Page 49 of Heir of Broken Souls (HOBF #3)

Chapter 49

Delilah

L enox shakes his head as I teleport myself to the top deck of the ship.

“Gods, that was a close one. For a moment there I thought they were going to sink the ship.”

I nod slowly. “They almost did.”

“But you saved the day.”

I hum under my breath. “Did anyone come aboard?” I ask.

“Not with you and the team fighting. I feel useless,” he admits with a chuckle.

“The team?” I ask, my eyes never leaving his as I reach down for a waterskin.

He shrugs sheepishly. “You know…the court.”

“I would say we’re family after everything we’ve gone through, would you not?”

He snorts. “Of course, that’s a given.” His eyes shine bright. “Is Knox on his way up? I can’t believe he took on that Phooka like that.”

“You could see that far up?”

“Of course, Fae sight and all.”

He gives me a small, kind smile, a smile that I have wanted to see for weeks, months.

Swallowing thickly, I smile back. “He’s just helping Harlow.”

His brows furrow, fear tinging his amber eyes. “Oh gods, is she hurt?”

“You didn’t see?”

He shakes his head. “No.”

“Oh…she’s fine,” I say slowly, bringing the waterskin to my lips and swallowing my lie.

She’s anything but fine.

“How do you feel? I’m sure you’re relieved that we’ll have smooth sailing to the sunken island now.”

“Sunken island?” I ask suddenly.

“From the prophecy,” he clarifies.

My eyes widen. “Of course! Honestly, after all that’s occurred today, I’m feeling a bit out of sorts. Perhaps one of them hit me on the head or I was underwater too long.”

Lenox frowns before extending an open palm. “Here, let me?—”

I lunge when he gets close enough. My teeth grit as I push my dragon pommel sword against his throat. “Show yourself, you fucking coward,” I seethe.

He cocks his head, ignoring the blade even when it nicks his skin, revealing black blood. The sight makes me shove the blade further into his neck, spilling more blood onto his unmarked leathers.

“How did you know?”

“Lenox hasn’t smiled in months,” I spit, “because of you!”

A cold humorless laugh floats from the person wearing Lenox like a second skin. “I doubt I’m the one to blame. Perhaps you should ask Harlow the real reason why he suddenly despises her.”

My eyes flare with indignation. “He’s depressed because you killed our family.”

“I didn’t drag the blade across his neck.”

I bring my face within an inch of his. “You may as well have handed him the blade.”

Lenox rolls his eyes. “If you’re going to kill me, just hurry up and do it.”

“So you can come back and send another deadly storm or army of demonic beasts after us? I don’t think so.” Pulling back the blade, Lenox grins, until I shove it up through his gut. He gasps, black blood pooling in his mouth. Eyes wide and full of shock snap to me.

“Betrayal stings like a bitch, doesn’t it?” I mock. “Show yourself, Hazel, or so help me gods I will burn you until you’re nothing but ash fluttering in the wind.”

* * *

The moment Lenox’s height disappears, the tiny Fae who stabbed me in the back with such a deep betrayal forms. Just seeing her face has fury bursting through my heart like wildfire.

I knew this was coming. This was what I saw, this moment right here—me holding the dragon pommel sword against her throat atop the ship’s deck after a battle that could have taken us all.

“It appears you’ve learned a thing or two from your pathetic master,” I spit.

“Paid off, didn’t it?”

“Clearly not, if I knew it was you the entire time.” I pull out the blade in her gut, then hold the tip against her heart. Already, her wound is stitching, faster than a Fae’s would. “Where is Lenox?”

She rolls her eyes. “Unconscious somewhere on the ship. Really, it isn’t your biggest concern.”

“If you have something to say, say it before Axel comes up here and tears your head from your body like you did with Ace.”

“Again, I didn’t kill him.”

I move so quickly she blinks furiously, the only sign of her shock.

“You betrayed us. You lured him out to the library. You preyed upon him. Do not insult me or his memory by saying you were not the one responsible for his death.” I arch a brow at her silence. “Any last words?”

“If you were going to kill me you would have done so already.”

“This is a mercy killing. This is me being kind, unlike what you offered us.” I lean forward, allowing every ounce of hatred I have for this pathetic woman to show, and hit her below the belt, where it really hurts. “Tell me, Hazel, how is your daughter? Alive and well or walking around like a zombie?”

Hazel moves to lunge for me but I shove the tip of the sword into her, piercing her flesh. Her eyes widen again. She truly thinks I’ll let her walk away.

I shake my head. “I changed my mind.”

Without another word golden shadows are wrapping around her, dragging her backwards without a care for her wellbeing or the scream of surprise she lets out. Smashing her against the nearest chair, they hold her in place, effectively tying her to the chair.

“After everything you’ve put us through you don’t deserve a mercy killing.”

Before I change my mind, I send the sight of what’s before me down the bond to Knox. In no time Hazel will be surrounded and there will be nothing anyone can do to hold back Axel.

A lump rises in my throat, one of such endless fury it’s hard to swallow. I have never despised someone I used to call a friend. Yet I have also never been so thoroughly betrayed by one.

I thought it would be hard seeing her again, hard to separate who I thought she was in my heart with the truth of who she really is, but all monsters’ masks slip at one point or another. She is not kind, or soft, or warm. She is deadly and wicked and cruel, and I hope she fucking burns for what she did.

At the thought, the golden tendrils wrapped around her ignite into flames. Hazel bursts out screaming.

I force myself to quelch the wrath and push it down. I can’t lose control. Not now. Even when it physically pains me to extinguish the flames.

Hazel heaves as they return to unharming, yet tight, tendrils. Her skin is burnt, melting to reveal the disgusting truth beneath her skin—the corruption of her foul heart.

“We have about a minute before they storm the ship, so spit out whatever it is you so desperately want to say.”

True fear lines her features.

Her head snaps down to her hands as black shadows leak out of her palms, only to wither and withdrawal once they near my golden power.

My smirk is ravenous. “Dear old daddy didn’t tell you that my power is the only one that can destroy dark magic?” I burst out laughing, a true laugh this time. “Well, it seems we aren’t the only ones trying to get rid of you. You must’ve outlived your usefulness.”

Her eyes narrow. The same eyes I peered into and trusted day in and day out. The same ones I opened my heart to. I trusted her beyond reasoning and that was my error, but I will never do so again.

My first female friend besides Annie…

Emotion clogs my throat as the names of all those she aided in killing float through my mind.

Eleanor.

Annie.

Ace.

Three of my family members dead.

She gave up the location to where Eleanor and Annie were hiding. She faked her kidnapping to lure us away. She had Ace taken from our home in the middle of our mourning only to add another death to our growing list.

My chest squeezes painfully, and at the weight of my grief, my magic stirs, restless as it wants to defend me.

I do not want to feel this before her.

The last thing I ever want is to be vulnerable before this woman who has taken so much from me. I slam the emotions back.

“Was it worth it? Corrupting your soul? Turning your back on the only family besides Luna you ever had?” I peer around the ship with a scoff. “I don’t see Luna here. Seems to me you sacrificed yourself for nothing.”

Her eyes flare with something akin to indignation.

“Finally struck a nerve, have I? What a shock, I assumed you were a heartless bitch.” My brows rise. “Nothing to say? What a waste of a trip for you. And your final one too.”

“I had no choice,” she hisses.

“There is always a choice!” I explode.

I’m upon her before I know it, my hand quivering once again from the pulsing fury wracking my body. This time, golden swirls dance along my blade as I lay it across her neck.

She flinches. My smirk is as cold as her actions.

Moving forward, I let her see just how much hate I have for her in my eyes. “I cannot wait to watch the torture he will inflict upon you.”

“You can’t kill me. You need me.”

I pull back. “I don’t need you.”

“On the contrary, you do.” She smirks. “Who do you think?—”

The words on Hazel’s tongue die a quick death and I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until it all whooshes out of me in a sudden startled yelp as the ground beneath my feet shakes. I don’t even have to turn to see who caused it.

“She’s mine,” a deadly quiet voice demands behind me.

Rising to my feet, I step aside for Axel.

He’s hunted her for months, every dead lead simultaneously leading him to the bottom of a bottle. I can’t imagine how he must feel seeing his brother’s killer again. I expect him to turn into a broken, grieving man, but to my surprise?—

Axel turns into nothing short of a monster.

Reaching behind his back, Axel unsheathes twin blades, his smirk as feline as a cat’s, his predatory gaze on his prey.

“I’ve been waiting for this day.”

“Haven’t had to wait long,” Hazel chirps.

Axel’s eyes harden at her voice.

The others haven’t arrived yet, for reasons I’m unsure of, but I’m certain Axel did everything within his power to be here as quickly as he could. You wouldn’t know it by the calm rise and fall of his chest, though. It’s as if he’s slipped into the mind of a warrior.

An animal .

“Drop the restraints, Delilah.”

At his command, my brows furrow. “I’ll do no such thing.”

“Let the boy dance with my power,” Hazel taunts.

“I want her to myself,” he grits.

My head shakes before I can think better of it.

“I want to kill her!” he explodes, manic.

Hazel has the wits to finally pale.

Axel doesn’t spare me a glance as he reaches for his hip and throws a small dagger. Hazel’s eyes widen with a pierced cry of shock and pain as the dagger embeds in her shoulder. Axel heaves, seeming to miss the black and red blood oozing from the wound.

The mermaids were right, she’s in transition.

“Let me fight her!” Axel bellows, spit flying from his mouth as he circles Hazel in the chair. “I want her to know I can defeat her. I want her to feel failure on her tongue before I rip it out. I want her to feel like the burden she is as I make her beg for mercy.” There is nothing but ice in his eyes. “Let her go.”

I stumble, pausing for too long.

“LET ME KILL HER!” he screams again.

I suck in a startled breath. “A-Axel, I’m not going to?—”

A dagger is at my throat.

My heart drops. This monster Hazel created is not Axel. This is not my family member. This person is out for one thing—revenge—and he will stop at nothing to get it how he wants…including harming me.

“Don’t make me knock you out,” I say quietly.

My nostrils flare as he puts a slight pressure behind the blade.

“You’ll regret putting me in this position.”

“I’ll never regret making her death as torturous as possible” is his quick reply.

My breaths come short, shallow, and I turn pleading eyes to the railing of the ship, screaming down the bond for Knox to hurry. I don’t know why the others haven’t arrived yet.

My body flinches as Axel gets right in my face again and bellows, “Give her to me!”

I don’t take my eyes off the dagger he’s holding to me as I allow the magic to drop. Hazel’s swallow is audible as Axel rips himself away from me and moves upon her in a flash.

Knox lands atop the deck with his court and screams, “ No !”

Hazel rises, her smirk cruel and condescending. “Foolish child,” she spits.

Before my head can wrap around what’s happening, Axel, now suddenly beside Knox, runs for Hazel and… Axel ?

My gasp is loud in my ears, ringing, as the grave mistake costs us everything.

The Axel beside Hazel morphs, but before I can see his true identity, she winks and purrs, “See you soon, darling.” Then she vanishes into thin air.

Axel lunges and flies through the spot where they were moments before, his blades catching nothing but black shadows. He falls, sprawling onto the deck.

“No.” I shake my head, my breath coming faster and faster. “No!”

I’m panting—no, hyperventilating. Our one shot of killing her is gone.

“ No !” I cry out, falling to my knees as the weight of my error lands upon my shoulders entirely.

I just let Hazel slip through my fingers.