39. Chapter Thirty-Nine

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Iris

Someone is screaming. The sound is warbled as if I'm underwater and someone above is shouting directly at me, but I can't make out the words. My consciousness comes and goes, not quite wanting to settle on me being awake.

"No!"

The word cuts into the darkness but dissipates almost instantly. I know that voice. I can't quite decipher who it belongs to, but there's a familiarity to it that pulls my attention.

"You can't!" There it is again.

The sound of that voice. It sounds desperate as if it's holding onto something for dear life. The throb in my head is beginning to dampen, allowing me to feel my surroundings somewhat. The taste of dried blood in my mouth slowly hits my senses, as does the heavy ache in my chest. I know why I'm like this. My body turned against me during my attempt to be with Jude.

The sound of a scream rips me from my unconscious state, and I jolt awake, flying upright on the floor. The sight that greets me isn't one that I expected. Iriel is here along with two Leviathan and the human leaders. Even Cypress is in a corner of the room, his weak form looking at me in horror. My eyes slowly drop to the gun he has aimed directly at me.

"Wha—"

"She did nothing! She did nothing wrong!" The sound of Jude's voice hits me, and I turn my gaze in the direction of his screams. My eyes widen as I take him in; his face is bloodied, and his body holds hideous bruises. But he doesn't seem to mind them as he screams at me, his eyes desperate as he's held back by humans. It takes me a moment, but I finally realize that all the weapons in the room are aimed at me.

Before I can get a word out of my mouth, Iriel rips me up from the ground, smashing me into the wall. I cry out just as his forearm lodges into my throat, cutting off my air supply. I look Iriel in his eyes, expecting to see only rage there, but I also see desperation. The kind that is accompanied by fear.

He's scared.

"Where is he? How long have you been working for him?" Iriel screams. I look around the room in confusion, and everyone's terror is directed at me .

"I don't—" Iriel pulls me off the wall only to smash me back into it. I cry out as pain ripples up my backside, his Leviathan strength beginning to peak through.

"Iriel—" Cypress starts, but Iriel whips his gaze to my brother, silencing him immediately. Iriel looks back at me, his grip tightening.

"Tell us what wrath you have brought upon us, or I swear..." he leans in close to me, his lips inches from my ear, "I will slaughter every last human in this mountainside before I make my escape," he growls. He pulls away from me, studying me before he finally drops me. I cough, trying to catch my breath as I look around the room.

"I... don't know... what you're talking... about," I manage, holding my throat. Cypress's gaze narrows, and he looks away from me just as Iriel steps around me, and the humans set a mirror in front of me. I look terrible. My hair is wild, my face bloody, and my eyes are bloodshot from the constant suffocation. My heart leaps into my chest, not from my appearance, but from the now glowing purple symbol etched into my flesh. It wraps from the inside of my shoulder to my collarbone, dipping into my clothing—Remus's symbol.

The breath feels like it's been ripped from my lungs as I look at myself in the mirror.

"It just appeared tonight! As if it was activated, you don't know what we went through behind those walls. She didn't know!" Jude screams from the corner.

I look at Jude in confusion .

"When did this happen?" I ask. I don't have time to get the words out as Iriel roughly kicks my back, causing me to sprawl on the ground.

"Don't feign innocence," he growls. For the first time, one of the human leaders steps forward with a scowl.

"We spent years building this colony. We let you be a part of our new world, and you betrayed us," he snaps. My anger slowly rises to the surface as I listen to them.

"What about us? Jude and I risked everything for you people. We thought you were going to take back the world with the information we gave you! And yet you're all cowering behind these walls," I snap.

A Leviathan steps forward with a chuckle, her eyes roaming over my face. "Cower? Do you think this wasn't all planned? Did you think we would waste time and resources liberating humanity when Remus was doing fine rounding them all up for us? Those who live within these mountains are the future. Not those outside of it. You have destroyed humanity's future on this planet," she snaps.

It takes me a moment to understand the meaning of her words, but it finally dawns on me. And as I look around the room at the faces of people who have not seemed pleased with my presence, I finally understand why. Ezra was right. I ruined their plan.

"You were never going to save any of us," I say. My eyes drift to the charts on the walls, and I finally see them for what they are. I turn my gaze to Cypress, who has been allegedly liberating towns. But the liberating he's been doing is not what I thought originally .

"What have you done?" I whisper. Cypress looks away, his grip on the weapon tightening.

"You don't understand, Iris. We spent years trying to help everyone outside, but it just wasn't working. We had to make a choice—"

"And you chose genocide?" I ask in horror. Cypress's expression shifts into anger.

"It's better than letting them live as slaves. Look at what your time with him did to you," he snaps, gesturing to the symbol.

"You've turned on us all for him," he growls. I jump up from my position on the floor.

"You told me he was dead; you watched me kill him—agh!" I cry out as Iriel's fist comes at my stomach. Luckily, I haven't eaten much, so he only knocks the wind out of me, forcing me to collapse on the ground.

"Are you fucking crazy?" Jude screams. I hear him trying to get free, but his struggles are useless.

"What do we do now?" one of the Leviathan asks. Iriel seems to be thinking and finally comes to a decision.

"If what he says is true, Remus will be here any second. It would seem our original plan is back in play," he says, eyeing me.

"No!" Jude screams. I look up as he wrestles his way from the humans, punching one across the face as he launches toward Cypress.

"Jude, stop!" I scream. But it's no use. Cypress aims his weapon at Jude with an emotionless expression and fires. Screaming erupts inside the room, and it takes me a second to realize it's me. Jude collapses near me, his hand clutching his chest as he falls to his back. I scramble toward Jude, who now has a hole in his chest, his breathing shallow as he looks at me. I place my hands over the wound, my eyes landing on Jude in terror.

"Please... don't leave me here," I whisper in panic. Jude's eyes watch me, and they're wide. He opens his mouth, but nothing comes out. I can see him struggling to speak as he watches me, his eyes blinking rapidly as he tries to stay awake, but he's fading fast.

I force myself to blink back tears, trying to be the source of comfort for him as he passes on.

"It's okay," I whisper. My voice is shaky as I study him. He closes his mouth, watching me as I nod my head.

"It's okay... I'm going to be okay," I say again. I offer him a smile, placing my hand against his cheek as he struggles to breathe. We stare at each other, both of us having so much to say but no time left to speak. His breathing catches, and his eyes slowly drain of life as he looks at me, passing out of this world. My head drops against his chest, and I toss it back in a rage, screaming. Just as my cries fill the air, so does the slight rumble of the earth. I hear everyone around me beginning to panic as questions of what is happening fill the air.

I look at Cypress in rage.

"You killed him," I hiss. He doesn't look remorseful as he watches me, lifting his weapon directly in my face.

"One for the many." Just as the words leave his lips, the door swings open, and a panicked human stumbles through the door.

"We're under attack!"

My hands have been cuffed in front of me as I'm dragged out of the facility toward the front lines. There are multiple guns on me, including my brother's, as we march toward our possible deaths. The rumbling of the ground gets heavier, but the closer we get to the source of the vibrations, the heavier my chest begins to ache.

Jude is gone. Every time I close my eyes, the sight of his lifeless body fills my brain. Humanity is corrupt. Sky and Ezra were both right. They planned on rising from the ashes of our deaths, deeming them the superior society. They used all the information Jude and I could give them and planned to kill Remus once he rid the world of stray humans. I have nothing. Remus was right, and I was horribly wrong.

I look up as the dirt around us begins to shift, and that's when I see it: the result of his wrath. The buildings and rock at the entrance of the cavern come apart from the constant shift of gravity. The closer we get, the heavier the symbol on my throat pulses. It reminds me of the pulse on Remus's own symbol.

"Bring Ezra!" I hear Iriel barking more orders as he realizes just how outmatched we all are. I hear the sound of people screaming in the distance as they run for their lives, and for good reason, too.

I see him.

Remus walks with a terrifying expression. Each step he takes causes the world around him to quake and break apart from the sheer force of his power. His hair seems to gravitate around him, like a silhouette of death. He doesn't appear to be injured in the least. But he does look furious. He's in all white, though this time, he is actually wearing armor that adds to his intimidation. My footsteps falter even as the rebels around me continue forward. Iriel roughly grips me, shoving me along. I lose my footing, collapsing in the dirt, but he rips me up, roughly kicking me in the back.

"Go," he snaps.

Tears burn my eyes as I take in Remus. He looks as terrifying as he did the day we met. Except for this time, he has an actual agenda. Revenge for everything I've done, as well as the resistance. He is going to kill everyone here.

A woman steps next to him with similar armor on. Her hair is just as long as Remus's, falling past her waist. She shares similar features to Remus, the wicked glint in her eyes more than enough to tell us why she is here. Unlike Remus, she has a weapon in her hands. A weapon that I've never seen before but seems to emit from her palm. With each step she takes, the weapon seems to grow brighter.

I watch in horror as the first line of defense surrounds them up on the hill above us. They have the weapons I used against Remus aimed at them, along with heavy artillery guns. My eyes immediately scan the rebels for a sign of Sky, praying she isn't down there with them.

"You have to stop them. They're all going to die!" I scream as we continue our approach, but Iriel nor Cypress seem to care. A loud explosion sounds as all weapons are fired at once at the siblings. Xion immediately disappears, her presence gone just as Remus halts every weapon fired at him.

And then the blood bath begins.