Acacius growled, ripping toward the child’s pulse.
He could see them both now—Marina’s black hair against the snow, lying still with her legs curled and arms snug around the boy. His sobs echoed against her chest.
They were created out of a place of anger and desperation, manifesting from my darkest desires of revenge.
Sickness filled Acacius’s stomach.
She’d finally conjured them to protect the boy, to take comeuppance on her traitor.
But what about herself?
Acacius materialized over the churning black horde just as it melted away entirely.
“Someone f-found us!” Ash crawled out from Marina’s limp arms, their skin tarnished with blood. “P-please.”
His blood.
“H-help her! She’s—” Ash reached a shaking hand out for Acacius.
Acacius recoiled, his breath ceasing at the sight of Marina’s face—streaked with crimson tears and dried, oozing streams from her ears, out of her nostrils, crusted in the creases of her lips.
His limbs shook, and he blinked through his blurring vision with Vale’s death haunting his thoughts, how he had bled the same.
Dead.
Paralysis snaked down his spine.
“No.” His divine hearing listened closely for her heartbeat, his eyes searching over her peaceful expression.
Lifeless.
Gone.
“No!” He snapped forward only to stop, hands drawn up, desperate to hold her, shake her awake. His eyes tracked the copper marring her skin, the demigod’s blood. If he touched it, he would?—
Bile shot up his throat.
He ripped around as his stomach heaved, purging acid onto the snow.
Dead.
His pulse drummed in his skull.
She’s dead.
A shrill scream echoed in his ears.
“Please h-help her!” The child begged through chattering teeth. “I-it was a-an accident. Th-the god c-cut m-my arm and…” He broke off into a cry.
Acacius glared over his shoulder at the child, hugging his own frame as he rocked back and forth. The tips of his fingers were a harsh purple, and his cheeks were stained from his tears.
Rage churned in his stomach, angry at the child, at Fate and howthiswas Marina’s ending.
An accident.
How tragic and furiously unfair. She was only trying to repent and uphold her father’s vow. And after months of her walking around, desiring Death’s hand, the spark had finally returned in her eyes. Eyes that no longer held life’s light within them.
An ache splintered in his heart, and he shook his head, refusing to let go.
