Page 154 of Artemysia
My control shatters and the tears spill out.
To me, he’s so much more than who he was at the cave pools. I see the whole of him, and I believe in him. I’ll never come back from this if I can’t save him.
His eyes go vacant, a hollowness replacing the light. He’s gone again.
I didn’t even have time to respond to his words.
He shoves my hands off his throat and dives into me, his bite landing at the base of my neck.
I scream through the pain.
My hand grasps blindly for my dagger, yanking it free from my belt. I kick him back, just enough to point the dagger between us.
“I don’t want to do this, Riev. Please don’t make me.” My voice shakes with desperation. I blink back my tears, because I can’t afford blurred vision right now.
Ivy and Throg circle us, and Eira and her squad come from behind.
Unnaturally swift, he slashes at Ivy with his dagger and knocks Throg off his feet. He’s on top of Eira, tearing his fangs into her shoulder even as he fends off her guards, kicking and clawing. Eira’s face twists in pain, but she doesn’t cry out as she struggles against him.
I roll up and knock Riev off her, and we tumble together in the grass. He pounces on top of me, kneeing me in the stomach, but I point my dagger at him, holding steady with both hands at my chest.
I’m hoping the sight of the blade aimed at him will give him pause.
He snarls, lips quivering as he bares his fangs. They’re so long that the top teeth dent his bottom lip.
“Riev, stop. Listen to my voice.”
He lunges forward to strike again with his gnashing fangs.
I don’t want to see it.
I close my eyes and whisper, “I’m yours.”
He slams into me and drives himself into my dagger. I shake uncontrollably as the blade sinks into his flesh, his chest.
Oh gods.
Part of me knows I could have shifted the dagger out of the way, releasing it in time. The other part of me knows he heard me, saw the dagger, and impaled himself, while I held strong.
I held strong and didn’t let go.
Did I do it for him? For myself? Or to save others? If hadn’t held my blade, he would have killed me, Throg, Ivy, Eira, and escaped to harm others. Even if we somehow captured him, he’d be a prisoner at the castle in his tortured state for the rest of his life, until he ripped off his own limbs to escape. He’d begged me not to let him live like that. As a controlled beast. He only wanted to be free, of himself, of his entire life under someone else’s control.
I knew what I was doing. He knew what he was doing, if only in a brief moment of sanity.
I am certain beyond a doubt that he heard what I had to say, what I needed him to know, even if it was the last thing he ever hears. I am his.
When I dare peel my eyes open, my dagger is in his heart, and he’s sprawled on top of me. Hot blood pools between us, trickling its heated, sticky ooze onto my chest and neck.
His breath is still.What have I done?
He’s motionless. Dead.
His lips are on my forehead. Soft and warm and shielding me from his fangs.
In his last act, he ran himself into my knife and placed his lips on my forehead in a kiss.
Not a bite. A kiss.
