Chapter 66 #2
“Grab her.” I hear the words, but they are so far away. “What’s this, two?”
I’m picked up off my feet, but the knife is gone. I can see him better. My screams cut through the clash of swords, the Beta Goddess' laughter, and the suffering of the dying.
Jarek smiles; he’s staring at me. He sways alone, backed by the smoking city of dead alphas and omegas.
His eyes don’t leave me, not for a second.
He smiles, the same smile he always gives me, the one that lights my insides up, the one that makes everything okay, only this time it’s not okay; it will never be okay.
“I remember,” he whispers.
And then he falls back, and he’s gone. Just gone.
I howl.
The world is just my screams.
I claw at the hands that hold me until they suddenly let me go, but my legs don’t work. I drop to the stage, screaming. With my insides burning up, I crawl to the edge.
I look down, feeling the pull of my alpha.
On the stairs, I find him, not Jarek, but Mordecai, looking up at me. He has the beta who killed Jarek in his arms, and as I watch, he squeezes and crushes the life out of him.
My screams stop, but my sobs don’t. My whole body is trembling.
“It had to happen this way,” he says. “I finally was allowed to choose. My choice,” he coughs weakly. “It's always you.”
It doesn’t make sense. What does it mean? Mordecai looks strange. He smiles at me, and blood pours out of his mouth.
“No, no. Please, no. No! No!” My screams take on shrill, high-pitched notes of pure hysteria. I try to pull myself over the edge, but someone is holding my ankle.
My arms get weak, unable to hold me up, I collapse on my stomach, staring at him, trying to drag myself to the edge, fighting the hold. The world slows down, and the bond blooms with fire, burning up, burning into ash. Leaving me alone.
“Love you,” he whispers.
My alpha collapses, and I see his entire back has been opened up; white bone flashes through the red. So much red.
“MOREDCAI!” I scream his name so loud that the crowd stops fighting.
People turn towards us, but I keep screaming. The High King is dead. The Resistance has his body. But I don’t even care.
My alphas are gone.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
We were supposed to have our happy end.
We were supposed to live together and grow old. Just once.
She killed me. They killed me. Over and over. Dead young, in pain, in agony, always dying.
I drop to the stage, sobbing so hard I struggle to breathe. I squeeze my eyes shut. Because now there’s a void where they were. A hole.
They were there.
And gone so fast. With no warning.
I push myself up, my grief transforming into a desperate rage.
The Beta Goddess watches me curiously. She’s got no hair left. I turn to Cadel, and he’s changed into the wolf. He’s still pinned to the stage, but he’s fighting again.
Struggling to get to me.
“My alphas,” I whisper. I press a hand to the part of my chest where I could feel the bonds. Where there is now just pain and nothingness.
“Why put yourself through this for love? Why not just get rid of them? See how weak you are? How sad? What could be worth this pain?”
I stare at Cadel, refusing to look away.
“Every whisper, every touch, the way they built me up,” I sob, refusing to look away from him, “the smiles, their wishes, dreams and laughs. The feel of their hands, the promise in their eyes, our past, present, and future. It was worth it.”
I can’t stop crying, but I say the words to Cadel.
“Everything was worth it; every second of pain was worth just one moment with you.” My lip trembles. I stand there with tears pouring down my cheeks, with nothing left.
A low howl comes from his throat.
My hair is grabbed, and I’m thrown. I roll several times before coming to a stop beside Walker.
He looks at me, and I see something human in him. He crouches and helps me up.
He doesn’t say he’s sorry, but I feel it in the way his hand holds my wrist.
His eyes find Legion and stay there.
“Kill the body while she’s in it, and it’s over,” I slur out.
Walker doesn’t react, but it doesn’t matter. I’m torn away from him again.
I land hard and lie there.
The pain is eating me alive, and I find that just lifting my body up is too hard. I try, though, pushing up, but I get as far as getting my arms up and stretched out when the sobs overwhelm me. Tears fall onto the wood below me, disappearing into cracks.
I’m sick of the pain.
I’m sick of watching them die. I want to grow old and be happy.
“Why are the gods so cruel?”
“That’s right, they don’t care about you. They don’t love you. They make you suffer and cause you pain.”
Her voice refocuses my venom. She’s the cause of my pain. She did this!
I lay there and remember everyone and every moment of this wretched life.
My aunt Rae and her miracle babies who are growing up without a mother, the teenage pack with little Cora, the omega and her brave little alphas who died because they wanted to live.
My neighbours, who smiled and ate around barrel fires.
Alec’s frown. Marshall’s last words. Mia’s innocence.
Charlotte’s strength. Ava’s devotion. Theo’s sacrifice.
That old man and his choice to give up his life. Taryn, my friend.
My mother.
Mordecai.
Jarek. They died for this because they believed in this.
That it could end.
I push myself up onto my knees. My head is light, and my eyes burn, but a fire roars in my chest where the emptiness was.
If I want to see them again, I need to kill this bitch. To save my alphas, I need to destroy a goddess.
So be it.