Anger flares inside me, a bright spark amidst the darkness, and I latch onto it with everything I have. It's all that's keeping me from shattering completely.
"Not everything, asshole," I snarl, tossing my hair over my shoulder with as much sass as I can muster while facing down the personification of evil itself. "If you think I'm some wilting wallflower just because I give a damn about people, you've got another thing coming."
As I look around, I square my shoulders, straightening to my full—albeit unimpressive—height.
Waiting.
"See, the way I figure it," I continue, unable to resist throwing a little extra vinegar in my tone, "being pathetic is more your shtick than mine. I mean, come on—groveling at the feet of your demonic sugar daddy, lapping up whatever crumbs of powerhe deigns to toss your way?" I shake my head in mock disappointment. "That's just sad, dude. Have you no sense of self-respect?"
Azrael materializes before me; his handsome features contort with rage, but I barrel on, undaunted. If I'm going down, I might as well go down swinging...and give him a few well-deserved verbal jabs in the process.
"But I guess that's what happens when you're a sniveling little bitch who can't cut it on his own merits," I taunt with a derisive snort. "You latch onto the first big bad who promises to make you a real boy, and next thing you know, you're his bitch doing all the dirty work while he sits on his throne getting his cloven hooves massaged."
The area grows very cold. My veins turn to ice. "Oh, my mistake then," he growls, the words laced with venom.
The shadows have now engulfed the clearing in an inky shroud. I reach for my time-warping abilities, grasping at the threads of reality and pulling them taut until the world around me slows to a crawl.
The manifested shadows drift like tendrils of smoke, their movements languid and ponderous in this dilated plane of existence. I zero in on the nearest wisp, channeling a concentrated beam of celestial light that lances through the gloom and strikes true.
The shadow recoils like a wounded serpent, Azrael's anguished roar echoing through the stillness as time snaps back into its natural flow with dizzying force. I'm flung backward by an unseen blow, the world spinning as I crash to the ground in a bone-jarring impact.
Dazed, I struggle to push myself upright, blinking away the stars that dance across my vision. But before I can fully regain my bearings, a blur of movement catches my eye.
Azrael is on Damon, his clawed hand wrapped around my brother's throat as he hauls his broken form into the air with sickening ease. Damon fights feebly, his struggles growing weaker by the heartbeat as Azrael's merciless grip tightens.
"Azrael, no!" The scream tears from my lungs, raw and primal. "Let him go!"
But my pleas fall on deaf ears. With a sickening crack that seems to reverberate through my very soul, Damon's neck snaps, his body going limp and crumpling to the ground in a boneless heap.
I can't breathe—can't think—can't process what I've just witnessed as the world narrows to a single, horrifying point—my baby brother, broken and still, his life snuffed out before my eyes.
"DAMON!!"
The scream rips from my throat, shredding my vocal cords until all that's left is a hoarse, anguished wail. Tears streak down my face, scalding and salty, as ragged sobs wrack my body with the force of a hurricane.
"I didn't say he would leave here alive, now did I?" Azrael seethes. "You should learn, Dani. Never to trust me or anything I say."
Damon is dead. Gone—ruthlessly ripped away from me by the same evil son of a bitch that stole my parents, my childhood, my innocence. Adrian, John. The list of people this piece of shit has taken from me never ends.
A part of me dies with Damon at this moment, the fragile threads of my sanity fraying until they're ready to snap completely. My mind teeters on the edge of a black abyss, threatening to shatter into a million jagged pieces.
What's the point anymore?
After everything I've sacrificed and endured, how much more can one person take before they simply...break? I've given my heart, soul, and humanity to serve a destiny I never asked for. And for what? More death? More unendurable agony?
I want to surrender, to let the darkness swallow me whole and find oblivion's cold embrace. Rhyland, Erik, Seraphina, Emily, Lucian...even they can't undo this loss, can't fill the void Damon's death has carved into my very being.
I've lost too much and witnessed too many horrors—felt too much pain.
He's taken everything from me that I hold dear.
Damon's sacrifice is the final straw that shatters what little remains of my spirit into a million jagged shards. As Azrael's shadow falls over me again, I wonder if the cold caress of oblivion would be a welcome reprieve from this endless cycle of torment.
I crawl to Damon's body, ultimately defeated. "D-Dam-on." I choke the words.
The Atherite stone—it has to work. it worked on Emily—
"You know," Azrael muses, his voice a dark caress that sets my skin crawling with disgust. "It's so easy to break you, weak humans. All it takes is playing on your bleeding heart and poof." He chuckles, the sound grating like nails on a chalkboard. "You're as useless as flies on shit."
