Page 83 of A Match Made in Hell
The pieces clatter to the ground, shattering in a spray of silver and abandoned promises. I stumble back. Aric shifts in my peripheral vision – I guess Sath wasn’t lying when he said Aric can’t attack first, because he’s rooted to the spot, shifting from one foot to the other, snapping and snarling.
Not for much longer.
Free of my shackles, I straighten, twirling the knife in my hand while a phantom wind drifts through the pit, lifting the ashes of my bracelet and stealing them away. There’s a spring inmy step as I circle him now, my whole body lighter without the expectation that one tiny piece of jewellery wrought. I can have a life of my own. Instead of seeing the world, I’ll get to explore each and every floor of Asphodel with Harper. I’ll spend every night with Sath without caring that Mum would have hated him. The fact she chose Noah, someone who toyed with me for years and then discarded me like a broken doll, shows how little she knew me.
I’m giddy with the possibilities ofnextin a way I never have been before.
And all I have to do is kill him.
‘Look at you, thinking you’ve won,’ Aric says. ‘How I would love to rip that smile from your face and eat it. Perhaps tonight I shall.’
‘I already told you, those gates aren’t opening.’
‘Yes, Willow White, they will. And you will stand there powerless when it happens.’
‘No.’ This isn’t the usual, burning, hot-headed rage I feel when I’m out of control and don’t know what to do – the kind that leads to a bad decision. This anger is made of ice and steel, as cold as the weapon I’m going to kill him with. He doesn’t get to decide my future.
I do.
And then I’m running, launching myself at him; I don’t think he expected me to do it because his eyes widen in surprise when I reach him, my shoulder shoving into his chest and sending him tumbling to the floor. I follow, going down with him, raising the dagger in the air before slamming it into his stomach.
The blade punctures skin. Something pounds in the distance; Sath shouts my name. I tune him out. I will whatever magic that allowed this knife to appear to keep the doors locked. There’s just me, and Aric, and a weapon. My hands are drenched in black ooze. I drive the dagger deeper, twisting it around, tugging it outonly to slam it in again.
The humans have been hurt too many times;I’vebeen hurt too many times. Years of poking and prodding and torment, years of being told our feelings were invalid, and it’s enough. Today it ends. I willnotlet those gates open.
The pounding on the doors grows more frantic, but anger is a seed taken root, erupting in my insides, the stem blazing and burning as it shoots through my veins. I can’t stop. The flames are all I see. Aric’s a monster. He deserves this. Sweat drips down my back. Hedeservesthis.
I plunge the knife into his chest next, into that hole where his heart should be, and he finally stops writhing beneath me. Panting, I stare at his prone form, at the mess I’ve made, and lean forward. ‘I guess you were the powerless one after all.’
The dagger clatters to my side. Blood leaks from his wounds.
All I want to do islaugh.
For once, there’s no anger left to suppress, nothing to lock away and pretend I don’t notice the way it’s clawing to get out. I’m free. I’m finally free. I crawl to Harper, patting her face, listening to her shallow breaths in the silence.
‘It’s going to be okay,’ I whisper. ‘Aric can’t hurt you now.’
And no one can hurtme. I’m unbound, unchained, my future my own to decide.
As if they know who, exactly, I want in that future, the doors blast open. My smile widens. I’mstaying. I’ll have the chance to tell him how I feel. Properly. Not the way I begged for him during lust, because it’s not just his body I want – as appealing as it is. I want the man who listened to me, who never judged me, who accepted me the way I am.
And I don’t believe he doesn’t want me too. Maybe he was afraid to say something because he thought I was leaving, but now we have a whole eternity to figure this out. A chance we didn’t have before.
Happiness warms my chest, glowing so bright I want to burst.
I’mstaying.
I rise to my feet on shaky legs, waiting for him to see, for him to realise I’m not going anywhere. That I had the chance to choose who I wanted to be, once and for all, and instead of Good Decision Willow or Bad Decision Willow, I choseWillow. I chose the people here. I chose him.
Then I catch the look on his face. My smile wavers.
‘What the hell did you do?’ Sath’s voice is barely more than a hiss, but it hits me like a roar.
‘It’s okay,’ I reassure him. ‘I chose to fail. I wanted this.’
‘You wanted this,’ he echoes. He isn’t catching on that this is agood thing. Wet slaps sound as he marches through Aric’s blood to stand inches from me, heat radiating from him. He gestures at the black glistening on his shoes. ‘You wantedthis?’
I fold my arms as though they’ll be enough to shield me from the burn. ‘Aric was threatening to open the gates. He needed to be stopped.’
