Chapter 45

The dark force which had tangled itself up in Zebedaios was powerful and though Jace had begun to fight back with all he had it was still completely overwhelmed. It didn’t help that he had allowed it to gain so much ground within his mind.

Yet now he could feel Zebedaios trying his best to separate from this force.

It spoke with a booming voice:

It is futile little Prince, you have nothing to live for. You will never find happiness in your relationships and your family is all dead by now.

Jace had a pause in fighting. He hoped so desperately that it wasn’t true that his family were dead. He didn’t know what connections this supposed Myth Hunter had with the rest of its gang. Last he had seen of them they were all struggling but very much still alive.

This Myth Hunter had seen into himself, they knew exactly how to hurt him so they would go there every time he couldn’t afford to slip up every time he was taunted.

Jace summoned his light within his soul and fought back against the dark force. It was wrestling with itself. Jace tried his best to strike where he thought that Zebedaios wasn’t. The colour of a soul, Jace had been told, was the same as the colour of the eyes. It was why the light of the Phoenix was tinted the colour of their eyes and also why werewolves’ eyes stayed the same despite shifting into a whole new form. He wasn’t sure if it was the same of demons yet there was a deep green battling a brown that was interconnected and battling itself. Jace assumed that the green was Zebedaios and tried his best to target the brown.

Zebedaios recognised what he was doing and shifted the Myth Hunter to be facing toward where Jace was blasting.

Your sister is gone. What is the point of all this?

The voice cried but there was pain within its words. Jace could have smiled and kept fighting.

He hoped that his sister, less than a hundred metres away was doing the same and was beating the demon within her mind. She was strong and he had faith in her. That faith powered him further and he finally started to gain ground on his enemy, no mercy he blasted every little bit of brown. Zebedaios seemed to fear his light but also trusted him and was writhing against the brown as the colour green.

All of this soul stuff was so technical, Jace didn’t know the rules, he only knew that to beat a Myth Hunter one must overpower their own abilities to cancel out the power of myths. Jace didn’t know how well this knowledge transferred over to this situation yet he didn’t seem to have any difficulty hurting the Myth Hunter.

Though it was difficult to defend everything since it had spread out so far over his mind.

His soul was alive and burning, it fought fiercely.

Jace started to notice an oddity, with the amount of brown that he burnt more of it was being consumed by the green. Eaten.

It seemed that Zebedaios was doing what demons do best, and consuming the soul of this Myth Hunter. Jace laughed darkly knowing the Myth Hunter this belonged to would be facing some serious consequences, if this was their whole soul detached from their body, they would be facing death. It only made Jace blast more of the soul away. It served the Myth Hunter right for attacking him and his family. They lived to protect the mortals, same as the Myth Hunters they weren’t really all that different and certainly did not deserve this treatment.

The sections that had turned to green drew back on itself, retreating and pushing the brown forward for Jace to blast away.

It felt as it was agonisingly slow yet they managed to do it, with some blood curdling screams they did away with the last of the Myth Hunter’s soul and Jace was left with only the green that was Zebedaios. Though they had no eyes within Jace’s mind they looked at each other.

Suddenly Zebedaios pulled from Jace’s mind.

Jace blinked a few times, his head ached but the white palace and all of its paintings came back into focus. He took a few deep breaths to calm his racing heart and let go of all of the tension within his body which meant sprawling out on the ground.

He was lucky to be alone in the hallway. No one to witness him in such a vulnerable position.

Yet he did not have a lot of time. That Myth Hunter was aiming to upset him but it might have not been lying. Jace was completely certain that both his Mother and sister along with a number of other family members were indeed in immediate danger. Zebedaios had been unwilling to fight Jace but he could not say the same of the other demons that were attacking each of them.

His body hurt from being tense for so long in an awkward position yet he got to his feet.

Zebedaios appeared before him. He looked a little frazzled, hair not so smooth slicked back and clothing a little rumpled. Yet as Zebedaios looked at Jace a few tears slid from his shattered eyes.

“Jace I’m so sorry,” Zebedaios said, his voice so completely heart broken, “Your eyes… they’re purple.”