Page 129 of Fratelli: Eternal Bloodlines

“Do you want to save her?” Julia asked.

He nodded.

“Then Vittorio must die. Turn it off, and you’ll have to choose—her or your father. He’ll be strong again, so you must be decisive in that decision. Either she kills him, or you let Vittorio kill her. There’s no other way.”

“I can’t do that,” Domencio whispered, voice tight with anguish.

“It’s the only way. Even then, she’s damned. She gave her soul to Papa Legba as a child in the void to have a friend in the darkness. She gave up everything for you, chile, and you never knew it. He won’t release her without taking another in her place. You’ll have to bargain. But first, you’re burning—turn it off. Your brother built this. Only he could stop it. That means you can too.”

Domencio kissed her forehead. He wished he had known this version of her before bitterness and years of subjugation decayed her heart. He’d find Phoenix before it was all said and done and make him pay.

“Go,cher,” she whispered. “This moment is temporary, but we will meet again in the next.”

With a final push, she urged him forward. Domencio turned toward the light. His skin continued to burn, searing pain rippling through him as if he were walking into the heart of a volcano. But he pressed on, pushing deeper into the heat.

Sophie lunged,a blur of speed as she twisted into a roundhouse kick aimed at Sonya’s head. Sonya ducked just in time; flames erupted from her hand as she shot forward. She aimed a fiery punch toward Sophie’s chest. The fire cracked against Sophie’s side, sending her spinning mid-air.

But Sophie was quick, unnaturally quick. She twisted as she landed, barely phased, and grinned—a flash of white teeth and fangs in the darkness. “You’re nothing to him! He gave Lucio his Camilla as a sacrifice. He gave me his soul! I will take it with me down the drain!”

Before Sonya could respond, Sophie was on her again. Sonya blocked another flurry of blows, but each kick, each punch, felt like it carried the weight of Sophie’s rage—and her longing. The hatred was personal. Sonya could feel it seething with every strike. Their bodies moved with supernatural speed, trading blow for blow. Sophie’s laughter taunted her, sharp and mocking, as Sophie dodged a flame-coated kick from Sonya, twisting through the air like a dancer.

Sophie sneered, her hand crackled with dark energy as she drove it into Sonya’s stomach. The impact sent Sonya flying backward, her back slammed down against the forest floor. The wind was knocked from her lungs and the forest seemed to close in around her. For a second, everything went black.

But Sonya wasn’t finished. She couldn’t be.

With a scream of defiance, Sonya shot up. Flames burst from her hands and arced through the air. The fire lashed out like whips, catching Sophie off guard and scorching her pale skin. Sophie screamed, enraged, her face twisted into a mask of fury.

“Shakespeare!” Sophie shrieked, her body flickering in and out of sight as she tried to avoid the fire, each movement filled with desperate rage.

Sonya frowned. Not sure what she was seeing. Fueled by her desperation to save Darlene and Shakespeare, she charged in after Sophie, her fists ablaze. She landed a blow squarely to Sophie’s chest, flames licking at her skin, burning away the remnants of her unnatural life.

But as Sophie fell back, Sonya could see it—the awakening awareness on Sophie’s face, and a deep profound sadness in her eyes, the ghost of a love that had long died within her was now there in this creature Phoenix had created, before she exploded in a fiery ball of blue and lavender light.

In the same breath, Shakespeare twisted Raven’s head with all his strength. The force tore through the weakened stitches that held it to his body. His longtime friend and brother in the Fratelli began to flicker. Shakespeare barely noticed. He was fueled with grief mixed in with rage because through it all he heard the death of Sophie and would have to mourn her all over again. Mad with guilt over his current actions, he ripped Raven’s head from his shoulders. Raven’s decapitated form crumbled, the magic that animated him breaking apart like a shattered mirror, then ignited into a fireball of an explosive blue and lavender light.

Phoenix roared in anger. He would have charged at Sonya and Shakespeare but froze. He turned and looked at the villa. His eyes stretched in horror. The blue and lavender light blasted through every window before it extinguished.

Confused, Shakespeare and Sonya glanced at each other from across the forest. Then to Phoenix, who was now enraged. The Phoenix shot straight up into the sky as if blasted out of a cannon.

“I’m going after him!” Shakespeare said.

“No!”

“Defend Darlene. We can’t let Phoenix go. Somehow, he’s causing all of this!” Shakespeare shouted.

“Take me with you! Whatever he is, you can’t win alone. Take me. I’m the Defender of the Pain. I will help you bring him down. That is how I will save Darlene.” She marched through the forest toward him. Shakespeare was looking toward the smoking ashes where Sophie once was.

Sonya grabbed his face and made him look at her. Not what was left of Sophie. “I didn’t understand why the guardians would mate with the darkness, why I had to choose you. Kaida is in me, but she doesn’t control me. These are lessons I must learn on my own. And what I have learned is you and me, together can defeat anything. Especially Phoenix.”

Shakespeare pulled her into his arms and held her. She held on to him tight. And before she could speak, they were shot up toward the heavens toward their fate.

Domencio’s eyes snapped open.He lay flat on his back. The air in the room had become thick with smoke. It didn’t take long to realize the smoke was rising from his own body. He glanced down—his skin charred, burnt to the bone, but rapidly it healed with vampiric speed.

In his hand, he held a gem. It sparkled instead of glowing a sapphire blue, swirling with lavender. It had a cooling feel to it, feminine energy. A jewel—from a necklace, a ring… or a crown?

The gem pulsed, flooding him with renewed strength. He could only imagine the opposite effect it would have on Lucio, trapped in his dark sleep. Domencio stood. He shook the ash from his body, his charred skin sloughing off like dust.

With a thought, he was clothed. He mirrored Darlene’s imitation of him. He clenched the gem in his hand and marched out of the room. It was time to stop her.

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