Page 109 of Gothikana

His voice was seductive. Corvina knew the tone well.

‘Of course, I know, silly girl,’ he chuckled, his voice coming closer. ‘I know everything that happens in Verenmore, don’t I? And I’m so proud of you. You’re a true Deverell.’ The pride in his voice made her stomach clench.

‘He never loved you, Corvina,’ the insidious voice gloated. ‘He’s just showing you his true coloursnow.’

‘You know that’s not true, Vivi,’ Mo reminded her, the constant back and forth making her groan as she tried to focus on the actual voices outside her head.

Vad was still speaking to pretend-Jade, his voice getting closer. ‘You know the thrill of the kill, don’t you, baby? The blood, the sex, the high. It’s incomparable.’

‘Yes,’ Jade breathed at her side. ‘I knew you’d understand me.’

‘Let go of her hand, Corvina,’ he commanded in that familiar tone she knew in her bones, addressing her for the first time.

Corvina felt her breathing falter, her body needing to see him but unable to move, the first seed of doubt entering her mind.

‘He wants her,’ the insidious one laughed. ‘He was just using you for a time. She’s right, he is sick like her. He probably only wants you to let her go so he can push you off himself.’

‘Vivi, do not listen to that bullshit,’ Mo cursed for the first time in her memory, his voice coming right over the insidious one, louder. ‘He would kill for you, never you. Remember what we decided? We trust him. Trust him.’

Both voices talked over each other, and Corvina cried out at the pain behind her eyes, her body shaking with the need to collapse.

Somehow making some sense of everything, despite every word coming out of his mouth and the voices screaming in her head, Corvina put her faith in him and let go of the only security she had.

She felt him at her back, his hand in her periphery coming to cup Jade’s face tenderly. ‘You did it all for me?’

Jade nodded, her breathing choppy. ‘We belong together. You and I, we are the perfect fit.’

Vad chuckled at her side. ‘Yes, we are. We like throwing people down, don’t we?’ His grip on her face tightened. ‘How do you undo the effect of the drug?’

Realisation dawned upon the girl. She began to laugh maniacally, trying to get out of his grip on her jaw but unable to. ‘Oh, Vad. You want to throw me down, don’t you? It won’t work. Verenmore is in my blood. I will always be here in these walls.’

He leaned closer to her, his voice hard. ‘How do you undo the effects of the drug, hmm?’

Corvina heard Jade’s cackle, her body completely frozen.

‘You don’t. She will be your little plaything to do with as you please. Make her beg, make her crawl.’ Jade smacked her lips. ‘I’ll watch.’

‘He can do anything to you now,’ the insidious voice said just as Mo chastised it to shut up.

‘Watch from hell,’ she heard Vad say, right before he let her go.

Corvina watched in frozen shock as the pink dress floated around the girl’s body as she fell, her laughter ringing in the wind with the shouts from below until she splattered on the ground, her eyes staring up at her, her mouth stuck in a mad laugh, blood pooling around her head like a demonic halo, soaking into her pink dress.

A shadow moved around the crowd and suddenly, multiple voices started to scream at her in her head, all at once.

‘I’ll never leave.’

‘I’m glad she died.’

‘Tell my brother I didn’t kill myself.’

‘Give my family the news.’

‘Can you hear us?’

‘Jump, jump, jump.’

‘Why are you fucking alive?’

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