Page 37 of Retribution

“You will feel better,” Liberty promised, but I knew I wouldn’t. She held up her wrist. “Drink.”

“No.”

“Dammit, Ellis, you’re weak; you need to drink.” She pushed her wrist to my mouth, and though I wanted nothing more than to taste her one last time, I refused her offer.

“It’s grazed my heart, Liberty.” Shit, my voice didn’t sound like my own.

“So, you can heal it. I’ve seen you heal worse.” Her fingers found mine, and she threaded them together.

“Silver, Liberty.” I gasped. “Silver grazed my heart.”

I saw the moment it dawned on her that there was no coming back from this, that this was it for me, for us. “No.” She looked around frantically, “We can fix this. Oak. Lenin. We can fix this.”

The two of them stood by with sadness painting their features. They knew that this wasn’t fixable. That when the end came, there was no reversing it. “They can’t fix it, Liberty. It’s spread through my body.”

“You can’t leave me!” She yelled, tears streaming down her face, and fuck, I didn’t want to. “You’re my home, Ellis. You’ve always been home.”

I reached up to her face, ignoring the fact that my hand was covered in my blood, and rested my hand on her cheek, forcing her to look at me. “Listen to me, Liberty, I’m okay.”

“You’re clearly not okay.” She cried, her hands going to her stomach as she worked through another one of those contractions she tried so hard to hide from us.

“No. Liberty. Listen to me. I am okay.” A tear fell and trailed down my face. It wasn’t because I was sad, not when I had begged to welcome death for two hundred and three years of my life, but because I wished there was more time to prove to her how much I loved her. To prove that she was the best and most important thing that had ever existed in this world while I was in it.

“You can’t leave me.” Her breath hitched. “Who – who will make me pancakes, Ellis? No one can make pancakes like you.”

I laughed at that, pain shooting through my body. “The secret’s in the vanilla.”

“The imported one?” She sniffled. “Please don’t leave me.”

“Remember my promise.” I gasped. “I’ll love you until we meet again in the afterlife.”

Then, before I could think better of it, I reached up and pulled the arrow from my chest, letting it clink to the floor as my body numbed and my vision faded to nothing.

Chapter 19

LIBERTY

The soundof the silver-tipped arrow falling to the floor will forever be ingrained in my memory. Ellis’ body disintegrated, turning to ash before my eyes, and I didn’t know what to do or how to fix this. But what I did know was this was too surreal to be my reality. A life without Ellis couldn’t exist.

The hand I held vanished, ash sifting through my fingers, and all I could do was watch it as it fell to the floor. I gasped, my sob caught in my throat. The ground shook under my body, and still, I couldn’t care less. My eyes refused to tear away from the ash in front of me.

Finally, the cry broke free, the pain ripping through the room. “I need the book, Oak. I need it!” I screamed the words, but Oak didn’t move. “Please, Oak. I need to see the book!”

“It won’t change it.” Oak’s head shook, his eyes rimmed in red though I knew he wouldn’t cry. Not here and now, anyway.

“It has to. We have to fix this.” My palm hovered over the ashes, afraid to touch the pile.

“We must move,” Lenin spoke from the doorway as a rumble filled the room.

“No!” I didn’t want to move. I didn’t want to leave him here to be swept away by the next gust of wind or ball of fire. “I need the book.”

Lenin knelt in front of me. “We must go, Liberty.”

“I can’t.” I was sobbing now, the tears uncontrollable. My heart hurt, the pain too much to handle. Too excruciating to ever believe it would fade away.

“You must.” A different type of pain rolled through my body, and I held my stomach while keeping my eyes closed, acknowledging both would be too much to handle.

“Liberty, look at me.” Lenin’s demand was gentle, but his tone left me no choice but to bring my eyes to his. “He’s – he’s –”

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