Sin
He didn’t need to see this.
The boulder atop Audrira inched forward, and Audrira was gaining traction to escape.
Her magic strained to keep the structure from capsizing. The sounds of bones snapping echoed through the room, followed by their screams.
Audrira nodded, her eyes watering. “I did, but I didn’t do that to her body. I swear it.”
Sin nodded, choosing to believe her. “Then for your sake, and Gideon’s, I’ll make it quick.”
Audrira cried out in pain and terror, and Sin felt Audrira’s magic churning inside her. Sin spat up blood, crumbling to her knees as the walls began to cave in.
“No,” Sin breathed. She refused to die this way. She hadn’t learned to ignore pain her whole life just to succumb to it now.
Sin’s groan turned into a scream as she forced herself to stand, her muscles tearing at the seams, ready to break under the strain.
Every nerve felt like it was set aflame, her vision blurring in and out with the pain. Sin coughed, blood spilling down her chin, as she walked towards the door. Audrira’s magic threatening her resolve, but she wouldn’t waver.
Not today.
She forced herself through the door, each step a desperate battle until she finally reached the outside.
Sin coughed, and though Audrira’s violent, vengeful magic was subsiding, it took everything Sin had to keep going.
Max’s green eyes flashed in her vision, and Sin’s head snapped up, finding Gideon running towards them.
She would make it. She had to.
She couldn’t let everything she had fought for—every sacrifice—be for nothing. The sight of Gideon pushed her forward, driving her through the haze of exhaustion. She would make sure he survived, and then she would make it to Max.
He was waiting for her.
Her future was waiting for her.
And for that, she realized, she would accept claiming those deaths.