My arms burn, and something spreads over them as I continue to stare in disbelief.
He loved me.
He came for me.
He… He died because I’m weak.
I choke on a sob, but it only powers my fury as the burning sensation continues down my arms. Glancing down, I see the black ink spreading, mimicking the same pattern on Zee’s arms, and the glow in my eyes doesn’t stop.
Victor’s breath catches in his throat as my glare turns on him, and a thunderous growl emanates from my chest.
“Better run, Victor,” the cold voice of a woman next to me taunts. “Aquarius don’t cry.”
Metal s
naps and falls away from me, and Victor trips over the body of the man I love. The man who died because of me.
He takes off running just as I grab the cell door, and it flies off its hinges with barely any effort. A dark haze fills me, and Zee becomes all I see as I drop to his side. Self-loathing fills me. Darkness consumes me. Hatred burns harder than it ever has before.
And the tears keep falling as I look down into his lifeless eyes.
My fault. This is all my fault.
“Leah,” a familiar voice says, but I don’t move. All I can do is run my hands through the soft hair that slowly loses that beautiful color in the tips and all of it turns black.
My breaths are coarse and painful, feeling like sandpaper grinding along the insides of my throat. I feel like I’m sucking against a vacuum for each new breath after a while, and a heaviness settles in the pit of my stomach like a gnawing, insatiable creature is preparing to tear me apart from the inside.
His black veins and cold skin only serve as a sick reminder of the brutal and undeniable truth. His heart is quiet and still under my fingertips, and I sob harder as I cradle his head to my chest, letting his hair play across my lips. I’m so numb that I barely feel the tickle of it.
“Leah, it’s Aunt Masie. Please, sweetie, you have to snap out of it.”
A carnal, bone-chilling roar pounds the walls as something tears at my throat, and it takes a second to realize the sound is coming from me. My eyes fall back down to the motionless man in my arms, and my sobs come out harder as each breath turns into a hiccup and a labored wheeze.
“I’m… so… sorry,” I try to say, but it’s a blubbering mess. No. No. NO!!
He remains still in my arms, and the gnawing feeling in my stomach almost makes me retch. I start rocking while holding him, feeling the pain ebb as fury unfolds inside me.
“I love you,” I whisper as more tears fall, scalding my cheeks as Zee refuses to wake up. “I love you so much. I’m so sorry.”
The words end on a choked sob just as the heavy footfalls of more soldiers fill the basement. My eyes snap up, finding that murderous son of a bitch gone, and gunshots fire hard and fast.
My hand flies up, and all the bullets pull to me like I’m a magnet as I draw them in, wanting them to destroy me so I can be with Zee.
The bullets slam against my chest, shatter, and fall to the ground in tiny pieces. My heart fills with hopelessness, and I growl louder as they stumble back on their heels. Something inside of me snaps, and my vision slowly turns into a tunnel.
Grabbing the sword that asshole shoved into Zee’s back, I gently pull it out, feeling the heat of more tears as the metal slides free.
They’ll all die by the blade they used on him. No one walks out alive.
“Leah! Get me out so I can help you!” that woman screams, but I ignore her. She’s not like me. She’s one of them.
There is one like me, and I kick down the cell door where she is.
With a few hard yanks, the chains land in a heap on the floor, and I turn to walk away, glancing back her way. The girl with a swollen eye looks at me with concern, and her eyes flick over my shoulder as she slowly crawls out of the chains that no longer hold her down.
“What do you want to do, Leah?” she asks softly.
“Kill them all.”