cringe. Like Ashmedai’s physical appearance, his voice was variable, deeper and high-pitched, resonant and like a whisper. “It’s all my fault….”
“It’s okay.” Braxton raised a hand as if to calm a spooked animal. “I knew you were one of them. I knew it. You were too extraordinary, too beautiful to just be an elf.”
“It’s all my fault,” Ashmedai said again, not really listening.
“No, Ash, I saw—”
“It’s all my fault!” he shrieked and leapt back to his feet.
The gemstone was becoming brighter again, returning to violet, and in a sudden rush of hope, Ashmedai thought Cullen might be returned to him. He wasn’t. Cullen didn’t exist anymore. Whatever had become of him was seeping out of the gemstone at its base and spreading into the earth like a plague.
A scream, almost as shrill as Ashmedai’s own, brought his and Braxton’s attentions to a nearby shop.Daedlys’sshop. In normal speech, Daedlys had a lovely tenor, but oh, how he could scream.
The white-haired elf was staring at Ashmedai like Cullen had.
“Wait!” Braxton cried when Ashmedai turned to flee.
Ashmedai was so distressed by what had happened, he could barely propel himself upward to take flight. All he could do was run, occasionally hovering in his scramble to escape, or leaping through shadows, headed into the wood to get as far as possible from the Amethyst and the kingdom he had ruined.
Levi
“What are you…?” Levi gasped, stumbling backward, even though Ashmedai couldn’t possibly come closer with the barrier between them. He hated that he was echoing what the highwayman had asked of him, but he didn’t understand. “Youcaused the curse?”
“It wasn’t on purpose,” Ashmedai said, still and solemn, looking the way Levi was used to, with his white irises returning. But the memory of his true form, of a monster with shape and color and voice that made Levi’s mind buzz from the dissonance, was impossible to forget. “Ademon is as good an answer as any, I suppose, for what I am.
“My kind are from outside this world, connected but hidden. In ages past, we would cross over to explore. The people of this world called us… fairies. We were wild magic given form, but you—humans, elves, dwarves—you are what taught us to be individuals, to have wants and desires.
“We made ourselves look like you, acted like you. Over the centuries, we wanted more and more and more—just like you. We were already immortal, but in our growing greed, we wanted to be gods, to rule over all we had learned of this world. So we began to consume everything we could to achieve that end, and our ambition corrupted us.
“Some of us it destroyed. Some became such horrible villains that the people rose up to destroy them. And some of us… realized our folly and retreated home.
“More centuries passed, and a few of us wondered what had become of you, curious to venture back, though cautious of allowing ourselves to be corrupted again. The first who returned decided to stay, vowed to build something beautiful to make amends. Mavis, the Fairy Queen, they called her. Her certainty made me believe it was worth crossing over myself.
“I had new eyes after our years of solitude. At least… I thought I did. I believed I could control myself. But then I met Cullen, and Iwantedagain with all the madness of my kind.”
A tear slipped free down Ashmedai’s cheek, and he sniffled, almost angry in his rush to wipe it away.
“You… you were in love,” Levi said, having stopped backpedaling while he listened, for the even tones of Ashmedai’s voice made him feel less afraid.
“Yes. And look what that cost. I confessed, and he rejected me. He tried to be kind about it, but in my grief that he didn’t love me back, I revealed what I truly was, and he was horrified. I was everything thenthat I had tried not to be—a demon unable to stop consuming what I wanted until nothing was left.
“He tried to cast me out, to banish the ‘monster’ from ever being able to enter his kingdom again. It wasme, my magic that corrupted his intentions. I just wanted him to understand. If he didn’t love me, so be it, but I wanted him to know me, to see me….”
Another tear fell, then another, too fast for Ashmedai to swipe at them all.
“He called upon the Amethyst for the power he needed. All the kingdoms have a gemstone somewhere, where magic congregates and the veil between worlds is thin. They’re what my people used to amass more power once. I just wanted Cullen to understand, but when I tried to reach for him and touched the gemstone, I caused the curse.
“Cullen was eradicated into nothing. That would have been awful enough, but the darkness didn’t stop. The barrier sprang up, and the curse spread to fill it, transforming everyone inside and imprisoning them forever.
