Chapter 45: Chapter 45

JUSTICE AND MERCY

Justice and Mercy

Kitee, North Karelia, Finland

Sebastiaan flipped the book back open. How in the world were they supposed to make everything okay? The Amaranth was gone. He knew it was the key to ending all of this and they did not have it. The chest would probably help, but it wasn't as good as Amaranth.

There had to be something else. Some other kind of weapon that would help end it all. There had to be a reason why Ajatar was going after the witches and wizards. They had to have something that was stronger than anything that had ever walked the earth.

He looked over at Aleksander, who was laying on the sofa, staring weakly at him. If they had the Amaranth, it could fix Aleksander. Aleksander was the one who had kept them both alive for so long and now he was just wasting away.

It was a big reason why he had sent the others out looking for angelica.

Sebastiaan turned back to his book. There had to be something that they were missing.

"Arctica is believed to the only home of the never ending flower, Amaranth. Amaranth is known for its vast healing powers. For more on Amaranth today see chapter fifty."

Those lines were the most haunting thing that he had ever read.

He quickly flipped to the index, but there was nothing else on Arctica. He had heard the name before, but just wasn't sure of what it meant.

"Aleksander?" Sebastiaan asked.

Aleksander's eyes weakly flickered over to him. "Yes?"

"How are your reading skills feeling?"

"Are you going to make me read some long and dull book?" Aleksander smiled. "You know that never was one to do required readings."

"Well, I think that is all going to change unless you have read of a place called Arctica."

Aleksander shook his head. "Nope, doesn't ring a bell."

"Well, then, I think it is time we get cracking. It may be everything that we have been looking for."

Aleksander groaned as he say up, sending Sebastiaan rushing to his side. "Maybe we should do this laying down," Aleksander said with a smirk. "I do my best work on my back anyway."

Sebastiaan rolled his eyes. "You are kind of full of yourself, aren't you?"

"Well, it's the truth. So many people have told me that they prefer me on my back." His eyes danced as he looked straight into Sebastiaan's eyes. "We can give it a try now and see what you think."

Sebastiaan snorted. "You are hardly my type and besides, I don't like my things used."

Aleksander shook his head. "Shame, some things get better the more they are used."

"Just like your eyes, reading books. I'm sure the more you read them, the more interesting they will be." Sebastiaan paused. "Just think, once this over, we can go back to living our old life. We could go home."

Aleksander closed his eyes. "If there's anything to go home to."

"So, poking it does help?" Kaiden asked, his frown deepening. "It actually makes it open up?"

Tarja rolled her eyes. "No, it doesn't actually make it open it. It seems to make it angry."

"Huh."

Raakel crossed her arms. "I thought you were supposed to be helping me."

Anneke and Vuokko brushed aside some of the snow. Tarja knelt down next to them. She really didn't think there was anything that could survive in this much snow, but Raakel kept insisting there was. Kendra smirked at them from her guard position.

Tarja hadn't even wanted to come anyway. She had wanted to stay behind with Sebastiaan and Aleksander, who were working on cracking some of the runes, but Raakel has insisted that more people would allow them to find the herb a lot quicker.

The herb angelica was what Sebastiaan had insisted on having. It was supposed to have some kind of medicine properties, but she wasn't sure about that. Her experiences with the herb had involved food. Plus, Tarja did not believe that it was even still growing. Surely, all the cold must have killed it, but, again, Sebastiaan had claimed to have seen it growing in the dead of Lapland's winter.

Tarja moved close to Anneke and Kaidan, who were going through a rather large snowdrift.

"Why are we doing this?" Anneke hissed at Kaidan. "We should be getting ready."

Kaidan gave Anneke a warning look, his eyes staying on Tarja. "Sebastiaan thinks it will help and I don't Raakel would have gone along with it if she didn't think the same thing."

"Still why? We really don't need the medicine," Anneke muttered. "I think it's just a chance for them to get us out of the flat so they can make a run for it. A flower that grows in the winter? Please."

Tarja did have to admit that Anneke did have a good point. However, she had seen Aleksander's and Sebastiaan's survival skills in the forest and she really did not think they would be venturing back there anytime soon, especially with Aleksander not being fully removed.

"Just remember to not eat the root!" Raakel called. "It will kill you! The rest of the plant won't!"

"Well, she certainly sounds happy about finding a poisonous plant," Vuokko muttered. "I don't see her bending down and getting wet."

"At least the snow has stopped for now," Kendra pointed out.

"Don't jinx it," Anneke muttered.

Tarja brushed aside a mountain of snow. She was to the ground, but there was nothing there but dead plants and dirt. There was no way there were going to be able to find this herb, not with all of this snow anyway. Still, it had to be important. Sebastiaan had to want it for more than its healing powers.

"Got it!" Raakel yelled, pulling a plant out by its roots.

Tarja stared at the green substance in Raakel's hand. It didn't look like it was anything special, but whatever. She wasn't one to know plants. That area had always been Floor's department. She swallowed hard. She hadn't thought about Floor in such a long time. Things had just gone so wrong and Tarja really did hope that one day they could put this all behind them and move on.

"Let's go give this to Sebastiaan!" Raakel took off before the others even had time to react.

"Well, someone's sure happy about a plant," Kaidan muttered darkly.

As the others made their way back toward the flat, Tarja grabbed Kendra, pulling her away from the group. Kendra gave her an annoyed look, but didn't say anything once she got a good look at Tarja's face.

Tarja lead her over to a small flat area where there was normally a swing and flowers in the summer.

"What?" Kendra hissed as soon as the others were out of sight. "I want to know what about that plant and we're going to miss it."

"I think Kaidan and Anneke are planning on running," Tarja said.

Kendra looked at Tarja with wide eyes. "Are you sure? What gave you that idea?" She bit her lip. "I mean, how can you be sure? They're probably just scared like the rest of us, but you're saying they actually want to run."

"Think about it. They ran from the Netherlands to here because of Ajatar and now that Ajatar is here, it just makes sense. They are going to make sure that they save themselves and now that Annabel and Flynn are gone, what reason do they have to stay?" Tarja stared into Kendra's soft eyes. "I mean, would you stay if the very reason you came was gone?"

Kendra looked away from Tarja's gaze. "I guess you're right, but still. I just can't see them running away. Wouldn't you want to avenge your friends' deaths?"

"I really don't think they see it like that," Tarja muttered. "I think they see it was what Annabel and Flynn would want them to do."

"You know, there's one thing I never did understand about them."

Tarja looked at Kendra. "There's actually a lot that I don't understand about them."

"If they were as close as they claimed to be, then why did they ever split up? I don't think it was an Alpha issue or anything like that. I think there was something that happened that made them feel safer if they weren't together."

Tarja stared off toward the apartments. She had wondered the same thing, but never really let it bother her. There were some things that were just better left unsaid and she had a feeling that whatever happened in the past was one of those things.

"I think we should just keep an eye on them," Tarja said. "Just in case something does happen."

Kendra nodded. "Okay, that's what we'll do, I guess." She gave Tarja a long look. "Do you really think something is going to happen?"

Tarja gave her a long look. "I really do think that this going to be the end."

!

Nostori sat in his human made cell, his hands bound. This wasn't right. When he tells the truth, he gets in more trouble than he would if he had been lying. He couldn't escape his father, he just couldn't.

Everyone he had ever loved had turned their back on him. Maybe it was because he failed them, but in reality they had failed him. What did they expect him to do? Of course Asa had turned his back on Nostori, but he was still his father.

Everyone was treating him like a naughty, little boy.

Everyone was out to get him.

No one wanted poor little Nostori.

Expect for her.

And they couldn't even be together, ever.

He'd tried to forget about her and ignore his feelings for her, but he couldn't bring himself too. They can't be oblivious to each other. This love was creating blood on their hands, but it was also creating the worse kind of blood. Blood in their hearts.

**** Christabella lies sleeping in the guest room at her brother's house. Last night, she thought that sleep would be impossible. It's strange how when you think you can't sleep, you get the best night's sleep you've had in years. Her sleep was dreamless. For the first time in months, Nostori didn't enter her dreams. It was like for one night, he didn't exist.

She woke up and stared at the room. The sun's shadows danced off the ceiling making spots of light and dark. It was like real life where there is no division, no balance of good and evil. Instead, it's all mixed together and hard to pick out from one other. It's a mixture of colours. The sun causes light, but it also causes darkness.

Just like Nostori.

Sure, he can be a jerk and other unmentionables, but he was fighter. He protected those who mattered most to him. Maybe that's why he was giving her the cold shoulder. Maybe he was doing it to protect. From what was the part she didn't understand. Maybe he was protecting her from getting hurt.

Maybe he was protecting her from him.

She walks over to the window and looks out. Outside everything looks peaceful. It looks like a scene from The Secret Garden. Everything's full of life and so beautiful. It's born, living, surviving, and dying. It's all of circle. The cycle keeps repeating. It never ends nor does it seem to begin.

She listens. Everything's so quite. She can't hear Nostori's rude comments or anyone firing back at him. It's so abnormal for her world to be quite.

She stretches. Life without Nostori would mean a normal life. Sure, he was vulgar and boorish, but he was still her brother. It was her sisterly job to protect him from harm.

Because sometimes even the protector needed protection in order to come home safely.

*** Nostori didn't know how much longer he could take this. His hands were on fire as was his heart. How could these people to this do him? These were the people he trusted, loved even.

He looked down at his raw hands. They looked like his heart. All of the love he had ever felt was suddenly rubbed away. There was nothing left but blood and pain.

Nostori slams his fist into the floor and curses. He shouldn't have done that but he needed to let the pain out somehow. It hurt, but at the same time it felt so lovely. It wasn't a good kind of lovely, it was a wicked lovely. Wicked lovely met something evil, but also felt so wonderful. He never did understand that until now. Maybe that's why he was always drawn to Asa. Maybe that's why he viewed him in ways that the others didn't understand. Asa was wicked, but, the eyes of some, he was lovely.

Like to Nostori, he was lovely.

And to her, he was wicked.

The saying "love is in the eye of the beholder" couldn't be more true here. Everyone had different views of each other. Some were pleasant and some weren't. Someone people could take something ugly and see it as beauty. On the other hand, some only saw the ugly.

Like when Nostori looked at this cage, he saw ugly.

When the Order looked at it, she saw beauty.

Nostori looked at the Runes of the cage. He didn't dare try to break out. Justice had created at certain death for him without mercy. The Lightwoods, in a way, had shown him mercy through a violent love.

He was supposed to kiss the princess at this time. This is when the knight gets his dream girl and a happy ending.

Expect that wasn't going to happen in his future

*** Christabella thought about all of those who have sacrificed so much for her. They gave up everything so she could have the life she has now. They had paid the price.

And she hadn't.

She was still alive, breathing, talking living. They were dead or worse. They were fighting a war for her, crying out, and losing.

Although they were winning.

She never knew that winning could be so painful.

She had never felt this worry before. She was afraid to look at every headline, turn on the T.V. Only in this world, she really didn't have that fear. She just had to wait until the soldiers returned home. She just have to suffer through the angst until that faithful day.

Her soldier was missing.

Her soldier probably wouldn't be coming home.

Her soldier have been betrayed and hurt.

It was already done. They were overcome.

The soldiers were falling.

And with that mercy screamed its violent love.

And justice didn't win.