Dispatching the demon in front of me, I fling it aside and charge towards Griffin, severing the creature’s arm above the elbow before cutting off its head. Another barrage of arrows slams into the Soulless circling us, giving us a small moment’s reprieve.
“We need to get out of here,” Griffin grits out, clutching his arm. “We can’t win.” He glances up at Amara on the roof, his brow pinched in worry.
My gaze darts to Lena. She's covered head to toe in black blood and still dispatches any that come near her, but her movements are beginning to slow as exhaustion sets in. “Grab Zander and get to the roof,” I order Kace and Griffin. “We’ll escape on the other side. I'll get Lena.”
“What about the people in the brothel?” Kace asks. “There are still survivors.”
“We can’t help them.” It pains me to say so, but it'll be a miracle if we make it out ourselves. I’m not risking Lena for people I don't even know. I would lay down my life for them if it was just mine at stake. Or even Griffin or Kace’s. We are dutybound to do so. But none of them matter anymore. Only her.
Lena wipes her brow with the back of her hand, smearing black blood across her forehead as she looks at all the undead surrounding us. Then she glances up and meets my gaze, her smile filled with relief when she sees me.
At the sight of her smile, the terror I felt when I saw her step off the roof returns tenfold and I move faster towards her. A feral desperation fuels my steps, knowing that the feeling won't abate until I have her in my arms.
Focused on me and me alone, she watches my every step with a similar need. Until her amethyst eyes suddenly snap up and she peers over my shoulder with a strangled cry. Then, with a speed I’ve never seen from an immortal, let alone a human, she whips her sword over her head and throws it, the blade flipping end over end to skewer the Soulless lunging at my back.
Fuck me, that was close.
Chuckling in relief, I turn back towards Lena. But that chuckle quickly morphs into a roar when I meet her shocked gaze just as a Soulless stabs its claws into her shoulders and bites down on her throat.
“Lena!” No, not her. Anyone but her. Not my Lena. Not the woman who's so kind and gentle, but fiery and fierce. Who makes me laugh and play. Who couldn't give two shits that I’m a bastard. Who doesn't even blink an eye in the face of my wrath. Whose stoked a fire in me that I fear will never be doused.
I sprint towards her, pushing my legs faster than I ever have before, trying to out-speed the venom injecting into her veins, the blood pouring from her neck, the death looming at her back.
This is all my fault. I never should have left her side. I should've locked her away in the Palace Keep. Kicking and screaming, if need be. Now, in the face of my foolishness, the only good, pure thing in my life will bleed out in front of me, becoming the very abomination I despise.
She tosses her head back with an agonized scream and jerks within the fiend’s grip as he ravages her throat. Then a new terror, one I never would have expected, makes me skid to a halt mere steps away when I see her head snap forward and her eyes begin to glow with an eerie light. Not of crimson, but of amethyst. Then she releases a rage-filled roar with a mouthful of fangs.
“What the fuck?” Kace barks, rooted to the ground right beside me, Griffin no less shocked on the other side.
Grabbing the Soulless by the hair, she rips it free from her throat and hisses in its face. Then she places her other hand at the base of its neck and tears its head from its shoulders with her bare hands. When another one barrels toward her, she retrieves her dagger and stabs it in the chest. Then she spins, doing the same to the next one.
“Zander!” she calls out as she crouches down and rolls, coming up behind an undead and stabbing it in the back. “End it!”
Zander cuts down two Soulless, then glances back at her and jerks a nod, no hint of surprise at the sight of her fangs and glowing eyes. Shock seizes me once again as I watch his palms and eyes begin to shimmer glittering gold, the gold crawling up his arms and chest, into his neck and the lower part of his jaw, illuminating his veins. And with a flick of his hand, gilded fire streams from his palms, shooting a hole through the heart of a Soulless rushing towards him. Then spearing through the creature following at its back. Then skewering through another and another and another, toppling Soulless after Soulless on a wave until the only ones left standing are the living.
The night quiets once again, only disturbed by the panting breaths and broken sobs of the surviving few. But I can't hear any of that as I watch Lena crouch before a corpse. All I hear is the mindless roaring in my ears. All I see are Lena’s fangs and glowing amethyst eyes. Her strength and superior fighting prowess. All the signs I missed. Her strange markings and beauty. Her accent. How even the most common knowledge was unknown to her. Or how when she drew blood from my lip, she drank from me. Fed off me.
What a fool I’ve been.
Spinning lies and half-truths as a spider does a web, she convinced me she was an innocent human, manipulated me into believing she actually cared for me. But it was all an act. I was so blinded by lust, I was willing to sacrifice my entire kingdom, to shame myself into becoming an oathbreaker, all for this being that's neither mortal nor immortal, but a… thing.
My natural born enemy. One I’m duty bound to destroy.
LENA
Crouching before the corpse, I pull my dagger free and slowly wipe it clean on the Soulless’ soiled tunic, dread raising the hairs on the back of my nape. Hearing the thunk of multiple footsteps closing in on me, I sheathe my dagger and peek out the corner of my eye, watching the survivors form a circle around me, eyeing me as warily as they do the Soulless.
Amara and Tristan drop down from the roof to join Zander, their hardened expressions telling me all I need to know.
They saw me.
Rising slowly to my feet, I pause to blow out a shaky breath and turn to face Darius.
But the person I find myself standing before isn’t Darius. This male looks like Darius, yes. Same eyes, same face, same hair. But with the lines bracketing his lips, features carved from stone, and death in his gaze, this isn’t my Darius.
The Gods Wrath.
“You lied to me,” he says with tightly leashed anger, hands fisted at his sides.
“I didn’t,” I reply quietly. But even I hear the lie in my voice, the guilt in my tone.
He slowly walks toward me, my body responding to each crunch of his boots. Not in desire as is its usual response, but with the need to flee from this person wearing Darius’ face.
Visibly trembling with suppressed rage, he lowers his head toward mine. “You made me believe you lov –” Clenching his jaw, he turns his head to the side and squeezes his eyes shut. “You betrayed me.”
Oh, gods.
“Listen to me, Darius,” I plead, raising my hands to his cheeks. “On my life, on all the Stars above, I swear to you I did not betray y –”
“Shut up!” he roars in my face, knocking my hands away. “I’ll not hear another word from that lying tongue of yours!” I flinch, shaking my head as he snarls, “You pretended to be human.”
“I never said I was. Everyone just assumed.”
“And you let them,” he sneers. “When all along, you're a Gods Cursed.”
I shake my head, wrapping my arms around myself. “I'm not a Gods Cursed.”
