Page 129 of Cursed Lifeline

“No!” Evangeline cries, “He’s suffered enough, you can’t kill him.”

Holding Viktor hostage with a fierce grip, Felix glances over his shoulder at the fae and hisses, “With all due respect, princess, I learned over two of Esme’s lifetimes to never trust someone who turns their back on me first. You, and my brother, can both go to hell before I’ll ever listen to another word that falls from your traitorous lips.”

Felix’s arm slams down as Evangeline yells, “You’d kill your brother who swore a blood oath to keep you safe?”

Felix’s hand shakes as it stays poised, aimed, ready to kill his own flesh and blood.

“No brother of mine would ever be so foolish.”

“Foolish,” Viktor sneers, forcing Felix back a step before being violently thrust back up against the wall.

A war of dark powers unleashes between the two princes and I do my best to shield Evangeline in my arms.

“You’re right,” Viktor snaps, struggling against Felix’s powers. “I was foolish. But my fault was never intentional towards the coven. My mistake was trusting Ember.”

“Exactly,” Felix hisses, “Like I said, traitor. The Judas of the Immortalis Coven. You’ve been in bed with the enemy all along.”

Viktor laughs wickedly. “In bed, no, but I was forced to do things against my will.”

“Bullshit,” Felix snaps. “I was there. I saw you eagerly sink your teeth into what’s mine.”

“He was being controlled,” Evangeline shouts, arguing for Viktor’s release. “A blood oath is more powerful than you think.”

“Well,” Felix snarls, raising his fist with deadly intent, “Let me show him that the lifeline that connects Esme and I is more powerful than any damned oath he swore to the enemy. Powerful enough, in fact, to eliminate any threat.”

Felix violently brings the stake down just as Evangeline snakes out from under my arm and rushes forward. My eyes widen. Fear grips my lungs, and strangles my heart. Darting forward, light erupts from my fingertips and a powerful force is suddenly unleashed from my palms. It bursts between Felix and Viktor, separating the two brooding men just as Evangeline dashes between them and pushes Viktor aside.

Felix’s sharp stake threatens to stab her through the heart.

Moving at the speed of light, I force her out of the way, turn, and feel a sharp, piercing pain erupt in my shoulder. Staggering back a step, I suck in a shaky breath. Dizzy from the expensed energy I’m not used to honing, I’m momentarily disoriented until a sharp gasp falls from Evangeline’s lips.

“Alfred,” she cries

Her eyes widen with furious indignation.

Smiling, thankful to have her attention focused on me instead of Viktor, even if she is mad, I say, “I’m sorry I pushed you, I was just…”

Rushing forward, her stare bitterly swings towards Felix who studies me with a rueful expression before his worried gaze anxiously lands on my shoulder. Looking down, crimson stains my shirt and spreads at an alarming rate from the spike lodged between my breastplate and shoulder blade.

Warmth from the blood oozing out of my wound quickly turns cold as my knees give out and I fall to the floor. Bile rises in my throat. Looking in Evangeline’s worried eyes, I tell myself not to vomit, not to get sick as she kneels at my side and comes a whispered breath away from my lips and inspects the wound.

My stomach starts to retch. I gag on chunks. My insides heave as Evangeline glances angrily over her shoulder and says, “What did you lace this with?”

“Poison,” Felix whispers as my vision blurs and my stomach once again threatens to upturn.

My eyes start to close, and I unwillingly start to succumb to the darkness that wants to claim my soul. Evangeline cups my face and forces me to focus.

“Alfred,” she demands. “Stay with me. Remember? Guiding light. Don’t look away from the light.”

A delirious chuckle escapes my lips, and I mumble, “Petite étoil, I could never look away from you.” Bile rises in my throat, and I choke, “Heavens knows I’ve tried and failed for over two hundred years.”

Searching my eyes, desperation builds in Evangeline’s worried stare as my lashes flutter closed and the hands of death draw closer.

“Help him to his feet,” she demands.

Quickly, I’m pulled to standing. The plink and plop of liquid causes me to look at the floor. Blood drips from my listless fingertips and my stomach threatens to upturn at Evangeline’s feet.

“Here,” Viktor says, instructing Evangeline to take my right arm as Felix keeps a firm grip on my left. “Hold him.”

---