Chapter 23 #2
‘And I’ll kill your protégé.’ Maria tilts her head, a smug smile on her face. ‘If I close my fist, the pressure I exert on her will be enough to do it. You really want to play that game?’
Unlike Tia, Niko’s never been bothered about killing, at least not for the right purpose. If Maria moves, there’s no doubt Niko would shoot her. But by then it might be too late. The conundrum circles like the tenth circle of hell twisted into an infinity knot, modern-day Sisyphus.
There’s no other choice. Before Maria notices, I grab a car with telekinesis and knock her off the expressway.
The bus falls from the sky. I swipe it aside and grab Tia with my telekinesis.
As I float her closer, the amount of damage Maria has done becomes clearer. Blood streaks down her temple, cuts lashing her face and neck. Her breathing is weak, but it exists, and I hold her in my arms for a second.
‘I’ve got you,’ I murmur.
‘Kit?’ Tia’s eyes flutter open. She inhales sharply, and her exhale leaves as a whimper. ‘What do we do now?’
I don’t know.
In my peripheral vision, Maria climbs back up onto the expressway, her expression furious.
I tuck Tia to my chest and hold a dagger out to Maria. ‘What do you want? Why are you doing this?’
Maria swipes a drop of blood from her nose with her wrist, smearing it over her porcelain skin. She scoffs. ‘Well, the Elders always thought the leadership would come down to me or you. Before your parents died, it was meant to be me.’
. . . leader before you . . .
The world trembles. ‘You were tasked to kill my parents?’
Maria throws her head back and laughs – loud, cruel, awful. ‘If I was tasked to kill your parents, I would have become the leader. No, I was tasked to kill you.’
What the fuck? The shock must show on my face, because Maria’s smile turns bitter.
‘I know,’ she says. ‘You were my biggest competition, and they knew the clan would always be divided between us if we both existed. Like you, I couldn’t stand to kill my girlfriend.
So I sabotaged it last minute, and your parents died instead .
. . Elders didn’t like that much, and they took the role from me and gave it to you.
It was always just a consolation prize for you, you know? ’
She takes a step closer, and I shuffle back, levelling my shaking dagger. Damn it, pull yourself together, Raven.
Can’t. Not when it feels like the universe has wrecked my core and gouged its rotting insides. Judgement Day has come for the crimes I have committed, have yet to commit.
‘You killed my parents,’ I say.
Maria cocks her head. ‘Yeah, but you got to live, so you could be a little bit grateful. Anyway, the Elders promised me that if you mess up the assassination today, I get to be the clan leader if I kill Lune. Sorry about the little bomb I dropped on you last night, but thanks for renouncing your leadership. You’re making it so easy for me. ’
She smiles, and the urge to punch it off her face seizes me.
‘Kit?’ Tia again. I glance down to see her brows knitted, her dark eyes searching. ‘You’re shaking. You can’t fight her.’
I shush her, but Tia takes my hand and presses something into my palm. ‘You have a job. We need to make it happen.’
It’s the medallion. She’s lifted it from my chest, and now the pendant sits nestled between our palms.
‘I’m not killing you. Are you out of your mind?’ I glance up. Maria approaches at the speed of a predator who knows they’ll outrun their prey. She’s careful, slow, relishing her power.
It buys us more time.
I twist around and throw a dagger at the Naga holding Kiran hostage. The Naga bellows and releases him, leaving Kiran to drop to the ground and slither at Maria.
He tackles her to the floor, but other Nagas are on them immediately.
‘Raven,’ Tia whispers. Sweat and blood matts her hair to her temple, grief stitching itself into her brows. ‘Please.’
‘No. Never. I rather you over my leadership. I don’t care.’ How do I explain this? That the world is brighter when she’s around? That she’s taught me about everything gentle, everything kind?
Tia grabs her lunar sword from her waist and presses the hilt into my hands. She guides it against her chest. It’s still undeployed, but it rests over her heart. If she chooses to activate it now . . .
She holds my hand over the sword, curling my fingers to hold it tight. ‘You told me to trust you. This is my life, and this is my decision. Now you need to trust me.’
‘I’m not hurting you.’ I jerk out of Tia’s hold, but she’s too strong.
Her gaze burns fever-bright. ‘We take a pledge as Sentinels. We’d do anything to protect the country. If this is what it’ll take for you to be the leader, then so be it. Then maybe you can save the moonstones. You can’t do that if Maria is the leader. This has always been my job, kit.’
‘I am saving you.’
‘If you won’t kill me, the Foxes will.’ Tia shoots me a bitter smile. ‘I don’t think I’m going to make it, and I’d rather it’s you than them.’
I scan our surroundings for a solution, for anything, but I catch a Naga with their blade poised behind Kiran before plunging it through his abdomen.
‘Kiran!’ Niko screams from above, and the sound is so broken I can’t breathe. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
With Kiran neutralized, Maria starts forward, angrier and faster than before.
We’re out of time. ‘My job is to protect the people I love,’ I say as I reach for my dagger. I’ve been training against Maria since we were seven. Even if my muscles feel weak with shock, I can give us a fighting chance. ‘I’ll protect you.’
But Tia tightens her hold over my hand, sword and all, her armour digging into my cloth suit as she pulls me close. These barriers between our skin, the same way our masks cover our faces and our fears smother our hearts, feel as if it was always meant to be this way, always meant to end like this.
‘And my job is to give myself to the people I love.’ Tia cocks her head with a sad smile. ‘You’ve protected me enough. It’s my turn.’
Tia’s grip tightens around the sword, and she activates it.
‘No!’ I yank back and let go. The sword clatters to the ground, but the beam has slid through skin, flesh, bone, heart. ‘Fuck, Tia, no, no, no.’
The world collapses, one nightmare crumpling into the next.
It can’t be over. We’re meant to be a binary system, snagged together and bound, locked in each other’s orbit.
If Tia is truly gone – she cannot be she cannot be she cannot be – I would be ejected into space, a dying star in the swallowing void.
I check her pulse, but there’s nothing. No breathing. No heartbeat.
There’s a hand on my shoulder, and I whip round to see a Naga standing over me. ‘Congratulations on completing your task, Fox leader. But we need to go.’
I shoot up, grab the Naga by the collar, and throw her to the floor. ‘Stay. Away. From her.’
The fallen Naga’s jaw hangs half open, but she recovers quickly and scrambles to stand. Behind her, a familiar face appears – Avyaan.
He stalks forward, his steps measured, his face like stone, drawn harsher by a streak of blood down his temple. So different from all the video calls we’ve had. ‘Raven, calm down.’
‘Fuck you, okay?’ I ready my daggers in my hands, ignoring the way their handles are slippery in my palms because Tia’s blood is all over my hands— Oh God, oh fuck, I might be sick I might puke and it feels as if someone’s ripped me in half and grabbed my heart in their fist and squeezed every bit of it into sinew and fat and—
‘You’re grieving.’ Avyaan tilts his head. His brows dip. Even behind his black face mask, the scrutiny is clear. ‘Why?’
Tears burn my eyes but I beat it down, thanking my mask for hiding my trembling bottom lip.
I need everyone to leave. I can’t have Avyaan stand here and look at me like a problem he can’t solve, and I don’t know how much longer I have before my knees give out and I’m pulled back to the ground, bound to Tia even in death.
In one smooth motion, I grab the first Naga and bury my dagger in her gut, twisting the blade for extra damage. The second it’s done, I remove the knife. Giving in to the urge to hurt someone else tempers the roaring grief in my chest, if only for a few seconds.
The Naga cries out, and Avyaan rushes forward to catch her.
‘You can save her if you get to the hospital now,’ I say. My hands sting, and I dimly register that my hand had slipped on Tia’s blood when I stabbed the Naga, and now my fingers are cut open. ‘Go. You’ll have to be fast. Pretty sure I nicked an organ.’
Blood spurts from the Naga’s gut, and Avyaan presses a hand to the wound, his stony facade cracking. He scoops her in his arms and tucks her to his chest.
He takes a step closer to me, barely an arm’s length away. ‘If you were anyone else, I’d kill you,’ he hisses.
My face is hot and wet, and it’s only then I realize I’m crying openly. I keep my mouth shut, hoping I can seal my sadness in with pressed lips and a glare.
Avyaan’s eyes narrow as he regards me. ‘You should not be grieving a Sentinel.’ He takes a step back. ‘Go home and think about how you want the Fox clan’s relationship to be with the Nagas, because I’ll be back for you, and you best believe it won’t be pretty.’
Then he’s gone, commanding the other Nagas to leave with him. A quick check shows Maria’s also disappeared, and there are no more Foxes left on the highway – they’ve all retreated, all realized the plan has fallen apart.
Aside from me.
I sink to my knees. Gravel bites my skin and the medallion hangs bloody from my fingers where Tia had put it and oh, Tia, oh fuck, and that’s all I need before my nose sours, the world rings, and I take three heaving breaths as everything spins.
I cry so hard I cannot breathe, but when I do, the air stings with the stench of copper and this is all me, isn’t it?
I was selfish, I wanted everything, and now there will be no more dawns lit by Tia’s sunshine smile, no more soft voice, brilliant mind, gentle hands, no more shelter from the bad days and lonely nights.
I slam my palm into the ground as my gut lurches, and stomach acid burns down my throat. Blood and spit pool between my lips and my mask, sliding down my cheek as I watch it drip sluggishly to the tarmac in a daze.
My neck twinges with pain. There’s a blade pressed to my throat. When I look up, Niko stands over me, tears streaking down their cheeks, their hands steady on the hilt.
‘Give me one reason why I shouldn’t kill you right here,’ they say.
I pull off my mask.
I am Harper again – collapsed, exposed, hacking on snot and tears like that’d get the sadness out, bloodied and torn and left behind, just as I’ve always been.
Their eyes widen, but it doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t matter who knows and who doesn’t.
I don’t care. I’m glad my mask is finally off just because it’s so much easier to cry, but Niko slips it back on for me with surprising tenderness – turns me back to Raven, leader bought by blood, leader of mistakes and bad karma – and orders me to get on the medical helicopter.
Their voice breaks.
I pick Tia’s body up. She’s heavy, cold. It feels like the time Lune got stabbed and almost died.
But she lived then, didn’t she? My mind whispers. This is different.
She’s gone.