“I’ll have your back,” Slate said. “Don’t worry, Princess. We’ll make it out of here alive.”
“Same to you,” I muttered, focused on the task before us as I took off toward the chaos in the library.
I spotted a Druid and Infernal locked in combat and bolted in their direction. Summoning air, I formed it into a whip and wrapped it around the Infernal’s throat. His eyes were dead, as if there were no one inside the body that lived; they were solely there to kill. I jerked the air whip back, snatching the man away from the Druid long enough for him to slice his head from his neck with what appeared to be a katana. With a glance, he nodded to me in appreciation.
I moved along, spotting a female Druid being overpowered by two Infernals. Creeping up behind the Infernals, I slit deep gashes in their Achilles tendons, making them collapse to their knees. The eeriness of their stoic expressions as they fell to the floor chilled my soul, but they didn’t remain there for long before the woman decapitated them both in one clean sweep. It all happened so quickly that I couldn’t move out of the way in time to avoid its viscous black blood spattering across my face.
“Gray, to your right,” Slate said from behind me.
I managed to use my daggers to block a sword from colliding with my shoulder at the last second. The strength of the obsidian-veined Infernal forced me back several steps, and I wielded my air as a long blade that pierced the heart of the dark being. Straight-faced and unperturbed, he glanced down to where a dark pool of black blood seeped from the invisible wound. I knocked his sword away, leveled him with a kick in the wound, and crossed my daggers to form theshape of the letter X, slicing my blades across his neck, opening it wide but leaving the head intact. Before he could do anything in retaliation, a sword severed through the side of his neck, spraying more dark blood onto me.
“Fucking hell, could we stop getting this shit on me? It’s disgusting.”
Slate rolled his eyes. “I think there are more important things to worry about right now, babe.”
Using my sleeve, I wiped the blood off my face. Suddenly, a voice entered my mind.“Kill yourself. Take your daggers and jam them into the sides of your neck.”
My vision blurred, my stare blanking out as I felt compelled to listen. For some reason, I didn’t see the need for my existence anymore. I was more of a hindrance and liability than anything. Not even an hour ago, Slate had basically insinuated that I was ungrateful earlier, so he would be better without me. I’d failed the Elementals who’d depended on me, the Kinetics rightfully hated me, and I’d betrayed Chrome when he needed me most. I deserved to die. Ineededto die.
I stared at the battle around me as if it happened through glass. I angled the tips of my blades on either side of my neck and was just about to follow through when a heavy body slammed into me from behind.
“Gray! What thefuckare you doing?” The male voice sounded so far away, like it came from the end of a long tunnel.
I thrashed against the body that pinned me to the ground, needing desperately to end it all. To make everyone’s life easier. The worlds would be a much better place without me. I was a failure. A disappointment. Weak. Childish. Selfish…
“Gray! Stop!” A hand slapped my cheek, but I barely felt it. All I felt was the hollowness inside me, the absolute desperation to take my own life and leave this world behind. It gripped my heart and squeezed until I felt a tug on my soul, like something tried to steal it for themselves. I stopped fighting against the body on top of me. Islackened, finding my cheek pressed against the coarse ground and my wrists pinned beside my head. My jaw drifted open as I screamed within my mind, but I didn’t think any sound came from my lips.
The body relieved its pressure from my back, leaving me there to suffer in my silent agony until my soul left this world.
Each moment that passed, I felt myself waning, the pain cutting deeper and deeper into my essence. My only complaint was that it wasn’t happening fast enough.
But then it stopped.
The cacophony of the battle crashed back into me, the pain within me ebbing away. My suicidal thoughts dissipated as if someone had snapped their fingers.
The sounds of metal swords and death cries registered in my ears again.
I gasped as if I’d been holding my breath too long as I came back to myself.
What the fuck just happened?
“Gray!” Slate shouted, his voice panicked as he dropped into a squat beside me, lifting my chin to meet his eyes. “Fucking hell. Don’t do that again.”
“What happened?” I croaked, confused.
Slate turned his focus to my waist and began patting down my torso as if checking for injuries. I was too dazed to bat his hands away. “Infernal. He was two seconds from depleting you. It seems that the Infernal had the power of psychic control, too,” he added in reference to my suicide attempt. “Are you okay? Weak?” His eyes searched me, flitting over my head, face, neck, and stomach.
I swallowed and nodded. “I’ll be okay.” Shaken by what just happened, I held out a quivering hand to my Guardian to help me get back on my feet. “I’m definitely weak, though. All I want to do is sleep. And my legs feel like they’re about to collapse, Slate,” I said breathlessly. After everything I’d experienced, even nearly dying from redfern poisoning, I’d never felt weakness of this magnitude before.
“Well then…” Chrome’s voice appeared from the melee, causing my fear to spike. “That works out perfectly for me then, doesn’t it?”
In a blur that my eyes could barely perceive, he suddenly appeared before us with an unhinged grin, his eyes blown wide in excitement.
I was in no condition to fight him, but Slate stopped him before he reached me. The two became a whirlwind of clashing swords. Slate’s light fended off Chrome’s shadows while they both fought to kill. I’d never seen such a murderous look in Slate’s eyes before, and I’d never seen him truly fight to his full potential, but he wielded both his Angel and Kinetic abilities while matching Chrome step for step with his blade.
“You can’t have her like this, Chrome! Even if I have to kill you myself.” His elbow smashed into Chrome’s jaw.
Chrome laughed, as if he didn’t feel the harsh blow. “I knew you’d be a problem.” And in a move neither of us saw coming, one of his shadows broke free, striking Slate in the back of his neck. He stilled.
