Chapter 44 #3
“You think we’d wait this long and not have the strength to fight?”
“Everyone in his army was weak, as though their magic was diminished somehow.” I think of Clare, the girl who helped me, or at least tried, back in their camp. Nobody was strong, except for Selina.
“And you think we’d just roll back the carpet and share everything with you?” He starts to laugh. A cackling, full-body laugh, tilting his body back to the sky as it reverberates off the snow around us.
It sends a wave of dread over me. We were deceived—in every possible way.
My magic stirs, as if it wants to fight, not content to be held at bay, but I lock it down, not ready to fight both Fenix and my wayward magic.
But it’s Fenix that makes the first move.
He grapples to control me with his power, to take me off guard, but I easily push his reach away, my magic weaving between his, throwing us back into a moment in time, trapped by our own powers.
The familiar friction between us is still evident—the two sides of us.
Ten’s safe, away from danger. So, I take the time to quiz my brother. “What did you want with me, then? If you had this plan all laid out. Was it my power? Because it sure as hell didn’t seem like it was our family link.”
“See, Sister. You always see the worst in me. As everyone always does. I came for you. We’re twins. Born of Fifths. I’d finally have someone else like me. The Usher, well, of course, he wanted us. That potential was far too great a lure.”
“I don’t want to know about the Usher. I want to know about you,” I spit out. But I take a deep breath, my magic rumbling to the tune of my emotion.
“I thought we could grow to be friends,” he shouts back. “Ever since Kalan told me I have a sister, I’ve wanted you to be part of our plan. To do this together, like our parents wanted.”
I shake my head at him. “Friends? I don’t believe that. You’ve never treated me that way.”
“My power has always ensured people understand my intentions. When I was young, they were always suspicious of me. Distrusting. You were just the same. And it’s clear you won’t believe a word from my mouth. Right from the start, you didn’t want to acknowledge what we are, so I did what I know.”
“Can you blame me? After what you’ve done.
The Usher has manipulated you. Used you.
And us. We were only a means to his end: keep everyone distracted while he goes for the ultimate power.
And now you’re running away.” He bristles at that.
“Isn’t it your army doing the fighting? You were proud of that fact when you took me.
And now look at you. Were you only going to watch and then take the spoils?
” I pace the few feet of ground we’ve shielded ourselves within.
“You’ve not won, Sister.”
“No. But you’ve not, either. The Usher is dead. And right now, that feels like a pretty big fucking win.”
His eyes bore into mine, and I watch the many faces of Fenix shift before me, as if he’s wrestling with what to do in this situation. Calculating.
“Are you going to stay here? In this place that despises and fears what you are?” He backs up with his arms out wide, getting closer and closer to the lake, stretching our magic.
And it’s the first time I sense it. He’s weaker.
I check that our magic is still holding, despite Fenix’s depleted power, but it is.
“Maybe. I’m not excusing everything the Orders have done. But this isn’t the way.”
“It is the only way!”
It can’t be. I hold on to that. The belief that violence and fighting won’t win out. It can’t.
“It’s ironic that you say that here. Of all places.
” His lips twitch, and I have that familiar sinking feeling that he’s got something on me—more information that he’s saved to deliver at just the right time.
“This,” he looks around at the edge of the lake, “is where our parents are buried. I told you I knew where they were. I have never lied to you, sister.”
My eyes sweep over the white, snowy vista and look for any kind of marker. A sign that his words are true. Instead, he creeps forward, as if approaching a startled animal, stalking me.
The air in my lungs cuts like razors as I breathe in, and the crack in my heart, the one that never has a chance to fully heal, but has been scarred over time and time again, threatens to burst open and bleed out on this spot.
My parents are buried here.
The tears don’t fall this time. They shimmer across my vision, threatening to fall and freeze on my cheeks.
“The Usher might have had his plan, but I’ve waited for you.
Waited for all the pieces to fall so I could reunite our family.
” He places his hands on my shoulders, as I blink away the tears from falling.
He doesn’t deserve them, but his words swim in my mind, the hum of energy around us growing louder, peaking at my scattered emotions, or maybe his, I don’t know. “And you betrayed me.”
The flare of pain is so quick, it takes a moment for me to register what’s happened. I look at Fenix, into his eyes—like looking in a mirror, before I tilt my head down to see the dagger protruding from my gut, a shadow of blood spreading over my shirt at an alarming rate.
He twists the blade still wedged in my stomach before stepping away. “How does it feel to be betrayed?”
“Stupid,” I answer as I try to hold my breath, as if that will help to stop me from bleeding out. “I feel stupid.”
“Ever? Ever!” Ten’s voice sounds in my mind, my shield now unlocked thanks to Fenix’s attack.
My knees hit the cold first, and my hands wrap around the hilt of the blade. They feel warm, the blood thawing my fingers as it coats them.
“No, no, no, no, no. Leave it. What did you do?” Ten yells, and I see a fuzzy version of him as he comes racing towards me.
His hands are all over me, running down my face, tilting it to look at him, but my sight is falling in and out of focus.
“Ever, it’s okay. We’ll get you a healer. We’ll get Perrin. It’s just a scratch.” I know he’s lying. Fenix wouldn’t risk what happened to him with his own target. He’s smarter than that. He knows that twist will ensure I’ll bleed out.
But that’s fine. He wants me dead.
The feeling is fucking mutual.
“Hold me, Ten. Just… hold me.” Tears blister from his eyes at my request, but he doesn’t fail me and wraps his arms around my shoulders, holding me in an awkward position so as not to touch the blade.
As I look over his shoulder, I see the shadow of my brother stalking off, not across the lake, but towards the woods, where three others emerge. Their hands are joined, and they have a look of concentration on their faces.
I never wanted my magic to be associated with death. Either causing it or bringing it, but now, here, I let the darkness take me. If this is the only way for me to fight, then I will take it now.
And I will fucking win.
I cling to Ten, let his own power, his influence, and emotions tether me to life—to love.
The magic within the well in my chest rumbles, angered and full of pain, and thrashes, still discontent with being cut off earlier. So, I let it out.
Shadows snake across the ground and head right for the triune of people camouflaged by the trees at the edge of the lake. I’ve only ever used this part of my power to either defend or respond instinctively, but as the darkness cloaks the ground, my mind pictures what Fenix just did to me.
The golden threads I can see wrapped around the three figures are my target. And in my mind, I push the thought inside of their connection—into their minds.
They came for war. They will have it.
All three of them stop, they drop their hands, and whatever they were summoning stills in an instant. One by one, they reach for whatever weapon they have on their person, and in a move choreographed by my mind, they each strike the other, spilling their blood and opening their necks.
All three fall to the ground, painting the snow and ice beneath them red.
As soon as they fall, the storm—the wintry bite that’s persisted since this started—eases.
They caused everything to freeze. They controlled the storm. And now they are dead.
“One left.”
Ten just squeezes me as hard as he can. He doesn’t ask, doesn’t stop me, and I think it’s because he can sense what I’m doing.
“Whatever future, Ever. As long as you’re fucking there with me. Remember.” His words, his plea, sink into my mind. He’s always promised this, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to oblige.
We saw this. The snow. The cold. The tops of the mountains overhead.
The pain is different from the vision, though.
Darkness creeps at the edges of my vision, and it’s my magic, the flow of energy and hum within me that battles it back, just a little. Just enough for me to do one more deed.
I don’t know exactly the right spot, but he told me their bodies were buried here. He’d want to be with them. He built all his hopes and ambitions on finishing what they started.
Now, he’ll be able to rest with them, knowing he was wrong. And he failed.
Them and me.
I reach for Fenix, and my magic rushes to oblige. Where in the past it’s been reluctant, our streams not wanting to mix, mine now dominates and controls, easily and without thought, it takes over Fenix. And it freezes him. It locks every single muscle in his body.
I remember the first time he did this, in the cell after he killed Micah, how terrified I was, and I push all of that right at him, forcing him to feel what I felt as I imprison him.
My magic swarms and rushes, as if it wants to fight, as if it wants to take on the world, but it does as I bid and strangles Fenix—every muscle in his body just as he did to me.
Until his heart stops beating.
Until I have nothing left in me and finally let go and sag against Ten.
And Fenix crumples to the ground, too.
“Ever? Ever, no. You need to hold on. To fight.”
My eyes slip closed, and I feel him move me onto my back. Onto the snow.
I need to look at him one last time. I want to stare at his beautiful eyes and have him be the last thing I see.
As I force them back open, there’s utter fear in his gaze, and I long to take that away, but as I reach for my magic again, it slips through my grasp like water through my hand, running away.
The blood soaks the snow around me. My hand moves to the dagger in my stomach, and I pull, yanking it free.
“Oh, Stars, no. Ever.” Ten’s hands press down as he kneels over me, his hands trying to slow the inevitable.
I know the vision he sees.
Because we’ve seen it before.