Chapter Fifty-One Gabriel
Iclutch my chest, my breath stuttering in short, painful gasps. My body bends in half as I reach for Tyr. A surge of pandemonium surrounds us, but the noise is distant and muffled against the ringing in my ears. I can’t focus as my vision blends with a smear of color from the pulsating crowd.
“Release us,” I beg, twisting my fingers in the fabric of his tunic. “Give the order. Free us from this.”
Tyr looks down at me, hesitation flickering in his eyes.
Atlas is now storming towards us, his expression speaking of ruin and vengeance and war. A clap of thunder echoes with enough force to shake the ground. People scream, though I can’t discern the specific source of their terror.
The guards are doing their best to keep the rioting mob from consuming us at its center. The beating heart of Aphelion is slowing, its pulse turning sluggish. With me, I bring a new heart. One that hasn’t been blackened by treasonous blood covering his hands.
Apricia trails behind Atlas with her eyes wide, and even she’s been stunned into shutting up for a few seconds of bliss.
“Tyr!” I gasp through strangled lungs that are slowly closing off.
“Don’t you dare!” Atlas hisses, understanding my goal. “If you do it, I swear these will be his last moments on this earth.” He points to me, his meaning clear.
Again, Tyr hesitates as I fall to my knees grasping my stomach and my chest as my organs turn themselves inside out. My fellow warders fare no better as they, too, stand in solidarity with their true king, their brows sweating and their insides twisting.
But I am the greatest betrayer of them all.
I brought this upon us.
“It doesn’t matter,” I wheeze out. “I’m dead anyway. Tyr. Please. Do it for yourself. Do it for your kingdom.”
I witness the conflict in his eyes. The dull grey hue that once burned so bright. Atlas has abused him and traumatized him for so many years. The man I once knew is a broken, hollow tomb. He’s been beaten and damaged until his confidence has been ground down to motes of dust.
Atlas seizes Tyr’s collar. They used to be matched in size, but now Tyr appears like a child next to his younger brother.
“You will regret it,” Atlas hisses. His face is twisted with venom, and in all our turbulent years, I’ve truly never seen the false golden Sun King look so ugly. Another crack of thunder booms over our heads as thick grey clouds tumble over one another.
“Tyr,” I whisper again as my vision starts to turn black. I need him to say it. Not for my sake, but because if I die now, then it will be only Atlas and Tyr, with no one left to protect the man I once swore my heart to.
Still, Tyr says nothing, and I realize he won’t. Atlas has him so thoroughly under his spell that he can’t fight his way out. As much as I battled all these years, hoping there would be a happy ending for any of us, I understand the end has finally come.
I will die and Atlas will find Lor, and he will do whatever is necessary to rid himself of Tyr to take the crown he’s coveted for so very long. I’m not sure how the people of Aphelion will forgive him after learning his secret, but Atlas has always been a master of persuasion. He’ll figure something out.
I drop to my hands and knees, willing myself not to pass out. I don’t know what I’m holding on to, but I struggle against the final whispers of death crowding in my ears.
“Tyr,” I gasp one last time before I collapse to the ground.
“I release them,” comes a soft but steady voice a moment later, and I wonder if I’ve imagined it. I look up, watching Atlas’s face transform from fury to horror.
For the first time in decades, Tyr’s eyes light with that spark I recall only in the deepest layers of my memories. His shoulders stretch back, and he pins his brother with a look that guts my heart as it leaks through my ribs.
“I release them from the vow to protect you and your secrets, Atlas.”
And that’s when the sky opens up and the rain starts to fall.
The vise around my chest releases instantly, and I let out a heaving breath as air floods my lungs. I lie on the ground panting, and it takes me a moment before I push myself up.
“Guards!” Atlas yells as chaos swells around us. He retreats, backing away. “Guards! Arrest them!”
He points to me and the other warders, who now all have their swords out and pointed at their false king. The rain pummels our heads, drenching through clothing and armor.
“Arrest him! These are lies!”
I’m not sure whom Atlas thinks he’s fooling when the evidence stands here in front of everyone. He stumbles back, crashing into Apricia. She screeches as he tramples her foot, and that seems to release her tongue.
“What’s going on?!” she shrieks, her makeup running down her face and her fancy hairdo as flat as a wet pancake. “I demand to know!”
“Guards!” I shout, finally able to breathe again, as I pull my own sword from my back and step in front of Tyr.
“Gabriel!” Atlas shouts. “You would do this to me?”
Those words snap something loose inside me, and I storm towards him, swinging a left hook that crashes into Atlas’s cheek. I feel the collapse of cartilage under my knuckles, and then I’m whaling on him, raining down blows on his face and body as he thrashes under me. I’ve never been so fucking angry in my life.
“You monster!” I scream, feeling the hot rush of tears that mixes with the rain coating my face. “I’ll never forgive you for any of this! You tormented us! You held us prisoner! You fucking piece of shit! I will destroy you if it’s the last thing I fucking do!”
I punch him in the nose so hard I hear the crunch of bone, before blood gushes down his face in a river of crimson, stained with all of our sins.
“You’ll pay for this,” Atlas hisses through a mouthful of blood. “You’re going to regret this, Gabriel.”
Even now, he thinks he can control me.
“You think I care? What do I have left to lose, Atlas?”
Finally, I’m hauled off him by two other warders, who have to restrain me from attacking again.
“Arrest him!” I shout. “He’s a traitor to Aphelion!”
The guards circle him as Atlas scrambles back, fear finally settling in his eyes.
Apricia is still screeching, and the crowd has lost control. Dimly, I become aware of the scent of burning, the haze of smoke hovering in the air. Worlds collapsing and screams echoing as the rain continues to punish us from the skies.
I wonder briefly where Lor and Nadir are. Did all of this provide the distraction they needed?
My thoughts are cut off when a resounding shatter blasts through the crowd. The entire roof of the Sun Palace explodes, glass flying in every direction. I realize it’s the dome over the throne room. The sky fills with forks of bright crimson lightning, mixing with the white jagged streaks of the storm. It crackles and dances, and the sight is so staggering that it stills everyone into silence.
As I watch more lightning crackle overhead, I understand this must be Lor.
I’ve heard stories of the Heart Queen’s magic.
And here she is, returned after almost three hundred years.
I’m not sure why that brings me as much comfort as it does.
My throat knots up. Lor did what she needed. I’m weirdly proud of her.
The lightning cuts off a moment later, and it takes several seconds for everyone to come back to themselves.
Atlas’s gaze drifts from the sky and over to me. He lies on the ground where I knocked him down, blood covering the front of his golden jacket.
“Gabe,” he says, his eyes filling with tears, but he will not manipulate me this time. I’m done swallowing the prickled fruit of his lies.
I stand over him, and his expression crumples with resignation.
“This is over, Atlas,” I say, touching the tip of my sword to his throat.
“Long live the true king.”