Chapter 62 #2
“Being here, being human has changed me. My soul, I don’t even know if gods have souls, but the part of me that keeps reliving these lives is heavy. It feels stained and torn and tired. I don’t smile at butterflies; I don’t smile. I worry and prepare for death and this world and its horrors.”
“What are you saying?” Cadel murmurs.
Gods, it hurts to say this.
“I’m not the same omega you knew and fell in love with. I am changed, and not in a good way.”
“You think that all this would change who you are enough that I would stop longing for the scent of a wild forest? That every time I thought of the moon and stars, I’d stop thinking of you?
One winter with you was enough to change everything about me, I will be yours until the end of time.
I don’t care how stained and torn your soul gets, Omega, you are still the most beautiful person, god, omega I have ever seen.
My heart will know yours across time and worlds.
Stop trying to convince me to leave, I’m not going anywhere. ”
“Cadel,” I murmur.
“Do you really think I could give up and walk away from you? I have searched since the moment you didn’t show up, and I’m not going to leave now that I’ve found you.”
I stare at him. “If you stay, you’ll destroy this whole world, worse than anything she could do.”
“I don’t care about the worlds, Kaida. I care about you. We’ll find a way, but I’m not leaving you.”
Hope flutters in my chest, beating hard.
“You aren’t leaving us!” Jarek says and lays down beside me. When I look at Mordecai, he just nods.
“It’s decided. We’re keeping him,” Mordecai says soothingly.
I stare at Cadel. He leans towards me and touches his lips to mine in a soft kiss. I surrender because I need him too.
The rain wakes me up from a dream memory where Mordecai gets swept away in the ocean. I can feel him drowning through the bond, but I can’t find him in the darkness. My screams still echo in my ears. I can feel him sinking, he’s so cold and tired. And I can’t stop screaming his name.
“It’s a dream,” he whispers.
I crawl over Jarek and straddle his legs, hugging him tight, pressing my face to his chest, listening to his heart beat.
“Just a dream,” he murmurs again and strokes my back.
We both know it wasn’t.
The wind howls, an eerie scream that is made louder by all the buildings it whistles through. Rain drills down, alternating between icy pellets and a torrent of water that has turned the night freezing.
I frown as I inhale his warm scent, feeling a deep unease inside me. Something isn’t right.
“What’s wrong?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know. The memories are intense,” I murmur, but I’m not sure if he heard me.
I turn my head and lay there, listening to his heartbeat, counting them. The rain crashes down, blowing almost to where we are laying. The cold gets into my bones. It reminds me of that night in the ocean.
There’s just something niggling, something that won’t let me settle. I lay against him with my eyes open, just staring into space.
Perhaps it’s because I’m staring that I see it. The movement is slow, painfully slow, but I notice it is straight away.
“Up!” I shout and spring up.
The alphas respond in seconds, but so does the person creeping around. He launches a vicious attack, driving Mordecai back. Jarek shouts and slams into him from the side, but Mordecai is teetering on the edge of the building.
I race for him and manage to grab him just before he overbalances and falls to his death.
Jarek goes flying and slams into the wall, letting out a curse, but Cadel is on this stranger, driving him back, ducking the sword he’s swinging around. I get a glimpse of a red mask as he turns.
He sees me and jumps towards me, slashing out. I duck and kick out at his knee, viciously snapping it backward. He doesn’t make a sound; it’s like I didn’t even do it.
He spins away, intercepting Mordecai, but I’ve seen his face. I know who we’re dealing with.
It’s the Beta’s Claw. She sent her executioner after us.
I narrow my eyes, remembering what he said about my mother. He’s the one who put her in the position she ended up in. I want him dead. I want him to know how it feels to fly.
I join the fray, and the four of us drive him back to the open frame that used to be a window. He tries to run, but Cadel cuts him off with a massive piece of metal that he slams into the stomach of this attacker.
I look at his eyes; they are cold and dark, even with his impending death.
“It doesn’t matter if I die; the Beta is forever.”
I smile and step forward, ducking his sword. “She’s not forever; her time is up.”
I kick as hard as I can; the impact hits his chest and sends him backwards. He hangs there, arms windmilling, almost falling but not quite.
It doesn’t matter if he gets back in; I will simply drive him back out again.
“You are omega scum.”
“No, I am THE omega scum,” I snap.
Cadel launches forward and shoves the metal pole into his gut like a battering ram. He flies out into the rain, feet from the building. I swear, he hangs there for a moment; the rain holding him up, this monster who hurt my mother, who has killed so many.
“Die,” I whisper.
And then he falls. He falls fast, and when he hits the ground, the thud is almost inaudible under the blanket of rain falling down, but I see the awkward way his limbs are lying and his open, staring eyes, and I am satisfied.
I exhale and turn around. We get a few feet from the window when I hear a whistle. With a curse, I roll my shoulders and swing back, slinking up to the window and peering down.
Betas in black robes stare at his body; more and more gather. I don’t panic exactly, but I don’t feel good about seeing that many down there.
“We need to leave,” Cadel says. “Right now.”
“Any ideas how?” I ask, watching as they start looking up at buildings, trying to work out which one he fell from. They have only two to choose from.
“We go up and across,” Cadel says.
I glance at him sideways. He just looks at Jarek and smiles.
“Come on, it will be fun,” Jarek teases.
“I remember you said that once, and I fell in the icy river.”
Jarek bites his lower lip and winks at me. “It was fun,” he teases.
“I’m going to need to hear this story,” Cadel says.
I toss my hair over my shoulder. “No, you don’t.”
“I’ll tell you later,” Mordecai murmurs.
“Ganging up on me already?” I tease.
“I’m on your side,” Jarek says. “Och, the bastard has a nasty kick. So shall we escape?”
The wind roars, and the ice rains buckets down, but we’re together.
“I think we shall.”
I put my hand in my alpha’s hand, and together, we run up the stairs. Below, the sound of pursuit echoes in earnest.