Chapter 144 Murder!
“Gianna,” I gaped, I sped forward on my hands and knees. In my state of panic it felt logical. The fastest alternative to reach my sister.
A large gust of wind cut through the space in front of me. Smoke, salt, blood and lilies. I did not need to look up to identify the dragon.
The moment I touched her, the world went quiet around me, the truth a hard slap to my face. Her body was cooling at the edges, her flesh vacuumed clean of the blood she needed. Gianna was dead.
“No, please no,” my hands shivered on top of her chest, as the very male argument above me seemed far away. It was as if I was kneeling in a bubble which sound could not penetrate properly.
“No!” the growl of denial burst through me, exiting my body like a hard blast of wind. My voice sounded very masculine at that moment, a layered bass that rocked the building like a voice I once witnessed rocked a cave.
My head jerked up to the men now staring at me with wide eyes, stunned. To the vampire who was now coming out of his trance and staring at the scene in horror.
“She is my sister!” I said through clenched teeth, rising to my feet.
“Lys” Hale was the first to shake off the shock, stepping forward with outstretched arms.
“Don't.” I snapped, and he stopped. My chest rose and fell, the rage that was quickly becoming a familiar companion, licking at my heels now. “I do not need your consolation. My sister… “ I ground out through clenched teeth, “...IS not dead.”
I let my gaze linger on each of their faces, rouge, vampire, dark god. “My sister!” I pointed down at her stiff body between us, “cannot die.”
“Lys,” Finn whispered, pain carving lines on every feature of his face, like his heart was being physically cut out. But for the first time, I did not feel the urge to soothe him, that urge that I had always felt from the first day I saw him sitting by that lake. I did not care to hear of his reason for doing… something so atrocious either.
The cool deep bass cracked through the air now, calm, detached. “We all have to leave here now.” I turned to find a bored look on his face, like he had a long day and ached for his bed, like it was not a person, my sister lying here. “We will be missed.”
I nodded as he turned away for the elevator, holding Finn firmly by the shoulder. I have been a fool.
What did I expect? I will always be an Ascendant to him, and on the best days, his favorite submissive, his amusing pet. Unlike the other two, he did not love me, he probably did not even have the ability to love any woman besides his queen.
I nodded again, biting my lip hard. This was my baby sister, my responsibility, my dead. I hitched my skirt up and dropped to one knee.
“What are you doing?” Hale, still standing, called out in panic. But I already had Gianna's body at my knee level, and I was bracing myself to stand up even as my corset compressed my spine. “Lys, where…”
“Get away from me!” I growled, staggering to my feet. His eyes went round, because again, my voice came out with that odd power, something I should not have, something that made the floor vibrate.
I spun away from him, holding Gianna easily in my arms with wolf strength. “I will walk all the way to Clove Coven if I have to. Grandma will bring her back.”
The thoughts of the return trip were already running through my mind. I would need something to keep her body from decaying, then transportation to the airport, and from there…
“All flights are canceled for the next two days,” Mordaine turned away from the elevator doors that had just slid open.
I frowned as my steps faltered. But I hauled the body higher in my arms and continued past them towards the elevator. Those were the only words he had for me? I really have been a fool.
“Lys.” The deep husky voice made another attempt, “Lys. You can't.”
“Cannot what?” I spun around, seized with madness. “I warned you, begged you to leave her to me.” My eyes flashed as my voice broke for the first time. I shook my head, more in self-pity. “You betrayed me.”
He looked hurt now, his eyes glassy with tears. “You will not even ask for my side of the story?”
“I don’t care!” I lashed. “You have no value for life,” I let my eyes meet each of theirs in turn, Aqua, blue, transparent silver. “None of you do.”
There was a slight hint of amusement on Mordaine’s face now, a small smirk that made me see red. And if he was someone else, anyone else, I would have torn them apart with my claws.
But he was right.
The day would never come where I could overpower him, or anyone of them for that matter. Beside their supernatural strength and abilities, Rhea was a joke.
I was turning for the elevator again when a hand grabbed my throat from behind. He yanked me back, so I was against his chest as the burning smell of raw heat filled my lungs. I shivered. I have not smelled this since that cave.
Ready to challenge me now? Think carefully, little wife, I will hold no punches.
Bully! I screamed in my head. Forgetting for a second what fear felt like. Forgetting to cower, and forgetting he was technically my master now. The god who bought me as a human sacrifice and pleasure tool.
He was not Hale. He was not my real husband.
Hale appeared in front of me then, attempting to pull my sister’s cooling, clammy body away from me. I glared at him, holding her more fiercely to myself.
“Do it, wake her up,” I heard from behind me, and my shoulders stiffened. Mordaine pulled his hand away from me. “No, you can do it. You told me you have before.”
“He will not.” Hale snapped, turning away from me.
I staggered, staring at him in disbelief. Him too. He will betray me too?
But Finn beat me to lashing out at him. “Why the hell not, how can you even refuse that?”
My legs failed me then, and I crumbled to the floor, still holding Gianna in my arms as my ears began to ring. Mordaine could wake her. The dragon could wake my sister up.
“You did this,” Mordaine’s voice came out cool, but in his tone was also the first hint of anger. “You wanted her dead.”