Children of Blood and Bone (how chapter 79 should have ended)

 

He’s supposed to be safe.

   Mama Agba is with him, protecting him so I must be seeing things. Maybe they’ve become so versed in magic that they can make a person who’s not present seem like they are. These are the thoughts that simultaneously barge my mind when I see him.

   Baba looks beaten and I’m unable to reconcile him with the Baba that I actually know. His eyes are blood red, his back hunched, and he is unable stand straight- somehow, he still manages to look at me with love in his eyes. ‘I love you’ he mouths. The first thing that comes to my mind is that he should save his energy. It’s not until I see who holds him that Rage kisses my brain. Inan.

   The artefacts in exchange for Baba’s life. this is what Saran has requested.

   I still remember Mama chained by magicite, her magic evaporating into the air, the helplessness in her eyes and the limp form her body takes. They will not take Baba from me. Magic resides in me, I’ve been chosen by the gods, Oya will not forsake me. King Saran interrupts my thoughts and my body shivers, the trauma from the tattooed words on my back still very present, a reminder that I’ll always be maggot to him.

   I step forward about to surrender, because Baba cannot go, clutching the sunstone and dagger to my chest- placing them at the feet of Saran, secretly whispering to Oya to do something, I say every incantation I’ve learnt since this started. Ba mi Soro, jo. You can’t leave me now. It starts from my fingertips and inscriptions begin to light up my skin, Oya has woken is the first thing that comes to my mind like she was ever asleep. The temple begins to tremble and that statue of our ancestors begin to light up.  

   Saran and Inan exchange a look, one that requires Inan to attack. He picks up his arrow ready to shoot at the same time I makeup my mind that not another life will be lost. So, for Mama, Bisi, Lekan, Zulaikha and the many lives lost, I call on Oya to one more time express her rage through me. Light so bright is vomited through my fingertips, I stretch my hands to each of them, on opposite sides of the temple and I let go. The light weakens them so much they fall to their knees, I’m yet to decide if I want them dead. Inan for once again shattering my heart and Saran for the million maji lives lost. Even their guards are blinded by the light so they cannot attack. I shout at Roen and Kenyon to get my father, rescue the artefacts and run. Oya is with me, I’ll be fine.

   I brush off the sting that I feel when not even Roen asks if I’m sure I want to be left alone, and focus on Saran and his soldier son. When I see that their bones have turned custard, I ask Oya to carry me and she does. I’ll deal with the angry betrayed team when I get there.

   Baba could not die. Not with me standing there.