Page 19 of Take Two (Valleywood: Season Three)
Chapter 19
Phobos
The pain was excruciating, nearly unbearable, but when I thought of all the lives I’d taken through war, the families I’d torn in two, the hearts and minds I’d broken, I decided it was no more than what I deserved. This was karma, payback for a lifetime of doling out fear and darkness.
My father had told me to wait until he came back with an answer for me, not to do anything he deemed rash, but I knew I was running out of time—and that meant all of Valleywood was too…
As I stumbled down the sidewalk, my body felt heavier with each passing moment. One foot after the other, I dragged myself from where I’d parked my car, half up on the curb. A couple walking home stopped and stared, their faces twisting into masks of horror as some of my dammed powers slipped free, and I wondered what they saw when they looked at me. Outwardly, I was nothing more than a man, as mortal as I’d been in the weeks since making a deal with Apate. Perhaps I looked tired, heartbroken. On the inside, though… My skin felt blackened and blistered from the fiery heat that filled me. What had begun as tiny fissures had expanded to canyons, my power spilling out of me in waves of terror that would be impossible to ignore. If only it were enough to vent the mounting pressure.
I’d waited until the bar was closed. I didn’t want to see the way people’s faces changed when they saw me, didn’t want to explain. I used the key Declan had given me. I could hear Wren in the back room, restacking cases of empties as she cleaned up after the long night. Looked like it had been busy, judging by the mess.
Wren came out, singing off-key, but she choked on the tune, clutching her hand to her chest when she caught sight of me. “Oh! Holy shit, Phobos, you scared the hell out of me. I didn’t hear you come in.”
“Yeah, sorry. I should’ve called out and told you it was me.”
At that point, she should’ve been able to relax after learning it was me, but she couldn’t, not when being hit with a constant barrage of panic. I watched as beads of sweat formed on her forehead, her breath stuttering, and she took an unsteady step back. I tried to hunch down, make myself smaller and less threatening, but she was a tiny thing. I hated that I was putting her through this.
“Is Declan here?”
Her throat bobbed with a hard swallow. “Um, he’s upstairs, but… maybe you shouldn’t…” She blinked her dark eyes a few times, her features tightening, and I appreciated that her first instinct was not to flee but to protect her boss from me. Because every alarm must’ve been going off in her head, telling her I was a threat.
“It’s okay. I just have to talk to him for a minute, then I’ll be gone. I promise.”
She didn’t look like she believed me entirely, but her bravery could only extend so far.
I passed through the bar and headed upstairs, opening the door to his apartment quietly. The room was dark except for city lights shining through the window. I knocked on the door frame gently, seeing Declan’s hunched form under the covers. “Declan?” I whispered. “Are you awake?”
He rolled over instantly, sitting up in bed, the blanket falling to pool around his waist and exposing his bare chest. “Phobos?” He reached for me, and I was helpless to deny him. I left the door open, hoping to avoid making him feel trapped, and closed the distance. Perching on the edge of the bed, I noticed with some satisfaction that there was no twang of a broken spring this time. I only wished I’d had a chance to spend a night in the bed beside him.
“Where have you been?” he asked. “I’ve been so worried! I texted, I called.” He moved to grip my face between his hands but pulled back with a hiss. “Your skin… you’re on fire!”
“I’m so, so sorry,” I said in a rough whisper, my throat tightening. “I thought I could control it. I thought with my father’s help that we could reverse the damage, but it’s too late for that now.”
“What do you mean it’s too late?” His eyes were too wide, his heart beating too fast to keep up with his panting breath, but as much as I frightened him, he refused to let go. He tangled his fingers into my shirt, drawing me closer. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“You were right all along. Apate, she’s a trickster, using manipulation to wreak havoc. She went so far as to help me find my mate, giving me the future I wanted and making good on her end of the bargain, but she never had any intention of letting me keep you. She sealed me up tight, and now all this power inside me is spilling out. I can’t break the deal we had, it’s written in stone, and now… I need to make sure you’re safe.”
“Of course I’m safe. With you.” Declan moved to climb into my lap, and I knew I should stop him, should leave now before I no longer had the strength, but I was a weak man. Instead, I closed my eyes and clung to him.
The mating bond between us seemed to vibrate with his emotions, reflecting the fear he felt back at me, and I reveled in it because it told me how brave my omega was. I knew he would be strong enough to go on without me.
“Phobos, please,” he begged, settling his legs on either side of my hips. When I tried to turn away, he gripped my hair tightly and forced my face back so he could look into my eyes. “Whatever you think you need to do, don’t. We can figure this out together. That’s what being mates means. Don’t you get it? You never have to be alone again.”
He gritted his teeth against the onslaught of terror that battered at his defenses. He couldn’t help the whimper that escaped, and my heart split in two, tears slipping down my cheeks.
“I’m so sorry, Declan. I never meant to hurt you. Please know that I will always love you… right up until the very end.” I tried to move him off me, prying his arms and legs from around me.
The panic that he felt now was more genuine as he fought me. “No! Stop it, Phobos! You have to stay here with me. We’ll call your dad. Maybe he’s heard something! W-We can find a cure, surely. Gods are immortal, everyone knows that!”
I closed my eyes and breathed him in one last time. “It’s okay, Declan. I’m not afraid to die.”
With my eyes shut, I didn’t see him as he leaned in and kissed me, smashing his lips to mine in a desperate plea to make me stay. He whimpered at the pain, my flesh scalding, even as he moved to deepen the kiss, his tongue delving between my lips.
I let him have this for just a moment. He was a shifter, he would heal, and he knew how much he could handle. I memorized the way he felt in my arms, his taste on my tongue. I was selfishly glad that I’d had the chance to feel what it was like to be this blissfully happy with someone.
But now I had to let him go.
Breaking away from the kiss, Declan gasped for breath, his lips red and swollen. “You have to let me go,” I said firmly. I stood and used the last of my strength to wrench away from his grasp.
I turned for the door, refusing to look back. I didn’t have the strength to resist the look of utter devastation on his face.
“Phobos!” he called after me, but it was too late.
I bolted down the stairs, through the bar, and out into the night. The cool air did nothing to break my fever, but it didn’t even matter anymore. Nothing did. I was already dead.
I needed to get the hell out of the city. When I detonated, I needed to be as far away from everyone as I could get. Taking even one innocent life would be too many. And in my opinion, there was only one place that fit the bill—Lake Erie.