Page 106 of Claim the Twilight
“You saved me.” Edwin stares at Encantor in awe. “You were willing to die for me.”
Encantor blinks sharply, then smirks. “What? Why would I do that? I don’t even know you.”
I narrow my eyes. “You just said?—”
“I said what I needed to in order to convince the powers that be that I was genuine.” He shrugs one shoulder. “And now I have my power back. We all win.”
No…I saw the shock on his face when his power got restored. He didn’t plan this. But if he wants to act as if he did, then so be it.
He takes a deep breath. “Now, how about we remove the wicked infection from your body, then go kill a goddess?”
Chapter 44
LOVIATOR
The bruised sky stretches as far as the eye can see, and from my fortress on the mountain, I can see it all. The walls of my prison are crumbling, a slow decadent sensation. A promise of release. Finally, I’ll stretch, expand, and fill the world. Justice and righteousness will rule, and evil will be eradicated. Finally, I’ll have honored my vow.
A shadow moves in the mirror to my left, and I suppress a sigh.
“You can stop. It doesn’t have to be this way,”shesays from behind the glass.
If I ignore her, she’ll go away.
“I know you can hear me. This is wrong. What you’re planning to do…everything you’ve done since?—”
“Don’t!” I spin to face her, rage burgeoning inside me like lava.
She presses her palms to glass and looks back at me with wide compassionate eyes set in a face I know too well.
She’s nothing. No one. A ghost trapped inside a gilded mirror. This decadent boudoir of gold and crimson her only view. She is no threat to me.
My ire cools. “I made a vow.”
“I know. But there are other ways to honor it. Other ways to eradicate evil.”
“Not at the root. Not like this.”
“Lov…” she says softly. “We’ve been apart too long. It’s time for us to unite once more. Before it’s too late.”
She’s fading. I can see the dissolution at the very fringes of her being. It’s taken eons but finally I’ll be free of her.
“Go quietly, I have no use for you.”
“Maybe it’s I that need you?”
Her words evoke a pang of longing. That ancient yearning to be whole once more. But I won’t allow it to take root. Not after everything that’s been taken. After everything that’s been lost.
“Lov, listen to me,” she says. “Without me you’ll become like them. Cold and unfeeling.”
Her words shake loose memories long suppressed, of hands and teeth and terror. “Be silent.”
“Look what you did to your flesh and blood. The one being born, not from violence, but from love. Remember what you?—”
“Shut up!” My heart beats harder. Faster. A familiar burn lighting up my blood. The craving. The need. One that can only be rectified with the consumption of pain. “See what you’ve done now? See?”
I hate her. For her softness and her pleas. I hate her for everything she once was and could have become.
Tears track down her cheeks. “Oh Lov…Oh my heart. What have they done to you?”
