Ryu lifted his head, fixing eyes filled with wrath on Nathan.
Tate smirked. “Oh, you know, just a gift from some old friends.”
Rage made Nathan’s cruel features even more brutal. “She has a mental-based relic. They left you a pandora’s box.”
Tate winked. “Surprise.”
Ryu yanked at his wrists, his muscles bulging as the metal holding one wrist snapped with an audible crack.
“All that power and you gave it to someone else?” Nathan asked with a stunned expression as if it had never occurred to him Tate would pass up such a thing. Probably because in her place he would never do the same.
“I’m powerful enough, and everyone could use a little help now and then.”
Nathan’s expression wiped clean, knowledge of his imminent defeat on his face. He’d lost and he knew it.
“No matter. At least I’ll be able to end you.”
Ryu’s other wrist snapped free.
Tate’s eyes flicked to a shadow at Nathan’s left. Nathan let go of Tate, his blade starting to lift. Peter’s blade fell into the space between Nathan and Tate, severing Nathan’s arm in one clean movement.
Nathan’s arm, still holding the black blade, clattered to the floor amid a splash of blood. Nathan’s scream was a shrill accompaniment to the interference Roslyn was projecting.
Nathan staggered a few steps away, the blood from his arm leaving a trail across the floor. “You—”
Peter’s face was entirely blank as he watched Nathan catch himself on the console. The remainder of his arm started to blacken, small tendrils of darkness crawling up his face.
“What did you do to me?” Nathan asked as those tendrils reached his face and his skin whitened.
“The Polar’s Kiss. Don’t you remember? It’s what you used on my mother when you killed her,” Peter said calmly.
“Kenneth’s boy.” Nathan lost his hold on the console and fell.
“I couldn’t get revenge then, but time makes all things better, wouldn’t you say?”
Nathan lay down, a dry chuckle escaping him. “Is this how you want this to go, Tate? It’s not very Savior-like”
Tate stepped close, wanting her face to be the last thing he saw. “I never had any illusions of being a Savior. All that ever mattered to me was protecting the people I love. You got in the way of that. You really should have known better.”
Tate held her hand out to stop Ryu’s charge. Her lover’s expression was almost feral as he hovered only a few feet away, the intention of ending Nathan written on his face.
Tate understood. She really did, but she didn’t want Nathan to die so easily, and whatever death Ryu gave him would be infinitely more merciful than Peter’s Polar Kiss by the look of things.
Nathan’s breaths came faster. “If you join me, you’ll never have to worry about such things again. You’ll be immortal. So will they.”
Tate’s smile was wry. “No thanks. I like things just fine the way they are.”
Peter lifted the sword before Tate could stop him and brought it down with a guttural grunt. “This time, Nathan, I have no intentions of giving you the chance to resurrect.”
It cut through Nathan’s neck like paper, biting into the deck and lodging there. Nathan’s head separated from his shoulders and rolled to a stop at Tate’s feet.
Tate walked away from him, crossing the floor to where her lover waited. “Goodbye, Nathan. Looks like you were right. This really was the end.”
TWENTY THREE
Tate stopped in front of Ryu, her gaze traveling over his body. There weren’t many places uninjured. Blood coated his chest and arms, the only thing remaining of his clothes were his pants.
Her expression was pained as one hand hovered over his chest.
