She coughed and retched as I released it, not yet wanting to end her life.
“Lex wouldn’t want you to kill me—he’dbegyou to forgive me,” she coughed, spittle coating my boot from her bloodied lips.
I cocked my head at her, breathing slightly elevated from our fight and the emotion behind it.
“Then it’s a good thing my Mage isn’t here,” I hissed, pressing down incrementally. Sasori whimpered as I delivered my next words. “Don’t presume to knowanythingabout what my Mage would want. His softness that you so deeply hated is what makes him perfect. That control you spoke so poorly of is given freely by me because herespectsme andlovesme. You had to exploit that. Had to make him feel like?—”
“You understandnothing,” she spat. “The things I had to do?—”
I cut her off with a hard step. “I understand enough to know thatyouchose that path, Sasori. Just as I now choose to kill you. Never will you haunt my love’s dreams again.”
Sasori laughed a wheeze beneath my boot. “You and I are the same, Folami. He will realize that sooner or later, and you’ll be discarded just as I was. You are just as angry as me—I can see it swirling in your eyes, the pain there.”
“Yes, Sasori. I am angry. I amalwaysangry. But the difference between you and me is vast. I allowed myself to soften—embraced Lex and all he had to offer wholeheartedly. I allowed myself to forgive.Youclung to your anger and let it twist and shape you into something wicked and evil. You had a chance to love and be loved by a man who is the epitome of everything good in this world, and you chose to cling to your trauma and anger instead. I did not make that same mistake, and you will die with the consequences of your actions.”
Sasori opened her mouth again, but I’d said my piece, no longer interested in the lies that so easily fell from her tongue.
With a quick, sharp jab, I stabbed my spear through her ribcage, angling it soit punctured her heart. I watched with detached apathy as her eyes widened in fear, fingers grappling at my boot even as blood spilled from her lips and ran down her face to the saturated ground beneath.
Her movements grew sluggish as she choked on her own blood until she stopped moving completely, eyes wide with fear and anger, even in death.
I sighed and removed my spear before stepping off her corpse.
I didn’t regret my choice to kill her, in taking the decision from Lex.
But I would regret it if this little sidestep delayed me enough that I wouldn’t reach Lex and Ilyas in time.
Without so much as a second glance, I took off once more, cutting my way through the sloppy ranks of our enemies in a fevered effort to reach two of the three people who held my heart.
They needed me, and I them.
Chapter One Hundred Sixteen
Lex
“She’ll never see us coming,” Ilyas panted as we dodged attacks, parrying and striking when anyone approached. We were running on pure adrenaline, arms laden with exhaustion, muscles jumping with fatigue.
I grunted an affirmative reply, sinking my blade into the gut of an Earth Mage as his magicked stone dagger caught me in the side.
Pain exploded beneath my rib cage as I gritted my teeth against the raw, pulsing feeling that was all too familiar.
“Lex, are you okay?” Ilyas asked, his brows drawing deep over ocean eyes as sweat dripped freely down his face.
I nodded once, gasping for breath before physically shaking myself.
We’d split from Rohak, intent on creating a diversion with Solace so that our friend could attack the goddess from behind. Neither Rohak nor I planned for Faylinn to take matters into her own hands.
I paused briefly, our path relatively unobstructed at the moment, to wipe the sweat from my face with my dirty shirtsleeve and inspect my most recent wound.
My body was a litany of bruises and cuts, burns and wounds. Nothing that wouldn’t heal, but the continuous battering was dwindling my energy to nothing.
We have to end this soon. Many of our Mages—and theirs—were down to the last dregs of magic. Some of the Elemental Mages were able to refill their reserves from the wind and earth nearby, but the more specialized of us were drained completely.
My gaze flicked to the hill where Torin and Ellowyn waited for an opportune moment to strike.
“Any time now would be great for them to join,” Ilyas murmured, an annoyed huff in his voice.
“For who to join?” a familiar female voice sounded from my right, and I turned with a smile to see Folami. She was absolutely, devastatingly beautiful, in a feral warrior kind of way.
