Page 77 of The Reaper's Vice

“Get. Out.”My voice is not my own, morphed into something vile—born of hatred. Of fury. “Murderer.”

He shakes his head, coming to a dead stop as his eyes widen, pain brimming from those clear blue depths.So it seems he’s come to the same conclusion as me. That this ishisfault.

“Seraphina… I never knew this would happen,” he whispers. “If I thought—I only wanted to make you happy. To?—”

“Happy?” A laugh fills the air, but it holds no joy. “Happy?You havedestroyedone of the only things that evermademe ‘happy.’”

He takes a step back, his head shifting side to side. “I don’t—I never meant?—”

“You’re a fucking monster.” My eyes narrow in hatred. “You’re sick. Delusional. And now Vee is the one who has to pay the price.”

Squaring his shoulders, he begins moving toward me again. “We’ll work together. We’ll take down whoever is responsible for this. We’ll?—”

“There is no‘we’!” I scream, my chest heaving.

Orion is breathing just as hard, his pupils blowing, eating up the blue until his eyes are one black circle. “Seraphina, I love you! You think I would have done any of that—anyof it, if I thought it would lead to this? I’ve been trying to take care of you in the only way—the one way I know how! Let me help you,please,” he begs.

I shake my head sadly, all the fight seeping from my veins. “Go away, Orion…” I drop my eyes, staring down at Vee’s lifeless face. “Please, just… leave us alone.”

His eyes widen, and he takes a step back as a strange emotion flits over his face, his aura deepening to a menacing pitch. “I can’t do that. Please, let me help you. I can fix this?—”

“Fuckingleave us!” I scream, hot tears streaming down my face. Red swarms my vision, blotting out Orion's horrified expression. The pain of Vee’s death is too raw, too real, too much, and I desperately grab onto anything else but this emotion.

I settle on anger.

“You’ve done enough.” I turn from him to glance down at Vee’s pallid, lifeless features. “Just leave.”

He shakes his head. “Seraphina, I love yo?—”

“Don’t you fuckingdare.” I bare my teeth at him in a nasty snarl. “You tell menow? You tell menow,when I’m holding Vee’s dead body in my arms? You don’t love me—you’re just obsessed with getting me to loveyou.Well, trying to manipulate me when I’m down isn’t going to fucking work. I’ve been through worse than you, Orion Adair. Ihateyou! I hate you, and I always fucking will.”

His face falls, and for a moment, my grip on my anger slips, making way for guilt to twist its way into my heart. “You don’t mean that…”

I could be silent. I could say nothing. But everything in me–-everything I am wants to rip the walls from this place. I’m soangry.There’s no room for anything else.

“I meant every fucking word,” I snarl. “Leave. Go, and don’t you dare look back.”

He just stands there staring, and in a fit of rage, I rip the shoe from my foot and fling it at his head. “FUCKING LEAVE! You’ve ruinedeverything!”

I collapse onto Vee, great shuddering sobs wracking my body as the pain tries to escape. But every time some of it seeps from my pores or falls from my mouth, it’s replaced by that endless stream of sorrow opening up in my chest.

I don’t hear Orion leave, but he's gone when I look back up. With an anguished sob, I rake my nails against the stone floor until they’re bloody and raw. But it’s nothing compared to the pain raging inside my chest. Nothing compared to the flame of hate igniting everything I am.

They took her. They took her.They took her.

With a cry, I push to my feet, my gaze molten as I curse the heavens above. As I vow to murder every single last one of the people—no, themonsters—who took Vee away from me. Just as I’m about to turn away from her, I notice something clutched in her palm. It’s small and black and looks suspiciously like…

The duck. The obsidian duck I gave to Vee.

A new cavern opens in my chest as I crouch down, gently pulling the duck from her hand and clutching it to my heart. “I will avenge you,” I promise, bending to place one last kiss along Vee’s pale forehead. “If it’s the last thing I do, I will right this terrible wrong.” I walk toward the exit, my shoulders held high despite the terrible weight pressing down on me.

Though, for all my perceived strength, I can’t find it in myself to look back.

37

ORION

“GONE”

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