Page 77 of Fire Bound

Sterling chuckles under his breath while shaking his head. “If you were to burn me alive, you would first need to conjure the flames of hell.” His one soulless eye assesses me. “Tell me, Jax, have you been able to use the flames since you did this to me?”

“I don’t need to use hellfire to burn you again.”

“I suppose.” His fucked-up mouth pulls in a cruel smile. “Though it would be more effective.” Sterling shifts forward a few feet, but I hold my ground. “You had so much potential. I paved the road for you to become strong and ruthless, but all I see is the same little boy who cried for his mom. You’ve allowed trivial things like love and loyalty to weaken you. Your threats hold no weight when you’re spewing that at me because ofher.” His gloved hand waves in Remington’s direction.

She stands as still as possible on the edge of the rocky ledge. All it would take is one strong gust of wind or a small hiccup for our world to come caving in as she fell.

“You’re wrong, Sterling. My threats mean something because of her. You created me and gave me life, but you are not the reason I still breathe. My desire for vengeance fueled me for a long time, but not anymore. If you take the reason I live away from me, I will kill you over and over again. I will make Kaius bring you back each time, only for me to kill you in a new and painful way. I will do this until you’re the one begging to be set free. You will be the one begging for the sweet relief of death. You will regret the day you ever created me, and you will regret all the times you called me special!” My voice comes out like an angry roar as I begin to shake with rage.

Sterling begins to slowly pull the leather gloves from his hands. Finger by finger, he pulls at them before he’s tossing them to the side. His right hand looks just like his face, burned and a mangled mess. From what I remember, his whole right side was burned.

“Do you remember what I told you happens to people that are no longer of use to me?” He asks surprisingly calmly as if he’d completely missed my outburst and warning. “You stopped being of use to me when you betrayed Nicolai and let Pruitt and her little pack kill him. The second you chose the Weylyns over me and my goals, you became useless to me. The second you started using your powers to assist the people who wanted to see me ruined, you became useless to me.” Walking toward my mate, he tells me over his shoulder with a smile. “Remington was useful to me for only one specific thing, and now that she’s played her role perfectly, I no longer see a reason to keep her around.”

You know in movies when time slows to a crawl and sound becomes distorted, like it’s coming from many miles away? That’s what happens when he moves toward her, his scarred hand reaching for her.

I know I’m running at her at full speed, but as my world stops spinning and my heart stops beating in my chest, my legs feel as if they’ve been filled with lead and the dirt beneath my boots feels like quicksand slowing me down.

The constant noise of my wolf in my head falls silent and for a second, he ceases to exist. For the first time since I can remember, I’m alone in my cold, dark soul. I’m alone as I try to get to her.

I know William is still standing by somewhere, but he melts away into the shadows just like everything else. All I can see is her and her big, round scared eyes. Her lips move, words are said to me, but I can’t hear them over the deafening silence in my head. But I still know what she said. I know it in my bones because the same words are on the tip of my tongue, but I’ve lost the ability to form words as my new nightmare comes true.

I love you.

The three little words that had the ability to fix my broken and battered soul are ripping me apart now. I always said she had the ability to cut me with her words, but those three little words are slashing deep, and I know now I’ll never be able to heal from these wounds. They’re fatal.

Before his scarred hand can touch her chest, her eyes flutter closed as if she’s not strong enough to watch as it happens. I want to look away too, but I can’t. I want to protect my mind from the horrifying sight, but I’ve never been able to look away from her. Now is no different.

Her hair billows around her head as the wind whips around her body as she falls in slow motion. Like an angel with broken wings, she falls from the sky and there’s nothing I can do but watch as the owner of my heart and healer of my soul disappears from sight.

Like a rubber band being snapped, everything goes back to normal speed and my senses return, but I really wish they wouldn’t have. I wish I never had to know what her screams sounded like as she fell or the heart-stopping, gut-wrenching and horrifying sound of her hitting the ground below.

I thought I knew pain, but it turns out that the pain I’ve felt up to this point has all been practice for the day I had to feel as the hallowed bond between me and my mate is ripped into ugly shreds.

It’s a sick game the universe plays allowing a mate to live on without the other. No one should have to experience this kind of pain. If there was a God, he’d never allow mates to die apart. In life, we were tethered together. It should be the same in death.

As the bond disintegrates into ashes inside of me, my body gives out and I fall to my knees on the ledge she hadjustbeen standing on.

I can’t breathe at first. The pain is so excruciating. It’s the kind of pain that can’t be eased or helped. I am forced to feel each and every excruciating second as I’m ripped apart. I realize as my body is so overcome with pain that it doesn’t feel like mine anymore, that this is what people mean when they say hellfire causes soul-deep pain.

This is the kind of pain I’ve inflicted on others and now that I know, I truly don’t know how they’ve survived it. Even if what I’ve done to others feels a quarter as bad as this feels, they should have died.

I want to die.

I want to jump over the edge with her.

I want to be with her.

I sit on my heels with my hands in my lap as my head drops back on my shoulders. Unable to hold it in any longer, a strangled scream rips through my chest and through the night air. In this moment, I don’t care that Sterling or William are watching as I unravel into nothing. I allow myself to break and to feel the pain they’ve caused because I’m going to let it fuel me. The pain, the anger and the devastation are going to make me strong enough to kill them.

Remi is waiting for me, but I’m not leaving this world behind with Sterling still walking on it. I always said that no matter what, I’d find a way to kill Sterling, even if it ended up killing me. I was always okay with the possibility but now I’m at peace with it.

Either way, I will be reunited with my mate.

My scream dies when my voice becomes hoarse, and my lungs run out of air. Dejectedly, I hang my head as I resign myself for what’s to come.

“What an absolutely disgusting show of emotion.” Sterling clicks his tongue in disapproval. His voice flips a switch inside of me. The cold tendrils of grief that have encompassed me are slowly taken over by fiery, hot anger and stone-clad determination. “You should be embarrassed by that little display,” he signs like he’s at a complete loss for words. “I always wondered what your weakness was going to be, but I never would have guessed it would be agirl. Though, based on how you just...crumbled... I should have gotten rid of her sooner. Would have saved me a lot of headaches.”

My palms start to heat as fire burns in my veins. Keeping my head dropped, I snarl darkly. “I warned you.” My voice still sounds rough from the outpouring of emotion. My wolf chews away the remaining restraints and with each passing second, I can feel him rise closer to the surface. “I warned you what would happen if you took her from me.”

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