Page 88 of Stitches
“I do love you, Brax.”
A smile slipped into Braxton’s cold expression.
“But not the way you want, and this isn’t the way to change that.”
Braxton stomped again with several of his feet, his smile crumbling,as he readied to charge. “That ismybody.”
“No, it isn’t.” Ashmedai kept Levi behind him.
“You would take this from me? You would reject me as you were rejected? His love for you isn’t even real! Mine is. My whole life was dedicated to becoming what you wanted.”
“I never asked that of you. Brax, please—”
“No.” Braxton shook his head. “I have waited too long. I am through being patient! I will find another way. I will show you.”
“Brax, don’t!”
He lunged, but Ashmedai was ready for it, waiting for a shadow to appear, cast by Braxton’s towering height, and then he dove with Levi out of harm’s way.
Braxton surged forward from the momentum, not stopping until he crossed the barrier, and as Ashmedai and Levi reappeared just inside the line of trees, where one of the taller trunks cast another shadow, they could only watch with bated breath to see what would happen next.
To Ashmedai’s honest relief, Braxton didn’t disintegrate. Whatever finishing the spell last night had accomplished, destroying the Onyx hadn’t undone its effects. Braxton’s added limbs faded and he fell, landing with a gasp on sturdy legs that held his weight for the first time in centuries.
He shifted on his feet in shocked silence. As he stared at himself with those first few tentative steps, he almost looked close to tears.
“There you are, old friend,” Ashmedai said, stepping onto the road with Levi beside him. “Please, still be my friend. You have done terrible things, but this doesn’t have to end with more loss. You cursed these lands, but you also freed them. Be free with us.”
Ashmedai took another step forward and outstretched his hand. All that stood between him and Braxton was the barrier, a nearly invisible wall separating man from monster.
Braxton turned to face him. He didn’t look all that different, otherthan not needing his chair, for he had always maintained most of his human appearance. The tears in his eyes didn’t fall, however, but held steady.
“A thousand years ago, that might have been enough. But I have waited too long.” He walked determinedly through the barrier, and the fierceness on his face made Ashmedai stutter backward, dropping his hand, for he knew it would not be taken.
As Braxton crossed over, his spider limbs regrew in the same breath that his real legs failed him, and he was raised back up to that menacing height.
“Brax, you can’t force me to love you,” Ashmedai tried once more. “Who knows better than I that you can’t force anyone to love you? But you can choose how you react when they don’t.”
Braxton winced at being told once more that Ashmedai would never love him the way he wanted. “No. Nothing matters without you. You’re mine. You were supposed to be mine! Not his.” His eyes fell to Levi, who had stepped parallel with Ashmedai. Whatever love Braxton once had for his creation, there was no sign of it now.
He lunged for Levi like before, and Ashmedai knew in the scant seconds he had to act that he had been left with only one choice.
Moving with matching swiftness, he stepped between lover and friend and met Braxton in a clash that was far from equal, for Ashmedai became a deadly, shadowlike wave that flooded over Braxton to consume him. Nothing would be left behind, because Ashmedai couldn’t bear seeing remains when he had already buried Braxton once.
One moment Ashmedai was shadows in ravenous motion, and the next he stood where Braxton had been. The usual satiation and instant desire for more flooded through Ashmedai, but as much as he hated this part of himself, he knew he could control it.
He didn’t reform himself completely to his usual guise, however. He owed it to the audience he hadn’t forgotten the chance to see what hetruly was. Surely they already guessed, given what they’d overheard, but still, slowly, Ashmedai turned to face Levi and his people farther behind, for the first time not hiding any part of himself.
All weapons and magic had long since dropped. Not everyone had a clear view of what was happening, but the truth was clearly being whispered and passed down the line. No one screamed. No one ran. But no one moved toward the terrifying shadow demon in their midst.
Not until Levi, tears in his eyes, with a mixture of heartache and affection on his face, leapt upon Ashmedai and threw his arms around him. He gasped, for the feel of Ashmedai in that form was still intense, but he didn’t loosen his hold.
Ashmedai held him back tightly, and finally faded into the version of himself he preferred, pressing his pale white face against the softness of Levi’s hair. He closed his eyes, expecting to be driven out, condemned, shunned, but at least he knew Levi would be with him.
A force suddenly collided with their legs, nearly toppling them. Ashmedai and Levi jolted apart to untangle from each other and look, but they couldn’t untangle completely.
Kenner was wrapped around their legs, joining the embrace.
Levi laughed, but Ashmedai could only stare—at Kenner and at the crowd of townspeople moving forward. No one looked as though they wished they held a pitchfork.
