Chapter Thirty-One
Dorian
“You’ve lost, and we are free.”
My battle cry bellowed throughout the city as Draco fell, sword to his chest.
He would heal, of course, but he would never truly live.
My army raised their fists in the air in victory.
My eyes landed on the dead below. I did give them a chance to join me, to give up their righteous Hero Society and just be free. It wasn’t like I wanted to take over the world and become their king. I wanted people with powers to come into the sun, to be who they were meant to be. Not some superhero race who watched over mankind from the shadows.
“We won’t ever give up. Remember that, Dorian,” Echo called out. She was completely bare, her body covered in dirt and blood after having fought in her animal forms. Asher was by her side, but there was blood rushing down his head. He would survive. I’d seen it. So would she.
They looked down at their fallen comrades. Phillip’s sister was lying on the ground, eyes closed, hands lying on her bleeding stomach where Draco had placed them gently after she died.
Leon and Lilith were embraced together on the grass. She had sacrificed herself to save his good soul from going to hell, damning them both to perish together. At least they had that.
Phillip rushed to Draco’s side and pulled out the sword in one quick motion, blood pouring out from his wound. I hoped it hurt.
“You chose wrong, Griffin, and you lost everything.” I spared a glance at him, my words laced with venom.
“You never deserved the love she gave you,” he spat at me and lunged.
I fell back against my bed, tired from having trained hard today. The vision was still the same, after having checked through them again for the tenth time today. The future I wanted was the leader in probability. It was war, and in the end, I would have my victory.
“You never deserved her,” I scoffed aloud. Everyone was making it a point to tell me that, both now and in the future. I couldn’t change anything, even if I could.
I shut down that thought because there was no point in entertaining it. Esme was better than me, and they were all right. I didn’t deserve her love. I didn’t want it. Told her that from the beginning, but she fell in love anyway.
My eyes closed, and I could still see her face. Time would go on, and I doubt I would ever forget the way her eyes would spark with fire when I pushed her. The way her lips parted without her knowledge when I wrapped my lips around her icing-covered fork.
Every moan she’d make when I was inside her.
“Dammit, Esme.”
I cursed and sat up swiftly.
Every time I thought of Esme, all it did was piss me off.
No matter what I did, I couldn’t stop thinking about her.
The way she looked at me tenderly when she pushed her power into me, healing me with her life force.
Look to the stars and find my love in the dark.
It wasn’t her love I wanted, but that didn’t stop me from flashing up to the roof of my mansion to stare at the dark sky. The clouds had been covering up the stars since she died, as if she took their light with her in the afterlife.
I knew nothing of what awaited people after death now.
Was the God that many believed in real, and had a heaven for them in the sky?
Or was there nothing, now that the underworld had no keeper, and the rivers had dried up?
A mystery that even stumped me.
The wind was cold, and bit against my cheeks, but I paid it no mind. I was used to pain, and so the chill was nothing to me.
