Chapter 30
Edie
Heat surges through my veins like a wildfire ripping through a forest. Every nerve in my body is ablaze, the pain so intense it steals my voice.
Everything I was, every cell that made me human reforms into something new, something different from before.
An electric current scatters down my spine, spreading out through every tendon, every muscle, every sinew, forcing life back into my body.
Time passes, and I’m vaguely aware of a woman’s voice, a voice that creeps into my subconscious, scratching at my memory, reminding me of what’s happened.
Dorian is dead.
He’s dead.
Despair wraps its suffocating arms around me, and I smother a sob, holding it within my chest, too afraid to set it free, knowing they will hear me.
Why am I still alive?
“You’ve killed him. You’ve killed him. You’ve killed him,” Sybil repeats over and over, her anguish as fierce as my own. I feel the pain of it.
He’s gone. Dorian’s gone.
Basilia laughs, and my skin prickles with goosebumps, every tiny hair standing on end from her wickedness.
“And now you’re set free. Don’t you see? The chains binding you to him are severed. Be grateful for it,” Basilia replies.
“I’m not free. I’ll never be free,” Sybil chokes out. “I love him.”
“Love is foolish. It’s a curse, a weakness. It won’t save you now. The sun is rising. You must choose. Cast that love aside and live, or I will throw you outside where the sun will turn you to ash.”
“He’s dead,” Sybil sobs.
“They’re both dead. You don’t have to live the rest of eternity longing for someone who will never love you.
You won’t need to suffer the pain of seeing the man you love, love another.
This is an act of kindness, a kindness you never granted me when you fucked my husband and tried to steal him from me. ”
“I love him,” Sybil shouts.
“And that love will kill you if you don’t sever it from your heart as I did.”
I force my eyes open, tears blurring my vision as I stare at Dorian’s shrivelled corpse. I ache for him, for all he’s endured. I don’t understand why I’m alive. I should have died with him after drinking his blood. Was I too late?
Dorian. I mouth his name, tears tipping over my lashes. My fingers twitch, desperate to reach for him.
Then, a muscle flickers in Dorian’s jaw. It’s subtle enough to escape Basilia and Sybil’s notice, but enough to spark hope in my chest.
Is he…?
My eyes, the only part of my body able to move, track over his face.
The deep lines etched into his skin slowly begin to fill out, the flesh beneath reforming.
Seconds pass, and the colour returns to his face, the grey mottled skin giving way to a warmer tone.
My gaze falls to the tattoo circling his neck.
It begins to fade, disappearing with every passing second.
He’s coming back to life.
A nerve in my leg twitches, and with it, feeling returns.
Soon, I can feel the floor beneath me. I’m aware of the clothes against my skin and Dorian’s breath feathering over my face.
Strength floods my body, rising within me like a tide returning to the shore, and with it a hunger for blood that terrifies me.
I force that desire down, refusing to succumb to it.
Right now, all that matters is keeping Dorian safe from harm.
“I don’t want to die,” Sybil whispers, reminding me we are not alone. That we’re both still in danger.
“Then you’ll stand by my side?” Basilia asks.
“Yes.”
“Very well. Come with me. We’ll discard the bodies later.”
Floorboards groan as Basilia moves toward the door, her footsteps whispering over the wood. My senses are razor sharp now. I hear every rustle of her clothes, every step of her feet against the floorboards. I pray they leave, that they remain oblivious to the changes in Dorian and in me.
“Can I have a moment first? I wish to say goodbye to Dorian,” Sybil replies, and my spine prickles with fear. There’s something in her tone that’s different from before.
“Do what you need to do, but make it quick. I have no patience for simpering women.”
With that, Basilia leaves, her footsteps fading with every pounding throb of my pulse. Sybil stands, and the door clicks shut. I catch the quiet sigh she releases.
“Dorian?” she whispers, stepping towards us.
Instinct takes over, and I surge to my feet, the world spinning for a heartbeat as I plant myself in front of Dorian, shielding him with my body. “Stay back,” I snarl, fury burning through me as Sybil sways on her feet.
Her eyes widen with shock. “You’re alive. How?”
A sharp ache flares in my gums as my canines descend. “Take a wild guess,” I bite out.
“You drank his blood?”
“I did.”
“But you should be dead. He should be…” Her voice trails off as her eyes shift to Dorian. “I don’t understand. How is he still alive?”
A low groan escapes him, and I sense the air shift as Dorian pushes to his feet behind me.
“Edie?”
Relief crashes over me at the sound of his voice, nearly buckling my knees, but I hold firm. I can’t afford to turn around and face him. Instead, I glare at Sybil. “If I have to tear your head off, I will,” I growl. “Stay the fuck away from us.”
A pool of sunlight forms on the floor between us, its heat spilling into the room as dawn crests over the cliffs. Sybil stands on one side, Dorian and me on the other. Her face falls, her shoulders sagging.
“I never meant for this to happen. I only ever wanted to protect you. I love you, Dorian.”
“What you did isn’t love.” He groans, gripping my hip, and some of the tension drains from my shoulders. Still, I refuse to relax. We are not out of danger yet.
“I know that now. I’m sorry.”
“It’s too late for apologies. You drained Edie. She fucking died. You took her life,” he croaks.
“And you gave it back to her. Neither of you should be here. The curse…”
“Is broken,” Dorian says. “Somehow, someway, Edie’s love brought me back. It brought us both back.”
“Basilia won’t let you leave. She’ll kill you both.”
Dorian steps out from behind me, his hand slipping into mine. “You need to prevent her from returning to this room until nightfall, so we can leave. You owe us that much, Sybil.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because that is an act of love. If you do as I ask, you can live, Sybil. You have the chance to find someone else, someone who will light up your soul like Edie does mine.”
Tears well in Sybil’s eyes, spilling down her cheeks as she glances between us. “Please forgive me,” she whispers, then spins away, flinging open the door and fleeing.
“She’s going to tell Basilia,” I cry.
Dorian reaches for me, cupping my face. “I will not let either of them hurt you. I will kill them both before that happens. Stay here.”
“No,” I shake my head. “We face them together.”
“Edie,” he warns, his fingers curling into my cheeks. “I will not risk losing you again.”
“And I refuse to let you fight them alone. If you die, I die.”
A scream, raw with fury, lifts the hair on the back of my neck moments later. Dorian’s head snaps to the doorway. “Then we have to act now.”
Grabbing my hand, we race towards the sound.
By the time we reach the foot of the stairs, Sybil clings to Basilia, blood gushing from the ruin of Basilia’s chin, her jaw and tongue dangling from torn sinew and ripped tendons.
Sunlight streams through the open door behind them, and a wet gurgle bubbles from Basilia’s throat, her eyes going wide.
“It would seem that Basilia was telling the truth when she said that magic needs balance. You broke her curse, Edie, and in doing so she was stripped of some of the magic that made it. It weakened her enough for me to do this,” Sybil says, her laughter threaded with madness as she inches backward.
At that moment, her intentions become clear to me.
A wave of sympathy surges up, dissolving the hatred I felt only moments ago.
I see how her unrequited love for Dorian has warped her, just as it has Basilia, shaping her into someone cruel and wicked.
Yet beneath that hardened surface is a wounded soul, a woman blind to her own worth.
I understand that feeling; I became that person with Robert.
“Don’t, Sybil,” I whisper, taking a step forward. “You don’t have to do this.”
“I do. I cannot live knowing he loves you,” she replies bitterly, and within her gaze, I see both love and hatred. She loves Dorian, but she won’t stop hating me, and that means I’ll always be in danger.
She takes another step backwards, dragging Basilia with her.
“Sybil, I know what it feels like to love someone who cannot love you in return. The pain is excruciating. It changes you.”
“He was supposed to love me. He was supposed to be mine,” she yells, her hatred for me falling away as her love for Dorian rises to the surface.
“I made myself into the woman I believed you needed. Everything I did, everything I’ve become, is because of you.
You changed us both. Look at what you’ve done to Basilia, what you’ve done to me. ”
“I’m sorry,” Dorian says, stepping forward, his voice filled with regret.
He drags in a shuddering breath, his fingers tightening around mine as he looks at his wife.
“I never understood love until now. I’m sorry for breaking your heart, Basilia.
I’m sorry for every act of cruelty. I was a selfish man who lacked remorse and empathy.
You didn’t deserve any of it. I will always live with the guilt of what I did to you. I will never forget the pain I caused.”
Basilia’s shoulders sag, and for the briefest of moments, a softness passes over her features, reminding me of the woman who stood beside Dorian in that painting of them both.
Dorian turns his attention to Sybil. “You have been by my side since the beginning. You were strong when I was weak. You’re a formidable woman.
You were my friend and that meant something to me.
But I can never trust you again. If you choose to live, you will do so without the protection of my clan. ”
“You can never trust either of us, because no matter how pretty your words are, we are both too twisted up by hatred to behave any differently. I cannot live knowing you’ll never love me.
If I don’t do this, Basilia will kill you, Dorian, and I will kill Edie.
This is the only act of love I’m capable of. ”
With that, Sybil drags Basilia through the door and into the sunlight.
Dorian rushes forward, but I grab his arm, holding him in place. “I can’t lose you again.”
My voice breaks as Sybil’s anguished scream splits the air.
We watch in horror as their skin singes beneath the sun’s rays, instantly reddening with burns.
Basilia thrashes in her arms, desperate to break free, but Sybil drags her further into the garden, refusing to let go.
Their skin bubbles and splits, turning black with every second that passes.
The stench of burning flesh makes me gag, and I throw myself into Dorian’s arms.
“Dorian, I can’t watch anymore,” I sob.
“Then I will witness this for both of us, and it will remind me every day of the monster I refuse to become again.”
He cradles my head, and I squeeze my eyes shut, their screams clawing at me, leaving wounds I will never recover from.
By the time Dorian releases me, there’s nothing left but a pile of ash.