Chapter 29 #2
“Don’t you see? Your love for her is killing you. If she dies, your love for her dies too. Eventually, you’ll see I’m only trying to help you.”
Basilia shakes her head, stepping towards Sybil, a cruel smile spreading across her face. “Ah, but perhaps I wasn’t so honest when I promised you I’d keep Dorian alive, that he could be yours. That is not going to happen.”
“What?” Sybil rises to her feet, taking a threatening step towards Basilia.
“I wouldn’t if I were you. I could sever your head with one quick command.”
Sybil ignores the threat, launching herself at Basilia. But like me, she’s thrown against the opposite wall, pinned in place. Sybil screams in rage, her hands tearing at the invisible rope trapping her against the wall.
“You fucking bitch,” Sybil snarls.
“That’s enough of that,” Basilia replies, pinching her finger and thumb together.
Sybil’s lips slam shut, her response muffled by Basilia’s magic.
“Dorian dies tonight, and he will go to Hell knowing he couldn’t save his beloved, and I will live on knowing he has been stripped of everything he loved, just like I was. ”
“I don’t love Edie. It was infatuation, nothing more,” I lie.
“Then you won’t flinch when I rip her head from her body?” Basilia retorts, kneeling over Edie. She hauls her into her arms, twisting her body to face me. She’s so weak, her body is loose like a rag doll.
“Edie,” I whisper, my soul fracturing with grief. Beneath my skin, my tattoos constrict, burrowing into my flesh, slicing through muscles and tendons. I clench my jaw, refusing to cry out, refusing to give Basilia the satisfaction she craves.
Basilia grabs a handful of Edie’s hair and roughly lifts her head. Bending close, she whispers something into Edie’s ear. After a moment, her eyelids begin to flutter open as she struggles to focus her gaze. Finally, Edie’s eyes find mine.
“Dorian,” she whimpers, tears spilling over her lashes.
“LET HER GO,” I roar, ignoring the pain as emotions well inside me like a storm.
I don’t acknowledge the bones in my arms breaking.
I don’t cry out when my legs snap at my knees, forcing them into an unnatural angle.
I don’t beg for my life as my skin splits over my chest, peeling back over my rib cage.
“What are you doing to him?” Edie cries, weakly struggling in Basilia’s hold. “Please, don’t hurt him.”
“You stupid, foolish wench,” Basilia sneers. “He isn’t worth your life. He’s nothing but a cruel, adulterous bastard. He doesn’t deserve to live. He broke me, and so now I will break him.”
Edie’s eyes widen as she looks up at Basilia. She gasps. “You’re his wife.”
“I was never his wife, not in the ways that counted. He betrayed me. He hurt me. He cast my love aside as though it meant nothing.”
“I’m sorry, Basilia. For everything I did. I deserve your wrath, your hatred. I deserve it all,” I say, choking on the blood dribbling from my mouth. “But Edie doesn’t. Let her go. Please.”
“It’s too late for that now,” Basilia sneers.
“Don’t do this,” Edie begs.
“If you watch him die, I’ll consider turning you instead of letting you bleed out. You can become one of us, you can live forever. You can have any man you want. Better still, you can live a life free of love like me.”
“I don’t want anyone else. I want Dorian. Please, just stop. You’re killing him,” she sobs, finding strength from somewhere to scratch at Basilia’s arms, drawing blood. It’s no use, Basilia’s too powerful, too immune to pain, and she just grips her tighter.
“Then you will die too,” Basilia hisses. “I cannot undo the magic that turned him, but this curse will end his life because of his love for you.”
“Please, stop. Please, please, please,” Edie begs, trying in vain to free herself from Basilia’s hold.
“Stop fighting, Edie,” I whisper through clenched teeth. “You can survive this.”
Tears pour down her cheeks, and my eyes fill, every tear she sheds mirrored with my own.
All my mistakes have led to this moment.
I’m the only one responsible for hurting these women, and because of my actions, Logan, Viktor, and the rest of our clan will die too.
I can’t fucking bear it, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.
“Please don’t give up. Just switch your emotions off. Fight. Please, fight.”
“I can’t do that, Edie. I can no more stop loving you than I can stop the sun from rising,” I say.
“You love me?” Edie whispers.
“Yes. I love you,” I repeat, and with that declaration, I sink into the pain as the curse breaks every single part of me.
“And now that love will end him,” Basilia sneers.
“Dorian, no. Please, no,” Edie sobs.
I fix my gaze on Edie, trying to imprint her beautiful face into my memory, hoping it’s enough to carry her with me into the afterlife.
I can survive Hell if I can take her image with me.
But the curse is cruel, and within moments, my vision fades as I feel my eyes sink into their sockets, just like they had in the painting.
As darkness swallows up all sight, I feel the skin on my face detaching, as though the flesh beneath has withered and is no longer able to hold it in place.
Cool air wafts over my scalp, and I realise my hair has fallen out, drifting to my shoulders.
As the seconds tick by, I become the monster Basilia painted into the canvas all those years ago.
“Just let me say goodbye. Please, Basilia. You’ve got what you wanted. Just let me say goodbye,” Edie begs.
I fall in and out of consciousness, the pain receding now as every nerve shrivels and dies. I float above my ruined body, my sight returning as I watch the curse unfold, my soul holding on by a mere thread.
Basilia smiles, her hold loosening on Edie, just like her magic loosens from around me. I watch my body slip to the side, a decaying carcass with no strength left to hold it upright.
“He is already gone,” she says cruelly.
But she’s wrong. My soul is still clinging onto the remnants of my body, refusing to leave.
Edie falls forward. Whatever strength she’d mustered, waning now.
“Dorian, please, no,” she cries, hauling herself across the floor. When she reaches me, she falls to my side, her life dimming from the loss of blood, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. I can’t save her.
I can’t fucking save her.
A roar rips out of my throat, but Edie can’t hear me.
She’s still in the mortal realm, whilst I float somewhere in between.
All she sees is a decaying corpse and the monster that lived beneath my skin all these years.
Yet, still she uses the last of her strength to cup my face, unbidden tears pouring from her eyes.
More blood pours from my mouth, thick and viscous.
Edie leans in, kissing me, kissing the monster.
Her tongue snakes into my mouth, and when she pulls back, her lips and teeth are stained with my blood. She licks her lips, swallowing it.
“Now I will die with you,” she whispers. “I don’t want to be reborn as a vampire sired by a woman filled with so much hatred and cruelty.”
“No,” I cry, tugging at the thread that still connects to my body, trying in vain to get back to Edie.
“I love you, Dorian.”
Then she takes her last breath, her body collapsing next to mine.