Besides, I’d never leave Lierick down here to die.
I grabbed the statue again and lifted it to smash it. Ropes of air quickly wrapped around me, squeezing me so tightly, I screamed. I felt my organs moving around inside me, my ribs cracking.
I needed to go back, needed to reset. But the magic in the room was overwhelming. I couldn’t feel my own power above the pulsing, slimy magic.
Stanlus smiled. “Don’t worry, little whore. This is my favorite part.” Then his air loosened. He floated thetalfrom my hands into Lierick’s, who looked at it like he’d been handed a bloody knife and not the very thing we needed.
“Smash it!” I screamed at him, but he just stared at it, then back at me, his eyes wide and horrified. His fingers flexedagainst the statue, and I breathed a sigh of relief. He was going to smash it.
Instead, he clutched it closer to his chest, his head thrown back and a moan of bliss spilling from his chest.
Stanlus laughed as he held me tightly. “They once said that we had a Goddess because she tempted all men to march for her against her consort. That is the hedonistic power of the divine, little rat. You would kill your own mother for another taste of it, and right now, your boy is gulping it down like he can’t get enough. He will kill you before he destroys it now.”
I strained against the tight bands of air. “No, Lierick! Listen to me! Destroy it. You need to destroy it!” I was screaming, but he still wasn’t looking at me. His eyes were on the water ceiling, like he could see the divine in its gently undulating waves. “Lierick,” I begged in a broken voice.
Stanlus laughed cruelly. “Want to see how much he loves you, little rat? Want to see if he’ll choose you or power?” He floated me closer to Lierick, then began to squeeze.
I gasped as my ribs cracked, as my eyes bulged. I begged, and still, Lierick didn’t look at me.
I couldn’t breathe. My lungs felt like they were about to pop.
“Lierick,” I choked out with the last of my air. “Help me… Lierick.” It was just a small hiss of sound.
Lierick looked at me, his eyes wide and panicked, but his arms were still wrapped around the statue. His mouth stretched wide on a silent scream, but still he didn’t smash it, instead holding it with the gentle hands of a lover.
My heart broke.Please.My lips formed the words, because there was no more air. There was just darkness at the edges of my vision.Please.
He’d chosen power over me. Like Zier had said he would. The tears falling from my eyes were a combination of blood and pain.
Stanlus stepped closer, watching us like rats in a cage, a manic grin on his face. Darkness was getting closer and closer. I scrunched my eyes closed, desperately reaching for my magic. I was going to die, and if I couldn’t reset, there’d be no coming back.
But it was gone, buried beneath pain. Pain and power that was an abomination.
Stanlus put the gun to my head, his eyes still on Lierick. “Your girlfriend is about to die, but with that much power, who needs a lover? You’ll be so strong that women will crawl on their hands and knees to suck your cock,” he crooned at Lierick.
Fear reappeared in Lierick’s gaze, and he screamed in Stanlus’s face. Like it physically pained him, he released the statue. It tumbled to the ground as he let out a guttural roar, but it didn’t break. I reached for it, reached for him, but Stanlus just shoved me farther away.
“Weak. So fucking weak. What a disappointment.” He moved the gun from my head and pointed it at Lierick’s instead. Then he pulled the trigger.
Blood and gore splashed back against my face.
Lierick’s blood. Lierick’s gore.
Lierick.
The scream came from empty lungs. Magic pulsed up inside me, channeling into the place in my chest, and I burst from the air ropes. Air rushed back to my lungs as I wailed. Wailed with anger and pain.
I tore at Stanlus’s face like a beast, like I was a woman possessed. I ripped and tore at the flesh of his cheeks, even as the room around us spun with starlight, as the body of Lierick slipped from view, as Stanlus himself burned up.
I tore the muscles from his skull as he screamed soundlessly, chunks of his skin embedding under my nails as darkness closed in, and reality ceased to exist.
There was no existence where I lost Lierick.
This wasn’t how it ended.
I refused.
Twenty-Four
