Lucifer’s hushed, cruel chuckle reverberated in his mind while It simultaneously hissed between Errshek’s razored canines, “No.”
No choice.No way out.No other path.A quiet sound left him, an animal shoved into a corner.
He tightened his grip on Neyu and bent his head to smell her neck.Lavender and roses.“Neyu,” he whispered.What else could he say?
Somehow, she knew.His love always knew.Closing his eyes so tight that stars swam behind the lids, he felt more than heard her whimper against his chest, the answer to a request he couldn’t bear to speak.“There’s nothing to forgive.”
She trembled.Or was it him?Perhaps both.Her shuddering kiss touched his shoulder, and her whisper seemed to come from outside their bodies.“I’m ready.”
Words Neyu uttered to him, so long ago, crossed his memory.I won’t harm you unless it’s commanded of me, Dearest.All I want is the same reassurance from you.
Dearest, she called him.And had since then.
He kept his promise and hadn’t used this ability on Neyu, nor any of his kin since he made the vow to her.Yet unlocking the hierarchical talent was seamless, the latch still well-oiled, the key shiny and new.Saer didn’t think about what the end would bring, because thinking it and doing it would have been too at-odds inside his gut, his brain, his heart.
The innateDaemoenicability ignited at the core of everything Neyu was, and grew.She didn’t utter a sound until steam rose from her body, and then made the barest whimper.Her shudders intensified.
Goodbye, Neyuukhanickhraul.Lucifer’s voice in their minds, an odd mixture between pleasure and sorrow.Saer wouldn’t have thought it possible, but Neyu’s frame stiffened further.
He couldn’t let it be the last thing she heard.
Kissing her temple, Saer growled into her ear, “I love you, Neyu.Hold onto me.”He refused to tell her goodbye, but pushed more power into the blaze which burnt her from the inside out.It must have been agony, but she relaxed in his embrace.
She never cried out.Even when flames spontaneously erupted from her pores.
As the flames engulfed the Second, his body pulled the fiery tendrils into himself with instinct, soaking up her essence.The wounds on his body healed in a flash.Metaphysically, he swallowed everything which made Neyu, Neyu.Her vitality spiraled through him, her own power merging with his.That which made her Lust wove through his own essence of Pride, and he couldn’t hold back the sudden piercing cry rippling up from his toes, through his teeth, and out into the night.He roared not only from pain, nor from his loss of Neyu, or from the anguish of what he was forced to do.He screamed because—in the recesses of his heart-razed body and mind—it felt so horrifyinglygood.
For a flicker, he couldn’t tell where she ended and he began, until at last, with a dismal huff, the fire consuming Neyu snuffed out.
Saer stood in darkness, blind from the abrupt cessation of light.
He exhaled, and with that breath, the body which once housed Neyu crumbled.Clutching at it, his arms passed straight through her ashes in a billowing cloud.
Even though his body vibrated with energy, the First collapsed to his knees, palms buried in the dust which had, moments ago, been his beloved.
22
“Saer?”
Tears steamed off his ash-streaked face, ones Saer hadn’t known fell, and he looked to Errshek.This time, Envy’s face gazed at him with his usual olive-green eyes.
Lucifer was gone.
Despite the powerfulDaemoenicframe, Errshek’s eyes shone with unshed tears and the lips of his maw trembled.“I...I didn’t know.”The words sounded strange and low in the form he wore.
“You.”
“I didn’t mean—”
The realization expanded within him, the words all Saer needed to confirm Errshek’s guilt.Rage, thick as blood and magma-hot flooded through his veins as he pulled back ash-stained lips.“You told our maker.This isyourfault!”
Neyu.Unmade at his own hand to save the rest.To savehim.
Envy panted, on the verge of hysterics, and stuttered through a maw of razor-sharp teeth, “I-I just wanted—”
“You wanted?You wantedwhat?She’s dead because of you!”Saer bolted upright and thrust a hand forward.Errshek cried out as the eldestDaemoenicforced the spark of unmaking into his helpless body.“Why, Errshekenyarris?”
Howling, Envy writhed and tried to pull away.
