Page 23

REIN

“I know, Rein,” Diana explains as her eyes dance back and forth between mine.

She cannot possibly know what I do.

“Diana, there is more to this than you think.” I release a shaky breath and ready myself to tell her the truth.

“I know Erebus has you here for the sick plans he’s conjured up. We have to get you out of here.” I try to reach for her again, but fall short. I’m going to strangle Erebus to death for making these Gods-damned cuffs.

“He has a lot more planned than that, as you already know.” Diana’s tone lowers a few octaves to something dark and lethal, almost unrecognizable. Diana removes her hand from behind her back, and I spot a small dagger gleaming in the dim torchlight. That dagger is not strong enough to cut through these chains. We’ll need my sword.

“We need my sword if we’re to cut me from these cuffs. Do you think you can get it?”

She takes one step closer to me, and a single tear falls down her cheek. I try to console her.

“There’s no need to shed any tears, my love. We will make it out of this. I promise.” I want so badly to reach out to her and hold her. Watching her cry makes me burn to kill anyone who caused her this pain.

She takes one step back, halfway out of the cell door. She grips the dagger so hard that her knuckles turn white. An urge overtakes me to kiss her hands until my lips bleed.

“I—I don’t think I can do it,” she says over her shoulder, whispering to the shadows.

“Let’s go, Diana. We can figure the cuffs out later. Just help me loosen the chain connected to the wall.” I move towards the cell door, but I stop dead in my tracks as a looming shadow appears behind her. Was Diana speaking to shadows?

The figure appears in the firelight, but it’s no shadow. It’s Odious.

“I’ll fucking kill you!” Instinct overtakes me, and I lunge for the cell door, but fall short. Odious glides past Diana and kicks me in the chest, sending me flying to the floor.

“You knew!” Diana yells in between sobs. She looks angry—angry at me . “You knew what Erebus would do to me. You knew he would kidnap me and keep me prisoner. You knew for a whole fucking year and did nothing to stop it.” Angry sobs pour out of her as she aggressively wipes her eyes. Odious backs up and lets Diana enter the cell again.

What the fuck is going on?

“I—Di, please, I can explain!” I push myself back against the wall, trying to use it to stand myself up. If he lays a finger on her, I’ll gut him right where he stands.

“You’ve done more than enough explaining, bastard,” Odious chimes in and rushes back into the cell, giving me one more swift kick to the chest. The air is knocked from my lungs, and my head begins to spin as I collapse onto the floor.

Diana raises a hand to Odious, and he steps back, obeying her. I really must be imagining things. There’s no way my sweet Diana believes a single word that comes from this fucker’s mouth.

Diana walks over and kneels before me, drawing the flat of the dagger and dragging it down my face. This isn’t her. Odious must be making her do this. I can see in her tear-filled eyes that she doesn’t want to hurt me.

“Diana, what is going on?” I manage to get out in between coughs.

“I am fulfilling your debt, Rein. A life debt for one you chose not to protect,” Diana sniffles and removes the dagger from my face. “ Mine .”

My breath catches in my throat. She truly means to kill me.

“Admit it. Admit you knew,” she spits at me. Frown lines I’ve never seen her wear before fully form on her face. My Diana is gone, wiped from this planet. I should be angry. I should be begging for her forgiveness, but she’s right, I did know. I knew everything and did not protect her.

I bow my head as heavy, sorrowful tears hit the cold stone floor of the cell. “I did. I wanted to protect you, but—”

“But what? What was your fucking excuse?” Diana cuts me off, and I raise my head to meet her gaze.

“I read your letters with Odious, it's true. But I thought he was talking nonsense. I didn’t think any of it was true! Please, Diana, I love you. I would never hurt you. You know I would do anything in my power to stop harm from befalling you,” I try to plead with her. She must know. She must know I would sooner rip my own heart out of my chest than let someone hurt her.

“I loved you, Rein. But that ended when I found out you knew I would be taken. You didn’t so much as warn me. You don’t get to beg for forgiveness. A whole year went by, one fucking year of you lying to me and my family's face. You don’t love me. A lover would never do something so cruel.”

She loved me.

Hearing those words makes my heart skip a beat, despite the reality of death soon having its way with me. I don’t care if she kills me tonight. Knowing I truly did own a piece of her heart is enough for me to accept my fate.

“I’m sorry for everything. I’m sorry I didn’t protect you and failed my duty as your captain. I’m sorry I failed as your lover. You own my whole heart, Diana. I hope I will always live in yours, in a small sliver.”

Diana takes one last breath and angles the knife at my throat. A single tear runs down her cheek as Odious crouches beside her, not even paying a glance my way.

I lift my chin up high and prepare for my last breath, then reach up and wipe the tear away from Diana’s cheek. I earn a nasty snarl from Odious, but I pay him no mind. It seems death has chosen my door to knock upon, and the person I want to spend my last moments focusing on is her.

Odious takes Diana’s hand in his and whispers to her, “Finish him, angel.”

“I’m so sorry.” My pleading words barely make it past my lips as I take in every detail of her ethereal face.

“Your time for apologies is up, Rein. I am not the woman you knew before, I am much, much worse. I hope you rot in the deepest part of Hel.”

The last thing I see is Diana’s beautiful blue eyes as she lifts the dagger and makes one clean swipe.

Then total darkness.