Chapter 150 Bleeding Cacophony (5)

Chapter 150 Bleeding Cacophony (5)
P E R S E U S

A loud, piercing sound rings through my head like an alarm that won’t stop blaring. I cover my ears, groaning as the noise finally floods through me, pulling memories I had buried deep. Memories of her.

Her voice. Her pain. All of it.

“You just have to kill me, then. Go ahead. Do it.”

“I feel horrible, Perseus. All of this, it’s worsening my guilt. It’s killing me. You’re killing me.”

“I don’t want to think. Just don’t let me think.”

“I’m pregnant.”

“If all of this is about a child, then you have a child now. Just stop pushing me away and having someone else replace me. I can’t keep doing this.”

“I have you, and I have our baby.”

“You’re not protecting me by leaving me to my assumptions.”

“You regret marrying me?”

“Whatever reason you’ve kept me alive, just get it over with. I’m tired. I’m done. Use me and kill me. You don’t have to keep up with this.”

“It’s okay. You’re here now.”

“I’m not leaving you, Perseus. So don’t leave me too.”

Her words swirl around me, ambushing my mind. Each memory replays starkly, and I can taste the bitter truth now. Morrison lied to me. It took losing her to finally bring my memories back. The realization tastes like ash. My heart thuds in raw pain, like it’s been ripped straight from my chest. How do I act? What do I say? How do I live without her? How do I accept that the tent engulfed in flames consumed my wife and children before they even had a chance to live?

“How tragic,” Thomas scoffs.

But before I can think, he’s already moving. His jaws part, and fire bursts toward me, scorching my skin, burning through whatever strength I had left. I shift back to human form, my body now covered in deep, angry burns. He grabs me by my foot and tosses me aside like I’m nothing, throwing me right to the edge of the cliff. Ezekiel can’t shift again—his wings are burnt, and he’s struggling just to heal.

Slowly, I push myself up onto my knees with a groan. I peel off what’s left of my armor, hissing as the heated metal burns my palms. Now I’m just shirtless, in trousers burnt all the way to my knees, exposed and hurting.

“It’s a pleasure, Perseus,” Thomas says, his voice cold. “To kill you while you feel the same pain I’ve carried.”

“Pain?” I scoff, forcing the word out. “You’ve felt nothing. You’re incapable of feeling, Thomas. No wonder my mother left you.”

I’m not ready for monologues, but I’m glad he’s started talking. It’s a distraction—something to buy time until my wounds heal. I will kill him. I will end this. Ezekiel is active within me, searching desperately for Eleanor’s pulse, and I cling to that hope. She’s okay. She has to be. Nothing can separate us. Not now. Not ever.

Thomas pauses, his expression tightening. “You know nothing about Cassandra. Nothing about what I’ve endured—the sacrifices I’ve made. How long I’ve been haunted by the one thing that was proof of our love. My son. The son your useless raid consumed.”

“You’re so stupid, Thomas. So stupid it annoys me.”

“I was only stupid for love. And I’d do it all over again for her. They took her from me, and now they’ve taken him too!”

“Your son was a threat to the witches’ existence. They placed a curse on him. Who wiped out Quington, Thomas?”

“That can’t be…” His voice trails off, realization slowly dawning.

“Destroyer. That’s what they called him before he was even born. Isn’t it disgusting, Thomas? Since his first breath, they hid a part of him—the part that came from you—before he even knew who you were. A part he showed you today. He’s gone through unbearable pain. Rejection. He’s lost his mind!” I yell, my voice raw. “And you looked him in the face and denied him. We have the same bloody eyes! What else is left for you… Father?” I let the word hang between us, smirking as his sword slips from his fingers. I step closer. “Perhaps until you kill me? Then what?”

He’s trembling, trying to process what he’s heard. I can’t believe he chose to be blind on purpose. He risked all our lives for a fantasy.

“I… I…” he stutters, but his words are cut off by a sharp scream.

“Perseus!”

Eleanor.

Before I can fully turn toward her voice, multiple arrows strike my chest—too many to count. I stumble back, the impact unrelenting. Meredith is holding Eleanor, forcing her to watch, hand clamped over her mouth. Tears stream down Eleanor’s face as her eyes lock on mine. I keep my gaze on her, even as my feet slip over the edge.

Maybe this is best. To die with her face still etched in my mind.

She lived. That’s all I needed to know.

“Perseus, no!” Thomas yells. He lunges, reaching for me, his fingers barely grasping mine as he falls right along with me.

Our vows echo in my mind as consciousness slips away mid-air.

“I, Eleanor Astrid Clawford, offer my blood to my mate. I vow to walk beside you under every moon, to bear my teeth when you are weak, to fight beside you when the world turns dark. My soul calls to yours—not in submission, but in strength. Bound by fate, not fear.”

“I, Perseus Gray Cage, accept the bond of my mate. I vow to shield you with fang and fire, to carry your burdens as my own, to tear down the stars if they ever threaten you. My soul calls to yours—not in peace, but in fire and passion. Bound by blood, and sealed with love until the end of time.”

’Til the end of time.

Even if death is already here.