Chapter 42

CHAPTER FORTY TWO

T he dark was deep and restful, a silence held within it which promised a calm that I had never known in life and I was tempted, oh so tempted to let that silence have me.

But my friends had other ideas for my fate.

Dalia bellowed as she threw herself on top of me and the Vampire who had come to claim my death, the flash of her dagger a blinding light in the darkness which had come for me before she slammed it home between the Vampire's shoulder blades.

The Vampire tore his teeth from my throat with a howl of pure agony as she tore the blade free and stabbed him again and again, a rain of blood coating both of us as she ripped him from this world with a brutal, terrorising force.

A cry of utter agony poured from the throat of the other Vampire in the chamber and I caught sight of his wild, grief- stricken eyes. He stared at me and Dalia, the corpse of his brethren sagging between us, horror written into his features.

The copper-haired Vampire made to lunge for us, but Moraine was faster, blasting him away with a lash of air magic. He slammed into the wall then shot to his feet, throwing one final, hateful gaze at the four of us before shooting from the room at such speed that I lost sight of him entirely.

Dalia hissed in pain as she half fell off of me, gripping the closest archway and hauling herself to her feet with clear difficulty.

Moraine strode for us, her silver wings rustling at her back as she tucked them close to her spine and kicked the corpse of the Vampire off of me.

I offered her a grim smile as she heaved me to my feet, taking hold of the battle axe belonging to the dead Vampire and hefting the weapon into my grip. I'd fought many battles without magic before, but the hollowness in my chest now that my power had been stolen left me feeling vulnerable in a way I never had before knowing it.

I looked beyond my friends for Cayde, my heart rate settling as I found him stalking closer, his neck bloody and eyes hard with a powerful hatred which reminded me of exactly how terrifying he could be on the battlefield.

I met the darkness of his eyes over Moraine's shoulder, a smile lifting my lips which wasn't savage or wicked or any of the things I normally offered the world. It was pure, and honest, and spoke of the way my heart pounded harder just for him, of the secret we shared and how desperately I ached to make my claim on him known to all the world.

Moraine's pained cry was a soft caress against my ears, her dark eyes widening in shock and understanding while I stared at her in uncomprehending confusion.

Her hand grasped for the sliver of silver which protruded from her chest, the tip of a bloody knife jutting from her heart before being ripped away so fast I wasn't certain I'd seen it at all.

I lunged for her, catching her weight as she fell on me, her eyes holding mine in a brutal realisation which tore through me with agonising clarity as the light faded from them so fast, I could barely capture the memory of it in my palm.

"Moraine," I gasped, my knees buckling with her weight, the shadow of Cayde's body moving closer, his expression driving through me just as forcefully as the knife that had pierced my sister's flesh. All I could do was stare at him in horrified shock.

I blinked at the man I had offered my blackened heart to, a mask seeming to slip from his features as he looked at me with feral hatred, his desires lashing against me with the bloodthirsty need for death.

My lips parted on words which wouldn't come, devastation and agony rooting me in place beneath the dead weight of the woman who I loved far more dearly than my own rotten soul deserved.

" Moraine ," I choked out again, my muscles shaking with her weight as I tried to hold her up, her head falling against my shoulder, the heat of her blood pooling against my chest through the thick material of my leathers.

I couldn't comprehend a universe without her sinful wit and acidic tongue, her slow temper and brutal power. She was a guiding force in my world, a bright light in an otherwise dark existence and there was no truth to me without her. She was one of only two people who truly knew me, truly saw the woman I was beneath the legacy I had built to mask myself. What was I without her?

A cry poured from my lips so brutal and raw that I couldn't draw another breath beyond it, my fingers grasping the back of her head, knotting in her braids as I begged the stars to take it back, to change their minds.

Me. It should have been me, not her. He was my failure, the demon with the eyes of sin who I had distrusted from the first but had somehow slipped into my confidence. I had brought him here. And as he came to send me into the after behind my sister, I found I couldn't move to stop him. I couldn't release her. It was my fault. I deserved death for causing hers.

Cayde lunged for me, but Dalia was suddenly there, throwing herself between us with a ragged command spilling from her lips.

"Run, V!" she snarled, her eyes wild with agony as she looked to Moraine in my arms, an acceptance in her eyes which I refused with all that remained of my ragged, ruined soul.

"No!" I bellowed.

Moraine fell from my grasp as I lurched for Dalia instead, the blade which had been aimed at me cutting deep into her throat as she threw herself between me and the man who I had given myself to completely like a fucking fool. I had caused this. It was all on me and yet now both of my sisters were going to pay the fatal price of my stupidity.

I screamed as the three of us fell beneath the force of Cayde's strike, his feral cry of murderous rage echoing off of the walls as he ripped his blade free of my sister's throat and Dalia's blood splattered my face.

"Dalia!" I screamed, reality catching up to me as he swung for her again, my boot catching on the body beneath me which I refused to admit was Moraine.

I swung the stolen axe, the weapon heavy and cumbersome, but Dalia threw herself between us once more, clutching at her bleeding throat while aiming a dagger at Cayde in her final moments, her boot swinging out to strike me in the chest and knock me back.

Agony tore through my heart with such potency that I barely felt it as I hit the ground, my body reacting on instinct as I rolled to my feet again in time to see Cayde throw Dalia's body to the floor with a solid thump.

Her eyes stared glassily up at me, her fingers falling lax around her throat as her blood pooled in a great river from her body. Impossibly, I found myself staring at the three people who I had truly had in this cruel world, two dead at the hands of the third, the scene before me making no kind of sense at all.

"Why?" I gasped, backing up as my head swum from blood loss, and my fingers gripped the blade of the axe like it was a lifeline. But what life did I even have without my sisters to cling to? "I don't…Cayde…?"

I stared at the man who I had offered my heart and soul to, searching his piercing gaze for some sign that this wasn't truly him, some explanation for the horror before me which I could make sense out of.

"You made it so fucking easy, Vesper," he purred, advancing on me with that dagger in his hand, the blood of the two people I loved most in this world staining it in grim proof of what he had done. "I thought you were what stood between me and the prince but you weren't, were you? You were so fucking desperate for love that the moment I offered you a hint of it, you were mine. And you never even questioned it, did you?"

"Dragor?" I breathed, trying to make sense of his words as he stalked me between the archways, my friends' blood smearing across the floor in his bloody boot prints, their empty eyes watching us. Dalia's command echoed through my mind, but how could I run? How could I abandon them here?

"Well I hardly went to all this effort for a waifhouse brat, did I?" Cayde growled, contempt marring the face I had once found so alluring. "But now I have a prize far better than the head of a prince to offer my sovereign. You just gave me a path right into the heart of your nation and all the others besides. I'll be praised above every warrior in Avanis for winning this war for him. And to think, all it took was a few turns between your thighs to have you spilling your secrets for me. I'd expected a creature built for seduction to be more wary of it."

The horror which had taken hold of me shattered with those words, a sickening, terrifying truth peeling their way free of them as he stalked after me, my death shining in those honey brown eyes which had concealed so much from me with every look.

"You're a Stonebreaker," I accused and his smile darkened as he flexed his fingers, the ground beneath my feet quaking in reply to the call of his magic.

"I saw you wield air," I said, shaking my head. "You can't wield both. Only the Reapers-"

"Do you think you were the first Fae to ever wonder at the secrets the Reapers keep from the rest of us? Clever, suspicious little Vesper? Of course you weren't. You're just a nosy bitch leashed to the will of a monster. The Stonebreakers have been figuring out the Reapers' secrets for years and you don't have to attend Never Keep for the stars to Awaken your power."

Shock rolled through me at that admission, but Cayde was clearly done basking in his own betrayal and the stupidity of the succubus who had fallen for her own game.

Vines ripped from the flagstones at my feet, coiling around my legs with ferocious strength and yanking me to the ground.

The blood loss made me slower to react than usual, my grief marring my reflexes, but I refused to fall at the feet of the bastard who had stolen my entire world from me. I refused to leave this world without avenging the only two women who had ever made living in it mean a fucking thing to me.

Cayde lunged for me but I swung my axe, forcing him back and cleaving through the vines with a furious blow.

I tried to steal his magic with my gifts but his desire for my death and the power he would soon claim in Avanis wasn't enough to fill my reserves as quickly as I needed it.

A pathetic blast of air sprung from my fingers, knocking him back a single step and only buying me enough time to regain my feet.

The ground bucked beneath me as he lunged at me with his dagger, my axe deflecting the blow but only just; the cumbersome weapon slowing me down.

He forced me back. Then again. My boots stumbled over the ground as it rioted beneath me, the pain in my soul making it hard to focus on anything beyond the furious desire to reap vengeance upon his tarnished soul.

Tears stained my cheeks as he forced me to back up again and again, reality sinking in as my head spun with dizziness. He was fucking toying with me.

"I told you I was watching you train so that I could learn your weaknesses, Vesper," he growled, meeting my next blow with ease. "I know your habits, your preferences, the moves you hold back in reserve. And I never gave you the chance to learn mine."

He was right. How many times had he watched me train with Moraine and Dalia, never once accepting the offer to join us, taunting me with the suggestion that he was hunting for my weaknesses? It didn't matter if he hadn't found any. He knew how I moved and with my magic gone and the blood loss slowing me, he had the advantage he'd been working to gain.

My back struck one of the archways and the scent of home washed over my cheeks, cold against the wetness of my tears.

I deflected another strike of his blade as a second scent moulded with the first and an idea came to me, one fit for nothing short of suicide, but I had little left to live for now anyway.

I yelled out as I swung my axe for him in a savage blow, forcing him back at last, my free hand scrambling for the dregs of grit that remained in my pocket and taking hold of a paltry handful.

I hurled it at the rune to activate the archway, leaping back as Cayde lunged for me, his dagger opening a wound across my bicep, tearing through my leathers.

But as he came at me again, a blinding light erupted at my spine and I hurled myself into the clutches of the stars with one wild, desperate hope fluttering through my mind. Not for my survival. But for the vengeance owed to my sisters.