Page 101 of The Last One Standing (Rogue X Ara #4)

ARA

I blinked, and splitting pain ricocheted through my skull.

Darkness greeted me first, my surroundings blurry until I blinked again and noticed the dark liquid creeping along the grout lines toward my fingers.

I gasped and pushed up, scrambling to my feet. My gut roiled, stars sparking in my eyes at the ache in my head and sharp pain in my shoulder.

Pandemonium took form all around me.

The stained glass wall lay in pieces between the bodies scattered over the once pristine floor.

Puer Mortis.

There were a dozen of them, mouths and faces and clothes stained red, but it was their eyes that made bile rise in my throat.

Their pure white eyes were now red. Filled with blood. Over filled with blood. It ran down their cheeks like tears.

My grip tightened around Severance, and?—

I glanced down, eyes wide.

It was Severance.

Someone knocked me unconscious and left Severance?

It struck me then—struck me as hard as Doran had.

Amid the chaos, he slipped out of the room, stole some poor woman’s dress, and took my form.

That fucker.

I scanned the room and spotted Rogue on his knees, Iaso clutching his abdomen. Her eyes glowed a brilliant gold over Rogue’s ashen face.

Fire roared in my veins, and I darted for him. I made it halfway across the room when someone jumped onto my back, and we hit the ground hard, knocking the air from my lungs.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” a female hissed, “but you bleed. ”

I rolled beneath her and stabbed Severance into the side of her neck. She smiled a wide, bloody grin, her canines sharp.

“That can’t hurt me.” Warm, thick liquid dripped from her overflowing sockets onto my cheek, and my stomach lurched. She leaned forward and licked it off.

“Worth a try,” I groaned and shoved her as hard as I could.

She rolled with a cackle, and I scrambled to my feet and sprinted for Rogue.

He met my gaze.

His eyes widened. Lit with flames.

She screamed and jumped on me again, but this time, I dodged at the last second. She hit the ground with a thud and flipped onto her back as I straddled over her, Severance in hand, looking for the thread that held her soul in her dead body.

It was faint, deep within her own heart—stitched.

The thread had been stitched into the beating organ.

She gnashed her teeth and clawed my arms, drawing more blood.

“Can’t hurt.” I stabbed Severance straight into the center of her chest, breaking the sternum and piercing that delicate golden thread. “ Can kill.”

She stilled. Limbs twitched.

Then, she rotted.

Her body decayed rapidly, and I leapt off of her, bile climbing my throat as I staggered away and fought the urge to retch. Tearing my eyes away from the melting flesh and bone, I glanced down.

Blood and gore splattered my front, Mother’s dress already ruined.

“Fuck,” I cried out, wiping my face as I ran to Rogue.

He grunted as I hit his chest, slowly wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “Doran…”

Delphia whirled around, breathing heavily. “Doran?”

“Adonis didn’t take me,” I rasped.

Her face crumpled. A man ran at her from behind, teeth bared, and I flung Severance. Years of training guided my muscles, and the blade struck him in the heart.

He collapsed onto the ground a mere foot behind Delphia, but she hadn’t even turned. She just stared at me, frozen—until Thana shook her shoulder.

“He can’t die.” Thana yanked Severance from the corpse with a grimace and returned it to me. “Well, Adonis can’t hurt him.”

Thana spun Delphia to her, and she moved on stiff legs, her sword falling to the ground.

Deep violet light sparked on the blade.

I swiveled to the open wall.

Roaring filled my ears when I found a sky torn between night and day—twilight.

My heart sank into my gut, but my head snapped to the right at a flash of movement. A blood drunk Puer Mortis stood a few feet away, still as stone, Edana between him and us, chest heaving.

A heartbeat later, the man’s head slid off his shoulders and rolled to her feet.

At least ten more Puer Mortis still flitted around the room, hunting their prey. Few lay headless on the ground. Humans with weapons fought tooth and nail, swords drawn and dripping.

A dozen humans fought their way toward us, Gus being one of them. His mask was gone, but the slice across his eye and cheek oozed enough blood to replace it.

A woman dashed at him, and he dodged and dipped low, swinging his sword to sever the tendons in her ankles. She dropped with a laugh and began licking the floor where blood splattered.

This was what Doran was afraid of becoming: unbridled hunger.

“Where is she? Calypso—where is she?” Iaso screamed, head on a swivel until she realized no one was behind her. “Where is… Where is Ewan?”

My heart raced. I scanned the room, but it was dark and loud, chaos spanning from wall to wall. “Gus! Have you seen Ewan—or Godrick? I don’t see Godrick, either.”

Sword raised, Gus backed toward us slowly, as did a dozen more humans. “No, I haven’t.”

I moved to search the room, but Rogue swayed, stumbling without my body to lean against. He caught himself with a grunt, his jaw tight and teeth clenched.

A devastating wail pierced the anarchy.

“No,” I mumbled. “No, no, no.”

Rogue remained upright as I spun on my heel and sprinted to the source of Iaso’s screams. My feet came to a slow halt when I found her crouched over a body, every inch of her skin glowing, her eyes molten, brighter than her mother’s sun.

Ewan lay beneath her, eyes staring up at nothing. Chunks of his throat gone in frenzied bites.

“I can’t heal him,” she cried, her hands hovering over his body. “I can’t…I can’t….”

I dropped on the other side of him, ready to help him the same way I had Guardian, but the shackle blocked my magic. “Get this off of me.”

A hand grabbed my shoulder and tried to tug me away, but I shook it off.

Not Ewan. You can’t take him, too.

“Get this fucking thing off, so I can do something! Rip the skin, muscle, sinew. Cut my fucking hand off if you have to. I can save him. I can?—”

Iaso’s face snapped up, and my breath caught at the raw pain in her expression.

“He’s not here,” she shouted. “He’s not here. He’s gone.” Another sob broke from her, and her anger melted into agony. “I can’t heal him, because he’s not here.”

Sobs wracked her body as she peered down at him and smoothed his hair away from his face, pressing a kiss to his forehead. “My Ewan…”

Thana dropped beside her and plucked his life’s thread from midair. “I can save him. All I need?—”

“No.” Iaso snatched her wrist. Thana gasped, releasing the golden thread, and it faded from existence. “He didn’t want that.”

Silver light poured over the room, the moon, full and bright. We had minutes before it started to fade from the sky.

Minutes before the realm descended into true chaos.

Silent tears poured down my cheeks as she kissed him again and again, muttering words through sobs.

Another person. Gone.

I was on my feet, being pulled away from them, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away. I couldn’t hear or think or?—

I blinked. Jerked free of whoever held me. Narrowed my eyes.

We didn’t have minutes.

The veil had already started to thin, a fact made glaringly obvious when the soul standing over Iaso became corporeal.

“My northern star always guides me home,” drifted on the winter breeze.

Iaso’s breath hiccuped as Ewan crouched and took her hands in his, not with his physical body but his spirit. He whispered more words to her, and she shook her head.

“You must,” he said. “You must go. Leave me.” He kissed her hands and tipped his head. “They need you more than I do right now.”

“But I need you.” She doubled over with another sob, bracing a hand on her abdomen. “Why? Why would you leave me here? You know I can’t follow you there.”

“I couldn’t see another wound to your back.

” He ran his fingers over her face, and she captured his hand there, holding it to her cheek.

“You’ve always been so beautiful.” He kissed her trembling lips.

“Survive this and live, sweetheart. Don’t be afraid.

You’re not alone. You never have been. And no more hiding away in that greenhouse.

You’re much too extraordinary for that, a gift to the realm that never deserved you.

” Another deep kiss, and then, “I need you to be brave now. Promise me—promise you’ll stand up and walk out of here. Our kids need you.”

Rogue moved toward her slowly, bracing his injured hand on his stomach as he knelt at her side.

“Look after her,” Ewan said. “She has a bad habit of looking after everyone but never herself.”

Another cracked sob broke from Iaso, and Ewan pulled her in for a hug, kissing the top of her head before meeting Rogue’s gaze.

He dipped his chin in a tight nod and handed Iaso off to Rogue. She tried to hold onto Ewan, clutching at his arms, but his form turned to smoke.

All that remained was a soft, “I love you.”

She released an earth-shattering scream, and the palace exploded into a forest of thorned vines. They tore through bodies and stone alike. The walls groaned and cracked, pieces tumbling, caught by those same vines.

Every Puer Mortis encased, twitching as blood spilled between the vines, pooling beneath them. Not dead but trapped.

Rogue motioned for Drakyth, who sheathed his sword and darted forward. He scooped Iaso beneath her shoulders and knees and lifted her, brows furrowed down at Rogue.

“What—what happened?” Godrick asked, breathing heavily as he ran over, blood smeared across his face and throat, soaking his clothes.

Once Drakyth carried Iaso far enough away, I muttered, “Ewan.”

I helped Rogue up, careful of his injured hand, and pulled his arm around my shoulders, ignoring the fire that erupted in my right one. He tried to refuse and walk on his own, but I held firm.

We weaved our way through the destruction, stepping over and around bodies, vines, and crumbling stone towards the secret doorway Delphia had brought them through.

With one last glance at Ewan, I murmured a quiet, “Thank you,” and I could’ve sworn a faint, “You’re welcome,” floated back.

The light in the room dimmed. The full moon had faded to half its normal brightness.

“Not much longer,” a human whispered.

More whispers rose, too faint to distinguish from the wind.

Thana held the door open, Delphia and Edana already in the pitch-black hallway. Drakyth disappeared with Iaso, but I hesitated. My heart pounded erratically at how dark it was—made of stone. Cold. A shackle on my wrist.

I forced my feet forward, heart thundering in my ears, and didn’t stop until we crossed the threshold.

Gus and Godrick followed behind us, along with a dozen more humans, and Thana shut the door.

My throat tightened, lungs burning. I opened and closed my mouth. Blinked too many times. I couldn’t see anything, not even my hand.

A flame lit in Rogue’s fingers, warmth flickering on his face, reflected in his maroon eyes.

I released a subtle breath.

“You’re here,” he whispered. “You’re here with me.”

I nodded. “Alive.”

His mouth twitched with a sad smile. The others charged forward, but we lingered for a moment, his eyes on my lips.

“I love you,” he murmured.

I lifted on my toes to give him a quick kiss. “I love you, too.”

Then, we trudged ahead, plunging headfirst into the darkness with only Rogue’s light to guide us.