Chapter 46 #2
Every second stretched, unbearably slow, like time was daring me to make the wrong choice.
A chill coiled down my spine as his glacier-blue eyes locked onto mine, cold and merciless. His lips curled into a sneer, all softness stripped away, replaced with pure venom.
“Wait—please,” I said, my voice breaking as I held out my hands. “I can explain. I swear, I still love you. Being apart only made me realize how much.”
He stepped forward, lethal, like a predator closing in. The storm raged around us, but he moved through it untouched, as if even the rain feared him.
“It had to be this way,” I rushed on, desperation lacing my voice. “If we’d gone on the quest together, we—we never would’ve been able to keep our hands off each other.”
His eyes narrowed, his expression twisting with disgust. “‘We never would’ve been able to keep our hands off each other,’” he repeated scornfully. “Past tense.”
Then, he hissed, “I hate you. I despise you.”
The words broke something inside me.
They tore through my chest like jagged glass, lodging deep in a heart that still pulsed only for him. I tried to breathe around the ache, to pretend it didn’t break me—but the pain echoed in every part of me, raw and inescapable.
And yet—God help me—I still yearned for his touch.
I swallowed the hurt and stepped closer. “We can find our way back. To what we had. To what we were.”
Then I saw her.
Olivia.
She stood behind the shop window, eyes wide in horror, watching us unravel in the middle of the storm. She was a ghost behind the glass, powerless to stop the fallout.
“I’ll do anything,” I whispered. “I’ll make this right.”
Balthazar’s eyes flared, no longer icy but blazing with fury. His hands curled into fists at his sides, trembling with the force of restrained violence.
“You bitch,” he seethed. “You took everything from me. You left me hollow. Now, you’re going to pay.”
I fumbled for my purse, panic rising like bile in my throat—but it was too late.
His hand clamped around my neck, fingers like iron.
“I told you I’d kill you,” Balthazar growled, his voice a venomous whisper. “You’re a deceitful, lying bitch, just like your father. You betrayed me, the same way he did. You’re all just writhing, disgusting serpents.”
His grip tightened. I choked, gasping for air, clawing at his wrist as my vision began to blur. With my free hand, I desperately rummaged through my bag, searching for anything that could save me.
My fingers found it.
The cold, familiar handle of my dagger.
I drew it in a trembling arc, aiming for his side.
But he was faster.
In one fluid, merciless motion, he wrenched the blade from my hand—and drove it deep into my chest.
Agony exploded through me.
I crumpled to the pavement, the breath torn from my lungs, blood blooming warm and fast beneath my fingertips. The world tilted, the sky spinning overhead as pain dragged me under.
Everything blurred.
Everything floated.
It was like falling into a dream—a weightless descent. My consciousness slipped, detached from my body, as if I were no longer tethered to this life.
Balthazar’s voice drifted through the haze, low and broken. “I loved you. With all my heart.”
Then—his lips.
Soft. Warm.
They brushed mine in a gentle kiss that made the wound ache worse. His body hovered over me, shielding me from the wind that swept through the street.
Why was everything so fuzzy?
Pain stabbed through my chest I heard someone screaming—raw, desperate.
Olivia?
Don’t be scared.
Jack’s voice broke through, shouting my name. His hands shook my shoulders. People circled, voices shouting, overlapping.
“BP is 90 over 50!”
“Pulse is erratic—sats are crashing!”
“She’s going down!”
I was slipping.
Thread by thread, my grip on life unraveled, fraying against the pull of oblivion.
It would’ve been so easy to surrender. To stop fighting. To let the shadows take me.
I’d run from my destiny for so long.
But destiny didn’t chase forever.
It waited. And when it struck, it never missed.
“Attach the AED—now!” someone barked. “Start compressions!”
Hands slammed into my chest. Pain exploded through my ribcage as bones cracked beneath each thrust.
“Stop CPR. Do not touch the patient. Analyzing,” the AED’s robotic voice droned.
“Shock advised.”
“Clear!”
A jolt of electricity surged through me—violent, searing. My body arched off the ground, every nerve screaming. It felt like lightning had struck my soul, shattering whatever pieces were left.
“Resume CPR.”
Pressure again—pounding, relentless.
The chaos blurred. Sirens, shouting, and movement dissolved into static as the world faded.
And then… he appeared.
A shadow formed behind my eyelids. Tall. Calm. I knew that voice before he even spoke.
“Don’t be frightened,” it whispered like velvet dragged over glass.
My breath caught.
“Salvatore?” I asked, my voice barely a thought.
“Yes, dear. It’s me.” His tone coiled around me. “I’ve been waiting for this moment.”
He reached out and stroked my cheek, tender and possessive. His wicked smirk gleamed beneath the pale shimmer of moonlight, and his eyes held galaxies of cruelty.
“Oh, my sweet Alina,” he purred. “You did it. You followed my orders. And now, the real work begins.”
Tears prickled at the corners of my eyes. But they weren’t from pain.
They were from clarity.
He had come to save me.
“That’s it,” he whispered. “I’m here to pull you back. Death is not your end—it’s your inheritance. We have so much to do.”
A cruel grin curled across my lips as fire roared to life inside my soul.
Zara had been wrong. Lazarus had underestimated me. They all had.
Salvatore was the only one who ever saw the truth buried inside me.
And now I welcomed his darkness with open arms.
Together, we would birth a new age of terror and despair.
I would ascend—not as a savior, but as a sovereign of ruin.
A queen of shadows.
A goddess of war.
And the world… the world would kneel.
At last, everything would be mine.
The Journey Continues….
Blade of Shadows Book 5: Timehunters