Chapter 21

TWENTY-ONE

BASH

Her scream echoed down the hall and sent a chill down my spine. I thought my mother had taken a break, but I heard the crack of the whip and Collins had grown silent. I didn’t want to think of what they were doing to her. Anguish riddled my body, and every muscle thrummed with tension. I had to get us out of here. Collins, my beautiful, fiery soulmate, lost her wings in the most horrific way possible, and I needed to be there for her. Needed to save her the way she’d saved me from this life.

A thick crystal collar was shackled around my neck. Small spikes lined the inside. Any time I moved the chain, the collar would pull tight and stab me in the neck like a barbaric choke collar. I scratched at my neck over and over again, trying to break the collar free, but all I managed was to rip my own skin open. I took a step forward and it tightened, sending tiny spikes into my neck. Blood trickled down my neck and over my chest.

Venus stood just out of my reach. My necklaces swung from her finger. “If you die like this, it’s rather . . . anti-climactic.”

I had to get to Collins. My head was pounding, and the only thing I could do was stand here across from my sister with no plan and no way of getting out of here without killing myself in the process, which would help no one and certainly not my Collins. I took a step back to loosen up the collar.

“I can’t believe you’ve got a hold of him like this.” My father stood behind Venus on the other side of the bars.

I glared at him. “You’re pathetic.”

“I’m coming in.” He reached for the bars, and Venus whirled on him.

Power flowed from her. “Stop.”

He froze. “I command you to allow me in.”

“Like that’s every worked before. You wait in the hall.” She motioned for him to walk back down the hall.

“I will not,” he protested even as he turned away from the bars and began to slither away.

I growled. “The weakest man I’ve ever met. I should’ve killed him first.”

Venus whirled back around toward me and the crystal in her chest glowed a warm pink. “Shhh, it’s my turn to talk.”

Without my necklaces, I was vulnerable to her powers of manipulation. I pressed my mouth shut. Every muscle in my body thrummed with the need to strangle the life from her very body and get back to Collins. Venus spun in a circle and threw her hands up. A little excited squeak left her lips. “You know, I’ve always been a little jealous of Cleo and the way she cursed you . . . I wished it’d been me.”

I’d grown used to being silent. This was no punishment. I’d figure a way out, a way to get to Collins. Little puffs of pink smoke drifted from her fingers and out toward me. “But now there’s this, and I couldn’t be more pleased. Now, imagine if you will what poor Collins is going through . . . Your soulmate.”

A chill went down my spine. I’d managed to hide it this long. But my jacket was gone and the mark on my arm told them all they needed to know. I held still and pressed my lips together.

Venus smiled like the cat who caught the mouse. “Oh yes. We know about your weakness.”

Love is never a weakness . I spat on the floor in front of her.

Her power seeped from her. “Picture the kind of torture our mother could possibly inflict on her.”

Visions of Collins danced in my mind, and I swallowed hard. I wanted to fight this, to fight Venus’ power. I took a step toward her, but the collar tightened and pain shot down the rest of my body. Venus shook her head. “Our mother is particularly good at getting what she wants. You know death would be so much easier if she would just tell her where the Stone is. Do you know where it is? If you tell me, I’ll go in there and kill her quickly.”

When I said nothing, she waved her hand toward me. “Speak.”

“I don’t know.” Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell them. Collins wouldn’t tell them, and neither would I.

“Pity.” She sashayed to the other side of my cell. “Her funeral will be lovely . . . imagine it. Imagine the coffin.”

My vision went black, and I stood next to a small coffin. My heart hammered and my chest felt tight. The pungent smell of flowers filled the air, and I felt a heavy sadness settle over my body. It nearly choked me with a large ball in my throat I didn’t recognize as grief.

“Open it,” Venus whispered through my mind.

I didn’t want this vision. I didn’t want to imagine a world without her in it. Yet I saw the gleaming wooden. Behind me her family wept silent tears. I heard their contained sobs. Each one was like a slap in the face. My family lived in a world of contempt, but Collins . . . she brought light to all around her. Now that light was gone from my world. Devastation rolled through me. My lungs seized as I placed my hand on the edge of the coffin. When I raised the lid, the hinges creaked and I closed my eyes tight. I didn’t want to see it. My body quaked, and I felt the breath left my lungs.

“Open your eyes, Brother. Behold your beloved.”

Her power forced my eyes open, and I was trapped in my own personal hell. There lay my Collins. I pressed my hand to my mouth to stop the sob from escaping my lips.

“How bloody and broken she is.” Venus’ words were so light they were only a suggestion, yet my mind twisted to what she wanted this to be. I tried to fight it, to take control, but she was in too deep now and I couldn’t force her back out. She’d found my one weakness . . . my soulmate.

There she was, her face nearly unrecognizable with dark bruises. Cuts and blood coated her body and face. Her eyes were wide open, glazed over, and sightless. My knees gave out and I hit the floor next to her coffin. I reached for her hand, searching for her soft skin. But all I would find was her cold, dead touch.

“NO! Collins!” I wanted to scoop her in my arms and hold her to my chest. “She’s not dead.”

“She is dead.” Venus spoke so low, so methodically. “You killed her.”

I shook my head. “No.”

“Look at me,” she commanded, and I was back in the cell with her standing over me. I blinked down at my bloody hands, expecting to see Collins’ broken, lifeless body within my arms.

“She’s not dead.”

Venus nodded. “She is. It’s your fault.”

“No.”

“You killed her. Don’t you remember . . . in the cave?” She pressed her hand over her mouth and smiled. “Oh, that’s adorable. Your mind blocked it out.”

I curled my hands into fists and growled. “I’d never.”

She chuckled. “Oh, but you did. I made you think she was me . . . and you slit her throat.”

Vague memories of Collins against me and my knife pressed to her throat assailed my mind. I fell back on my heels and my body sagged forward. This couldn’t be. “It’s not real.”

She stuck out her bottom lip in a pout. “Oh, but it is. Look at me. I barely have a scratch.”

When I looked up at her, all her cuts were gone. Her hair was that perfect flowing and soft pink. The bruises on her face had disappeared. Even her clothing was clean. It was as if she’d never been untouched. Doubt assailed my mind . . . Had I hurt her? Did I ruin my own life because of a spell?

“I-I couldn’t have.”

“But you did.” She smiled. “You killed the one person in this world who probably liked you just a little. What’ll you do now? Now that you’ve killed her and your family, you have no place to go. No one to turn to . . . Don’t you just want to die?”

The word die echoed through my mind . . . die . . . die . . . die. Without Collins, there was no living. Venus convinced me of that. Did I want to die? Without Collins? Yes. Death was the only option for me now. I’d killed her. I’d taken the one thing I lived for. I wanted to join her. There was no life without Collins. Die? Hell yes I wanted to die.

Venus stood over me with her pink power nearly filling the room. She crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot impatiently. “There’s only one way.”

I nodded. “Yes. One way.”

I swayed back and forth, overcome by her power. She bent down to meet my eye. “Rip your stone out.”

When I looked down at my bare chest, my moonstone glowed in the dark cell. I dug my nails into the skin around my moonstone jewel. Deep scratches formed as I tried to dig my way into my own chest. Blood rolled down my chest and stomach, staining the top of my pants. The warm coppery scent burned my nose, but I couldn’t stop. Pain shot through my chest and down my arms, yet the skin wouldn’t peel away fast enough.

“You deserve this, you know?” Venus paced back and forth like she was losing patience.

“I know.” I kept digging.

She groaned and pulled a dagger from her boot, then she squatted down in front of me. “Use this . . . It’ll go faster.”

I wrapped my hand around the hilt and tried to fight the need to stab myself. Her power was too much this close. All I saw was Collins’ death. I no longer wanted to be in a world where she didn’t exist. I held the blade up high, ready to plunge it deep into my chest to pry the stone free and end it all.

Collins, I love you . . .

An ear-splitting scream broke the silence of the dungeon and I froze. I knew that voice. The scream shook me to my core. It was the kind of scream that came only moments before death. The scream of ultimate pain. I jumped to my feet. “COLLINS!”

The entire castle rumbled and shook. Dust rained down on the both of us. I glared at Venus and chucked the knife at her. She dove to the side and took it in her ribs. She scrambled back from me and pressed herself against the wall as huge chunks of the castle began to crumble around us. I need out now! I took a step toward the bars, ready to shove my way free. The spikes dug into my neck and the taste of blood filled my mouth. I didn’t care. They would all pay for what they’d done. Power built deep in my chest, and black smoke gathered around me.

Venus curled into a ball against the cell bars. Tiny pink puffs of smoke drifted toward me. “Stop!”

Rage mixed with desperation and the grief Venus cursed me with. Nothing would make this better . . . nothing. Power exploded out of me, and there were only two people who would feel the full force of it. This whole castle would come down on their heads, and I would make sure they were too debilitated to survive it . . .