Page 118 of To Ashes and Dust
“It’ll be over soon,” Damien whispered to her.
“Don’t watch,” Barrett warned as we reached the foot of the stairs. I tried not to, but my gaze remained fixated on Damien as his hand came to rest on the female’s shoulder.
“Thalia, brace her.” Damien’s voice dipped almost to a whisper.
My foot reached the first step.
“I’m sorry,” Damien whispered again. “I’m so sorry.”
Lee’s body tensed and she grimaced, a strange sound slipping from her lips, one that didn’t sound wholly human as Thalia braced her, and then she settled back against the wall. My foot reached the second step, and I forced my gaze forward, my heart pounding.
“Aleirene tauen enlisno en solos,”Damien’s prayer barely reached my ears.
Third step... Fourth step... Fifth step...
She began to cry then, her voice changing, hoarse and shaky. “Thank you... Lord Damien...”
Something pressed into the back of my throat as we reached the sixth step, then the seventh, my pulse pounding in my ears as Barrett’s hand pressed to my back, urging me forward. My foot reached the eighth step, my stomach dipping as I tried to focus on the air filling my lungs, on anything but what I knew Damien was about to do. The wall blocked our view now.
Then I heard it; a wet gasp and gurgle. Something knocked and shook against the wall, scuffing against the concrete floor. I covered my ears as Damien and Thalia’s struggled grunts reached us.
Then, there was nothing.
42
DAMIEN
My blade met no resistance as I sank it deep into her chest. Her body jerked, spasming against mine and Thalia’s hold as the conversion began to take root.Fuck. We’d waited too long; she was further gone than I thought.
She fought against us, blood splattering from her wounds as she flailed, warmth dotting my face. Thalia gritted her teeth as she braced her elbow against Lee’s throat, avoiding the snaps of her fangs as she lashed out, and I absorbed the bite of her nails as she dug them into my arms. It wasn’t her fighting, though. It wasn’t Lee who stared back at me through those depthless black eyes.
“I’m sorry,” I muttered as I forced her back against the wall, her shoes scuffing against the concrete before her body finally began to settle.
Her movements slowed, nails unable to dig as deep as they had before, muscles twitching as nerves shorted out. I maintained eye contact, wholly present at her side, until she crossed into the afterlife. She wasn’t alone; I wouldn’t let her feel alone in her final moments. She’d suffered enough. The shadows receded from her unseeing eyes, the silver revealed once more.
Her hand slid from my arm, falling limp into her lap, and Thalia swallowed as she hesitantly released Lee. My hand remained, though, planted firmly on her shoulder, where I’d reached out to offer her any comfort I could.
I sat there a moment, unable to move, her bloodied face engraving itself into my mind, and suddenly, it wasn’t her face I was looking at. Countless faces flashed before my eyes, all pale, all covered in blood, all dead by my hand before they could turn. My breath grew shallow as the weight of their unseeing gazes burrowed into me, their hands grabbing hold of my arms as they fought against me.
“Damien.” I jerked as Thalia’s voice cut across it all, dragging me back. “Damien, she’s gone,” she whispered, her hand resting tenderly on my shoulder.
I blinked, swallowing as I eased the dagger from Lee’s chest. She hadn’t turned to dust; we’d managed to end her before she fully changed. It was a small blessing. At least she could rest alongside her kin in Moira’s Rest. If she had any living family, they could mourn her properly. She deserved that much.
Gods, when would this end? I slid my hand under her blood-matted, golden hair to the back of her neck, dropping my head as I silently prayed for her soul to find its way, that despite the horrible way she’d passed, she could find peace at last.
Thalia shifted to the side as I eased Lee to the floor, and I lifted my hand, closing her eyes. My gaze wandered over her wounds, my skin crawling as I remembered the same wounds marring Elena’s body when we’d found her.
No one deserved to die like this.
“You can’t keep doing this to yourself,” Thalia whispered.
“I’d never ask that of any of you.”
“It’s not something you need to ask of us. Barrett would’ve done it. I would’ve done it.”
“Barrett carries enough with him.” I knew how badly Micah’s death haunted him. I’d never ask him to do this. Never. I lifted my eyes to Thalia. “And if I can help it, you’ll never carry that burden...ever.”
“Damien?” Aiden’s voice echoed from upstairs, and I looked over my shoulder as the young warrior peered in from the stairwell. The moment he found us his eyes widened. “Shit.”
