Chapter 71
Seventy-One
Heliotrope
There was once a time I dreamed of wrapping my hands around Lunaria’s throat. Of squeezing every ounce of pleasure possible from her body. All I needed to do was gauge each breath and moan, knowing what made her tick. What made her scream my name and no one else’s.
Those were the visions I savored, the dreams I begged to visit me in my sleep.
But that dream turned into a nightmare when these hands became vile, disgusting things. Now these hands do the work of Vidaris, along with the rest of my body. I scream no in my mind, but my mouth says yes.
I’m forced to watch a flicker of fear widen the eyes of the woman I would burn the world for because of me. Because of Vidaris and her planting some kind of dark, twisted virus inside of me.
The blank spots in my memories—the ones I didn’t realize were there—come rushing back to the surface.
A hissing filling the chambers of the bathroom as I stared in the mirror, my face smiling in the reflection, though I meant to frown. The commands Vidaris hissed into my ears, all forgotten seconds after they were given. No…not forgotten. Suppressed. By this thing in me.
There has to be a way out of this, a way to force this virus out of me.
But until then, what worries me is what Vidaris and Opal will force me to do. Whose blood will stain my hands? What friend will I stab in the back?
My stomach churns.
Worst of all are the possibilities of what they’ll make me do to Lunaria.
But if anyone can handle it—handle me—it’s Lunaria.
Lu’s a fighter—a warrior.
The fire in her eyes matches the intensity of the one roaring behind her, and if I could move, the look on her face would have me falling at her feet. Even now, I can’t help but appreciate her beauty. Her smile could send any man to his knees just as easily as her punches could.
But as Opal turns to me with a beaming smile, a sinking feeling begins to spread in my chest.
I’m at the disposal of those we’re trying to kill, and Soren is trapped behind a wall of my flames.
“Ready, little Aegis?” Opal mocks, using Vidaris’s nickname for me.
Internally, I flinch, but my body stays still.
“Don’t touch him,” Lunaria snarls, her tone vicious.
Opal laughs, the sound uncomfortably akin to Vidaris’s. There’s a shift in the air, a dark movement that presses against every inch of my skin. Lu must feel it, too, because she shivers.
“I’ve thought about this day for a long time,” Opal says wistfully, a faint grin on her mouth as she turns to Lu. “We’ve always hated Crea—I was always truthful about that.”
“There’s a lot more I would’ve rather you’d been honest about,” Lu mumbles.
Opal smirks, and the gleam in her eyes spurs me to push harder against the thing keeping me trapped in my mind.
“Why be honest when I can finally just show you where I’d rather be?” Opal sings.
All at once, the candle and oil lamps burning in the small room gutter out in an invisible wind. There’s a small intake of breath—Lu.
Darkness surrounds us, but before I have a chance to take another breath, the feeling of weightlessness overcomes me. Icy fingers clamp around my wrist, nails digging in so hard that they bite through the surface of my skin.
“Hold on tight, everyone,” Opal squeals.
The floor beneath my feet disappears, and then…there’s nothing.