Page 66 of The Unseelie War
It was hard to say whose task was more of a guaranteed suicide run—Ava’s or Serrik’s. They were about matched. He was most likely to die outright at Valroy’s hands. Whereasshewas most likely to die a slow death of attrition into apathy.
She didn’t know which she preferred.
Serrik remained silent for a long pause, neither agreeing or disagreeing with the plan at first. He seemed more withdrawn than usual, lost in thought, though what those thoughts were he had no idea. “Ava. A word.”
Well, she was about to find out. “Yeah.” They had a lot to discuss. A lot to straighten out.
They were both about to sacrifice themselves, after all.
This was their last chance at a peaceful goodbye.
Whether or not she wanted to face it. Whether or not she wanted to admit it.
He walked off into the theatre, and she followed him into the darkness.
One last time.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Serrik led Ava deeper into the opera house, past the costume room where they had found their brief paradise, past the practice rooms and storage areas, until they reached a room that was somebody’s basement office by the looks of things. The space was cramped but mercifully quiet, lined with shelves that held sheet music and programs from performances that would never happen again.
He closed the door behind them with deliberate care, as if sealing them away from the rest of the world. Not like it would do much good in the end. Hesitating for a moment, he turned to face her, his golden eyes blazing, even if his expression was as unreadable as it always was. “I need to know that you have truly considered all other actions.”
Ava set Book down on the paper-covered desk, her hands shaking slightly as she released it. The weight of the proverbial inevitability contained within felt heavier with each passing moment. “I’ve thought about nothing else since I woke up from that vision. There isn't another way, Serrik. The Morrigan showed me what happens if we fail.”
"The Morrigan,” he interrupted, his voice sharp with old anger, “who has manipulated every aspect of our existence from the beginning. My mother, who created me to leave me to this…fate, birthed Valroy to be destruction incarnate, and created you to clean up the mess we would inevitably make.” He took a step forward. “You would trust her guidance?”
“What choice do I have? Do you have a better fucking idea?” Ava's voice cracked. "The worlds are coming apart. I canfeelit, Serrik. Every moment we delay, reality gets more unstable. People are dying. And if Valroy—" Her shoulders fell. “Every time I fight this, it just makes it worse.”
“What do you mean?”
“Think about it.” She threw up her hands. “I tried to fight for my humanity, and I lost. I became the Weaver anyway. I fought to keep from becoming your weapon and to save the world from Valroy and—and I destroyed my worldanyway.And yours. And everything else in the process, and—and now, now?” She laughed, feeling defeated under the weight of it all. “Now, to undo mylastfuckup? I go right back to losing my humanity. Which I could have just sacrificed in the first place and—and—” She couldn’t keep going.
Serrik stepped forward, and took her face in his hands. “I would have torn your heart from your chest and crushed it in my palm without ever knowing what it was I had lost.” He let his hands drift to her shoulders. “It is because of you that I have once more felt the warmth of the sun. That I have heard the whispers of trees. Felt the air move against my skin. And we would never have fallen in love, Ava Cole. I never would have known that such a thing was…even possible, for a creature such as I. That would it be so simple, in my instance, to decide between revenge and love, when presented with the knowledge that I needn’t for it to still be waiting there for me should I return from that dark precipice with my hands stained.”
Shutting her eyes, she didn’t fight the tears that rolled down her cheeks.
“You have accepted me, all of me, and ask of me simply totry.And so, in this, I shall do the same. I am asking you to try, Ava Cole.”
“Try what?” She muttered the words, not looking up at him.
“To survive as yourself. To keep in your heart that precious thing I would have so readily smashed apart in my greed.” He nudged her face gently up toward him. “Look at me.”
Reluctantly, she did as he asked.
And in his eyes she saw all the pain he was trying to mask behind his clinical tone. “You are not expendable. Your life, your humanity, your capacity for love—these things have value beyond any equation.”
“Three souls to save three worlds,” she said, repeating the cold mathematics of sacrifice. “And I’m to blame for this. It's not even a question, Serrik. The numbers make sense.”
“Numbers." His smile was sad. “You sound like me, now. Reducing all the world to a calculation, ignoring the immeasurable value of all the rest. When did you become so willing to sacrifice yourself?”
“When I realized that's what love means sometimes,” she whispered. “Choosing to protect the people you care about, even when it costs you everything.”
“And what of my love for you?” The question came out raw, stripped of his usual careful control. “What if my choice is to protectyou,even if it costsmeeverything? Do I not get a voice in this decision?”
“Serrik—”
“I have spent two millennia in isolation, Ava. Two thousand years believing myself incapable of love, unworthy of connection, destined for nothing but destruction and revenge.” His thumbs brushed away the tears that had begun to fall down her cheeks. “You changed that. You showed me that there was someone who believed that I had value despite my darkest impulses. And now you ask me to stand by and watch as you sacrifice yourself for the greater good? No. I am too much the greedy bastard for that.”
