Chapter 84 If You Love Me, Let Me Go #2
Not real, not real. Help. Please. I’m so scared. I don’t like this.
Let me die.
None of it is real. Get out—
Get. Out.
The thing in her mind seemed to vibrate with silent sobs. Luella, what happened to you? What has he done to you? she heard, rattling in her skull.
Footsteps smacked against the steps below her, and all at once, the illusion shattered.
In her shock, she imagined a great wall slamming down in her mind, forcing the thief out.
She pushed herself up, her right hand screaming in pain as she turned and saw Bastian, Graves, and Az storming up the steps toward her.
The Stella curled around them just like her, as if welcoming them into its home.
So, she fled up the last few steps, head tipping back as she stared at the tall doors, slamming open right before she could touch them.
The Lunar Temples were bathed in moonlit glow, which shone down through the prismatic glass ceilings.
Moon crests decorated the space, the moon’s various phases carved into the pure white marble above the altar, right at the center.
Beyond the marbled altar, set upon a raised dais, an arch stood, twined with gentle blue flowers and blanketed with a small roll of soft-looking carpet.
A mockery of a wedding ceremony.
And here she was—the bloodied, mad bride in her white cape, storming down the aisle as stardust flickered through the air and screams raged through the mountains outside.
The doors banged shut as her three hunters cornered her inside. She spun, facing them, holding a hand out to ward them away. It was her right hand. Her fingers twitched and spasmed, and their eyes dipped to it, as if a singular force pulled them to the injury.
"Luella, sweetheart, why are you running from us?" Graves took a step forward, but Bastian pulled him back with a hand on his shoulder.
"Don’t," the vampire whispered.
Az just shook his head, staring down at the blood on his palms. He wiped them on his bloodied trousers, then scrubbed harder as if to rid himself of the top layer of his skin. "Lu, what happened to you? Angel, you cannot—"
His voice—she nearly broke, nearly took a step forward, wanting to be folded into his arms.
She couldn’t.
"Leave me alone. You aren’t real. None of this is real," she said brokenly.
Az made a choked sound. "Lu, we’re real, this is real. What do you mean, angel? Of course, we’re real. Gods, what did he do to you? I’ll fucking kill him." The demon ran a hand through his hair, catching on his horns. Flakes of blood fell to the carpet.
"Don’t ask like you don’t know. He tried to b-break me. And he won."
A small piece of Stella curled down from its perch high above, settling in Luella’s hair like snow or ash.
She saw the three of them tense, wanting to come to her, so she stepped back until she felt the altar press into her hips, brushing against her right wing.
It trembled beneath the cape, sending shocks of pain through the stump of her left.
She gasped, reaching for the collar at her throat, fingers tangling in the clasp of the cape. More wet warmth soaked her back.
"You’re hurt," Graves rasped. "Let us help you. There’s blood."
Bastian stopped him again with a pained shake of his head. "Don’t move."
"Don’t move? She’s hurting—she needs us," Az roared.
"She needs to feel safe first." Bastian licked his lips. "Leave her alone."
"And we’re not safe?" Luella heard Graves whisper lowly.
Bastian nodded in answer, eyes shuttering closed for a brief moment. When he focused his attention on Luella, the red was muted, as if even his bloodlust was dulled by the sight of her in pain, fearful of them.
She didn’t realize her hallucinations had the capacity to be so comforting.
She was used to their soft words, turning sharp in an instant.
Their sweet touches, turning punishing. She didn’t know which had been hers and which had been sent by the Tenebrae, couldn’t sift through the differences. So she was wary of them all.
The doors banged open once more, breaking them from their starry standstill as an ocean of darkness rushed inside.
Shadows swept through the Lunar Temples, immediately attacking the Stella. The air grew heavy and frigid as the sentient shadows battled the stardust.
In the sudden chaos, Luella ducked, huddling at the base of the marble altar. She pressed her face into her knees, trembling.
Please, fight, come back to us… pet. Bastian’s words filled her mind.
Not real, not real, she reminded herself.
I am real. I am as real as my love for you.
Luella stilled and moved her face away from her knees, right as a cold hand touched her chin softly, lifting her eyes to meet red-tinted ones. Bastian knelt before her, crouched low as light and dark battled at the rafters of the temple. The red in his eyes appeared incandescent, watery with tears.
Bastian’s fingers stretched out, cupping her cheek. Her eyes shifted to his back as she heard a noise, the others, standing and watching with broken-hearted expressions. Bastian tutted and redirected her focus back to him.
"I love you. So much, Luella," the vampire whispered.
Luella was not convinced. Even though she wanted to be.
She leaned her cheek into his palm, feeling the coldness. The hallucinations had been cold, too. "If you love me, let me go. Leave me be."
The stardust was warm as it curled around her cheek, peeking through her hair. Bastian nodded, and slowly, he pulled back until he was standing, the shadows and stardust clashing above.
Holding her eyes, Bastian took a small step back until the vise around her chest loosened, and she didn’t feel like she would suffocate beneath the weight of his nearness, however fake or real it was.
Luella unfurled from her spot near the base of the altar. Standing, she swallowed as pieces of darkness turned to ash in the air, losing against the Stella’s might.
A dragon roared from outside the temple, and she remembered the weight of where she was, what was happening.
Her back hit the altar, and she gasped, reaching behind her to touch the wetness on her cape. Her fingers came away red with blood. She was lagging. She felt it; she knew it. She didn’t have long left.
She reached for the clasp at her neck, her knuckles grazing the collar at her throat, drawing their attention to it.
Just before she yanked the cape away, a soft prickle at her nape made her head turn, to the spot just behind the altar, where a mass of swirling shadows bloomed.
The Tenebrae stepped through the portal, blood dripping from his hair, ash streaking his pale cheeks, and eyes so dark they seemed to swallow up any light near him.
She heard the others shout, but they weren’t quick enough.
The Tenebrae grabbed her and wrapped a strong, cold arm around her midsection, yanking her back against his chest. He laughed loudly, and the Stella in her hair shrank away from the sound, curling by her ear.
"What is this?" The Tenebrae roughly swept Luella’s hair out of the way, reaching for the Stella.
He pinched the thread of light between his thumb and forefinger, holding it up. His dark eyes rose to the ceiling, and he barely cocked his head to the side, silently calling a strand of shadows down, where it attacked the wriggling piece of stardust, until glitter fell from between his fingers.
Luella sobbed.
"You ran from me. I will punish you for this. But not before I make you watch as I rip your Vincires’ hearts out.
I told you they would come for you." The Tenebrae’s head rose until he stared at the three males watching her in his hold.
He opened his mouth, and he spoke directly to them.
"You came. I knew you would. If only my half-brother hadn’t brought so much destruction with him.
No matter." He clicked his tongue. "You are here now, and now you will die. "
They were real. They were real. They were here. This was really happening.
A shred of doubt threatened to consume her. It was real, wasn’t it?
She met their eyes, flicking between shades of red, amber, and blue.
"What have you done to her?" Graves’s dark, feathered wings stretched out as shadows and light met above.
Sparks and glitter rained down on them all.
"What haven’t I done? Do you wish to see?" The Tenebrae’s hand moved up to her throat.
At first, she thought he was touching her collar, but he moved down to the clasp on her cape, and he tore it away. The small jewel keeping her cape held together skittered to the marble floor as her white cape pooled to the ground. Beneath, the thin white gown did nothing to cover her form.
She shivered from the humiliating exposure. He held her shoulders and turned her roughly, exposing her back to them all. Sharp air gusted through the room, alighting the exposed nerves of the remains of her left wing.
Luella heard their curses and cries. And when she focused on the song in her soul, she felt their fury.
Their emotions—she could feel them again. So close, but not close enough.
She could burrow beneath their flesh, and it still would never be close enough for her.
Her right wing shivered beneath the weight of their gazes and their terror, lacing through her soul.
"I’ll fucking rip you apart," Az growled, and Luella tensed—she’d never heard his voice sound so… demonic before.
The Tenebrae spun her back around, and she wobbled as she faced her three Vincire, trying to shove down the brief shock of unease and fear as she reminded herself they were truly here.
The portal of shadows grew, and he began to tug her toward it. "You can certainly try. I believe my future bride and I have somewhere to be. I have a wedding gift for her, after all."
They disappeared through the portal.
The dragon roared overhead as the Tenebrae and Luella exited the portal right into the heart of the battle.
The fight was dwindling. The ground was littered with Umbra, more dead than alive.