Thayla #2
“You should’ve come when I told you to the first time!” he snarls, shoving against me. “You never fucking listen. Now look what you did.”
“What I did?” I fire back, twisting out of his range and swinging again. “You both kidnapped Laney. You killed her parents.”
“I didn’t kill them.” He blocks my strike and sparks scatter between us. “I can only control these monsters to an extent.”
I drive forward, faster, harder. Every attack is fueled by the images and noises that are burned into my mind.
Mr. Armend’s prune body.
Mrs. Armend’s last words. Her blood still on my hand.
Laney’s cries. The cut on her neck that’ll scar.
My screams. My blood. My back.
“You caused this! You caused all of this. You are the monster, Mellcom.”
An agonized shout rips from my throat as I unleash hell with my sweet little sword of death.
He meets me with equal force. Our blades lock, and we shove. They grind together, and we strain against each other. My muscles scream, but my memories are louder. This dance, this battle…it’s so routine. So familiar.
I hate it.
I hate him.
We separate for half a breath.
Then collide again.
He drives forward this time, relentless, and his strikes land heavier, designed to overpower. I block, deflect, and refuse to allow the rhythm to shift in his favor.
Our blades lock together again, trembling with the force behind them.
Neither giving. Neither yielding.
“You are fucking ungrateful and blind, Thayla.” His weapon whistles past my shoulder as we push apart from one another, and I duck as he slices it back toward me just as fast. “Everything I’ve ever done was for you.”
For me.
He slides a step under the clash of my sword, and I lunge forward, driving my fist across his jaw.
“No.” The word erupts out of me. “Everything you’ve done is because you’re controlling, possessive, fucking manip—”
I stumble back, heaving as I stare at his glowing, green eyes. His jaw tightens, and something akin to satisfaction flashes across his face.
My breathing grows heavier as my hearing hollows.
Somewhere among the madness, cutting through the grunts of other fights and the fretful shrieks from the ungodly beings in this arena with us, a giggle pierces my ears and soothes the rolling in my stomach.
Four encouraging strokes against my soul keep my knees from buckling.
“Say it, Thayla.”
He shoves a burst of power at me, and my nostrils flare when the slimy, uncomfortable, familiar sensation rolls across my skin.
“Manipulative. Your power is Manipulation.”
A sickly sweet smirk crosses his lips.
“There you go. I knew you’d get it as soon as you spent some time with me. There’s so much I need to share with you. Why couldn’t you have just listened and come with me? None of this would be happening right now if you had.”
“Don’t, Mellcom,” I bark, pointing my sword at him.
“Don’t try to turn this around on me. I owe you nothing.
Not my time, patience, forgiveness. Nothing.
If all you wanted to tell me is you’ve decided to join the side of the Abandon, you could’ve done that without all of this. You could’ve stayed your ass there.”
“All of this?” he asks, turning in a circle as he motions to the Dark Gods battling my men and his Valtrue. “This is nothing. This is the beginning. And admittedly, I needed some time to wrap my mind around things. I had only just learned the truth in my time in Seductions.”
My eyes narrow.
“The truth about what?”
“About you. About me. How we got here, and where we’re supposed to be. There’s nothing but power and thrones waiting for us, Thay.”
I huff a disbelieving laugh.
“Power is all you’ve ever cared about. Power over me, my decisions, my punishment.
Everything. One little taste was all it took for you to throw everything away.
Five minutes in the Goddess of Seduction’s presence and her whispered promises of power were all it took for you to sell your soul to them. ”
“You have no fucking clue what you’re talking about.
” He laughs, shaking his head at me. “That’s the difference between their side and the one you’re standing on.
They have no problem sharing power and secrets if it’ll get them what they want.
And they want us. Me. You. The sons. The realm. In return, we get whatever we want.”
“You’re a fool. You’re going to spend the rest of your miserable life as the God of Obliteration’s bitch.”
His smirk fades into a tasty snarl.
“At least I get something out of it. Tell me, Thay, what do you get out of being his sons’ whore and the Valories’ errand girl? You’re the only living being tied to the Messager. What’s that wannabe God doing for you?”
My teeth grind together.
“Fuck you, Mellcom.”
He shrugs as he twirls his sword in his hand.
“Maybe one day when I forgive you and punish you for your insolence. We were always meant to be together and the whole brother-sister act is getting old. You were promised to me, and I will have what’s mine.”
Bile races up my throat, and utter disgust revolts in my stomach.
Over my dead fucking body.
We raise our swords at the same time, charging forward.
They slash through the air, colliding with two blades that don’t belong to either of us.
“Enough!”
We stagger back and air gets trapped in my lungs.
Impossible.
My arm drops to my side as my eyes widen and my lips part.
“Meridamus.”