Levi–
He shut him away. Shut him away so he wouldn’t start to feel the fear filling his chest.
Fear…
It had been so long since he’d felt it.
He hated it now. Hated the weakness it brought with it. But the knowledge that Cullen would be alone…would feel it happen before they forced him to come to this place, before they carved out his heart as well… It was terrifying.
Regret.
He had never felt regret before. Not even after the Fall. It was a far worse thing than fear.
I’m sorry.He kept the words to himself, fighting back the thickening in his throat.It’s my fault, Cullen. I’m sorry.
Perhaps there would be a next life. Perhaps they would find each other again. He tugged gently on the soul bond, a teasing, playful move, feeling his eyes watering as he closed them.
No point to dodge. Not when he was trapped like this. It would only make him look like a fool. And if Cullen came before he was gone, then he would have to watch…
He felt him trying, on the other side of the bond. Felt him calling up his shadows to try to make a portal to come to him. To follow the summons. He couldn’t deny the order from Heaven’s book. His shadows would pull him here soon enough… If only there was some way to throw them off, to make them bring Cullen outside of the pentagram…
“Any last words?” Dominick asked softly.
“Not for you.” He whispered, shooting a quick vision, an instruction down the bond. He felt Cullen get hit with it, as if he’d been pushed, and then snapped the bond closed before he could see more.
A terrible silence filled the space around them all. A heavy, thick thing that made his ears ring and his heart race.
The end…after all this time.
Of course. Right when he’d found happiness. True, unmarred happiness… He could have laughed if it weren’t so fucking heartbreaking.
He felt the pulse of shadows nearby and squeezed his eyeseven tighter, refusing to let himself see, to know that Cullen had come, that he could have seen him so weak…
He heard a familiar voice cry out–and something sharp slammed into his chest.
He felt himself stumble backwards, felt the light wrapped around the blade surge through him and tear apart his soul–
And then there was nothing at all.
60
Something had been yanked inside of him. He’d woken with a gasp on his lips and panic curled tight in his chest, his hand coming up to press over his heart as it pulsed and ached.
The panic had only grown worse when he realized that Leviathan was not lying beside him. Nor could he sense him anywhere in the palace.
Levi?
He sensed him in his mind, just as he always could–but the wall was up, blocking him. He called silently to him, but Leviathan continued to ignore him, that firm, icy wall between their minds. Cullen sprang out of the bed with a snarl, circling absently as he prodded against their bond.
Where are you? What’s happening?
There was another hard yank in his chest, making him gasp. Something…somewhere…was calling to him. And it wasn’t Levi.
The shield dropped–just for a heartbeat–and Leviathanordered him not to come in a quick, harsh plea before the wall slammed up again.
“Leviathan!” The shriek tore out of him. He summoned clothes to his body, wincing as he was tugged by that invisible cord again. He called up his shadows, focused to try to create that same portal that had pulled him away from Walker during the Christmas festival.
They swirled and circled and swathed him in darkness–and then they took him. Took him and followed that tug, though he hadn’t told them to. Followed it through miles and miles of darkness, and he let them, because he could feel Leviathan not too far away from the spot it was pulling him to. But something felt off, felt dangerous–
