Chapter 28 #2
My upper lip curls, disgusted. Your brother?
I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.
But he made his point. I feel his desperation.
He’s falling apart. And so is she. And maybe me too, because I drag up the past and throw it at him.
Who’s your father? Who’s the man so spiteful toward our mother that he cursed me?
Eli, I—
Don’t fucking say my name. I shift my knee bone on his back just to hear him groan. Who is he?
I don’t know! He blocks every thought, letting only his words through.
Lying son of a jealous dick. If he’s still alive, I swear on every death that awaits me I will find him. And kill him.
Good luck with that, Kelter sneers.
The crowd grows impatient. I’ve held him like this too long.
I glance at Zandrite. He’ll get involved if we bore him.
Never threatens me with those wide indigo eyes as she continues slamming her elbows into him one after the other, using up her strength and running on nothing.
Zandrite smells her filthy hair and wraps an arm over her thighs.
Every drop of black blood in my body boils.
Kelter winces as I push the knife deeper. He drops his head to the dirt. Time to give me the upper hand. Unless you plan on killing me in front of Ever?
Undecided. I relax my grip, and he flips us around.
But I’m not going to let this asshole sit on me, especially not while he wants to fuck anything that moves.
I roll again and jump to my feet, knife still in hand.
Kelter follows close, pummeling me in the face as soon as he finds his balance. I slice his arm open.
“Shit!” He twists his elbow to inspect the cut. What are you doing?
He goes for another punch. I dodge his fist and swipe the blade across his knuckles. Needing her doesn’t mean you love her. Linking has nothing to do with that. You’re only feeding off my feelings.
So you admit you love her?
I tackle him to the ground again, face up this time—so he can watch me take his life, one hand around his throat, knife to his impression. Maybe I’ll cut every damn black circle off his chest. My heart pounds hard enough to take my breath away. I turn around. It’s Never’s heart, her fear. For him.
The look on her face cuts deeper than any blade could. I don’t want to hurt her, but this would accomplish everything I need. I’ll get Kelter out of my head, and she really would hate me forever.
But I can’t turn her into a Half Link. I won’t do that to her.
I press harder on his throat. His eyes bulge. Blood vessels burst, creating a deranged look. He wants to hear me admit how I feel about her when he already knows? The fucker. I slam down so hard on his neck I’m sure something cracks.
Kelter groans. You’re the worst brother.
You took off her shirt and kissed her! I yell into his mind.
To save her from him.
You enjoyed it!
“Of course I did,” he sputters, coughing up blood. I may not think with my dick like you, but I’m still a man.
I swing my fist at his nose. It crunches.
I win or Zandrite takes her, he reminds me between mental gasps.
“She’s mine!” I impale his hand with my blade, stabbing it straight through his flesh and into the dirt. And feel it all.
The most painful hush spreads through the arena, leaving only Ever’s cries and the sounds of backs smacking walls, those too distracted by their carnal needs to stop.
Kelter’s scream is silent, his mouth open, eyes exploding with shock.
But it’s not my knife through his hand that has the room suspended in time.
Zandrite stands. Never is tucked under his arm, kicking her dirty feet and screaming curse words. “You know each other,” he says, his words echoing through the arena.
Why did I have to yell out loud? Another mistake.
Kelter pushes my stunned body off him. “No.”
Zandrite shakes Never. “Stop that racket!” Her head jerks with each movement, her voice silenced by the violent act.
Two breaths and I’m running, my feet hardly touching the ground. The Half Links swarm the circle. I shove down everyone in my path, following the scent of her fear, the beat of her heart. Mine mine mine. He can’t have her.
The room shakes, the ground and walls trembling hard enough to steal my balance.
The dirt beneath me divides, cracks opening up like darkness overtaking the soul.
Deep black chasms form, swallowing up anyone unlucky enough to be at the edge.
Screams bounce off the walls as bodies fall, then travel back up as echoes, eerie shadows of the fear they once embodied.
I’m farther from Never despite every step closer. Walls crumble, crushing limbs, splitting skulls. I climb over bodies and splash through puddles of blood, disconnected from the scene around me. From the screams. The death. Nothing will keep me from Never. Nothing.
The ceiling crashes down, burying me in rubble.
Half Links are squashed and severed in two around me, and I’m grateful for the small pocket I’m trapped in.
Dust billows thick, sucked into unsuspecting throats, choking us.
My lungs burn with every inhalation, but I’d breathe in fire to get to her. Anything, as long as I don’t lose her.
But the only way to her is through this newly formed wall of stone-like earth.
“Find someone who’s still conscious that can shift matter. Or that can move this shit. Or some gift that’s actually useful.” I speak to anyone that might be alive, running my hand through my hair and grabbing a fistful. How did I let this happen?
“What’s wrong with you? We don’t have gifts anymore. We’re Half Links,” the man next to me wheezes.
Shit. I forgot. I’m surrounded by Vaile without magic.
Hands slide around my neck and squeeze in the darkness, one warm and wet, weakened. “You stabbed me!”
“Not now!” I rip Kelter’s hands away. “We need to get to her.”
“And then what? Fight a god? How’s that going to go? Dammit. Why not let me win when you had the chance?” He collapses at my side. “You ruin everything.”