Page 94 of Alpha Exile

Slowly, I blink at my reflection. It smiles back at me, the curve of my lips sinister. Shuddering, I jerk away.

And remember why the witch in the caverns looked so familiar to me.

It was my Aunt Kerry, toiling away tirelessly to keep Delphine trapped inside her cage.

I'mnotDelphine. I'm Delilah. And if my Aunt Kerry could speak to me right now, she would warn me that I'm about to lose my mind to a sociopath's narcissistic and self-interested thoughts.

Thankfully, she taught me an awakening incantation for moments exactly like this.

"Delilah Glass, awaken, arise!" I jerk my chin up as fingers go around my throat, digging into my skin. I won't let it stop me as I continue, "Return to yourself and see through your eyes."

"No!"

A moment later I'm ripped from Delphine's mind, the memories she pulled me into swirling in my head.

None so disturbing as the memories of all the deaths she lived through. Every cut, every drowning, the burnings... all of it torture, some of it lasting for days or weeks, hours of pain sliding together.

I look down into her eyes, my hands pressed against the knife poised above her heart.

And I feel my own heart ache in tortured sympathy.

Thirty-Nine

Roarke

"I'm okay," Delilah says, though she sounds shaken, her breaths sharp and shallow, her hands trembling on the knife. "It was her last trick, but she won't try it again."

Lance mutters, "Not with this hand, at least."

As soon as we realized what Delphine had done, we broke the physical connection between them. Lance is holding tightly to her hand now, his claws digging into her flesh and piercing through it. The roots and grass have climbed back up her arm and shoulder as well—which were only free because Delilah had them part so she could stab the knife into Delphine's heart.

Something she hasn't yet done, even though several breaths have passed. Glancing up at her face, I follow the direction of her eyes, and find that she's staring down into Delphine's dark gaze.

And I can't miss the smirk of satisfaction crinkling up the corner of those eyes and twisting her grass-filled mouth.

My heart beats uneasily as I reach out towards the shadow of a connection still stretching between myself and Delphine. Though I recoil at the brush of her mind, I force myself past the nausea so I can figure out what it is that she's done.

It doesn't take more than a skim of her surface level thoughts to realize that she's used her psychic abilities to engender sympathy in Delilah—sympathy that she's hoping will open up a weakness for her so she can take Delilah's power and return to her original plan.

Nausea roils in my stomach. I want to believe that it won't work, but looking over at Delilah, I'm not sure that it hasn't already. It would be hard to kill someone once you've lived their life—especially a life as tortured and long as Delphine's. Most people would struggle with their natural empathy after a connection like that.

"I'll do it." Delilah's eyes flit to my face. I reach out my hand, wrapping my fingers gently around her wrist. "I've already been tainted by her magic. She's infected me with her mind, and I came out the other side intact. I can bear her death just as easily as I bear those memories."

Her eyes soften, and she slowly shakes her head. "I can't burden you with that."

"Nothing is a burden when it's for you, my love." Brushing my lips against her ear, I murmur, "There's no shame in struggling to kill. It's what makes you different than her."

"I know." As our eyes meet, I can see the chip of brown in her green iris, a beautiful flaw that makes her even more perfect to me. "I had a momentary lapse, but I can do it. I'll make it swift. In the end, that'll be a mercy, after all the slow deaths she's survived."

Seeing in her eyes that she's ready for the task at hand, I release her wrist, and nod my assent at her.

She takes a deep breath, her eyes fluttering closed for a moment. Opening them, she stares down at Delphine, a surprisingly soft expression in her eyes.

"You deserved better, but so did those you hurt." Leaning forward, she presses the weight of her body against the dagger, her hands wrapped around it tight. "I hope you reap what you've sown."

Delilah draws the dagger up, takes a deep breath, then stabs it downward in a strong, fluid motion.

Directly through Delphine's heart.

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