“Too bad your prayers will never be answered. I will not show mercy on anyone who threatened to take her from me!” I pointed at Della, and Elra shrank away from me. I was fucking livid that they thought the heavens would listen to them. Maybe our parents would, but their children would be dead before then. I lifted my hands, and a dozen icicles began to form in front of me. I smiled as they sharpened into spikes that were all pointed at her. Her prayer doubled at the sight.
But instead of sending them at her, I turned toward Mateo, who was trying to crawl away. I shot my star mist out and used it to pick him up and turn him in midair so he was facing me. Once I made sure he was looking me in the eyes, I smiled and shot all of the ice spikes forward. Some of them shot completely through his body, his black blood exploding onto the wall behind him. The rest of them struck him forcefully enough that they slammed his body into the wall, staking him to it.
“This is for touching my wife,” I said as I shaped my starlight into a thin blade and sliced his hands off with it.
Tired of looking at his bloody face, I flicked my wrist, and my starlight snapped Mateo’s neck without sparing a glance at him as he groaned, barely alive. My focus was now on the fucking bitch that was in charge of all of this. She remained deathly still as I approached.
“Guess whose turn it is?” I taunted as she started struggling. Half of her body was still frozen, so I lifted my foot and kicked it, shattering it and knocking her over. She tried to crawl away, butI grabbed her by the back of the neck and dragged her to where Della stood, then kicked the back of her legs so she was kneeling in front of her.
Della looked at me, her eyes flickering over my face before smiling.
I squatted so I could grip her by her hair and forced her head back so she was looking up at Della. I leaned forward so I could whisper in her ear.
“I would kill you a million times for trying to take her from me. I want you to look at her and see how she is everything you wished you could be.” I waited a moment. “Apologize to her for thinking her perfect soul could ever belong to you. That you thought you could take it when it was always destined to be mine.”
“Little Miss Perfect looks pretty fucking close to being dead to me,” she huffed out in defiance. “I’d say I’m better off than her.”
There was a collective gasp from the small crowd.
I glanced up at Della, who moved her hands and caused blood to begin pouring from a wound on her stomach. Before I could even move, though, Thea waved her hand, a golden glow emanating from her palm, and quickly healed her. Relief filled me as I turned back to Elra.
“If you thought that saying something so completely fucking stupid would make me angry enough to kill you quickly, you were mistaken.” I lifted my palm, and a dagger made of ice appeared in it. “I was hoping you would be difficult, Elra.”
With a satisfied smile, I stabbed the blade of ice into her back, enjoying the cry of pain that came ripping from her mouth. I twisted it back and forth until her screams were deafening. Then I slowly pulled the blade out.
“Would you like to try that apology again?”
She was stuttering as the pain seared through her. I waited for only a brief moment before grabbing her hand. She stared atme in horror, trying to pull back, but I wasn’t about to let that happen. Smiling into her face, I pried her hand open and, with a feeling of satisfaction, began cutting off her fingers. She kept screaming, yelling for help that would not come, and all it did was raise my bloodlust.
“I’m sick of fucking hearing you call to the heavens to save you,” I hissed as I grabbed her severed fingers from the dirty floor and shoved them into her mouth, clamping my magic around her so she couldn’t spit them out. She thrashed around, but I just sat calmly next to her. My gaze flickered over to Ezra, who was smiling at me with a boyish grin on his face. Then my focus went to Thea and Cassius, who looked like proud parents.
“You should start praying again because you’re almost out of time. But before you die, I want you to know that I am aware that our parents helped you, and they will die for it.”
Her words were muffled, and I just stared at her. I wanted to drag this out because her misery was fucking beautiful to see. I glanced at Death, who was watching with a big smile on his face. He held the souls of my other siblings in his hand, which looked like black, oozy slime instead of the usual colorful, glowing orb.
I stood up and looked down at Elra choking on her fingers. I kicked her over so she was on her back. Lifting my foot up, I stepped on her throat. She began thrashing around, but I pressed hard enough to pin her there. Watching her eyes bulge out of her sockets, I held my boot in place so that she could slowly suffocate. After all, that is what she had tried to do to me. She tried to take my reason for breathing. I would have suffocated without Della.
I kept my eyes on hers until I saw the light leave them as they turned vacant.
Hot satisfaction coursed through me as I stepped away from her. Turning to take stock of the situation, I saw Death hiding in the corner of the room, his red eyes glowing from the shadowsenough to illuminate his child-like grin at the sight of the carnage around us. I looked over to Thea and Cassius, their dark green souls glowing slightly around them, and felt relief flood me to see them standing and uninjured.
I knew I didn’t have much time to do what I needed, so I turned to Della and grabbed her hand in mine. “You want to be my mate?” I asked her.
She looked at me oddly. “Yes?”
“Good,” I said quickly, lifting up my hand. I could feel our soul stirring chaotically in my chest. Death smiled at me knowingly as I ripped part of my soul from my chest. The sensation of it was searing pain throughout me, tearing the very fabric of my being, but I did not let Della know.
“Haden.” Della was scared.
The prettiest soul now floated above my hand, with varying shades of orange twisted around a starlight stream. Our spirits were tangled together, just as they were always meant to be. I looked at her with more love and determination than I had ever felt before.
“I love you,” I whispered as I slammed the piece of our soul back into her.
As the connection was made, Della and I exploded apart. As I flew across the room, the air became filled with frost and starlight, a light, glittery snow seeming to fall from nowhere and everywhere all at once. I landed hard on my back, knocking the breath from my body and smacking my head against the stone floor. Suddenly, the house began shaking as if it would crumble down on us, mortar dust and small chunks of stone falling away from the ceiling. I could hear the thunder booming repetitively somewhere in the distance, and it became hard to tell which bangs were thunder and which were stones settling in the castle around us.
“Haden!” Ezra was kneeling next to me. “Haden, can you hear me?”
“Della?” I asked.
