28. Chapter 28 #3
“Or else,” she continues, tapping the locket around her throat, similar to what Lily used to escape with earlier, but in a different color.
“I will personally stuff your ashes into my necklace. You have until tomorrow to make up your minds. You have two choices: get this ring on your friend’s finger, or death.
Choose wisely.” With that, she drops the weighted black ring into Lily’s quivering grasp, and then she strolls down the corridor and opens the door, slamming it shut behind herself on the way out.
“I don’t mind the death threats,” Maxine exasperates, dropping her arm away from Lily. “But did she really have to leave the guard’s head behind? Now we’ll be forced to stomach the stench of man-rot for gods know how long.”
I look at the head on the coffee table and wince.
Lily scrambles toward me, clutching the ring tightly in her hand. “You all heard the queen,” she says. “We must force the raven to put on the ring, or else face our dooms.”
I stagger backward, the pain in my leg howling.
Maxine is the first to insert herself between us. “I’ll do it.”
“What?” Lily asks with a pause.
“What?” I gasp, my heart catapulting into my stomach.
“Put the ring on me instead of the raven. Surely, the queen doesn’t care which one of us she channels magic from,” Maxine offers, glancing between me and Lily, her lips pursed in determination.
“No, Maxine.” My voice cracks. “I can’t ask you to do that.”
“A noble offer, but one that won’t suffice,” Lily coughs, her lips purpling from the effects of the poison.
“The queen has only ever cared about one thing. Power. And she believes the raven’s power is equivalent to that of a god.
Once she wields the power of the raven, she intends to break the Curse of Love.
And after that,” she releases a burning growl from the depths of her throat, “she intends to obliterate the dragons once and for all.”
“She wants to harness my power?” I snort.
What power?
Lily takes a step toward me, but Maxine puts a hand on her shoulder to stop her. I glance over at my sword, silently determining how many steps it would take to reach it.
“She will kill us all if you don’t comply, Shay,” Lily says, trying to push past Maxine but failing. “Getting that ring on your finger is our only chance of survival.”
“I’m starting to think she intends to kill us all regardless of what we do,” Bella murmurs, her voice tragic. “Fall in love, put on the ring, obey her every whim. Let her steal all of our bloodmagic until we tumble over dead. There is no winning this.”
“Get out of my way,” Lily snarls.
Maxine remains in place. “You’ll have to get through me first.”
“As you wish.” A sadistic grin spreads over Lily’s lips.
“Enough!” I shriek. But it’s too late. Maxine is already dragging Lily to the ground and pinning her in place. In return, Lily’s hands ignite in a passionate display of sparks as she gears up to punch Maxine in the face.
“Stop it right now, both of you!” I scream at the top of my lungs.
“Don’t you see?” Solara asks, crossing her arms and leaning against a nearby bookshelf, her dark silhouette flickering in and out like a dying star.
“This is what the gods do best. They cause chaos. Which is exactly why you must free the Mother of Chaos, so that she can wrangle her children into behaving, and punish them accordingly.”
My teeth damn near skewer my tongue as I taste a warm gush of copper emanating off them. “The statue is gone forever,” I remind her as I spit out a drop of silver blood. “Reduced to dust by a bomb. What do you want?”
“Is that what you really think?” Solara asks, her eyes widening. Meanwhile, Lily reaches for my sword and lunges toward Maxine. Bella crawls onto a fallen bookshelf and leaps directly onto Lily’s shoulders, taking her down with a scream.
“They say that when Dreamshade fruit is ingested in highly toxic amounts, it allows its victim to see,” Solara tells me. “Much like the eye of a hurricane before the ferocious winds return, its toxins allow the victim a final moment of reprieve.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I snap, stumbling toward them to break up the fight but moving slower than I’d like to admit.
Solara only drifts away, just as Bella reveals a plump piece of fruit from her hand and squeezes its juices into Lily’s sputtering mouth. Lily drops my sword and begins to waver like a drunk captain lost at sea, stepping back from Maxine.
“I’m so sorry, Lily,” Bella rasps, tears flowing down her cheeks as she slips off Lily’s back. “But I will not stand around idly and allow you to kill my friend.” She looks up at Maxine, whose eyes widen in horror.
We all watch helplessly as Lily’s eyes flutter into the back of her head, her face turning a sickly shade of indigo and lilac as the Dreamshade fruit overtakes her body.
I reach her with my arms outstretched, my heart pumping in my chest. As she slumps into my arms, her eyes fly open, bulging from her skull as the veil over her mind is temporarily lifted.
Her gaze locks on mine, and in what feels like slow motion, she slips the black widow ring onto her middle finger instead—a cataclysmic unexpected shift in fate that could potentially reroute the entire course of history forever…
“No!” I sputter out. “You’ll die if she siphons your bloodmagic with both rings, Lily. You can’t…”
“It’s okay, Shadow,” Lily whispers as she holds out a weak hand, showing me how the ring fits her so perfectly. “I’m already dead.”