I opened my mouth to sing. It was more instinct to save my friend than anything else. I shouldn’t. I knew that. My blood seemed to scream it at me.
Don’t sing. Don’t sing. Don’t sing.
I could save Exie, but I would lose myself.
I would give Nix everything.
Nix shook her harder. “I’m going to kill her if you don’t start singing. Now’s not the time to weigh your options. You have none. Sing or I’ll break her neck.” His body had elongated and filled out like before. I could see the god in him swelling and taking over.
He was terrifying. He was evil incarnate and every nightmare come to life.
I had no doubt he would follow through with this threat. It was up to me to either sing or let Exie die.
Obviously, there was only one choice for me.
Exie clutched Nix’s forearms, struggling to pull herself up. Her blonde hair had become limp and matted over the last few months. It lacked the luster and shine that had always been her signature. We’d always teased her about looking just like Malibu Barbie, but she wasn’t that person anymore.
She was a ghost of her former self. More than her beauty had faded… she’d lost so much of her soul.
“Let me go,” she croaked on a gasp of air.
“What was that?” Nix smiled at her. “Can you hear her, Siren?”
He loosened his grip just long enough for her to repeat, “Let me go.”
His voice was carefully controlled when he said, “Help her, Ivy. She wants to be let go.”
But I knew my friend. Even though she could no longer speak, even though his grip had tightened until her eyes became glassy and her arms weakened with lack of oxygen, I knew she wasn’t talking to him.
She held my gaze and she pleaded with me to let her go.
I had a hard time accepting what she was asking. I physically couldn’t make myself give up on her.
“No,” I cried.
Nix misunderstood me, just like he’d misunderstood her. “No?” He bellowed. “You dare say no to me after all of this? You tried to run, but I still found you! You tried to be free, but you are stillmine! Your friend is about to die unless you start singingthis goddamn second!”
Exie struggled to shake her head. “Please,” she mouthed. “Let me be free.”
It was that command that I couldn’t say no to. I knew what she was asking me. I might not have been able to imagine all of the horrors of her last year, but I knew what it was like to be free and I could not deny my friend that simple request.
She couldn’t be free on this earth or in this life. Even if I somehow managed to defeat Nix after I sung, she would never be liberated from his memory or the terrors that he’d forced her to face.
I closed my eyes briefly and imagined the Elysian Fields. Their sweetness and splendor. My friend wouldn’t be forced to endure the Underworld. She had lived through hell on earth.
She would be a hero for saving me from singing.
She would be blessed.
Her eternal life would be bliss and absolute freedom.
When I opened my eyes I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t do anything but mourn the loss of someone I had held as close as a sister.
“I love you,” I mouthed to her.
She saw my goodbye and the loveliest smile appeared on her face. Even while her eyes rolled to the back of her head, even while her body started shaking uncontrollably, even while Nix’s hold became impossible to endure, she became beautiful again.
“Thank you,” she rasped.
