Page 166 of Architecti
“You don’t love me.SAY IT, TAKE IT BACK,” she screams.
“But I do, Midnight.I’ve always loved you.”
Ribbons of magic swirl faster, spinning around us.I expected some godsawful stench, like stale coffee and broiling flesh.But instead, it smells like spring mornings, the crisp heat of summer’s first warmth and evergreen sap.
The ground rumbles, harder this time.Several slate tiles fall from the roof of Finis Tower.I know what is coming tonight.I just hope the Academy survives it.
“I don’t want your magic,” she says.And this is where I realise it doesn’t matter how much I try and explain who I am, or what I am to her, she won’t accept it.She’ll fight no matter what.
“It will save you,” I whisper.
The last ribbons hover around her head, finding any and every way inside her body even though she swats at them and tries to push them away.
“I’m already doomed, Lucy.You don’t have to do this to yourself.Not for me.You can’t save me.”
I can’t bring myself to look at her when I say this, because for all the sacrifice she’s going to have to make, this is selfish.I will make her do this no matter what.It’s the only way I can truly be free.
“But you can save me,” I whisper.
She trembles against me, but it doesn’t seem to matter how close I hold her.Nothing can make this better.
“Do you remember you promised you’d help me break my contract?”
“Y-yes,” she whispers.Her sob breaks me in two.My chest aches so much I swear my heart will stop beating before I can do this.
“I need you to fulfil that promise for me.”
“I can’t,” she says.
“You have to.Take out your scythe, Midnight.”My voice is cool and calm, so steady where hers is shattering.
“No, I won’t.”The tears run freely now.
“Don’t make me force you,” I say and release her from my grip.
She shakes her head at me.“You can’t.I have your magic, you said that yourself.You can’t make me”
“You made a deal.It’s binding no matter who holds the magic.Take.Out.Your.Scythe.”
She shrieks as the weight of my words forces her to her knees.This is the last time I’ll feel the surge of power coursing through my body; the last time I’ll wield demon magic for my own cause.
A sheen of sweat covers her brow as she fights herself, fights the weight of contractual magic controlling her limbs.
I see the moment she shifts from devastation to anger.This is what I needed—her furious—it’s the only way she’ll survive this.Her face contorts, deep lines carving canyons through her features.She grips the blade in her hand.
“How could you do this to me?”she says.
“There is no other way.”
“So you make me responsible for bringing back a fallen angel?For the massacre of millions of innocent Ora City residents?All for what?To free you from your father?”
“Will it make it easier if I’m the villain?”
“You were never supposed to bemyvillain, I was…”
“You were what, Midnight?”
She laughs, it’s dry and humourless.“I was supposed to reap you.And I never told you, this whole fucking time.I made a deal with the Tower in my Severance Rite.It would break my contract if I reaped a single soul.It wasn’t until after that I discovered that soul was yours.But I couldn’t do it because I fell in love with you.”
