Get out!
His body hammered into the ground and would have knocked the wind out of his lungs if he possessed control over them.He choked instead, his chest threatening to burst apart.Smoke erupted from his throat, out his mouth.
My love is endless.Is it not enough for you?Its voice remained icy and calm even as Saer’s anatomy twisted against the earth.
This isn’t love!
Against logic, Saer’s body lifted and slammed back into the ground, bones crunching, teeth rattling.His vision darkened further, a flood of ink covering his eyes.You are nothing without me, Saerkhanum.I molded you, I gave you life, I gave you everything, you aremine!Lucifer’s bewitching declarations strained as Saer struggled to retake control, fought with everything he was.
The torture was a scrap compared to the fallen angel’s proclamations searing into Pride’s brain.While his frame contorted and warped, he reached for the things he knew to be true.
Saer pulled on his last view of the Twins, the warm feel of Alus’s embrace under Arek’s heedful stare.
You mean everything to me.Anguish throbbed through Lucifer’s words.
Runeak’s humorless mien and fierce passion for loyalty.She bowed before no one—except the fallen angel in his head.
You are the reason I live, I thrive, I flourish, my First.Impressions of caring, coaxing, and seduction bled into Lucifer’s words, all while his insides scorched and sizzled.
Errshek and Kalia’s uncertainty and wariness, a need for one another’s company.
You cannot walk away from me.Inclinations of dread, blossoming and spreading.
Neyu.His beautiful, defiant, beloved Neyu.
You will not walk away from me.Iownyou!Desperate lies.For that’s what they were, what they’d always been.
Outside, only pain existed.Saer turned inward—and hunted.Frantically, he scoured within his own mind.For the fallen angel.For a shred of hope.For a way to save himself.
Not yours.
Even his mind-voice sounded weaker.Pride dove deeper, scouring for whatever brought the fallen angel to him, the connection, the lead.Blind metaphysical reaches while fire melted his insides.
Of course you are, Lucifer said, a parent cooing at a misbehaving child.
Not yours!
Something glowed.Tethers.In the swirling chaos of his subconscious, two shimmering, golden cords vibrated.His very essence anchored one end of them.Lucifer’s presence held the other.
The same gold had splashed behind his eyes when he made his vow, when he spoke his first words.He remembered seeing them, even if their significance eluded him in that moment.
Two tethers.Tying him to Lucifer.
Why were there two?
Somehow, without hands, he touched one, and it resonated to his core.
He grazed the other—identical—rope, and it sent a traumatic shockwave through him.
No one ever has, ever will, ever could love you as I do.
The lie of Lucifer’s words mired itself in truth, and the more volatile tether gleamed brighter.Saer steeled himself and dove for the first cord—the one eager to accept his will.Agony screamed through his physical body.The first licks of flames punctured his pores, tiny flecks of unmaking.
He seized the half of the bond he could control, and invoked his desire.Sever the tie.Snap the leash.Break the chain.
He pulled, he fought, he wrenched and screamed from his mind.
NOT...YOURS!
