Audrira nodded, her eyes watering. “I did, but I didn’t do that to her body. I swear it.”
Sin nodded, choosing to believe her. “Then for your sake, and Gideon’s, I’ll make it quick.”
Audrira cried out in pain and terror, and Sin felt Audrira’s magic churning inside her. Sin spat up blood, crumbling to her knees as the walls began to cave in.
“No,” Sin breathed. She refused to die this way. She hadn’t learned to ignore pain her whole life just to succumb to it now.
Sin’s groan turned into a scream as she forced herself to stand, her muscles tearing at the seams, ready to break under the strain.
Every nerve felt like it was set aflame, her vision blurring in and out with the pain. Sin coughed, blood spilling down her chin, as she walked towards the door. Audrira’s magic threatening her resolve, but she wouldn’t waver.
Not today.
She forced herself through the door, each step a desperate battle until she finally reached the outside.
Sin coughed, and though Audrira’s violent, vengeful magic was subsiding, it took everything Sin had to keep going.
Max’s green eyes flashed in her vision, and Sin’s head snapped up, finding Gideon running towards them.
She would make it. She had to.
She couldn’t let everything she had fought for—every sacrifice—be for nothing. The sight of Gideon pushed her forward, driving her through the haze of exhaustion. She would make sure he survived, and then she would make it to Max.
He was waiting for her.
Her future was waiting for her.
And for that, she realized, she would accept claiming those deaths.
Gideon
Sin emerged from the building. The sun blazed down on her blood and debris-covered flesh. Her chest heaved as Gideon closed the distance.
She struggled to take several steps away from the structure. Blood poured from her mouth as she faced the shaking building with screams emerging from it.
One of those screams was Audrira’s. Fear and apprehension gripped Gideon as he braced himself for what Sin would do. She was holding up the building with everything she had.
He wanted to move, to intervene, but his feet felt rooted in place. The woman he once loved was screaming, and yet all he could feel was the bitter tightening in his gut.
She clenched her fist, her fingers trembling with barely restrained power. A heartbeat later, the building groaned, the stone walls fracturing like a spider’s web, cracks splintering outwards.
The ground seemed to vibrate, a low rumble that built into a roar, and then, with one final tilt of her head, the entire structure imploded. Dust and debris billowed out in a deafening crescendo, the screams cutting off all at once as the world fell silent.
Gideon and Jocelyn stared in shock as Sin fell to her knees, gasping for air as if she’d been holding it. His fingers tightenedaround the dress fabric for a heartbeat too long, the rage bubbling until it almost choked him.
“Here,” Gideon said, holding out the tattered woven dress for her to cover up, not trusting Jocelyn anywhere near her. Sin could barely lift her head. And though there was a fury struggling to break free, anger at Sin for killing the woman he loved, to the woman he loved being a lie…
He gritted his teeth before reaching for Sin’s shoulder. “At least lift your arms. I’ll help you.”
Sin choked down air like someone on their last breath, but she nodded.
Gideon pulled the dress down her frame, and then lifted her up by her armpits, still struggling to look her in the eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she croaked.
Gideon froze as he stared at her. Gone was the cold demeanor. She meant that apology, or at least seemed to. After Audrira, he might always view himself as the easily swayed fool.
“Out of respect for my mate’s brother, I’m giving you one last chance. Let us go now.”She had sounded like a queen, and that reminded him what her future might hold when Max takes the throne. She’d be the first witch queen in centuries. The opportunities for growth this continent might face if that happened. And deep in his heart, he knew it would be for the better.
