28. Chapter 27

Afucking parasite. That's what she is. Just when you think you've rid yourself of her, she shows up in a less suspecting place. I should have killed her when I had the chance. When she showed up at my doorstep a broken woman with a knack for destruction. It was fun at first, I will admit. Until I realized she would not only destroy one realm but two.

When Kirian confirmed with our contact in Thorn Row that Kirian was to bring the girl to Shadow Gate, all hell broke loose. Should have killed him, too. King Aron sent for his commander-in-chief, who decided to send half his fucking numbers north. Just what she wants, idiots.

And here I am, with a direct order to take two newbies fresh from taking The Vow while they gather their useless army. They can hardly wipe their own asses, let alone wield their gifts. I had taken many North in my time with The Spent. All came down with the same madness. The kind that mortal men are subject to when they enter the city. It doesn't take long for them to succumb to it.

King Aron the 1st had once captured me and placed me within the city himself. He did it to all of us just to see who would break and who would not. When I was the remaining survivor, he let her get into his head with promises of a new world. The one that his Grandfather let slip through his fingers, supposedly. Of course, I was still navigating the mortal realm with half my powers, but by the time I regained my strength, it was too late. She had worked out a deal with the King, and I had already made a deal myself. One for freedom. Or what I thought was freedom. All I got was a mark upon my wrist, granting her a peek into the mortal realm.

When we arrived, the girl was near death. Shades floating around her with their mindless chatter. They bowed to me as they should. They bow to her as well, but she does not see.

Kirian stood his ground for all of five seconds after they flung him from her sleeping body. Stepping aside to let the girl that Lord Andres forced along with me, Cora, to mend her.

But it wasn't enough. She was sick with a whole other kind of illness. What the Shades were calling moonstruck. Her powers have manifested and she has done absolutely nothing with them. Forcing her into a catatonic state. A bunch of busy bodies the Shades are, but they usually know best.

Chills took over her whole body. Sweat dripped into her hair. Words fell from her mouth without her even realizing what she was saying. Something about Kirian, then about her, was in her head, no doubt. She lay wrapped in my arms as I slowly talked her through using a small bit of her magic until she was coherent enough to use it herself. Even still, it was weak, minuscule compared to what she could and would do.

I had already contemplated her death. It's not like I hadn't tried before. Her Father's beast was too injured to do the job. And keeping her trapped in purgatory was never going to do me any good, not if she has any idea how to use the in-between. I highly doubt it, but I wasn't taking any chances.

I intended to kill her again in the library. Not the cleanest kill, I will admit, but I would have gotten the job done. It had gone too far. Keeping her magic from her was only a temporary solution. Lord Andres might have saved her that time, actually. Calling that meeting to discuss her magic or lack thereof because of me. By the time we were in the library, I had known what her fate was, death, by the hands of The Spent.

I knew that her death would only send the half that rightfully belonged to me skittering around Stone until it met its next body to inhabit. How she did it I have no idea. Neither do I know how Katsia, the human girl, was able to wield it without it killing her. So when Kirian took her from Fauna to Shadow Gate I did not care. Petty mortal things that I should not have to concern myself with. What they do and why, I will never understand.

Besides, I have spent far too much time here.

It was time to go home. Time to face the music, as they say. Time to take back what was rightfully mine, and if the girl was the answer, so be it.

When I caught the girl in my arms, when her head lulled, and I could feel her soul reach out to me in death. I was struck with a vision. Given so kindly to me by her. The night that we had both been drunk on God's wine so that she would be none the wiser as I left. Trapping her there. Where she could no longer destroy. "She will be the life and death of you." She had told me as she placed her hands haphazardly on the sides of my head. Nothing gentle about it in her drunken stupor.

Black hair. The same tall, steady figure. In the vision, she had picked up a flower in the mortal realm, tears streaming down her face.

And when she peered up at me from death... I saw fire behind her eyes.