Page 167 of Architecti
The ground rumbles as if hearing her confession.I smile.“Don’t you see?You were always meant to do this.You’re the one that believes in fate.So fulfil your destiny, Midnight.Take my soul, free yourself from Ignatius.No more contract…”
“Fuck y—” she starts but I place my lips on hers, one more kiss.One more goodbye.
“LUCY, NO,” Father screams behind me.But the ground quakes.The Veil rips, and the screeching of freshly freed wraiths fills the air.
I wrap my fingers around Midnight’s and pull the scythe up to my neck.
“One little cut, and it’s all over.”
“Lucy,” she begs.The way she whimpers my name slices through the air.It’s hollow, so much pain held in four little letters.
A tear rolls down my cheek as I draw the scythe tighter to my throat.But I can’t do it myself, she has to reap me.
“Midnight…”
She holds my gaze, her eyes watery, brow furrowed all the way down to her soul.Her bottom lip quivering.
“I was going to let Ignatius take my soul to save you, I wasn’t going to do what the Tower asked.Fucking ironic that I’m here, again.”
“Don’t you get it yet?It was never the Tower, it was always her, Architecti.She is the one you made a deal with.This was always going to happen.We were always meant to end up here.Do you want me to say you were right?That we can’t fight our destiny?That everything I fought for was for nothing?”
She shakes her head, tears rolling over her lids.“I don’t believe that anymore.”
I laugh; it’s bitter.“Well, I do.”
“I won’t reap you.”
“You don’t have a choice.There’s no time for me to explain who I am,whatI am.”
“I don’t care what you are, I need you, here with me.”
“That’s not how it’s meant to be.”
“LUCY,” Father screams again behind me, but it’s swallowed by the campus siren, by the screams of students, the campus coming alive with lights and professors.
“It’s time,” I say.There are so many things I wish I’d said, so many things I should have told her.Perhaps that is my lesson and my punishment.
I’ll never get to tell her that I love the way she frowns when she’s concentrating.Or that it makes me smile when I watch her polish and care for her bike.Or that I appreciated how hard she tried to like my moths.
Or that, no matter how much she professes to hate Mortem, I know that they secretly love each other.
“No,” she growls.“Fuck you.”
I hoped it wouldn’t come to this, that she would have the strength and understanding to take my soul and free herself.
“If you love me, you’ll let me go.”
“And if you loved me, you wouldn’t give up.”
I take a deep breath, my last, and I savour the fresh night breeze the way it coils in my throat and fills my lungs.
My watch strikes the top of the hour.
“Happy birthday, Midnight.May it be the first of many more.”
I close my eyes and use the bargain one last time.
She screams as the weight of the deal bears down on her hand, forcing her to slice through my soul, to cut me from my body and set me free.
