Chapter 28
Twenty-Eight
“Damn it,” I mutter, sprinting after him with Stryx close behind. “Xavier, stop! Think about what you’re doing!”
But grief has deafened him to reason.
I don’t blame him.
When my parents died, my anger was an uncontrollable inferno.
It threatened to destroy everything I touched, until Xavier saved me from myself.
He was all I had for a time, and now our roles have been reversed.
I run as fast as I can, desperate to save him from himself, but by the time we reach the grand vestibule of the Division, it’s already too late.
Riven stands calmly in the centre of the room, all dark and quiet menace, flanked by two wardens when Xavier comes barreling through the crowd like a storm. We stop behind him, panting, trying to cajole him, but the moment he lays his eyes on Riven, I see something inside him break.
The world blurs as his rage eclipses reason. He doesn’t seem to register my voice calling his name before he crosses the space in three furious strides and drives his fist into Riven’s jaw.
The crack of it rings out through the vast hall, echoing off the vaulted ceilings.
Riven’s head snaps to the side, a few dark strands of hair falling across his eyes.
To his credit, he barely flinches. He blinks once, slow and deliberate, his eyes flashing emerald fire before he straightens, blood blooming faintly on his lip.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” he says, his voice low and dangerous.
But Xavier lunges again, deaf to anything, but his grief.
The two men collide like thunder, Xavier’s raw fury against Riven’s cold precision. Fists meet, boots strike marble, a chair shatters against the wall.
“You killed her!” Xavier roars, his voice hoarse with grief. “You cursed her! You destroyed her!”
He swings again, and this time Riven catches his wrist mid-air. The impact jars Xavier’s arm as he clashes with Riven’s unyielding strength.
“I warned you what would happen if this got out of hand,” Riven hisses, twisting Xavier’s arm sharply enough to make him grunt. “You never listen. Her death is on you, not me.”
Xavier wrenches free with a snarl, throwing his weight forward and slamming Riven into one of the marble pillars. The stone cracks from the force, dust falling around them like ash.
“Say her name,” Xavier spits. “Say Vesper’s name, you bastard!”
Riven’s eyes flash, something dangerous stirring behind the green. “Do not test me, Blackwood,” he says, hissing Xavier’s name like it’s a joke. “You’ve no idea what you’re dealing with.”
But Xavier is beyond hearing. He lunges again, fists wild, grief and fury pouring out in every blow.
Riven dodges the first few easily, but Xavier catches him off guard with a shoulder slam, sending both of them crashing to the floor.
They roll, grappling, their boots scraping across marble, every movement desperate and violent.
“Stop!” I shout, my voice cracking with fear.
Neither of them hear me.
I look frantically between them both, torn between the horror of Xavier’s accusations and the instinct to protect him.
Xavier manages to get on top of Riven, his hand closing around his throat. “I should have done this years ago,” he snarls, pressing down hard, but Riven’s lips curve into a faint, cruel smile.
“Then do it,” he chokes out. “Let’s see what happens when you kill the only man who can stop what you’ve started.”
The words give Xavier pause, long enough for Riven to shift his weight and flip them both, pinning Xavier in an instant. His strength is otherworldly, predatory, his eyes burning bright with restrained fury. He presses down hard on Xavier’s throat, crushing the breath from his lungs.
I look around desperately, but all the wardens just stare transfixed at the scene, too dumbstruck to intervene. I can’t take it anymore, and with a scream, I dive between them.
“Enough!” I cry, shoving at Riven’s chest. “Enough, both of you!”
He freezes immediately, his hand still poised like a threat, yet his gaze softens as it lands on me. But Xavier is beyond reason. He pushes Riven back and they both scramble to their feet. When I plant myself between them he tries to shove me aside, shouting. “He killed her! He killed Vesper!”
“You don’t know that!” I scream back, tears pricking at my eyes. The hall falls silent except for the sound of Xavier’s ragged breathing.
“Get out of my way, Octavia,” Xavier warns, his voice softer now, but shaking. “He’s not walking out of here alive. If I have to go through you to do it, then I will.”
I freeze at his words, my heart shattering. I try to convince myself he doesn’t mean it, that his grief is making him say horrible things, but one look in his eyes and I know he’s deadly serious.
Could I really mean so little to him? After all this time?
A traitorous tear tracks down my cheek.
“You will not do this,” I snap, pushing him back, smothering the sting of his words. “This isn’t justice, it’s vengeance. It won’t bring her back!”
Two wardens seize Xavier by the arms, dragging him back as he tries to fight them off. I grab his face, forcing him to look at me.
“Xavier, listen! This isn’t the way,” I say firmly, my voice trembling, but steady enough to cut through his rage. “I know you’re hurting. I know. But this—this won’t bring her back.”
My words hit him like a spell. For a long, taut moment, he stares at me, chest heaving, eyes bright with tears he refuses to shed, trembling on the edge of violence.
And then, slowly, the fight bleeds out of him and he sags, the warden’s strong grip the only thing stopping him from collapsing to his knees.
Riven straightens his coat, his expression unreadable, though his jaw is tight, the faintest bruise already blooming there from Xavier’s first blow.
His eyes flick back to me. “Grief makes dangerous men,” he says quietly. “You can’t protect him forever.”
Then he turns and walks away, boots echoing down the hall, leaving behind a silence that hums with unbearable tension.
The Chief nods grimly to the wardens once Riven is out of sight. “Let him go.”
I loop an arm through Xavier’s, quickly steering him toward the exit before Starling changes his mind and locks him up again. “Come on,” I murmur, avoiding the reproachful looks of the wardens as we pass. “We’ll go back to my place. We’ll figure this out together.”
But as we walk, he refuses to look at me, and I can’t help, but feel like something has permanently changed between us, something we might never recover from.
Xavier paces like a caged beast, the light from the fireplace flickering over his clenched fists and wild eyes. Stryx sits perched on the edge of our table, her ears flicking back and forth irritably while I lean against the mantel, tapping my fingers repeatedly as I watch him quickly unravel.
“You’re not listening to me,” Xavier snaps, his voice cracking with exhaustion and fury. “Riven is behind all of this. The cult, the notes, the murders—he’s been pulling the strings from the start. I’m going to the Chief. He needs to know.”
“You can’t,” I say sharply, pushing off the mantle. “We don’t know if Starling is corrupt or not. If you go to him with this, Riven will hear of it before you’ve even opened your mouth. He has influence in the Division, remember? You’ll get yourself arrested again, or worse.”
Xavier spins to face me, his eyes fever-bright. “So we do nothing? Sit here and wait for him to kill again? For him to kill you?”
“He didn’t kill Vesper!” The words escape me before I can soften them, surprising even myself. The room goes still. The fire crackles quietly, Stryx’s gaze snapping to mine, wide and warning.
Xavier’s expression hardens, his voice low and shaking. “Don’t you dare say that. How dare you defend him.”
“I’m saying he couldn’t have,” I speak carefully, though my pulse hammers as I reveal the truth of that night to him. “He was with me, Xavier. He saved Stryx’s life that night. You’re angry, I understand, but–”
“You don’t understand anything!” Xavier roars.
“You didn’t see what he did to my family!
You didn’t see what his curse did to Vesper!
Every day I watched her fade, piece by piece–” He breaks off, shoving his hand through his hair.
“You think he’s some misunderstood saviour because he helped you once?
That’s what he wants you to think. He’s been playing you since the start, and you’re a damn fool to believe him. ”
I fold my arms, awful doubt creeping into the back of my mind, but not about Riven. “Then explain something to me, Xavier.”
He freezes at the tone in my voice.
“You just said he was behind the cult, that he sent the notes,” I continue slowly. “But I never told you about him being behind the notes, or Raph warning us about the cult. Which means…” I take a step closer, my voice lowering. “You already knew about it.”
His face drains of colour.
It confirms my suspicions, but damn it if it doesn’t feel like a punch in the gut.
“I never told you about that,” I repeat softly. “Neither of us did.”
The silence that ensues is long, oppressive.
“Octavia–” he starts, but then his words break off into a strangled gasp.
His knees buckle.
“Xavier?” I breathe, lunging forward as he falls, catching him just before his head hits the floor.
Black veins bloom beneath his skin like cracks in marble, spreading up his neck, across his temples. His body convulses violently, his breaths coming in ragged gasps.
“Help me!” I cry out, but Stryx is already here, kneeling beside me, her hands glowing faintly with magic.
“It’s the Hollow Blood,” she hisses. “The curse is feeding on his grief, his rage.”
Xavier’s eyes flutter open for a heartbeat, his pupils blown wide. “He’s doing this,” he rasps. “Riven—he knows we’re close. He’s—he’s trying to stop me–”
“Xavier, stop talking,” I implore him desperately, pressing a hand to his shoulder to keep him still. “Save your strength.”
But he grabs my wrist with shocking force, the black veins crawling beneath his fingertips. “You have to end this,” he whispers. “You have to stop him before–”
His body arches once more in agony before he goes limp, the dark lines retreating slightly under Stryx’s trembling hands as she fights to stall the curse’s progression.
I sit frozen, my heart pounding so hard it feels like it might burst straight out of my chest.
Stryx’s voice breaks the silence, low and shaken. “He’ll live. But it’s getting worse, Octavia. Whatever Riven did to him, it’s accelerating.”
I stare down at him, the man who’s been by my side for twenty years, broken, cursed, lying pale and sweating in my arms. And yet I can’t shake the thought clawing at the back of my mind. If Riven truly wanted Xavier dead, why isn’t he already?
I stare at Xavier’s face, my brow furrowing as I try to use logic to explain his slip up about the cult and the notes.
But try as I may, I can’t make any sense of it.
If he knew about the tattoos being linked to the cult, does that mean he led us to the brothel on purpose to derail the investigation?
There must be a logical explanation for how he knows.
There has to be. I shake my head angrily, desperation for Xavier’s predicament taking precedence over everything else.
I’ll figure this mess out later. Right now, nothing else matters other than saving him from this fate.
And there’s only one man who can stop it.