Page 24

DIANA

I watch Rein’s body slump against the wall. Words try to fall from his mouth, but are choked with the sound of blood gurgling in his throat.

Rein is dead. There is no going back.

“Don’t look.” Odious takes my face in his and forces me to look into his eyes. Tears blur my vision as I fall into his arms.

You own my whole heart, Diana.

Never did I think I would hear him utter those words. All the years we spent together, feelings growing more and more—I wanted to tell him how I felt, but I did not know he would feel the same way.

“It’s okay, angel. He will never get the opportunity to hurt you again,” Odious whispers in my ear as he strokes my hair, rocking me back and forth.

He did hurt me , I remind myself. He’d earned himself this death, and I would not shed one more tear over what could have been. I’m stronger now. I’m not some helpless princess who spends her days galivanting around a flower field. I’m a fucking death sentence, and it's about time people learned that.

I wipe my nose and pull away from Odious’ chest, shaking and breathless. “No—no, h—he won’t.” Despite feeling no sympathy, the knot in my throat betrays me as I try to speak. This was my first kill, and it’s a bit shocking to the system.

Odious lifts me in his arms and carries me to the far corner of the cell, away from Rein’s lifeless body.

“Don’t look, Diana. I mean it.” He caresses my cheek with his thumb, wiping my fresh tears away.

I spot a crimson tear running down his cheek as he comforts me.

“I will stage the body. Close your eyes, angel.”

I nod and shut my eyes tight. But I am not greeted with the usual darkness of the back of my eyelids. Instead, images of Rein’s blood-soaked face flash behind my eyes.

I hear Odious shuffle and grunt, presumably lifting Rein’s body and taking the cuffs off of him.

We planned to make this look like a suicide. No one can know we are behind this. Although his death was not a necessity in our plan, it was something I needed to do. Rein needed to pay for what he had done.

A few more moments of shuffling go by as I torment myself with memories of Rein, and then I feel a hand on my shoulder.

“You can open your eyes.”

I open them to find Odious kneeling in front of me, pain and worry written all over his face. I steal a glance over his shoulder to see my dagger placed in Rein’s right hand, his slumped body still leaning against the wall as fresh blood seeps from the wound on his neck.

“Oh, Gods—” I hear a voice from the hallway, and we both whip our heads in its direction.

Silia is standing at the cell door.

She runs over to Reins’s body and reaches to his wound as if she’s going to touch it, but then thinks better of it.

“Silia! What are you doing here?” I stagger to my feet and pull her away from Rein.

We both fall to the floor, and I watch as she stares blankly at the dead man’s body.

Because that is not Rein anymore. His soul has passed on. He is now just a dead man slumped against the wall.

“I heard everything,” Silia whispers and finally turns to face me. Odious walks over from his corner and looks down at us.

“Then you know he had to die,” Odious gently speaks up for me, and thank the Gods he did. I don’t think I have the strength to explain this for a second time tonight.

“So, it’s true, then. Rein knew about this?”

Odious nods and joins us on the floor. He takes my hand in his, rubbing calming circles on my knuckles. Silia looks at our joined hands, and her mouth falls open.

“You both knew. How?” Silia’s tone is direct now.

“I had a vision on the night of Lars’s twenty-fifth birthday, one that showed me that Diana would be kidnapped. When Rein came to the palace and I touched his shoulder, I saw his memory. He read my letters to Diana telling her what I saw.”

I can only watch as Odious recounts the story of how this had all come to be. I was hoping to keep her in the dark for a little longer so that I could keep her safe. But there's nothing we can do about it now. I cannot bring myself to lie to my sister again.

“For the past year, Odious and I have been planning and preparing for this moment. He stood lookout at my kidnapping, and he makes sure I am safe and as comfortable as I can be here.”

“I see,” Silia replies, in a voice that sounds exhausted. I cannot imagine how much of a mental weight all this information must be.

“You said you two have been planning. What are you planning, exactly?”

Odious looks to me, and I offer him a gentle nod, letting him answer for me.

“We’re planning to overthrow Erebus.”