The Darkest Night

She didn't wake him. She did approach the side of the bed to whisper, 'I wish I could touch you, hold your hand and thank you for hiding me that day. I was able to reach Maddox and hold him that night.'

His eyelids fluttered open.

Startled, she jumped backward. Their gazes met and she relaxed. There was gentleness in his green eyes, and she liked to think he would have said, 'Welcome home,' if he'd been able. 'I hope you get better soon, Torin.'

He might have nodded, but it was hard to tell.

Her nerves on edge, she continued her search.

Finally, she located a group of them. Her heart hammered in her chest as she studied them, unnoticed. They were working out, bench-pressing and squatting more weight than five humans combined could have done. The one named Reyes was pounding away at a punching bag. Sweat poured down his bare chest, ribboned with flecks of blood.

He was the one who always wielded the sword. She tried not to hate him for it.

'Ahem,' she said, drawing everyone's attention.

All of them paused, peered at her. A few narrowed their eyes. She lifted her chin. 'I need to talk to you,' she said, aiming the words at Reyes and Lucien.

Reyes went back to his punching bag. 'If you're going to try to talk us out of killing Maddox tonight, save your breath.'

'I'll listen to you, sweet,' the tallest of the group said. Paris was his name. Blue eyes, pale skin, brown and black hair. Pure sex, Maddox had said, and she believed him. The words had been delivered as a warning to stay away.

'Quiet,' Lucien said. 'If Maddox heard you, he'd go for your head.'

A blue-haired man faced her. 'Want me to kiss them for you?'

Kiss them? She'd only seen him once before. In the foyer, right after the bombing, but he hadn't struck her as a kisser. He looked as if he wanted to kill them.

Reyes growled, 'You shut up, too, Gideon. And don't cozy up to her. She's taken. I'll have to hurt you.'

'I'd hate to see you try,' the now-grinning man said.

She blinked. How odd. His words said one thing, his tone quite another. Well, whatever.

'You're right,' she told Reyes. 'I don't want you to kill Maddox tonight. I want you to—' oh God, are you really going to say this? '—kill me instead.'

That got everyone's attention. They stopped what they were doing, weights dropping, the treadmill grinding to a halt, and stared at her, gaping.

'What did you just say?' Reyes gasped out, wiping sweat from his brow.

'Curses are broken through sacrifice. Preferably self-sacrifice. If I sacrifice myself, dying in place of Maddox, his curse will be broken.'

Silence.

Thick, heavy silence. She only wished it were comfortable.

'How can you be sure?' Lucien asked, those odd eyes somber. 'What if it doesn't work? What if Maddox's death-curse isn't broken and you've died for nothing?'

She gathered her courage, wrapping it around her like a blanket in the winter. 'At least I will have tried. But, uh. I kind of have it on the highest authority that this will work.'

'The gods?'

She nodded. Well, Anya had never verified that little tidbit. Ashlyn had just assumed.

Again, silence.

'You would do that?' Disbelief filled Paris's electric eyes. 'For Violence?'

'Yes.' Thinking of the pain she would endure terrified her, but she didn't hesitate with her answer.

'I stab him,' Reyes reminded her. 'That means I would have to stab you. Six times. In the stomach.'

'I know,' she said softly. She gazed down at her bare feet. 'I see it in my mind every day, and I relive it every night.'

'Let's say you do break his curse,' Lucien said. 'You will have condemned him to a life without you.'

'I'd rather he live without me than die repeatedly with me at his side. He suffers so much and I just can't allow it.'

'Self-sacrifice.' Reyes snorted. 'Sounds ridiculous to me.'

Ashlyn raised her chin another notch and tried the same logic the goddess had used on her. 'Look at the world's most beloved fairy tales,' she said. All that magic, all those happily-ever-afters. 'Selfish queens always die and the good princesses always win.'

Reyes snorted again. 'Like you said, fairy tales.'

'Aren't all fairy tales based in fact? You yourself are supposed to be nothing more than a myth. Pandora's box is a story parents read to their children at night,' she countered. 'That means life itself is a fairy tale. Like the characters, we all live and love and search for a happily-ever-after.'

They continued to stare at her, something unreadable in their eyes. Maybe… admiration? Minutes dragged by, torturously slow. She'd made her decision and if she had to stab herself to carry it out, she would.

'All right,' Lucien said, shocking her. 'We'll do it.'

'Lucien!' Reyes scoffed.

Lucien peered over at Reyes, and Ashlyn could see hope lighting his severely scarred face. 'This will free us, too, Reyes. We'll be able to leave the fortress for more than a single day. We could travel if we wished. We could leave—and stay gone—when we craved solitude.'

Reyes opened his mouth, closed it.

'In the movies Paris has forced us to watch,' Lucien continued, 'good always overcomes evil with an extreme act of self-sacrifice.'

'Human movies mean nothing. If we do this, we could be cursed even more. Punished for defying the gods' will.'

'For Maddox, for freedom, why not risk it?'

'Maddox will not like it,' Reyes said, but there was hope in his voice now, too. 'I think… I think he would rather have the human.'

That observation warmed her, but she didn't back down. She couldn't—wouldn't—let Maddox suffer like that night after night, knowing there was something she could do. He'd paid for his crimes, plus interest.

An eye for an eye, she thought. He'd given her peace. She would do the same for him.

'Sometimes what we want isn't what we need,' Lucien said. His voice had dropped and an edge of wistfulness seeped from it. What did he want that he didn't need?

'All right,' Reyes finally said.

'Tonight,' Ashlyn insisted. 'It has to be tonight.' She didn't want him to suffer yet again, nor did she want to risk changing her mind. 'Just… give me as much time as possible with him, okay?'

Both men nodded grimly.

Maddox saw to Ashlyn's every need for the rest of the day. He fed her by hand and loved her body so many times he lost count. He talked about his plans for their future together. How her new job could be helping the warriors search for Pandora's box—if she so desired. How they would wed and spend every waking minute together—if she so desired. How they would seek a way to save her from aging so that they could have an eternity together—if she so desired. He would carve her anything she wanted, and she could read him passages from romance novels. If she so desired.

She laughed with him, teased him, loved him, but there was a quiet desperation about her that he did not understand. A sadness. He didn't press her. They had time. For once, he viewed time as his friend. She couldn't know that she had tamed him. Tamed the spirit. And that now, both existed to please her.

'What's wrong, love?' he asked. 'Tell me and I will make it better.'

'It's almost midnight,' she said, trembling.

Ah. He understood now. He gazed down at her. They sat on the edge of his bed and he clasped her hand in his. Moonlight bathed her lovely features, illuminating the concern in her eyes. 'I will be fine.'