22. Architecti
Architecti
In the end, I’m not sure if we find Interitus or if she finds us.
The trail of shredded shades and broken demon carcasses speaks for itself. Perhaps she was always leading us to her.
Perhaps all of this was always inevitable. As inevitable as me falling for Gellara and all of us fulfilling our fates.
Gellara and I meander back towards the city. It is not done willingly. Given the city’s patience with me as their villain has run out, we took the decision to stop procrastinating and hunt for Interitus.
And the city is where the shade crumbs lead.
Each step we take, our footsteps grow heavier, slower, more laboured. Our spines stiffen, necks grow taut. Until I grab Gellara’s hand to swing her around and against my body.
Cuddled together, we hit the alley wall and then I wrap my arms around her neck and plunge my lips over hers.
She moans against me, the tension leaking out of her the longer and harder I kiss her.
It’s only when her body is liquid against me that I part from her to brush a lock of hair behind her ear. It makes her little horn poke out, one of those adorable things about her that I hold dearest. Her expression is hazy and kiss-drunk.
“What was that for?” she asks.
I slip my hand through hers, lacing our fingers together.
“I need you to do a favour for me,” I whisper against her neck, my lips tracing warm, breathy pecks along her collarbone. She breaks out in goosebumps, giggling.
“Anything,” she whispers.
I nip her skin and she hisses, pushing her body harder into mine. “Anything?” I ask, knowing she will hate me once I trick her into agreeing. What I’m doing is deceptive, but I have to protect her. She has underestimated Interitus, and I won’t play with her life like that.
“Promise?” I say and lick up her neck, sucking her earlobe between my lips.
She shivers, her eyes rolling back in her head.
“Yes. Yes. Don’t stop.”
Only I do. I grab her by the shoulders and stare into her eyes.
Her expression darkens.
“You promised,” I say.
“Architecti,” she hisses and swipes my hands off her body.
“You promised,” I say, more insistent this time.
She leans down, pressing her forehead to mine. “You tricked me. I’m the demon, I’m supposed to do that.”
I smile, press a kiss to her lips and then say, “I learnt from the best.”
She sighs, “Tell me…”
“You’re not coming any further, I’m leaving you here. I can’t risk it. I… I can’t risk your life.”
The way she stiffens in my arms tells me how furious she is with me. She trembles against me, not from fear, but the fury of a demon who has been fooled.
I have to leave or I’ll stay and abandon not just my mission, but my fate and my future. I have to see this through and stop Interitus, but not at the expense of Gellara. No matter what happens to me, she has to be here when this is over.
There is only one future I see, and she is in every memory I haven’t made yet.
“I love you. With every fibre and feather, with all the celestial light and love I have. I will love you in all the futures, fates, and forevers. No matter what happens, I will always be yours.”
Two tear streaks carve their way through Gellara’s soft skin.
I did that.
Realising that makes my chest ache worse than any pain a demonic blade could inflict. My throat thickens.
“Fuck you,” she whispers. The tears flow thick and heavy, plopping on the alley floor with a splash.
My moth flutters around her head, her wings brushing the tears. I reach out to wipe her cheek, but she steps away. “Fuck you,” she says again.
I lower my eyes. Sometimes, hurting the one you love is the only way to save them.
My feet carry me away, but before I’m out of earshot I turn and remind her. “In all the futures, fates, and forevers, Gellara. Always.”
She drags her gaze away from me, dismissing me.
That rejection is the last thing I see of Gellara as I round the corner and follow the ever-increasing trail of carcasses.
The streets are thick with the stench of rotting flesh, drying blood, and frayed Veil fabric. It creeps over my skin leaving ugly shivers in its wake.
My feet move on autopilot, deeper and deeper into the ever-condensing city. My back itches with how dense it is, buildings everywhere, streets crawling with humans. It’s suffocating and I am well aware that gazes and glares are starting to linger on me. I tug my cloak hood tighter around my head.
There is a potency to the stares. A sharpness that makes me twitchy.
Interitus has seen to it that the city hates me, she has vilified me over and over and now I am the enemy.
It is a moniker I will wear if it means I can stop her.
After an hour, I find her in an abandoned park. The play frames rusted with neglect. The gate hanging loose. Mist shrouding most of the field. Despite the fog, I know she’s here. It’s the wrongness that clings to the air that gives her away.
I shrug my wings out and reach out to the light. The crowned moth acquiesces and shapes possibility. Together we bring enough sun to burn the fog away. No more hiding, sister.
As the light pierces the thick white cloud, my heart drops into my stomach.
The playground is littered with bodies.
And not just shredded shades and the limp carcasses of demons.
But mortals.
I gasp and fall to my knees as I scan the field and struggle to count the number of mortal lives she’s taken.
“No,” I whisper.
“Oh yes, sister, they’re so much stronger while they’re alive. You ought to try them. It’s a real delicacy.”
“You have to stop, you can’t do this. It’s a massacre.”
She shrugs, nonchalant. “I need enough power to break the system. So I had to take enough souls. We must free ourselves from these chains.”
“Fate isn’t a chain,” I say, my voice high and pleading.
“If you think that, then you’re delusional. The whole system is a noose, throttling our freedom and our choices.”
“Only if you let it.” I’m vaguely aware of footsteps behind me, the patter, patter, patter of running people and chatter growing louder, and then my whole body goes rigid. Hoards of mortals.
Interitus shifts, her features morphing a millimetre here, a breadth there, until it’s no longer my twin sister I’m staring at, but me.
It’s not staring at myself that unnerves me. It’s not even the swelling crowd of humans that bothers me.
What sends the coldest lance of fear straight to my core is the scent of sunset, ocean waves and woodsmoke.
Her energy comes next, warmth drifting under the wind. She glistens and bubbles and floats with such lightness despite being a demon. That’s one of the things I love about her.
Interitus’s eyes snap to a point behind my shoulder and then she smiles and my whole body goes icy.
My heart stops, my soul shrivels, my breath catches in my throat.
“No,” I whisper.
Interitus’s mouth twists into an ugly sneer before her gaze slowly drops to mine.
“I wondered why you’d slowed down. Haven’t seen you in ages. So boring. I thought we were having fun.”
“Don’t you fucking touch her,” I bark as the crowds of mortals start screaming and shouting. My name chanted like a vicious weapon.
Mothers scream.
Brothers run to the park fence.
Fathers ball their fists and holler for justice.
Strange how time slows in these moments. Each shout and cry elongating and stretching.
I hear them and yet, they’re so distant. My focus is solely on my sister wearing my face, knowing that my beloved is behind me. What if Gellara goes to her and not me? I coil, a viper waiting, ready.
I want to turn and see her, to hold her in my gaze and tell her it’s going to be okay. But I dare not look away from Interitus.
I choose Gellara over my sister. If this is what it has come to, I will stand in front of Gellara and rip my sister’s soul from her body in order to protect her.
If this is how it is to end, then I am ready to make that sacrifice.
But in the end, we weren’t the ones chasing Interitus. She was always leading us here.
And that is a very different type of ending.