Elliot didn’t understand any of this.
Knight could see Fane? He could grab him? Pull him out of Elliot and hold him by the throat?
With a roar that seemed to come from the very depths of his chest, Knight smashed Fane against the same wall that Fane had earlier thrown Elliot at, his long hair bristling and standing up as if lifted by static electricity.
“You bitch! How dare you tell him things like that? You don’t know me, you don’t know who I love, you don’t know what I think. You are nothing! You don’t even have a body, because you don’t deserve one,” Knight yelled, pushing the specter, which seemed so material in contact with Elliot, against the wall as if Fane weighed close to nothing.
“Leave me be!” Fane choked out, desperately turning his head toward Laurent and reaching out for him, but his dream body was already halfway to the door, thrown over Beast’s shoulder. “You don’t know the nature of my conversations with Elliot.”
Elliot sat up on the bed with his head still dizzy. He watched one of Knight’s thumbs press into Fane’s throat so hard that dark blue liquid burst out of the hole they made, and Fane screamed out so desperately Elliot had to cover his ears for fear of his brain exploding.
“I heard every word, you piece of shit. You don’t deserve to be near him. You never deserved him. He is not plain. It’s you who’s so empty that he needed to murder people so that he could feel something! But I’m here now, and I won’t let you have him,” hissed Knight, powerful like a titan against the menace that was William Fane. He yanked Fane away from the wall and smashed him into the floor with so much strength the wood cracked. So did Fane’s skull, spraying Knight’s face with a ghostly blue that also drizzled out of the broken head and pooled on the planks.
Elliot crawled to the edge of the bed, amazed at what Knight was able to do with the soul of a man who’d caused Elliot so much grief. He was too shocked for words and his tongue still bled profusely, but he watched on as Fane grasped at Knight’s forearm in desperation.
“Elliot! Save me from him, please! Know mercy!” Fane yelled when Knight punched Fane’s chest so hard he broke through the ribcage, making even more of the blue blood pour out around the spectral corpse. Full of clots as if it was crushed berries, it spread over the floor more each time Fane writhed under Knight.
Knight’s entire hands were now covered in the shiny blue writing, the sigils pulsing with every twitch of muscle and shedding pale light on the predatory grin that twisted Knight’s features.
Elliot sneered at Fane’s pleading. “Die,” he spat despite blood dripping out of his lips.
Knight looked back at him, breathless, with eyes that burned like two white lamps with only a shadow for the iris. The fluorescent blue clung to his skin as he smashed one fist down, over and over until Fane’s voice was so distorted no words could be understood from his screams. His breastbone cracked, and Knight’s hand dove into the iridescent cavity inside.
Fane didn’t look like himself anymore. His face wasn’t physically broken but twisted, as if sucked into a whirlwind that centered somewhere between his eyes. The toothless, distorted mouth opened in a wordless scream, and then Knight ripped out a tiny blue ball marked with the dark sigil of the demon. Knight crushed it with a clang that echoed throughout the entire building, as if a crystal chandelier had just fallen to the floor.
In the same moment, Fane turned into ash, and then disappeared completely, along with the blots of blue that covered the walls, the bed, and Knight himself just a second ago.
Everything looked like it had before, and only the cracked floor and the burn scars on the backs of Knight’s hands remained as proof that the things Elliot had just seen actually happened.
Knight let out a laborious exhale and fell forward, barely keeping himself from tumbling to the floor. The long hair obscured his face as he struggled to sit with his back resting against the bed.
“Knight? Knight? Are you okay?” Elliot rolled down from the bed, only now realizing just how much he’d missed being warm. The cold, evil soul of William Fane had really left his bones. Stunned, he pressed his body against Knight in the only hug he could give with his arms restrained. “He’s gone…”
Knight’s head rolled to Elliot’s shoulder. He was pale, with some of his hair clinging to his sweaty cheeks and forehead, but he nodded, opening eyes that looked as if he was about to fall asleep.
“You’re free.”
Elliot looked around them, even though he knew in his heart it was true. Fane was nowhere to be seen. “How did you do that? How… What’s that on your hands? Please help me out of this.” He wiggled helplessly in the straitjacket, dying to embrace his savior.