Page 51 of Sophie's Ruin
“No. I’m learning that nothing really scares me anymore,” I said, rolling the shadowy tendrils of my magic over my knuckles.
“Ah, but that’s not entirely true, is it? You’re scared of losing Henry.” Potent fear pierced my heart at his words.
“I won’t lose him.” My brows pinched. “No one will ever get close to him to make that even a possibility.”
“And what are you prepared to do to ensure that?”
“Anything.” There was no hesitation, only resolve. Celeste thought my love for Henry blinded me, but she was wrong. I’d never been so sure about my purpose before. Even when I’d thought that saving humanity was the most important mission of my life, I’d been wrong. Fighting for Henry and our future together was the only thing that truly mattered.
“Excellent.” The word left Damien in a strange mix between a hiss and a whisper. “Let’s get started. You know where he is?”
I nodded. “He’s hiding in a cave on the right side of the mountain.”
“He’s not alone,” Damien said, and my brows shot up. That was news to me.
“He brought his clan with him?”
Damien nodded. “All five of them.”
Emeric’s wife and daughters. I’d met them all before. A part of me wished he hadn’t brought them here, because by doing so, he’d sentenced them to death, but another part—the blood-thirsty one—rejoiced that he had. There was duality inside of me—a human heart against a vampire’s viciousness. The battle of warring emotions ensued but didn’t last long as the vampire side prevailed, squelching the human one. Damien watched me closely, as if waiting to see if what he’d told me about Emeric’s family being here would change my mind.
I squared my shoulders and lifted my chin. “What are we waiting for?”
26
I’d thought Damien would follow me to the cave, but he didn’t, and I was glad for it—this was something I needed to do on my own.
The cavernous space was bigger and wider than I’d expected. It was no ordinary cave—it was a shelter. Perhaps Emeric had always had it, or perhaps he’d had it prepared right before the impending war with the Dark Witches, anticipating that he might have to go into hiding. I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d planned to abandon the fight once he saw we were losing. Fucking coward. The spineless bastard deserved to die.
“You,” Emeric breathed, his eyes widening in panic when I stepped out of the shadows in the middle of the cave illuminated by lanterns. “Flee. Now!” He shouted for his family to run.
“Not so fast,” I said calmly, when the five of them rushed for the exit.
The rough walls shuddered as I unleashed my power, collapsing some of the rock to seal the vampires away from their freedom. They collided with the jagged stone, trying to break free, but their supernatural strength was no match for my powers, which blocked the only exit like a barrier.
Emeric stood unmoving before me while his family darted around the cave, trying to find another way out. They thrashed in the confined space for several long minutes as Emeric and I stared at each other. I knew they wouldn’t be able to escape. He knew it, too. Despair mixed with resignation settled into his perfect features. He didn’t beg me to spare their lives, and I wondered if he could see it in my face—that begging was pointless, and I would show no mercy. A few seconds passed before his wife and daughters stopped searching for a way out of the cave that would soon become their grave. The smell of their blood from where they’d cut themselves on the sharp rock permeated the air. Heady notes of fear were mixed in the scent, and I inhaled deeply, reveling in it.
“Mercy,” came a quiet, weeping voice from behind Emeric.
My gaze tore from his and stretched behind him to his youngest daughter, Julia. She sat on the cave floor, huddled together with her mother and sisters, who were all wailing as if they were in mourning. And perhaps they were—they were mourning their eternal lives that would soon be cut short. By me.
“Mercy?” I curled my lip in a sneer.
“You have to understand. It was all Camilla,” Emeric said vehemently, snapping my attention back to him.
“You were on the border when she had Henry on a leash like a fucking dog, and you did nothing!” I shouted, my voice echoing off the cave walls.
Emeric flinched but held my gaze.
“If you do this,” he said quietly. “You will be no better than her, than me, than all of us.”
A menacing laughter escaped me. “You’re right. I’m not better than you, and for the first time ever, I don’t want to be. To fight monsters like you, I have to become a monster myself.” Tears gathered in Emeric’s eyes as the wailing behind him grew louder. I stepped closer to him, bringing my face inches awayfrom his as I whispered, “You and your family will die, and it will be all your fault. Just remember, you turned me into this.”
Emeric’s throat bobbed as he swallowed when I pulled away. The tears spilled, gliding down his pale cheeks. Without taking my eyes off him, I lifted my hand and used my magic to move the stones blocking the cave’s exit as if they weighed nothing. Emeric’s gaze darted to the opening before snapping back to me. My lips curved into a savage smile as I wrapped him in the tendrils of my power and flung him out of the cave. Moving my hands like a puppeteer to manipulate the strings of my magic, I slammed Emeric against the outside of the cave, his back to the jagged, rough surface. Black spikes shot out from the rock, spearing through his legs and arms and pinning him to the slope of the mountain. A strangled cry left him before everything went quiet. He was still alive, but he wouldn’t be for long.
A hushed silence settled over the place as Emeric’s family watched me with wide eyes. I stared back, still wearing a deranged smile on my face. It turned into a grin when the first rays of sunlight spilled over the horizon, and Emeric’s screams of agony filled the cave. Still smiling, I closed my eyes and let the sound wash over me. In a strange, cathartic way, it replaced the sounds I’d heard Henry make when he’d been held captive and tortured by the clan leaders. Emeric’s screams didn’t erase those memories completely—nothing ever would—but hearing them did make breathing easier somehow.
Emeric’s death was over all too soon, and the darkness within me was not satiated. It demanded more blood, urging me to slaughter his family in the most horrific way. I fought the twisted desire, resisting the darkness as something inside me was holding me back from surrendering to it completely. The darkness tried to overpower me again, and when it did, my feet moved as if of their own accord to step toward Emeric’s family,who were still huddled together, watching me, waiting for their death to come.
