Chapter 49 #3
“I needed assurance she wouldn’t disappear into the shadows, but it seems she did just that.” The old man slips into a coughing fit, hacking and gurgling up bile.
“You’ve made an enemy of at least one of the gods…” Frost sluices through my veins as Jace snaps his hand around Finnick’s throat. “I should kill you here and now, you slimy bastard.”
“Jace, wait.” I raise my palms.
Finnick doesn’t squirm or flail against Jace’s grip. No, he simply shrugs and tucks his hands into his sleeves. “Just as you patrol your borders King Ashborne, I, too, keep watch over my property.”
“Property?” Jace roars, tightening his hold.
Finnick’s eyes bulge and his breath stammers. “I have a receipt of sale if you’d like to review it, King Ashborne.”
Jace’s chest goes rigid. A growl, more beast than man, pours from his snarling lips as he raises the old mercenary by his neck. Finnick’s boots lift from the ground, dangling between suffocation and snapping bones.
“I’ll expect double for my little rat.” Finnick chokes out a cruel laugh.
Jace’s features darken and his body trembles. Black ink runs up his fingers. Shit, this is bad. If Saphine sees his transformation she might run.
“Jace, it’s okay. Let him go,” I cry, lunging for the two men. He doesn’t hear me though, not when his irises shift to crimson. I glance toward Saphine. From her angle, the shadows block Jace’s rabid features, but if he loses total control…
“Jace!” I try again, reaching for the hand at his side. My skin shreds against his claws, but I lace my fingers through his and lean in. “Put him down.”
Blood drips from our intertwined hands
Finnick coughs and sputters, panic rising in his eyes. Still, he doesn’t beg or plead for his life.
“Put him down,” I whisper again and bring my lips to Jace’s jawline. Sparks flare in my belly when his body shudders. He rumbles a word of protest but his grip falters.
“Your time on this earth is waning, Finnick Derald,” he warns.
The crimson drains from Jace’s eyes when he sets Finnick back on the ground. The old mercenary gasps and pulls in breath, nursing the bruising skin under his jaw, as he collapses to his knees.
“No one will ever own me again,” I spit, leaning over him.
His skin blanches in the torchlight as he unbuttons his cloak and lets it fall around his waist. Blood stains his tunic, spreading through the fabric until his chest is washed in red.
“Well, perhaps it is indeed a cave-in that puts me down. Or that monstrosity.” His eyes, bloodshot and watery, flick to the stone-cold king standing beside me.
A rumble quivers through the bedrock around us, loosing dust and salt from the ceiling.
“Okay, that’s our cue…we really need to get the fuck out of here,” Saphine says, her violet eyes darting from crack to crack.
“I should have killed you the last time I caught you over my border, you sick fuck,” Jace growls. “A tracking link is a fucking mockery of the gods.”
“I agreed to it!” I snap, unsure why I’m defending the old man. A gurgle slips from Finnick’s lips, now parted and grey.
“Nova, dear girl, grant me your ear one last time,” he says. The obedient little rat inside me jumps to focus, and I hate myself for it.
“I know I wasn’t always the kindest to you, but I taught you how to survive in this world. I gave you the skills to fight, to take what you want…to live.”
“Finnick…” I kneel beside the man. He hunches over, clutching his chest. I want to scream and cry and wail like a child.
Maybe he taught me how to survive, but in doing so he shaped me into a monster.
A vicious, deadly weapon. How can I watch the life fade from his crowed eyes and whisper words of forgiveness?
“Never forget what I taught you.” He raises a hand to my cheek, and I battle myself not to flinch away. In my periphery, Jace’s jaw ticks.
“Time’s up…” Saphine says, her tone shrill with urgency.
Finnick takes a shallow, strained breath, and already the dimness in his eyes grows. He stays locked on me, gurgling and sputtering. Blood dribbles to his chin.
“Never forget,” he whispers. Then his hand falls away and his body keels into me.
My chest strums while my limbs feel lighter than air. The essence of our tracking link fades.
Once upon a lifetime, I eagerly awaited this day. The one where freedom was a sweet taste on my tongue. I’d promised myself it’d be met with a fuck you to the mercenary who held an unpayable debt over my head, but now as his skin grows cold, I can’t find the words.
Two simple words, a lifetime of closure.
I bite the inside of my cheek and draw blood. Tears gather behind my eyes. This was supposed to be a moment of glory, but in the end, all I feel is pain. Not pain for Finnick, but for the version of myself I’m losing—the only one familiar. The only one comfortable.
Without Finnick, who am I? I’m terrified to learn the answer.
“May Morvayne have mercy on your soul,” I whisper, still unsure if I mean it. I lower him to the ground and tuck his matted cloak over his face.
Of the many truths I’ve come to learn about this world, only one plucks the strings in my chest.
The only true freedom you get is death.