More specifically, the wail that leaves Jeremiah. He doesn’t even have time to glance down at his mangled wrist.
The dagger buries itself deep into his heart, and his shrill cuts off with a wet, struggling gasp.
My breath tears free from my lungs as his eyes snap to mine. Shock, confusion…pain. I watch it all cross his features in just a few milliseconds.
I hold his gaze until it turns to nothing.
A hollow, final sound echoes around the arena as his body crumbles. Dust plumes around his still form and my pulse thunders.
For half a heartbeat, everything is still.
“Jeremiah!”
The scream rips through the space, raw andbroken, and my head snaps toward it. Toward him.
Mellcom stands a few paces away, staring at Jeremiah’s body like the realm has just split open beneath his feet. His chest heaves, eyes wide, unfocused like he doesn’t believe what he’s seeing.
“No…no, no, no.”
He stumbles forward, dropping hard to his knees, and his hands hover over my dagger protruding from Jeremiah’s heart, but he doesn’t touch it.
Something in my chest twists, but it doesn’t root me. Doesn’t consume me.
“Thay,” Laney cries.
Mellcom’s head jerks up, eyes snapping to mine, and something in them shatters.
“You killed him.”
Accusation. Disbelief. Rage. It all glares back at me like I’m the monster here. Like I’ve always been the person who ruins his life.
He pushes to his feet in a sudden, violent motion, and his power flickers around him, unstable and wild. In the blink of an eye, Dark Gods appear in the arena behind him, and the ungodly men at his back startle.
So do I.
He shouldn’t be able to do that.
He can, though.
He just did.
He’s betrayed the Godsdawn. His Valtrue.
I pat Laney’s hand as she clutches my shoulder and cries out for me.
“You’re safe, sweet girl.” My eyes lock onto Creed’s. “Protect her, please.”
“With my life.”
The realm narrows as Mellcom releases a bellow of fury that roars across the space between us. Everything inside me surges.
I tear the emotional barrier I’ve had between us down.
Rage, heartbreak, the leftover echoes of all the choices I didn’t get to make. All those he and Jeremiah made for me. It all comes crashing in. Unlike when everything hit me with my men, what hits me now is exactly what I need.
What I want.
Power crackles through my veins as our boots pound against the dirt at the same moment, and my hand comes up, ready to strike.
