I turned to look at Kane, holding my free hand out to him. My blood dripping from my palm.
He stopped, his hands pressed against the energy fore. “Please.”
I touched my lips with my fingertips then held them out to him. “I love you.”
“No!” He shouted. “No. You can’t go!”
“I will always love you, no matter where I go.” I turned from him, unable to see his face without crumbling anymore.
“Auri!” He slammed his fist down one more time. When I didn’t look back, he spoke, his words coming out ragged and hoarse, “I love you, too.”
With one hand on Mika’s heart, I placed my other hand on her forehead. “What you seek for me be three-fold upon you. So mote it be.”
The blinding light and inferno heat swelled up in a swirling, radiating tornado around us. The flames licked every inch of my skin, burning. The searing pain replaced every other sensation, taking over my senses.
In that moment, I became the fire.
Opening my eyes, I saw Mika’s flesh molting, flaking away from her. Her mouth was open in a silent scream. Hair waving in the winds of the flames, the ends singing away as the fire ate each strand from the tip up to her scalp. Her skeletal hands let go of the dagger and of me. The undead life that had filled her petrified and exited out of her mouth in a cloud of dust, carried away in the tornado of flames.
My hand sunk into her chest without resistance. My fingers wrapped around the still, lifeless heart that rested there. It crumbled with my touch, leaving no possible avenue of return to any sort of life, undead or otherwise.
The fires started to recede, replaced by the pain that had been there before. With one hand on the hilt of the dagger that was still lodged in my abdomen, I followed Mika’s burnt corpse to the floor as the flames receded completely, leaving only her ashes as a reminder that they’d come.
I swallowed down another wave of nausea, planting my free hand on the floor so I didn’t go completely down. But I was wavering. It was a failed mission from the start.
Looking up at Kane, who was clinging to the barrier, banging on it again in sheer frustration, I shook my head. “I’m so sorry.”
“No!” He roared, dragging out the word in a soul crushing guttural scream.
Everything started flickering out like the energy inside of me. Like the dying fluorescent light in an abandoned building. I dropped down on my side and rolled onto my back as I let the energy shield down.
Hearing numerous footsteps rushing over me, I only saw Kane’s face as he fell to his knees, picking me up to cradle me in his arms. “Auri…”
“I’m sorry.” Everything went black, and I heard nothing more.
Chapter
Seventeen
All for What
“Bring him to me!” I had never heard Kane sound like that. He was completely lost in his anger.
Then, it dawned on me. I heard him. That was Kane’s voice. Albeit full of rage, but as my vision came back, I was looking down into the room as it had been before it all went black. The only thing different? I was also looking at my own body.
Within moments, one of the Emalne soldiers came forward with Dorian in binds. Standing him up, they held him before Kane.
Dorian was clearly out of it, still reeling from the effects of being knocked unconscious as he was dragged out of the room. “Mika?”
Kane ignored him. “You helped her.”
Dorian’s brows furrowed as realization set in, seeing the pile of ashes on the floor near my body. “I hoped she would leave if I helped her escape to be free. I just wanted her to be free.”
“You… helped… her,” Kane repeated, teeth clenched.
“I loved her.” Dorian went slack. The Emalne warrior released him, letting Dorian fall onto the floor to his knees. Not realizing the peril he was in, Dorian held his head in his hands and sobbed. Or maybe he didn’t care about his own safety if she was gone. “I loved her. I wanted to save Mika and have her take me with her. I just wanted to be with her and love her in a way you couldn’t.”
Kane looked back at me, his face contorting with even more fury. Turning back to the sobbing vampire, he reached down and lifted him up off the ground by his throat. There was no recognition on Kane’s face that he heard Dorian’s words, and if he did, he didn’t show any sign that he cared.
He gripped Dorian’s throat harder as his jaw set. “She took my heart. Now, I will take yours.”
Without hesitation, Kane punched into Dorian’s chest, bypassing the armor, the flesh, the bones. A sickening crunch resonated through the room with the path of his fist, followed by an even sicker sound as he pulled it back out, clutching Dorian’s still beating heart.
Holding it before him, Kane growled as Dorian gasped, “Now you can join her in the abyss.” And with that, he crushed the beating heart rendering all signs of life left within Dorian gone. Kane let go of him, dropping the lifeless body onto the floor.
More footsteps filled the room, and I could faintly hear Indrell over the noise. Looking down over everyone, I saw Sarah fall into Wulfgar’s arms, and he held her close to him. The siblings, Oberlea and Dohlmas, held onto each other in the hall, but Indrell pushed her way through.
She shoved one of the Everwinter soldiers aside, coming up beside Kane. “No!” But in the time it took her to cover her mouth with her hands, she looked up at where I floated. “Wait!”
