43. Chapter Forty Three #4
He sighed, feigning disappointment. “Then perhaps I’ll help you decide,” his grin turned razor-sharp. “Go on. Look at them.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, but it was no use. Some invisible force compelled me to open them. My gaze landed on Felix first, his kind, patient face still as stone.
“The Gnome,” Azh’raim said, his voice dripping with mockery. “How noble of you to offer the healer.”
“No!” I screamed, but it was too late. The God snapped his fingers, and Felix’s body crumpled to the ground. His lifeless eyes stared up at me, and I collapsed, a guttural sob tearing from my throat.
“Your debt is settled,” He said, his tone almost cheerful. “But there’s a condition, Seer. You will continue to kill in my name, or I will still take your firstborn. A soul for a soul.”
I looked up at him, shaking with rage and despair. “Fuck you,” I spat, my voice broken.
He smiled, his crimson eyes gleaming. “I’m unfortunately not interested, my dear. I have my eyes on someone else,” He winked, and with a snap of his fingers, the hellish plane dissolved, and I was yanked back into my body.
I hit the stone floor hard, gasping for air. Drake was at my side in an instant, returned to his human form again. His silver eyes were wide with alarm. “Eva! What happened?” But I couldn’t answer.
My gaze drifted to Felix’s lifeless body, and my chest constricted with the weight of what had just happened.
Azh’raim’s voice echoed in my mind, a haunting reminder of the deal I never made but could never escape.
The room was deathly quiet, save for the crackling of the torches on the walls.
And then Fen’s scream of anguish tore through the air, raw and primal.
It sent shivers down my spine. She collapsed beside Felix’s lifeless body, clutching at his tunic as if her touch alone could bring him back.
Her shoulders heaved with every wracked sob, her face buried in his chest, but even through her despair, her pain was palpable, seeping into every corner of the room.
“Felix,” she whimpered, her voice breaking. “You were the only good thing I’ve ever known. Please don’t leave me... you can’t. Please.”
The sight of her grief was unbearable. Felix, the warm, steady presence we had all leaned on, his golden glow now extinguished like the snap of fingers. Her tears soaked into his clothing, and she gripped him tightly as if afraid the world would steal even his body away from her.
Avod stood off to the side, his face pale and stricken, his usual composure shattered.
He opened his mouth as if to speak, but no words came.
Instead, his hand hovered near Fen’s shoulder, unsure, trembling, before falling back to his side.
His eyes glistened with unshed tears as he watched her crumble, the unspoken bond between them now fraying under the weight of her sorrow.
“Fen,” he said softly, his voice shaking. “I?—”
She whipped her head up, her bloodshot eyes filled with fury, cutting off whatever words he’d tried to say. And then her gaze landed on me.
“You,” the single word came out like a hiss, low and venomous, brimming with enough hatred to burn a city to the ground. Her grief morphed into something darker, sharper.
Her cold, wounded heart now beating with fury.
“What did you do?!” she screamed, her voice echoing off the stone walls. Her daggers were in her hands before I could react, their sharp edges gleaming like her unrestrained rage.
“Fen, no!” Avod shouted, but she was already moving.
She sprinted at me, her grief and fury driving her forward like a hurricane. Her daggers glinted in the flickering torchlight, aimed straight at me. I froze, panic and guilt rooting me in place.
Then Drake was there, intercepting her with a powerful clash. His arm locked around hers, the force of his movement sending her daggers clattering to the floor. She thrashed violently against his hold, her screams piercing, her pain rippling through the room like a physical force.
“I didn’t choose this!” I cried, my voice trembling as I stumbled back. “Fen, please, you have to believe me!”
“You selfish bitch !” she spat her words like daggers of their own. Tears streamed down her face, her eyes wild with agony. “You traded him! You gave his life away!”
She crumpled to her knees, her body shaking with sobs. Drake released her slowly, his movements cautious, and she collapsed into herself, her hands gripping the floor as if trying to hold herself together.
Her sobs slowed, though her body still shook. She buried her face in her hands, and Avod pulled her into an embrace, his arms strong and steady as her fury gave way to broken, guttural weeping. He looked up at me over her shoulder, his gaze heavy with shock and confusion.
I stood there, guilt pressing down on me like a crushing weight. “Fen,” I whispered, tears blurring my vision. “I... I’m so sorry.”
She didn’t respond. Her cries echoed in the chamber, and the pain I felt in my chest was nothing compared to the raw anguish consuming her.
The horrifying truth settled like a stone in my stomach: Felix’s death was on me.
The world narrowed to a pinpoint as I stared at the mirror, my blood roaring in my ears like an unrelenting tide.
I could still feel Azh’raim’s presence, his cruel laughter echoing in my mind.
Images flickered within the surface—visions of a small, red-haired Dragonblood boy with molten silver eyes.
Our child. My child. The boy smiled up at me, innocent and unknowing, before the image twisted into something grotesque, Azh’raim’s face leering back at me.
“No more,” I growled, my voice trembling with fury and resolve.
My hands gripped Avod’s hammer off the ground, my knuckles white against the strain.
I felt Fen’s quiet sobs reverberating through the room, her grief a physical presence.
Every moment of pain, every life lost, every sacrifice culminated in this singular choice.
With a scream of pure rage, I swung the hammer with every ounce of strength I had left.
The impact struck the mirror dead center, and the air seemed to shatter with it.
A deafening explosion of sound and light erupted, blinding me as shards of glass burst outward like crystalline stars.
Each fragment reflected Azh’raim’s twisted visage, his mouth wide in a silent scream that splintered into nothingness as the shards hit the ground.
A shockwave rippled through the chamber, knocking me backward.
The oppressive darkness that had suffused the air lifted, replaced by a strange, eerie calm.
Around us, the fallen Vyrmin’s corpses crumbled into ash, their grotesque forms collapsing in on themselves as if unmade by the very destruction of the Vessel.
I collapsed to my knees, the hammer slipping from my grasp and clattering to the stone floor beside me. My arms trembled with exhaustion, my chest heaving as I fought for breath. The silence in the room was deafening; the absence of the mirror’s dark presence leaving a strange void.
Drake’s arms were around me before I realized I had moved. He held me tightly against him, his body a wall of warmth and stability in the chaos. His hands were gentle as they brushed over my back, soothing despite his own ragged breath.
Tears welled in my eyes as I buried my face in his chest, the overwhelming weight of everything crashing over me.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, the words barely audible through my sobs.
Sorry for Felix. Sorry for Fen. Sorry for the innocent child I had glimpsed, promised to a monster.
Sorry for everything I had done and everything I had failed to do.
Drake pressed a kiss to the crown of my head, his voice low and steady. “Eva… we’re alive. Because of you.”
I shook my head against him, the truth of his words doing little to ease the ache in my chest. Deep down, I knew the cost of my choices would haunt me forever. The images of Felix’s lifeless body, Fen’s broken sobs, and the haunting smile of a child I may never hold would be etched into my soul.
Behind us, Fen’s ragged breathing filled the silence, her grief still raw and unrelenting.
Avod hovered near her, his hand resting lightly on her shoulder as she knelt beside Felix’s body.
She didn’t look up, didn’t acknowledge the destruction of the mirror or the dying embers of Azh’raim’s power.
Her world had crumbled, and no amount of vengeance or victory could piece it back together.
And it was my fault.