Chapter Twenty- Nine
Draco
“That’s it. I can’t be silent today. Not after everything I felt at that funeral.” Rose was up on her feet, staring her brother down. We’d all been sitting in the chill room silently, everyone dealing with Esme’s death in their own way.
“You told us not to tell her, and look what happened. She died! She died, Phillip.” I didn’t even need to see her face to know tears were falling down her soft cheeks.
Phillip said nothing, as he had since that night. The smile he normally wore had been missing ever since.
“You knew this was all going to happen, and you let it happen anyway. Who’s next, Phillip? Who are you willing to let die for this future you’ve chosen for us? Me? Mina? AJ? Asher, and Echo, and Leon, and Lilith? Charles? Who, Phillip? One of ours is gone because we hid Dorian’s role from her. She was in love with him, deeply in love. I felt it while she used her power to save his life. We could have prevented all of this. Hell, she had powers, and we never even knew.”
She didn’t mention my name because there was no way for me to die, even if I’d wished I could join them in death if they were there. Living without them—without her—would gut me.
Rose was desperate to end the pain and suffering that had taken over everyone. But she was just as helpless as I was. To use her powers to make others feel better, she would have to feel better herself, and that wasn’t the case. Rose felt everything too deeply.
I tried to pull her back to sit in my lap, but she was out of my arms and standing in front of Phillip, who was looking at her with a tick in his locked jaw. He was in pain. Probably in more pain than any of us. I could see it, but she was too blind right now to understand his suffering.
The movement was fast, and every mouth in the room dropped as her petite hand sliced through the air and struck her brother across the cheek.
Instead of coming back to me, she left the room in sobs.
The rest of the crew sat there, trying to process everything. One by one, they all left to go grieve, leaving Phillip and me alone after Mina kissed his red cheek and walked out.
“It’s not easy,” I said, knowing what he was feeling right now.
His eyes collided with mine and he knew I understood.
“She was our only chance to make it all right.” He was breaking, tears he hadn’t let the others see were started to spill over his eyelashes.
“I don’t wanna know the future. It’s always been a cursed power, in my opinion, but I know what it’s like to make sacrifices. It’s never an easy choice, but someone had to make it.”
I’d been red with rage when fighting Dorian. Centuries of pain had taken over, and I couldn’t see anything but his end.
“The burden of her death doesn’t lie solely upon your shoulders. It’s mine and his, too.”
I should have seen what was right in front of me. That something was powerful enough to make Esme choose her fate. Dorian should have seen it too—hell, maybe he did, but ignored it.
Whether he knows it or not, he loved her too.
I’d seen it in his eyes when she was gone.
It was the same look I gave Rose that moment when she had put herself in danger to save me. Love that could reach the stars.
I didn’t know his history.
But being a demigod gave me a good idea. He was the only one of his kind. Everyone else had been put down one way or another. That in itself would stir and make even a sane man go mad.
Somehow, he’d known about me, and throughout history had been trying to sabotage me. He played his part well, though, I’d give him that. We had no clue until Echo pieced it all together. I’d read the files of his journal after that. His hatred of me was palpable, and he would stop at nothing to see me lose everything, just like him.
I’d seen the look on his face at the funeral. He was pissed to hell, and more focused than before to see the world end.
Let the freaks free, and the humans would become their playthings.
“It’s only going to get worse,” Phillip said, his hands covering his face in frustration. I knew the feeling. Everyone could feel the air shifting, turning dangerous, as if waiting for a spark to ignite it.
“Always feels this way before war.”
The anticipation of what would happen, the fear that you could die, and the sadness knowing that you will probably lose those close to you…I would do everything I could to stop that from happening. No more loss, no more suffering. I stood, not sure what exactly I could do right now, but I had to start somewhere.
