Page 58 of Between These Broken Hearts (Cursed Stars #2)
He grabs me by the front of my shirt and yanks me upright as he draws a dagger from his hip.
He shoves me against the wall, leaning forward, his hot, foul breath against my face.
“No one will miss you, Felicity. That’s what’s really sad.
” He drags the tip of his blade down my cheek and a hot bead of blood rolls down to my chin.
“You’ve tried so hard to win Kendrick’s love, the approval of his friends.
But the truth is you could never give them the one thing they really wanted.
Even now, when you’ve finally mustered a tiny bit of courage, you’re failing. ”
“I thought I loved you,” I say, looking up into his eyes.
“How pathetic.” He’s so busy laughing, he doesn’t even see me move for his blade. The ease with which I take it from his hand
only proves how greatly he underestimates me—has always underestimated me.
He’s the reason the man who raised me is dead. He’s the reason I’ve had to be on the run for so long. To be alone for so long. And if he has his way, he’ll be the reason I never
walk out of this palace again.
I plunge the small blade into Shae’s chest.
The shock registers in his eyes a moment before he stumbles back, his hands going to his chest, to the wound the iron-and-adamant
blade left gushing blood.
“Now I know better,” I whisper, shoving him against the wall, where he slides to the floor.
“ Please ,” the desperate plea sounds from the room where I found Erith. “Please, don’t.”
“Konner,” I breathe. I run back to the room and collide with something hard.
My already aching head snaps back and my ears ring. When I lift my gaze, I meet my birth father’s eyes. Wide and panicked. He’s a buck in the woods, staring down the archer’s arrow. But why is he so afraid when he’s armed? When he’s bigger and stronger and more powerful than me?
Time seems to stop when I look into the icy blue depths I’ve run from for so long, and I see the truth. He can’t hurt me.
I’m not only the one who can kill him; whatever twisted magic got him here made it so he can’t harm the few who can harm him.
In that split second, I have him at my mercy and see what could’ve been—a life in the palace with the mother he killed, a
sister, a bond with the brother I never had.
I see years of fear, of guilt and loneliness. All because of this male who put his power before everything and everyone else.
And then I see the family I was given. The friends I made along the way. The strength I’ve found in myself.
Letting him live should’ve never been an option, but I’ve always done everything I could to protect those I love, and that
doesn’t end today.
I plunge my iron blade into his heart.
Erith’s eyes go wide. He grabs a handful of my hair and pulls, trying to drive me to the floor, but I’m immovable. This was
my destiny all along. This moment needed to happen, and the world will be better for it.
I pull my blade free and plunge it into the side of Erith’s neck for good measure, stumbling back out of his grasp. He falls
to the floor with a garbled gasp for air, blood trickling from his lips. “I deserved better than you, and I got it. But Konner
deserved better than you too. And so did my sister.”
I shove his body to the side with my boot and crawl over him to get to Konner. “Are you okay?” He looks so pale in the flickering candlelight.
“You did it,” he says, voice weak. “May the gods bless you for all your days.”
He’s bleeding all over, covered in evidence of the torture he endured. “I couldn’t risk him hurting Leia.” I need to find
a healer and get him outside these palace walls, where they can use magic to mend him.
“I will thank you forever from the Twilight,” he rasps. “I owe you everything.”
“What? Konner, no.” I pat his chest and sides, as if I could stop the death that’s creeping into his voice if I find the wound.
But there’s too much blood and I can’t tell which spot is fatal. “You stay with me. You have a little girl to raise, remember?
That’s what all of this is for—so you can watch her grow up. She can hold your hand when she takes her first steps, and laugh
with you over stupid jokes, and cry on your shoulder the first time her heart is broken.”
He grunts softly. “You’ll have to stand in for me. Make sure she knows how much I loved her— love her—how I would’ve battled every monster in every realm to protect her.” He coughs and blood leaks from his lips. “If she’s
like us, make sure she understands how to use the gift. Don’t let her use it against people she loves.”
“Please.” I curl my body over him and cling to his hand as his blood saturates my clothes. “Don’t do this. Tell her yourself.
I just got you. You can’t leave me.”
“Leia is safe. Nothing matters more than that.”
My vision blurs and tears plop onto his cheeks. “You asked me what it was like in that alternate world you put me in.” I swallow a sob. “It was wonderful. You were my very best friend. You knew me better than anyone, and I never felt alone.”
“You never were,” he says. His hand goes limp in mine.