Xander watched Thomas step over Nicolai’s hunched body on the ground to reach Striga as she began to restore the air around the Lamiae, but Malefica got to him first. With one hand, she grabbed his shoulder and pulled him close to face her, tilting her head to give Striga a dark smile.
“I told you not to fall in love, sister.”
Thomas fell back away from her, his body hitting the floor with a dull thud, and a dagger protruding from his chest.
A sound tore through the silence, the same scream that Xander had heard in Divina’s vision. Only this time it wasn’t a phantom sound in his mind. It was real, emanating from Striga’s frail form as she collapsed to her knees beside Thomas.
The air crackled, the scent of burning sharp in his nostrils as tendrils of raw electricity erupted from her, lashing out at Malefica and Caligo. The blast slammed into them, streaks of bright white energy searing into the air, hurling them backwards against the wall.
Xander coughed and spluttered as a gust whooshed through the room, abruptly returning the air in his chest with a brute force. As his lungs gratefully expanded, he lunged for Malefica, grasping her neck in one hand as he delved into her mind. Justas he’d expected, he found Lilith watching everything through the evil Incantrix’s eyes.
Xander’s control, usually a carefully cultivated shield, shattered under the weight of everything. The raw agony radiating from Striga set his blood boiling, the terror from the Lupi made his teeth chatter, the anger and disbelief from his brothers felt like a punch to the stomach. It all coalesced into a burning fury that demanded release, and he couldn’t contain it, not even if he’d wanted to.
His power stormed within him and surged outward, the shadows in the room writhing in response and rushing to cloak him in impenetrable darkness. He couldn’t tell which feelings were his own, or Striga’s, or his brothers’, or Thomas’ as he lay on the ground taking his last breaths. He couldn’t tell if he was staring at Malefica or Lilith herself, and he didn’t care. Not as his talons extended from his fingers and sunk deep into the side of her neck. Not as he pulled away, leaving her throat completely torn open.
Malefica fell to the floor, spluttering on her own blood, her vocal chords dangling from Xander’s hand. He stared down at her, feeling a twisted sense of satisfaction knowing that Lilith was watching him kill her favoured daughter.
Her eyes, wide with shock and horror, locked onto Xander’s shadowed figure as a strangled gurgle escaped her lips. She tried to call for her brother, but Xander could sense a shift in the darkness as Caligo summoned the Intermundum’s shadows to take him home, leaving her there to die. And then her body spasmed once, twice, until she went completely still.
The glorious satisfaction that bloomed in his chest dulled the burning within him momentarily, but it only rose again as he turned back to the group and watched as they all stood in silence, allowing Striga’s sobs to fill the room.
She cradled Thomas’ head in her lap, stroking his grey hair away from his face, begging him not to leave her. Deion was beside her, his palms pressed against Thomas’ chest as he tried to heal him, but the look on his face told Xander all he needed to know. There was no fixing this.
Thomas’ gaze flitted to Xander. “Take care of them,” he stuttered, his breaths ragged and sharp as he struggled to hold on. “Promise me, you will take care of my family.”
Xander nodded, not trusting his own voice to not break and opting instead to speak into his mind.I swear it, my friend. I will keep them safe.
He stepped away to allow Striga privacy in her husband’s last breath, to allow her to say goodbye to the man she loved, the man who saved her from an eternity of slavery to Lilith. If it weren’t for Thomas, Xander would never have created the Courts in the first place, Striga and Divina would never have lived their long happy lives, and the world would have been destroyed long ago.
The Daemons stood still as Thomas’ chest stopped moving, his heart stopped beating, and Striga’s cries became roars of anguish. Xander had lost so many over the years, but he had never experienced a loss quite like this.
The sight of Striga’s body collapsing, the broken screams that ripped through her—it was like a physical blow straight through Xander’s chest. It was her pain, unfiltered and immediate, flooding his senses as if it were his own. He tried to put a damper on his Manipuli power, tried to pull back from the screaming chorus of emotions that assailed him, but then a new sensation erupted.
It wasn’t emotional, but a sharp and brutal piercing through his skull. The agony eclipsed everything, even the intensity of Striga’s pain. His vision was blinded, his ears ringing, and hecollapsed to his knees on the floor, growling and clawing at his head.
Traitor.
The word rang clear in his mind.
You betrayed me. You defied me.
It was a voice.Hervoice.
You thought you were free? You thought you could keep them safe?
One by one, Lilith’s claws sank into his mind, attaching his body to a set of strings that she held in her hands. He saw his friends surround him as he thrashed on the floor, concern and worry evident upon their faces, but none of that mattered.
He wanted to kill. He wanted to destroy. He wanted to feed.
So he did.
Xander tilted his head sideways as he heard the hatch door open, bringing his mind back to the present. Deion and Edward came down first, before they helped Striga climb down after them. Edward slowly approached Xander, his hands stretched out before him, ready to attempt to put him to sleep.
Xander waved his free hand towards them in greeting, showing them he was back to his human form. The two Lamiae quickly untied him from the table and helped him sit up. Striga remained lurking in the corner of the room, watching him carefully, as if waiting for his control to slip again.
“I am myself,” Xander tried to reassure them. “Please, do not worry. I am in control of myself again.”
As he spoke, he could taste the bitterness of the lie on his tongue. She was still there, she was always there. She just wasn’t holding the reins right now.
