Chapter 211 Brother and sister duel
Chapter 211: Brother and Sister duel
milo pov
My claws met her blade with a sound like thunder, that echoed throughout the whole battlefield.
The impact sent shockwaves through my arms, making my bones ache. Selene's eyes widened slightly… she had not expected me to be this strong despite the curse.
"Good," she hissed, spinning away. "Show me the brother I remember. Show me the monster father created."
The blade whistled past my head as I stumbled backward. Selene was faster than I remembered, her movements sharp and precise.
But something made me pause when we separated. Selene had tears in her eyes. Even as she tried to mask it, I could see the tears pooling at the corner of her eyes.
The selene i know never cried. Unless…
Unless she knows!!
All the anger and rage vanished, replaced by a torrent of guilt that threatened to swallow me whole.
"Fight back!" she snarled, coming at me again, but I continued to draw back.
I blocked clumsily, my limbs suddenly felt like lead. The curse made every movement agony, coupled with the severed mate bond left me hollow and slow.
We clashed again and again. Each impact sent shockwaves of pain through my arms.
"Is this really all you have left?" Selene mocked, circling me like a predator. "The legendary Alpha Damon, reduced to this pathetic display?"
"I do not want to hurt you," I managed to say between ragged breaths.
"Hurt me?" She laughed sharply. "You already did that, brother. Years ago. Or have you forgotten?"
She launched a series of rapid strikes that drove me back. I barely blocked them, my defense falling apart.
"You stood by and watched," she continued, her voice filled with old pain. Her strikes are becoming faster than ever. "When father beat me for being born wrong. For being female. For being the firstborn that he could not acknowledge because of tradition."
"Selene, I was a child…"
"You were his favorite!" Her blade caught my shoulder, drawing blood. "His precious son. His heir. And you did nothing while he destroyed me."
She was right. I had done nothing. I had been too young, too scared, too focused on earning our father's approval to stand up for my sister.
But little did she know that when she left I turned to fathers punching bag. He took all his frustration on me, even with my tender age.
"I am sorry," I said quietly.
"Sorry?" Selene's eyes blazed. "Sorry does not fix anything. Sorry does not change the fact that he chose you over me. That everyone chose you over me."
Our blades met again, and this time she twisted her wrist in a move I recognized. One of the Silent Dancer techniques… the ones only the most elite assassins ever learned.
You could have stood with me!" She shoved me back, and I stumbled. "Sorry means nothing!" Her blade came at me in a flurry of strikes, each one faster and more vicious than the last. By now my extra sharp claws were becoming blunt from all her fiery strikes. "Sorry does not fix the scars on my back! Sorry, does not bring Joshua back!"
The name hit me like a physical blow. Joshua. The boy Selene had loved when we were teenagers.
Unwanted memories rushed through my mind.
"Selene..." I started, but she cut me off with another vicious strike.
"Do not say his name!" Selene's voice broke completely. "You have no right to say his name! Not when you assisted father, Not when you killed…”
Her voice choked off. The blade in her hands trembled violently.
I remembered that night, my worst nightmare that kept hunting me even till now. The screaming. The pleading. Father had given me one task as his way of testing my strength. To wage war against the boy's pack, and in the process Joshua was one of the casualties of war.
I had been twelve years old and too cowardly to stand up to father, I wanted to ever please him.
"I was a coward," I said quietly. "I should have done something. I should have tried to stand up to him."
"You should have!" Selene screamed, and now she was crying openly. "He was innocent! The people that died that day were innocent, and you and father murdered them all, because I dared to want something for myself!"
Her eyes hardened, when I was distracted by my own guilt, she lunged mercilessly. I blocked desperately, but one strike got through. Then another. My blood was everywhere now, mixing with the blood already soaking the courtyard stones.
The curse flared with each wound, making my vision swim. I could feel myself weakening, feel the poison spreading through my veins faster and faster. Between the severed mate bond and this fight, my body was shutting down.
"The Queen told me everything," Selene said, pressing her advantage. "She showed me everything that happened that day. That being firstborn does not matter. Being female does not matter. Only power matters. And I have more than enough power to defeat you."
She was winning. I could barely keep up with her attacks, all my body was screaming in pain. But I didn’t want to fight her.
“DAMON!” James started forward, but Rosalie grabbed his arm. "This is between them, We cannot interfere."
Around us, both armies watched in tense silence. The unrighteous Alphas looked hungry for blood. The Queen's soldiers stood at attention, waiting for their commander to finish me off.
"You were jealous," I said, trying to buy time. "All those years. You hated me because father chose me."
"Of course I was jealous!" Selene's anger flared even more. "I was smarter than you. Stronger than you. Better than you in every way. But he never saw it. He only saw that I was born wrong."
My tactics were not working. Her next strike nearly chopped my head off. I fell to one knee, my sword barely up in time to block.
"And now look at you," she continued. "The great Alpha, on his knees before his sister. How does it feel, Damon? How does it feel to be the one who is not good enough?"
I scampered away, nearly escaping being pierced by her sharp sword. My eyes widened in shock and something else, I didn’t want to name.
“Alpha…”
“Stay back, it's a command.” I growled at my warriors, who wanted to interfere.
But Selene didn't give me any time this time. A sharp pain erupted from my ribs region. I felt myself fly through the air, crashing on the hard floor.
Blood rushed to my throat. But Selene was on me, before I could recover.
The Queen is using you," I gasped out. "She does not care about your pain or your revenge. You are just another weapon to her."
"Maybe." Selene's blade pressed against my throat. "But at least she sees me. At least she acknowledges what I can do."
Behind her, I could see Alpha Kael grinning. "Finish him!" he called out. "Prove you are better than the great Damon!"
Other voices joined in, taunting and mocking me. The unrighteous Alphas were enjoying this, watching me brought low by my own blood.
"Do it," I said quietly, meeting Selene's hateful eyes. "If this is what you need, then do it."
"You think I will not?" She sneered, but my eyes caught the way her hands trembled slightly.
"I think you are still my sister," I said. "Somewhere under all that pain and anger, you are still the girl who used to sneak me extra food when father sent me to bed without dinner."
"That girl died, the day i saw Joshua's dead body" Selene said, but her voice wavered again.
"No she did not." I raise my hands in the air. "She is right here. Fighting a battle that was never hers to begin with."
"Shut up." The blade pressed harder against my throat, drawing a thin line of blood.
"The Queen does not need to fight me," I continued. "She sent you instead because she knew you would be enough. Because she knows you are stronger than me. You have already won, Selene. You have already proved you are better."
"I said shut up!" Her sword was raised high, ready to end it, but tears were forming in her eyes now. I could see her struggling within herself.
“You don't have to Selene, I know you don't want to do it.”
“I have to, I swore an oath to kill whoever was responsible for the attack that killed him.”
I swallowed hard.
“You are just like father, emotionless and heartless. When I see you I see him.”
"No you are wrong selene, I am nothing like father. And I am not emotionless…”
“I love Milo," I said suddenly.