Chapter 56
EVER
Igasp, the intake of air excruciating. The rush of oxygen is partnered with an avalanche of awareness, burying me in reality—the soreness of my neck, what Kelter was about to do, how helpless I was.
I sit up and hold my throat. Where is he? The room spins. The walls flip and fall until I find Kelter. He’s a few feet away, lying flat on his back. And everything clicks into place.
Eli kneels over Kelter, serving blow after blow to his sunken face.
Roots hover above, as though taking a break from attacking to watch the scene below.
Milo attempts to pull Eli off him, but retreats after he’s nearly clobbered by a stray fist. Kaleida tries to reason with him, panicked cries that fall on deaf ears. He’s far from rational.
Eli’s hair is wet with black blood. It trickles down his neck and back, squiggling between the two black marks. His fist smashes into Kelter’s jaw. “You want to kill someone, you kill me! As many times as it takes for you to never touch her again!”
Kelter can’t get in a single counterpunch with the speed Eli batters his face, accelerating with every meeting of knuckle and bone. But it doesn’t matter. Because Eli feels every slug he delivers on his own face. Blood spatters. The sound is dreadful.
Stop! I try to scream, but my throat is shredded. I crawl toward them. As soon as I’m within reach of Eli, I wrap my arms around his waist and pull.
He twists around at my touch, instantly ripped from his delirium, eyes wild with rage. “Never.” Before I can burst into tears, he climbs off Kelter and gathers me into his arms. And up onto his lap. His hands hold me close, firm. Safe. Kelter moans next to him.
“Kelt,” I scrape out, but he can’t hear my lousy attempt at speech.
“Satisfied?” Eli asks him. “I can feel you are.”
Kelter’s chest rolls with the heavy breath he whistles out. He lets his head fall to the side, exhausted resignation loosening his bloody features. “Yeah. The blood helped.” His tongue slips between his cracked lips, licking up the fresh coat of red. “Thanks.”
“You lose it again, and I’ll take you out of your misery. I don’t care if you’re linked. I don’t care how strong the cravings are. You will not put your hands on her like that again.” Eli elbows him in the balls for good measure.
I search the room for more threats. Zandrite rises again, regaining his strength from whatever state Eli left him in. Milo and Kaleida, now across the room and focused on Zandrite, leap to tackle him back to the floor.
I jerk in Eli’s grasp. “Help them!” Daggers line my throat. My yell is hardly more than a harsh whisper.
Eli’s face contorts, his heart torn. With an unexpected gentleness, he sets me down. But he doesn’t let go. Can’t, I suspect. Then, one deep breath later, he stands and drops his knife into my lap. “Stop saving the rest of us, and do what no one else can.”
I grip the sheathed end in one hand, handle in the other, watching him run to help. If you only believe in one thing, let it be you. I can almost hear Ametrine’s tranquil voice. I got this. I do. Eli deserves his fix, and Zandrite has to be stopped.
I won’t sit back and let life happen to me anymore, let magic happen to me. Facing the truth is the only way I can learn to trust the world around me again. And myself. I’m tired of secrets and lies. Of deals and deceit. Of denial.
Kelter sits up, his face already swollen and discolored. He scoots closer to me on his knees. “Ever, I’m—”
“No.” I stop him, swallowing past the burn in my throat. “You don’t get to fucking apologize.”
“I can’t lose you.” His fingers reach just shy of my cheek.
“Maybe try not to kill me then.”
“Run, Ever. Go back to Caldera. I’ll come visit you when I finish figuring things out here. Please. Eli isn’t safe for you.”
“You’re one to talk.”
He sighs, dropping his shoulders and leaning even closer. “I know, but it’s not an accident that life keeps putting us together. I could sprint as fast and hard as I’m able in the opposite direction and still run smack into you. Our paths overlap no matter which way we turn. You are my path.”
“You’re not in love with me, Kelt.” That’s one truth I’m not afraid to face. “And I’m not in love with you.”
“No.” His pained eyes sweep over me. “But I’m forever yours.”
“Because you’re my link.”
“It’s more than that. More than the gods. Can’t you see how destiny brings us together? We’re connected.”
Destiny? Isn’t that the ultimate form of hope? Believing and trusting that everything happens for a reason? Utter bullshit?
“I don’t believe in destiny. And I don’t trust meant-to-be,” I say.
We both turn at the loud thud behind us. Zandrite has Eli in a headlock, his body smashed between a hairy chest and the wall. Roots hold Milo and Kaleida captive.
“Eli’s fine,” Kelter says, grabbing my hands from my lap. The knife comes along, the sheath and handle still tightly clutched in my palms.
I pull my hands free. “I have to go kill a god now.”
He drops his face into waiting hands. I leave him in sorrow and scoot backward along the marble on my bottom, dodging roots and threatening them with my thoughts and Eli’s knife until I’m beyond their reach.
Zandrite turns around to face me, flipping Eli around with him. Every part of the god is stained red and raw with open wounds, blood guttering in the scars of his bare chest. He looks straight down at me. “Oh good, you’re finally ready to die.”
My skin is almost liquid with the way my nerves scatter.
I rise to my feet and hold the knife between us, letting Eli’s dark eyes lure me in.
Then I follow his gaze to the blade… covered by the sheath.
Shit. Lesson number two. I rip it off and raise the knife again in a flash of blood-stained silver.
Zandrite stares at my steady hand, his deprecating chuckle the only sound in the room. “Look, sweetheart, your fuck buddy here already stabbed me over forty times.” He yanks his arm tighter around Eli’s neck. “So what is it you think you’re going to do with that thing?”
I rally my courage. “You should fear me.”
He laughs again, straight from his belly, head back. “You’re a demigod. A freak of nature that was never meant to be, yes, but not capable of killing a god.”
“Then try me, you bastard.”
“That’s my girl,” Eli whispers. Zandrite wrenches his head to the side. The anguished look on his face is the briefest ever, a split second before his neck is broken, his head hanging. His eyes flash with green and gold. Then he’s gone. Zandrite drops him and kicks his limp body out of the way.
I know he can’t die. He’ll be back, but the devastation hits the same. The black marble walls close in on me. My heart hollows out. Zandrite stomps on his neck with a crunch I feel in my own bones.
I act. A swift stab into his chest. Through flesh. And into bone.
Bone?
I was aiming for his heart. I look down at my failed attempt. Only the tip of the blade is buried in his skin. No. That was my chance.
I go for my rings, struggling to hold the knife as I rip them off my fingers.
I’ll melt his hairy ass. I throw them down before him, careful to avoid where Eli lies off to the side.
One after the other. Ring after ring. They bounce off the marble with quiet clangs.
I stare at the black floor. I beg for the puddles to appear, for molten metal to swallow up Zandrite and end this now.
I beg for an act of mine to be reliable.
For one single thing to make sense. But my rings disappear.
Silver and blue and black and gray pieces of my past vanish.
Zandrite’s confusion only lasts a second before he forces the knife from my hand and spins me around. My back to his chest hair. His wrist across my throat. And Eli’s knife at the side of my neck.