Chapter 27 #2
We'd been standing outside the Shield wall, unable to move or advance any further. We hadn't been trying to hide, and they hadn’t attempted to engage with us either. They’ve been so secure in their protections that they haven’t even attempted to mobilize against us. They just ignored us entirely.
One moment, we’re looking at that Shield wall, and the next moment, we’re stepping through the shadows. I'd spent a lot of time honing this skill, sharpening it, perfecting it, and making sure that it's not the slow process of the shadow growing anymore.
I made sure that we wouldn’t give them enough time to prepare themselves for the death that is coming their way. The moment we appear, the alarm goes off, but it’s too late for them.
We’re not here for anything but death.
* * *
The Crux takes over North's body before the Pain god even realizes that we have Shadow Shifted in.
It is so confident in its ability to keep us out, never dreaming that we’d find a loophole through its plan of Shielding us from our Bonded. It would have worked; it has worked a hundred times before.
Thanks to the breeding experiments that the Resistance had been conducting and the mixing of my mother's blood, my incidental Gift was something that the Corvus had never had before.
Shadow Shifting.
Simply by having Azrael tag along with Oleander meant there was nothing they could do to keep us apart, nothing they could do to stop me from arriving here.
When we’d soul-bonded and forged an unbreakable connection, I knew that I’d never again let anything come between us, and that was all thanks to the Pain god.
I’m going to make sure it dies a horrific death, regretting that fact.
It used a lot of its power knocking Oleander out, more power than it should have been willing to, leaving it vulnerable to attack.
A vicious roar tears through the air as Gabe shifts, his body snapping and crunching as the Draconis takes over.
The Crux moves towards Oleander, blind to everything else that is happening around us as it sees her unconscious form lying there, its devotion to her as blind as my brother’s.
The Soothsayer takes control of Gryphon and moves with him, getting a hand over her throat as it pours power into her.
The Corvus pushes at my mind as it attempts to take over, but I push back, letting the streams of shadows fall away from my body and pushing them to devour their Transporter whole. I’m eager to remove any potential threats before the Pain god has the chance to get out of here.
I watch the way that its mouth twists scornfully, the hatred there a sickening thing as my shadows turn their heads towards her.
How it ever managed to pass as a simple, non-Gifted woman is beyond me, because all I can see in those depthless void eyes is the sort of murderous madness that isn’t so easily disguised.
A smirk stretches over my own lips as I see the realization set in, the tension filling its body as its power washes over me without breaking into my mind at all.
It’s desperate, and it now knows it’s used its trump card too soon.
It knows that we don't want to simply kill it.
Doing such a stupid, rash thing would just send it back into the cycle; and I’m not spending the rest of my life waiting for this evil to return.
If we cycle again, if this keeps on happening to us over and over, I’m not going to risk this coming after Oleander again.
Not this version of her or the ones to come. Never again.
I watch as it scrambles away from us, throwing out its power as though it has a chance of getting through to any of us, but it can’t. The one and only time Gryphon used his Gift to knock Oli out, he told us it was like she pulled the power from him.
I’m sure the Pain god is hating every second of my poison girl’s power right now, every inch of it perfection.
The Draconis roars again, and this time, it takes off, leaving us behind as it senses something out there that none of the rest of us can see.
A burst of fire lights up the night sky moments later as he wipes out the threat before it can even get close to Oleander.
I push my shadow creatures even further, letting them free to start taking out the Resistance.
I watch as Atlas follows the line of the dragon’s body in the sky, torn between moving to Oleander and watching to see what is coming for us next.
The Cleaver hasn’t taken over yet, it’s still the man in there making the choices, and as he glances back over in Oli’s direction, he curses under his breath.
I glance back to find a gun in the Pain god's hands.
Atlas shakes his head at it, pushing his power into the barrier around it, but it's not as simple as keeping us protected from the bullet.
It’s not aiming at us.
One of my shadows jumps up to grab it by the hand, another wrapping around its body to stop it from killing itself.
It starts cursing and shouting as it squirms, fighting uselessly against the shadows, and I enjoy the sight of it all over again.
I let one of the dark tendrils wrap around its mouth before I snap its arm, breaking the bone in a single movement.
The sound is like music to my ears.
The Draconis roars again, and Atlas curses under his breath.
“What the hell is going on up there?” he murmurs as he walks towards the opening to the tent, lifting it slightly and then jolting back.
“We have a lot more than the Pain god to deal with,” he says quietly, and the Soothsayer finishes healing Oli, standing up behind Atlas to glance out for a second.
“Tell me you've got her back, Crux. We can't stay in here for much longer,” Atlas says, his tongue only tripping over the god-bond’s name a little.
There's no answer, but the Crux stands smoothly, Oli looking so small and fragile in his arms. The Corvus pounds at the edges of my mind, demanding to be let out, but I hold onto control desperately. I need to see her wake up first. I need to know this wasn’t a mistake.
Her eyes stay closed, but her chest is moving steadily, her breathing even, as though she’s just enjoying a good night’s rest.
My eyes drift back to the Pain god, the loathing and disgust dripping from its gaze as it stares back at me.
I don't really care about what this god-bond thinks.
The Soothsayer steps over to where the Crux is now cradling Oli against its chest, rocking her gently as their skin glows. He’s letting her feed from his power, seeping it into her through touch to fill her inner well and revive her.
I’m ready to take over the moment she needs it.
The Crux is clearly unhappy with what is going on, the skin on his hands turning black as he taps into his own well of power. He’s on the edge of losing control and taking down the entire Wasteland with his own Gifted rampage.
The Resistance have no idea what they’ve unleashed.
I stare at the Pain god, watching the madness writhe underneath its skin. “You should’ve known when she brought me back that it was all over for you.”
It snarls at me, too rabid to play these mind games, and yet it keeps on trying. “You say that like she hasn't brought you back before. Always the same, always simpering after the rest of you like some pathetic little bitch in heat. You could be so much more .”
I shrug, the picture of calm even as dread pools in my gut due to Oleander’s unconscious state. “Why would I want to be more if I don't have her?”
It spits on the ground between us. “ Disgusting .”
“And yet, one of us is going to die today and the other is going to walk out of here, perfectly safe and with a complete Bonded Group. A long life ahead of us all. Tell me again how weak we are,” I say with a taunting tone, and Bassinger shoots a grin over his shoulder at me before it slides off of his face again, almost as though he's just realized who he's in on the joke with.
I don't particularly care about that. I care about the details and how I can use them here to really extend the suffering of this god-bond.
I want it screaming.
“How many times have you killed your Bonded?” I say, lifting up a knife from the table in front of us.
It looks a little too much like the table on which Oleander had been subjected to torture for my liking, the echoes of her memories are as clear in my mind now as they have ever been. Her screams and the blood and the terror are waiting there for me the moment I shut my eyes.
I could hate this god for killing me, for being the one to spark the soul-bond that I share with my Bonded, but there's a part of me that will always be grateful for my death.
I wouldn't have found Oleander in the darkness of my mind without it.
No, I hate this god-bond for what it built.
I hate it for the movement that it began purely to kill the rest of us.
The Resistance has harmed so many, but ultimately, I will revel in this god-bond’s death because of what it did to Oleander.
For Silas Davies, the death of her parents, the nightmares she still has lurking in the back of her mind, and for her years of loneliness and suffering.
For that, I will see this god-bond destroyed so permanently that it can never come back.
There's a gasp behind me, and for the first time, I take my eyes fully off of the god-bond as my entire body turns towards Oleander. It always has, even when I fought it off so desperately.
She is awake, she is mine, and she is hungry .
She devours the god-bond’s soul before her eyes even flutter open, tearing it out as though it’s nothing more than a small, fragile being, ridding our world once more of this vengeful god. Only this time, it's for good.
The Pain god is no more.