In the end, she chose both.
Faster thanI’dever seen a shadow wielder move, shevanishedand reappeared next to me, helping me to my feet and sliding one of her extra daggers into my hand.Her eyesexamined mehead to toe, then dispersed into shadow again, heading to wherewe’dlast seen Rayven before I could scold her.
Itwasn’tuntil I turned my attention fully back to Dimitri that I noticedhe’dintensely watched the entire interaction.
And he waslivid.
But behind the anger, I could see thehurt.
“You’ve replaced me already, sister?”heasked, his voice nearly shaking with unrestrained anger.
“I could never, Dimitri,” I reassured him. Despite everything that had happened, I was still holding onto a sliver of hope that I could save him. That he could change for the better.
Because if I was wrong, what was it all for?
Both of our heads snapped toward the corridor that Matea and Rayvenhaddisappeared down, having heard a scuttle.
“You can have him,” Dimitri said after a beat of silence. “What’s left of him, anyway.”
Ever so slowly, I turned my face to look back at my twin.
“What did you do?” I said slowly, almost scared to hear the answer.
Dimitri smiled, and when he did, Father’s face flashed in my mind.
They shared more than theHeartshirethrone. They shared their wicked smiles, too.
Then, Dimitri pulled out of his pocket the dismembered tip of a finger, cut off at the top joint.
A fingertipthat I could only assume was Ezra’s.
“Dimitri…” I clasped a hand over my mouth as I asked again, this time with horror in my voice, “What did you do?”
“What needed to be done.”He shrugged, as though this was a casual interaction. “Unfortunately for me, he’s a tough nut to crack.”
It wasinthat moment that I finally accepted the truth standing before me.
This wasn’t the twin I’d come to know and love throughout our lives together.
Something had fundamentally broken inside of him back in Wittuck Woods. And if what Aurorahadsaid was true, itlikely startedbeforethen.
Father had broken him even before the Battle of Shadows.
But then Icouldn’thelp but think,If Dimitri is capable of this, what else did he do to Ezra?
Innocent, kind, caring Ezra…
The more I considered how much pain and suffering my friend must have endured, the more my anger bubbled up inside of me.
From far away, I could feel Byn’s calm trying to lend itself to me, but the distance between uswouldn’tallow it. Itwasn’tpowerful enough.
And that was exactly what I wanted.
“There she is,” Dimitri said, reading the pure fury in my expression. I watched as his hand ignited into flames again, burning the fingertip to ash before my very eyes within a matter of seconds.
I’dfelt the crystal bundle in the earth beneath me earlier, but I had hoped Iwouldn’tneed it.
Now, with little thought about what I was doing, Icalled toit. The connection solidifiedalmost instantly, reacting to my heightened emotions and the controlI’dlearned to have with Quinn through the stones adorning my gloves.
