You failed.
Finnian squeezed the sides of his head, rocking back and forth. “No, no. I?—”
You ruin everything and everyone and so does she.
His chin lifted to Marina across from him. She was a puddle on the ground, weeping into her hands. The syringe laid beside her, still half full.
He’d always taken comfort in knowing Father was alive, regardless of the distance between them. His beating heart meant there were possibilities. A day Finnian could dream about. One day, Father would be free, and they could see each other whenever they wished.
A dream stolen from him.
Deranged fury erupted like tiny bombs in his chest. The intense breath of it fanned the jittery insanity detonating underneath his skin.
Kill her.
He jumped up and charged forward.
“Finnian!” Cassian roared.
Thin, silk-like threads snagged around his body, trapping his arms at his sides and sealing his legs together. His shoulder buried into the ashen remains of his grove, and his cheekricocheted off the ground. Clouds of the dead cinders coated the air, sticking to the inside of his mouth. It swirled in the wake of Marina teleporting away.
“No! Ruelle!” Cassian bellowed across the grove.
The High Goddess of Fate stepped through the dust, the particles crystallizing and falling like droplets of ice. They stuck like gemstones in her auburn hair. She held out a bent arm, her fingers curling into a fist.
The threads around Finnian squeezed taut, slicing like barbs through his skin. His nostrils flared to the warm feel of blood seeping down flesh.
With a flick of her finger, a thread coiled around the syringe and delivered it to her palm. “Close to madness, yet, Finnian?”
He jerked in the threads and their grip seized around him, slicing deeper. Baring his teeth, he said, “Come closer, Ruelle, and I will show you just how mad I am.”
A hard look pierced in her eyes, and she moved her hand slightly to the left. The thread followed her command and penetrated through the meat of Finnian’s arm, rubbing against the shell of bone.
He ground his teeth against the agonizing bursts ricocheting up into his jaw.
The curse fed on the pain, amplifying the itch in the center of his mind so deep it burned.
Suddenly, it all made sense. Cassian’s odd demeanor from earlier. The way he’d held Finnian close, as if it was the last time. Ruelle had threatened Finnian. It was the only reasonable explanation as to why Cassian had cursed him, and the murderous edge to her features told Finnian she was there to make Cassian pay for refusing to return her beloved back to life.
Finnian scraped his chin across the ground to rotate his head.
Cassian thrashed at the chains keeping him contained like a trapped animal. The tendrils of his divine power slammed like stones within the bindings.
Somehow, as if he could sense Finnian watching him, he paused in his violent motions, his attention falling onto his partner, face struck with pure terror.
Finnian connected with his gaze, giving him a look of inquiry, like a child asking for permission.
Recognition crumbled his brow, and he nodded solemnly.Do what must be done, Finnian could hear him say.
His eyes flashed back to Ruelle, glaring down at him.
The source of it all.
“Animabus suscitate et venite ad me.” The incantation buzzed on his tongue.
The ground rumbled beneath them.
Ruelle’s eyes darted around.
