Chapter 44
SORROW
Nothing makes me smile like watching Sorrow and the exiled prince.
Their adoration is so like the one we shared, Gabe.
Oh, how I wish you’d lived to see them! Two kindred souls brought together through tragedy.
Romero despises them, keeps trying to tear them apart, but as long as there’s breath in my body, I won’t allow him to spoil what they have.
Our daughter deserves a different fate to ours.
She deserves to grow old with the one she truly loves.
— HIDDEN JOURNALS OF QUEEN MERCY
I didn’t need to see to understand why Asher’s breath hitched, why the empress screamed. Why my gifts crawled back. The darkness paled around the fringes of my vision, pooling into the crevices, splitting my heart. A heart that thundered a lonesome tattoo, her matching echo gone.
The violet threads shuddered, as though even they knew I’d destroy the world if they were to take Matthias.
I heard the sob of our captain, felt the solid nudge of the wolf against my hip, the dull clash of the hearts in his mouth.
The cackle of Delphine.
This was my final moment, a sweeping opportunity.
I pictured the faces of all those I loved, all those who buried into my reluctant soul and loved me back.
My beloved wolf, my mentor and the wife she adored.
Enfys and Mama, Asher and Skye. Fuck, even the spoilt, little brother who’d barely gained a chance to live and become a king.
And Matthias, tears tracked through the sweat, blood and ash coating my skin.
The man who’d loved me without condition.
Who’d fought Gods for me. I blew out the last of my fear, raised my chin and placed every sliver of hope into my threads.
The empress was not divine. Even as the temple decayed, the mount crumbled, she was still Delphine. And I possessed a gift greater than those Evella blessed me with. A gift worth fighting for.
Love.
I inhaled, a ragged, desperate prayer, and tore open the core holding back my gifts. Silver and purple threaded, weaved and I gave in to them. I no longer cared about being enough. I was Sorrow fucking Elmswood, Deviant, daughter of the Gods and I would be her retribution, her justice, her ruin.
Evella rose, gilded fissures sealing, skin smoothing as she crackled with the anger of eternity.
We set our gaze upon the one to usurp us.
Her expression wavered, but still she raised her hand.
Turned her twisted gaze towards the arch.
Asher straightened, offered his hand to the sister we’d only just started to know.
We pressed against Vyrus, Evella’s spurned love, but still a remnant of rebellion clung to him as he denied us access. For a moment, the threads shivered, unsure, but damn him. I didn’t carry his blood just for him to bleed out on the floor of his temple while the Goddess he’d loved fought.
Silver, purple became one. I cried as I slammed my love, grief, my fluttering hope into them. With a roar, the God stood, locked our eyes onto Delphine. Her feet left the ground as the candles stuttered and died.
Lightning forked from her hand, thrust towards us. But we were Evella. We were protection and Delphine fell to the ground, her lightning shattering the temple. In the next heartbeat, she stood, and we laughed as a crack split her face, dissecting her eye, her flesh curling.
A wolf pushed Evella, placed a chain into her hand.
A crystal heart swung towards her and we slammed it into her chest. A light, bright and blinding, exploded as her old lover, Vyrus, raised his hand.
Delphine screamed as his fist clenched, her skin tearing from her obsidian skull, her very bones poisoned by the Vyrium she’d poured into herself.
‘Do you truly believe you can destroy me?’ She raised her arm. We cried as Evella fell, Vyrus screaming her name with a pain he’d forged in the stars. Delphine twisted her head, turned to the God who’d created all. ‘I have not bled, I have not suffered fools, for my story to end now.’
Vyrus faltered, the flicker of his pulse pulled towards the love who struggled to stand. The corner of Delphine’s mouth curved as she sliced through the ground where he stood. His distraction, her chance.
No. I swallowed, visions swarming my mind of budding stars, the memories we’d torn from their minds. Not frozen watercolours, not yellowing illustrations on a page. These were true, real. Moments, emotions, swathes of love and crucifying pain. We were one.
Vengeance, protector and Deviant, a single entity.
A warning flickered at the corner of my mind.
That this could end us all, but as Delphine aimed her hand at the captain, his guards, our sister, we swore she’d not taste victory.
Power and gifts. Ancient and thrumming with devastation lay at our fingers.
It swirled about us, tore our skin. With a shattering scream, we broke.
A lost temple exploded, a volcano spewed its fiery ire – and I collapsed. My body spent.