1
Angel
It’s a hellish task, to have to choose between two lives—even when you don’t give a shit about either of them. That’s why I’ve always tried to keep my heart locked away in a cold black box. It helps if you can help it, but recently I’ve been compromised; a pretty little dove has fluttered her way into my life and brought hell with her.
That’s where I’m at right now, surrounded by fire, being forced to pick between the only two people in this world who I actually care for: my brother or my girl—one has to die, and the decision seems to rest entirely on the barrel of my gun.
Sweat drips down my tensed fingers as I hover over the trigger, eyes big and wild and desperately searching for a way out of this mess that doesn’t involve the death of my past or my future. I’ve bullied my way out of so many battles before, but this time is different.
Catalina is supposed to be my future; the woman I run my empire beside; the eventual mother of my children, my queen. She’s the only stranger I’ve ever let past the cold gates of my icy heart, and now everything threatens to burn because of it.
My brother, on the other hand, is my past. Dante. He’s the kid I grew up with; the kid I practically raised after our parents tragically passed. He’s the reason I had to close off my heart in the first place. There was no room in our lives for anyone else, we already knew what it was like to lose and we weren’t about to put ourselves through that again. All we needed to survive was each other, but even that began to fall apart. Maybe, If I’d been more focused, then we’d never have lost our way and ended up here, on the edge of oblivion.
If I wanted to, I could blame Dante for leading us to this end—hell, I could even blame Catalina—but I won’t. I’m supposed to be the leader. This is my own failure; there’s no one to blame but myself.
Still, it hurts. I was ready to take control of my own legacy. I was ready to rule, but so far only chaos has ruled under my reign. Fire burns all around us. The weeds and the vines that litter these crumbling cobblestone walls are being singed away, right alongside the last bits of my strength. I’m supposed to be powerful, I’m supposed to be the young king, the transformed prince, the dark lord of the largest cartel on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, but I’ve been put in an unwinnable situation. This is the biggest decision I’ve ever had to make, and it’s so small. Just two lives hang in the balance—well, three, but I don’t count my own.
I’ve faced so much savagery before, so much violence, that it hardly even makes me blink anymore, but now the lives at stake are ones I don’t want to risk, lives I’ve seen grow and flourish before my very eyes, lives that now teeter on the brink of destruction. The duty has fallen on me to pluck one of these flowers from the face of the earth and sacrifice them to the flames, and if I don’t make a decision soon, then we may all perish.
This is not a position I would wish on my worst enemy, but it’s the one he has put me in, and to make him pay for it is to make my final move.
“Are you alright?” I grit my teeth and push forward, towards the stoic damsel stuck in between me and my bloody brother.
Catalina. My wild little jungle bird.
She’s been my light at the end of the tunnel, the sweet perfume that drowns out the smell of rotting corpses, the vision that distracts me from all the ghosts I’ve created with my own hands.
Little did I know that the light she stood behind all along was a raging fire, one that threatens to crumble my empire and fracture my family forever.
“She’s fine!” Dante barks back for her. My brother sways on the other side of Cat, drenched in dark blood. How much of it is his own and how much of it is from those he’s killed to get here isn’t clear, but I’m not interested in adding to the black stains—my life has already been stained enough.
“Shut the fuck up!” I growl at him, the older brother in me coming out with a frustrated fury. “These words aren’t for you. Cat...”
“I’m fine,” she quickly snaps. Liar. She’s not fine. The duels that have led us here are child’s play compared to the conflict I see raging behind her big brown eyes. Flames flicker in the reflection of her glossy skin. I want to lunge forward and get one last touch before my world implodes, but I know that will only speed up the apocalypse.
A great man needs to be patient, whether he’s in the garden or surrounded by fire. Be. Patient. That’s what my father always told me—some good that did him.
Be. Patient. For once.
Fine.
“What do you want?” I ask, more to the smoky black ether than to the cruel hand that has twisted my fate into something so disformed that I barely recognize it anymore.
“I want what’s mine!” I’m told in response.
“I’ve never stood in the way of that...” It’s the truth. I’m still not sure what’s happening. What has become of those I thought I knew so well? Right now, everything is as opaque as the dark smoke that billows up into the stifling air above us. The moon was out and bright earlier tonight, but now the memory of its white light is as distant as the memory of the life I once expected to live.
My future is black and indecipherable; I only know one thing for sure: it needs to be with Cat, otherwise, it’s not worth living at all.
“Everything was always handed to you,” the nearly unrecognizable voice accuses me through the ashes. “The keys to the kingdom, the hand of the princess, the hearts of the people, you’ve never earned any of it. Well, I’m here to make you earn it, and if you’re not up to the challenge, then I’ll take it all for myself. Including this tramp.”
My grip around the burning steel in my hand
tightens. I instinctively raise the barrel to my accuser. How dare he!? “You don’t get to talk to her like that!” I growl, ready to risk it all just in the name of vengeance. So much blood has been spilled so far; I’m sick of it, but if anyone threatens my girl again, I’ll paint the jungle with their insides.
“I never get to do anything!” The fucking child.
“You had everything anyone could ever ask for,” I jab back. “All the money and influence and none of the responsibility. You were living a dream that millions would kill to live, and you threw it all away for what? Because you were jealous?”
“I haven’t thrown anything away,” a cruel foreign grin crosses the lost soul’s cracked lips. “No, instead, I’ve taken it for myself. Your throne, your power, and now... your girl!”
Catalina flinches as I fire a warning shot around her. The clap cuts through the ashy air, but nothing changes.
“Not so patient anymore,” I’m teased.