Page 77 of The Fated and the Damned
“You are—” I shook my head, in total awe of this creature before me. “You’re a goddess.”
She rose, dusting herself off and taking a minute to lean against me as she collected herself. The spell had drained her, but I knew better than to think she was spent. “Dante. Look.” Her voice dripped with venom as she locked eyes on something in the distance. I turned to find her squinting at the one person who could end all this.
Sylvie stood at the forefront of her army, disintegrating demons and the undead with lazy waves of her hands. Blood dripped down her chin, as if she’d just fed and I gritted my teeth. She probably had, restoring her power on the blood of a witch.
Her eyes met mine, then slid with cold indifference to Kitarni. My táltos vision was better than a witch’s, so the taunting smile that dark bitch offered made my insides boil. My muscles flexed with the urge to rip off her head.
My gaze shifted to the woman who stepped beside her, every killer instinct inside me awakening upon one look at that smirking face—once beautiful and kind, now just an ugly reminder of everything I hated. My mother.
“This ends now,” Kitarni said. She turned, looking at me with adoration, her hand reaching up to cup my cheek. The sounds of battle quieted to nothing as I focused on her gorgeous face. “I fucking love you, Dante Sándor. I would go to hell and back for you, but I guess you already did that.” She smirked, her freckled nose puckering. “So I’ll do you one better. I’ll send that wretch there instead.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Kitarni—”
“Don’t.” She pressed her fingers to my lips. “Don’t try and stop me. Don’t say goodbye. Just … kiss me. Kiss me like you own me.”
“I do own you, Freckles. From the tip of your toe to the very top of that precious, stubborn head of yours.”
Our lips crashed together and I devoured the taste of her, the feel of her tongue curling against mine, the arch of her back, the lingering scent of lavender in her hair. The kiss lasted a lifetime and a split second all at once.
When we pulled apart, she looked at me for a long moment, then turned and disappeared amongst the fray.
Unbidden tears lined my eyes. My chest ached with a hurt so deep and profound I could feel my inner resolve crumbling. Fireballs and water jets lobbed in the air around me and all I could do was stand there. Utterly useless. I closed my eyes and tried to block out reality, but a chasm opened in my heart, swallowing me whole.
For once in my life, I had no idea what to do. I should have held on. I should have … Fuck. I shook my head, refusing to believe this was farewell—that once she put that crown on, it would all be over. It couldn’t end like this.
My hands curled into fists as I watched the bloodshed around me, refocusing on Baba Yaga as she made her way across the battlefield, her sights set on me. There was my answer.My justice.
I let her come to me until she stood mere feet away, staring me down, almost imploring as she gazed at her only son. “Dante, my sweet, sweet boy. You must understand—”
“I understand,” I spat. “I understand you abandoned your family when you had every opportunity to come home. I understand you manipulated a child’s love into doing your bidding. I understand you used me, coerced me and forced me to obey your every command by holding my brother as bait. And most of all, I understand you hurt the woman I love. You disgust me.”
Yaga shook her head, her brown eyes wide. “Please. I did this all for you. So that one day, when the Dark Queen reigns, she would spare you. You will see, in time, that the cult is the true path. Dante, I love—”
I stiffened, my head heating with the pure rage coursing through me. “Don’t you dare. Don’t you fucking dare say those words to me. You lost that right long ago when you decided dark magic was more endearing than your own child. There is a debt owed that you can never repay.”
“Then tell me,” she cried, raising her arms, her gaze imploring. All I could focus on was the blood stained down her chin, the teeth filed into sharp points. Teeth that had sank into witch flesh and drained them of their blood. All I could see wasred. “What can I do to make this right?”
I sneered, letting my power flash. “You can die.”
Before she could blink, I rushed her, my two blades sinking through her chest and out the other side. Her mouth parted, her eyes bulging as she stared at me in shock, fresh blood trickling down her chin in the same path as before. With one hand, I clasped her back and pulled her closer, deeper down the swords until we were nearly chest to chest.
A sickening, choking noise bubbled out of her mouth as she tried to speak, but the words didn’t come. Just before she took her last breath, I pulled her closer, whispering in her ear, “Burn in hell.”
She died in my arms. The last embrace I’d ever offer and one she didn’t deserve. When I pulled my blades free, I felt nothing but satisfaction at what I’d done. No remorse or regret, just a weight lifted from my shoulders that this monster would never hurt me and mine again.
The moment was freeing, but entirely short lived as I looked at the carnage around me.
My brothers and sisters fell by the dozen as Sylvie unleashed her blood magic. The faeries and creatures of the woods pounced, never tiring, always hungry for more flesh.
The portal I’d conjured began shaking violently, cracking in two like an earthquake, and I sucked in a breath as it shattered entirely. The demons fighting winked out of existence, likely having returned to their own realm. We were fighting a losing battle and Kitarni had known it.
Soldiers I’d grown up with littered the fields, their limbs or heads severed, their eyes open and mouths wide in a silent scream. The lupus fought on, but even they were outnumbered as creatures leapt upon their hides, stabbing and slicing.
Their howls of pain cleaved my heart in two and, as I watched the river of red running through the dirt beneath my feet, my resolve hardened. The power of the táltosok was mostly spent and the witches were tiring, their magic dwindling or fizzling out. Our forces would not last the night.
But we could fight with sword and axe and fire in our hearts.
We could die with honour.
