The Path I Choose #2
The wind surges, carrying the scent of the ocean and the distant celebration.
I stare down at the water, waves crashing into the sand repeatedly.
“We’re bleeding on defence. I’m done watching us brace for impact while the enemy moves unchecked.
In the dark, I can find them. Wherever they hide, I can strike back. I can get you the answers you need.”
Leo is silent, brows drawn together. I know he’s hesitating because he’s more than the King; he’s damn family.
And the very weight of that is burdening him.
“I’ve met a lot of people, know so many different kinds of people,” he says finally.
“Your parents… they’re good. Their hearts hold only the best for everyone.
If you walk this path, it’s going to hurt them; they’ll blame themselves. ”
I laugh sarcastically. “Oh, come on, bro, you ran a cartel, one that still breathes.”
“I did what I had to-”
I grab him by the collar, fury flaring through me. “Exactly. You did what you had to. And now I’m doing the fucking same.”
My voice drops as I stare into his blazing, magnetic blue eyes. “I’ve killed before. Monsters. The innocent. The not-so-innocent. I’ve crossed lines that can never be uncrossed. I’m not who you think I am.”
He shoves me off him, his aura rising.
“I don’t fucking care,” he snarls.
We stand there, chest-to-chest for a breath, the air between us tense. His gaze turns calculating, assessing me the way he always does when the stakes are blood deep.
“We’ll ask Dante-”
“No.” I shake my head. “Even he can’t see my future.
I’m Hades’ chosen. That makes me a blind spot.
I need everyone to believe this. It will be easier.
” I lift my cigarette, inhaling slowly, and exhale a skull of smoke that drifts toward the sea and disappears into the darkness.
“I’m the wildcard you don’t get twice. All I need is one person who knows the truth. And as King, that’s you.”
His eyes narrow. “Your brothers will notice. You know Jayce.”
“Then I’ll leave before they can question me, when they don’t see it coming.” I hesitate, the words thickening. “There’s more.”
I have to tell him. If I’m not around, someone needs to be alerted.
He watches me closely as I tilt my gaze to the stars, cold and indifferent above us. “What is it?”
“It’s about the night Ares was attacked…”
I swiftly fill him in, and when I finish, silence crushes down, heavy as guilt. Even the sea seems to pause.
Leo snarls, the sound menacing and low. “You all keep so many fucking secrets. When are you going to fucking learn?”
“Never; get used to it. I’m telling you now, though, that’s what you need to focus on and shit.”
He takes a drag on his cigarette, staring into the dark water. “Why do you think this is your path?” he asks.
“Because it always has been. I’m not a hero.
I never will be. I need this, a purpose for the powers I hold.
And you know better than anyone that being King means choosing which sins you’re willing to live with.
” Our eyes meet, and I continue, “I’m strong enough to carry this one.
Until the very end, and my decision is fucking made. ”
“I’m the goddamn King,” he says quietly. “I get a say.”
“Not this time,” I reply. “Either you sanction it, or I go anyway. I’ll stage my betrayal myself.”
He turns back to the sea, and silence falls between us, my words hanging in the air. After a long while, he speaks, “And if you lose your humanity in the process?”
A faint laugh, full of triumph and amusement, echoes through my mind. A warmth that has somehow given me stability.
As long as I have those memories, I’ll be fine. But if someday they fail me…
“Then it’s a price I’ll pay,” I say. “The Indomitable are spreading fear through our allies. Doubt is growing. It’s time the darkness learned to fear us back.” I meet his gaze. “We are the Dauntless. We don’t fucking break.”
“The Dauntless,” he murmurs.
He says nothing more. Neither do I.
I’ve already chosen.
Now the King only has to decide whether he can live with the shadow I’m about to become.
Leo stands there with the sea stretching endlessly before him, his cigarette has burned down between his tattooed fingers, the ember glowing like a dying star. The wind pulls at his hair as time seems to stretch on forever.
For a long moment, I think he might refuse me simply because accepting this shit means admitting the world needs men like us.
Then he turns to face me fully. And in his usual cold eyes, I don’t see a king but a man who can no longer pretend purity still exists.
“You know what this will cost you,” he states quietly.
I nod. “Yeah, I do.”
His jaw tightens. “Once this begins, there’s no coming back. Even if you succeed. Even if you save us. History won’t remember what you were doing in the dark. It’ll remember what that looked like.”
I smirk. “I’m not doing this for history, you know that.”
He stares at me, as if trying to see something that isn’t there. As if he knows the toll this will take.
“And here we have it, another secret, another fucking burden…” he mutters.
“Well, as king, it’s inevitable,” I answer. “Someone has to do ugly things so others can pretend the world still has hope and light, init. We have to shoulder the sins so they can sleep.”
His eyes flick, just for a heartbeat, toward the distant glow of the wedding. Then he looks back at me.
“And this,” he says, “This is one of those choices that damn the hands that make it.”
He lifts his cigarette and lets it fall, grinding it out beneath his boot. The ember dies with a hiss, swallowed by the sand.
“Fine. Let’s do this. But remember, this was your choice.”
I nod. “Yeah, I know.”
“I’ll make it real,” he says. “The betrayal. The exile. I’ll burn your name into the fucking ground if I have to.”
My chest tightens, not with fear but something else.
“You’ll have no allies, and you have to know I won’t be able to protect you. Out there, you’re alone.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to.”
The wind surges between us, and then Leo reaches out, grips my shoulder once, giving it a firm squeeze.
“Then it’s done, you’ll betray us, and be branded a traitor.”
“Perfect.”
We stare at one another, just two men standing on the edge of damnation, choosing it anyway.
Then he steps back, his expression emotionless and hardened, the expression of a king as he ties his hands behind his back.
“By my authority,” Leo says, his voice carrying the weight of authority, “you are sanctioned.”
“Thanks.”
There’s nothing more to say, and Leo breaks the circle of silence before he turns and walks back towards the wedding, leaving me alone in the darkness.
I know what this means, I always have, but knowing the time is nearing settles heavily into my chest.
This means leaving Heaven behind, knowing I’ll never sit through another shared meal with my brothers, never trade insults over pizza and drinks, never let our banter stretch late into the night like it always does.
It means walking away from the pride in my father’s eyes and carrying the knowledge that my betrayal will settle into my mother’s chest like a quiet, permanent ache, something she’ll learn to live with but never forget. Knowing they’ll blame themselves.
And somehow, out of everything I’m abandoning, it’s Heaven, the thought of her spark slipping out of my life, that cuts the deepest as I turn back toward the ocean.
And this is why love is not for the damned.