Chapter 26
Chapter
Twenty-Six
TUCKER
The scent of the fire carries through the wilderness, passing through the trees. It lingers long after Forest’s screams have faded. The white moon shimmers on the white snow. The most perfect night to disappear into the Wilds, never to be seen again.
Up ahead, the sanctuary bleeds into view.
I notice there are four torches lit. Each one is lined up perfectly to the four directions on the compass that hangs from my neck.
The shadow with the wolf mask stands in front of the rotten altar, his cloak billowing in the wind.
Bash is on his knees in front of him with a knife held to his throat.
My head bobs as I reach the clearing, exhaustion taking hold.
The wolf tugs at Bash’s hair, forcing his head upright. “Welcome to the ending.”
The man’s voice feels familiar. Sounds almost the way I imagine my own voice to sound.
I lock eyes with Bash. There are dark clouds under his tired eyes. His face is pale but the biting cold paints his cheeks in reddened splotches. He’s wearing the same clothes he left in almost a week ago.
“Have you ever seen a movie, Tucker?” the wolf asks. “This is the part of the story where you make a choice. You become the hero, or you die the villain.”
I brace my hand on the grip of the bow slung over my shoulder. “Who are you?”
He cackles. “I’m the big bad wolf.”
“You’re a man hiding behind a mask.” I tighten my hold on the grip, but I know better than to make any sudden movements.
If he gets the slightest hint I’m about to do something, Bash is as good as dead.
And I know I should want him dead. Hell, a part of me wants blood myself.
But there’s this other part of me that’s desperately trying to claw through the fog, trying to hold on to whatever humanity I have left. “You’re not a wolf. Not even close.”
“You’re right,” he sighs. “I’m not supposed to be here.” He pries the wolf mask from his face with one hand, revealing a sideways grin. He tosses the mask into the snow. “Do I look familiar?”
Like I’m looking in a mirror. Whereas the last two assailants possessed similar features to myself, this one looks like an actual copy. Same height. Same build. Same dark eyes. Same jawline and cheeks. His hair is a little longer than mine, wavy at the ends.
“The hidden part of me,” I whisper, thinking back to the stories Filo used to tell about the others. They’d appear looking just like us. Two enter the ring and only one walks out. A fight for the soul. “You’re the other half of me.”
“Have you not figured it out yet?” He laughs incredulously.
“I’m your twin brother, born under the same moon on the same summer night.
More formally, my name is Blake White. Mother dearest lived two separate lives.
One on the mountain and one down below. She was always gone for a weekend at a time, and our father never outwardly questioned why. ”
“Shut up,” I seethe. I’ve heard enough today and my throbbing head can’t take much more. At this point, the truth doesn’t matter. It’s only another nail in the heart.
“Think about the life that was stolen from you, from us. I saved him for you.” He gestures for me to approach. “Zeva is the one who set this all in motion, but it was Bash who lit the match. He killed our mother, and it’s time to show your loyalty.”
I clear my throat. “No.”
“You’re so disappointing.” He steadies his gaze on me, squinting.
“I’ve been coming here for years. I’ve watched you near and far.
Do you know how many times I’ve talked to the people here?
And they’re too stupid to know the difference between us.
” He knees Bash in the back, sending him to his hands and knees.
He drops to the ground beside him, grabs him by the hair and rips his head upward.
“The last thing Bash here is going to see is your eyes. He’s going to take that image with him to the grave, knowing you couldn’t save him.
” He presses the knife against Bash’s strained throat and drops his mouth to his ear. “The Wilds are calling you home.”
He slashes Bash’s throat. Hot blood sprays the snow ahead of him. The other me lets go of Bash’s head, letting him fall to the ground convulsing as he tries to cover the mortal wound on his neck. The last thing he sees is the most beautiful moon high in the sky.
He steps over the dead body, tracking blood through the snow as he approaches.
I’m hit with a dizzy spell and stumble back against a tree, cracking my back on the frozen trunk. I collapse forward onto my knees, my bow falling beside me. He kicks the weapon to the side and hovers above.
“Justice meant every single one of them had to die,” he says.
“I waited and waited and waited and god, I got fucking tired of waiting for Forest to come back. So, I tracked him down.” He shakes his head, a wild grin hitching across his lips.
“Crazy right? Because how do you find a man who doesn’t exist?
” He crouches down before me, the steel blade dancing so close to my eyes.
“I spent so long trying to figure that out and then I found your little room of secrets. All those paintings. You were obsessed with him almost as much as I was. I put the pieces together, thinking to myself, what’s the one thing we can’t live without?
” He grabs his junk through his jeans. “Sex. Do you know how easy it is to get that in the real world? All you have to do is download an app on your phone and the next fuck is merely feet away.”
“Get on with it and finish it,” I plead softly. I can’t even muster the strength to stand back up, let alone expend the energy required to win this fight.
“I spent years searching for his face and I finally found it,” he continues, paying no attention to my plea.
“I made a fake profile, used a VPN, and he invited me over. He dropped me a little pin showing me where to find him.” He taps the knife on his open palm.
“The only hitch in the plan is you weren’t supposed to die, but you protected them.
You know what they did to our mother and I…
I don’t get it, Tucker. Blood is supposed to be thicker than water, but for you, I don’t think anything is thicker than his cum. ”
He’s right about that. There are two things in this life that have driven me—him and this place.
“And then you killed our little brothers, both of them.” He swallows a gulp, the madness in his eyes turning to rage. An emotion I can understand. “So now you have to die, and then I’ll finish off the king and disappear like he did. The only difference is there won’t be anyone left to find me.”
I peel my gaze upward. “Touch him and die.”
“What do you think?” He smiles and drags the frozen blade over my cheek, drawing blood. “Should I keep you alive long enough to watch?”
I make a show of looking past him and nodding. “Shoot him, Forest.”
He rips his head sideways to find that there’s nobody there.
Certainly not Forest, whom I left behind with an arrow in his leg.
It gives me enough time to snatch the bow from the snow.
Rage pulses through my veins, giving me the energy to jump to my feet.
I tighten my grip on the bow and smash it over the side of his face.
He grunts in pain, grabs me by the chest, and throws me against the tree.
The bones in my back crack again as he pins me there, the bow slipping from my grasp.
Face to face. Mouth to mouth.
“I’m really going to enjoy this,” he moans, a hot breath landing on my lips.
He jabs the knife into the side of my gut and rips it back out just as quickly. I scream in pain, howling at the moon. The branches on the trees rustle in the wind, and a familiar melody cuts through me.
Talking to me.
Guiding me.
The whispers of the Wilds protect me.
I ball my hand into a fist and land a backwards punch against his nose, breaking it. His blood warms my knuckles at first, but it quickly freezes too. In this wasteland, everything turns to ice. He stumbles backward and catches an uppercut to the chin.
Crack.
The knife drops to the ground, disappearing beneath the powdery snow. I snatch the bow into my hands once more, but not to shoot him with. I smack him in the side of the face with the bow. He folds sideways, landing on his back. I drop the weight of my body onto his, taking a seat on his groin.
He scrunches his blood-stained face, darkest around the nose and mouth. “You’re just…” He coughs up blood. “You’re just like them.”
“We…” I grunt, “are… family.”
I punch him in the face, sending his head reeling to the side.
And I punch him again, knuckles smashing against cheekbones.
Again. Again. Again. I spend all my fury until he’s battered beyond recognition.
He wheezes every time he tries to breathe, and by the time I wrap my hands around his throat, he’s running on life support.
He pushes his fingers into the knife wound, digging at my insides. I howl in agony. My vision distorts, the outer edges tearing at the seams. He wiggles out from underneath me and clumsily finds his footing.
He kicks me in the face, shattering bones. I claw through the snow, gasping for air. He kicks me again, this time in the stomach. The blow sends me reeling onto my side. I crawl backward now, watching as he digs the knife out from beneath the snow. He limps toward me, beaten and broken.
It’s all falling apart.
Everything I knew.
Everything I believed.
It’s all been a lie.
I’ve failed at everything. Most of all, I’ve failed at protecting Forest. My own brother is about to kill me, and at this point, I don’t know if there’s anything waiting on the other side of this life.
When he’s done, he’ll make Forest pay. He’ll brutally murder the only person—the only thing—I’ve ever loved.
I thought I was protecting Forest by doing what I did.
Turns out, I just made him an easier target.
The other me closes the distance between us and stands over me. “Any last words?”
I close my eyes, steady my breathing, and surrender to my fate.
Bang.
My face is splattered with a warm substance, the salty taste of blood smeared over my lips. I open my eyes just as the body lands on the ground, a hole in his head. A shadow falls over me and it is Forest, limping sideways.
Smoke filters out of the barrel of the gun. “I told you I’d never leave you again.”