Page 47 of Fated In Forever
He was the desperate one, clinging to his precious vision of the future like a drowning male clung to a life raft.
I was filled with a different sort of desperation, calling my name, on the other side of that cursed doorway. Malachi was alive.
This incessant tugging inside my chest told me so.
My heart told me so.
He was alive and he was alone.
I didn’t allow myself to think about what might happen if that door closed, what it might be like to be trapped over there, in a world of shadow. I stepped toward the portal, toward Ravok, who raised a warning hand.
“That gateway leads to the deepest levels of the Underworld, a realm that would destroy a mortal soul inmoments. Your precious Malachi has the divine bloodline to survive the transition, but you?” He shook his head with mock sympathy. “You would be torn apart before you even fully crossed the threshold.”
“We are what we are.” I murmured, gaze fixed on the swirling opening, which seemed to be beckoning me closer.
“What drivel is that?’ Ravok sniped. “Some human thing?”
“A true thing.” I murmured, hiding the small knife in my blistered palm, not that he noticed, since I was far too inconsequential to threaten someone as powerful as a mighty Elder.How wonderful it must be, to have such an enormous ego, you can’t even see the threat right in front of you.
“For all your gifts, you are empty. A barren soul filled with greed and contempt. And as for me,” I blew out a long, rueful sigh. “As for me, I will always make the wrong choice, never learning from my past mistakes.”
One move—a well-timed lunge, a sweep of my right hand—moves drilled into me since I was a child—and that knife, even dull and rusted, sliced up through his abdomen and slipped easily between his ribs.
I turned my wrist to exactly the right angle to carve through intestine and organs, then dragged the edge back along bone and crouched low, instinctively ducking beneath the sweep of his enormous blade, as if I’d already lived this moment.
“No,” Ravok’s mouth hung open. “Not…possible.” He stared at the knife in my hand and all the color drained from his face, his mouth working, as if he’d lost the ability to speak.
“That’s a…” He tried again. “That’s a cold iron blade.”
“I hope you suffer,” I hissed, though the threat feltinadequate after all the evil things he’d done. “I hope you rot away, just like those thralls you feed on.”
“Where…” He’d pressed his free hand to his leaking gut, “where did you get that blade?Where?”
I looked past him to the portal.
Somewhere beyond that veil of shadow, Malachi was alone. The male who had shown me that even the most broken souls could find redemption was now trapped in a realm designed to strip away everything good.
I caught my breath, staring at the blank wall where the archway had been before I’d been cut off from Blake and Rohr. They were still out in those tunnels, searching for a way back to me, and I squeezed my eyes closed.
My love for them spanned this entire realm, but Malachi…he needed me.
Blake and Riordan would take care of each other, like they always had, they would keep my sister and everyone else safe, and when I returned—and I had to believe I would—I would beg their forgiveness for leaving.
The smart play was to retreat.
But I couldn’t escape this room. Ravok would already be healing, and once he recovered, I would never beat him. Staring into that abyss, I knew with crystalline clarity that I only had one option. Every moment Malachi spent in that hellscape would push him further from the male he had chosen to become and closer to the god he was slowly turning into.
“You know nothing about loyalty,” I said quietly, my voice carrying clearly in the chamber's acoustics. “You know nothing about love.”
“If you think you’ll survive what’s on the other side, you’re the fool.” Ravok's expression shifted, a flicker of pain crossing his face as he hefted the athame, keeping his otherhand pressed to his belly wound. “Love is an illusion. A chemical reaction designed to ensure the continuation of the species. Nothing more.”
“Love is what separates us from monsters like you.” I took another step toward the portal, feeling that inevitable tug. “Love makes us willing to sacrifice everything for someone else. It's what makes us mortal.”
“Love makes you weak,” Ravok snarled, one hand pressed against the wound, trying to stem the fountain of thick, black blood seeping down the front of him. “Allow me to demonstrate?—”
But I was already moving, diving toward the portal with every ounce of speed and desperation I could muster. Ravok swung that silver blade, the keen edge passing so close, all I saw was the bright flash of metal, but I was committed.
There was no turning back.
