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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

SELENE

“ I t has been a long time, hasn’t it?” I ask Abel, staring down into his hazel eyes that mirror mine. There’s only one difference though. While mine are blank and void of any emotion, his are filled with terror. “It looks like you’ve gotten yourself into quite the predicament here, huh?”

“Fuck you, Selene,” he spits at me. “I don’t know how you’re my blood. You don’t know how badly I wished while growing up that I was adopted—that it wasn’t true, that my father wasn’t a notorious serial killer and my sister wasn’t a total fucking psychopath.”

I watch Onyx from the corner of my eye as he yawns. This is about as boring to him as watching a reality TV show. Listening to my brother drone on about his sad, pathetic childhood, it sounds like a damn reality show.

“You know, if you wouldn’t have called the cops, nothing about your life would have changed,” I remind him, sliding my hands into the front pockets of my pants, wrapping my fingers around my knife. “You would have never known about what was going on with dad and we wouldn’t be in this position.”

Abel stares back at me, his eyes wide with disbelief. “Are you that delusional, Selene? You can’t honestly believe that he wouldn’t have eventually gotten caught. I was doing the world a fucking favor by getting him locked away on death row.”

I click my tongue, shaking my head at him with a frown forming on my lips. “No one would have known a thing if you had just minded your own business and not gone looking where you didn’t belong.”

“Jesus Christ,” Abel lets out an exaggerated breath, his eyes glancing at Onyx. “Can you please talk some goddamn sense into her warped head?”

I tilt my head, looking over at Onyx with an amused grin. A low chuckle rumbles in his chest as he looks back at me. “Do it.”

I watch as a sinister smirk pulls on Onyx’s lips, and he nods at me. He’s encouraging but I know he’s ready for this shit to be over. Winking at him, I pull the knife from my pocket, flicking the blade open as I turn back to Abel.

He inhales sharply, his body wiggling in the chair as he fights against his restraints, as if he’s going to break free. “What? No. Come on, Selene.”

“What?” I ask him, stepping closer as I bring the blade underneath his chin, letting the sharp edge rest against it. “I’m just finishing what I should have done a long time ago. It’s all finally coming full circle.”

Abel swallows, his throat moving against the blade as it nicks his skin. I watch a small bead of blood form along the small slice. “I’m your brother. You can’t do this to me.”

My brow furrows. “But you came here to kill me, didn’t you? So, let’s not pretend like our blood ties mean a fucking thing.”

“You’re a fucking parasite, Selene. You plague and taint everything with your darkness, and you don’t stop until everything ends in bloodshed. You’re exactly like him. I know that it’s not your fault, but you’re just as sick as he is. This is the only way to cure the illness.”

“That’s so touching,” I murmur, moving the blade across his throat, stopping as I reach the other side. I press the tip just above his jugular vein, the cold metal digging into his flesh. “It’s like you think you’re God or something—like you can just take matters into your own hands like that. You want to know a secret, though? Dad thought he was God too.”

Abel narrows his eyes at me. Gone is the frightened look that once consumed him. It’s replaced with anger, anger at knowing that what I’m suggesting is the truth. “I am nothing like him.”

“Jesus Christ, Selene.” Onyx’s breath slides past my ear. “Can we hurry the fuck up here?”

The cadence of my laughter fills the room, growing louder and more maniacal as I drop my face down to his. “You’re right. You’re nothing like him because you only think that you’re God. Dad was God, and now I’ve claimed the throne that was rightfully mine.”

Abel opens his mouth to speak, but I’m done. There’s nothing else he could possibly say that would mean a damn thing. Even if the cops showed up right now and circled us in this dusty, smoke-filled room with guns pointed at me, it wouldn’t change the outcome.

It wouldn’t stop me from slitting his fucking throat.

Digging the tip in further, I press the length of the blade along his neck and effortlessly slide it through his flesh, opening him from one ear to the other. Abel gasps, his mouth still open as the blood begins to seep from the open wound. It pours down the front of his body, soaking his shirt with the deep red liquid. Arterial blood spurts from his throat, splattering across the room and my face.

The fire roars just outside the door as the room starts to fill with more smoke. As it swirls around us, I stare at the blood pouring from Abel’s throat. I’m mesmerized, completely transfixed with the way it paints the front of his body.

“Selene, baby,” Onyx breathes against my ear. “We need to get the fuck out of here.”

I shake my head at him, lifting my gaze to Abel’s eyes as I tuck my knife back in my pocket. Blood sputters from his mouth as his bottom jaw bobs. The terrified expression on his face mixes with the look of hypovolemic shock as the color drains from his skin. “I’m not leaving until I know that he’s dead.”

“There’s no way he’s getting out of here.” Onyx wraps his hands around the tops of my shoulders, attempting to pull me along with him.

I break free from his grasp, my gaze not leaving Abel’s. “I want to watch the life drain from his eyes. I want to feel his soul leaving its vessel.”

Abel gargles, choking on his blood as he attempts to take a breath. His throat is split wide open, his trachea severed as the crimson liquid flows into his airway and fills his lungs. His gaze doesn’t leave mine, and I watch as the terrified look quickly dissolves into a blank stare.

His eyelids flutter, and he sputters once more as I watch as the life drains from his eyes. Deep down, I know Abel is still alive. I haven’t felt his soul leave his body yet. I stay in the same place, my feet cemented to the floor as the blood continues to squirt from the exposed arteries in his neck. The time between each sputter grows longer and longer, like a pregnant pause, until there isn’t any blood left for his body to expel.

I close my eyes, inhaling deeply through my nose as a sense of peace washes over me. I don’t feel the heat from the fire that roars as it tears down the door leading to the hall. My blood whooshes past my ears, and I can feel it.

It’s finally done.

I’m finally free from the threat that I should have eradicated so many years ago.

“Selene.” Onyx’s voice is loud and harsh as he barks at me over the sound of the fire spilling into the room. “It’s over. We need to fucking go. Now.”

The urgency behind his demand and the sound of his voice pull me from my trance. I turn around, my gaze meeting his icy blue irises. There's not a trace of happiness on his face. Instead, I see something in his expression that I’ve never witnessed before. Rather than the typical satisfaction or euphoric look in his eyes, he looks genuinely concerned.

He doesn’t allow me to respond or even give himself a chance to speak another word. Instead, he wraps his long fingers around my wrist and drags me behind him, leading me directly to the broken window. It took longer than it should have with Abel; I fucked around and wasted critical time. The fire that was spreading through the building quickly caught up with us, and our usual exit is consumed by the flames.

The window is our only way out now.

Onyx stops as we reach the window. “You’re going out first.”

It isn’t a request, it isn’t a question. It’s a simple demand, and there’s nothing that I can say to argue or dispute it. His mind is made up; and he will gladly burn alive in that building if it means that I make it out alive.

He wraps his arms around my thighs, hoisting me into the air as he shoves me through the window. There’s nothing gentle about how he handles me or gets me out. Broken shards of glass cut through my pants and slice my flesh as I’m thrust through the shattered window. Air leaves my lungs in a rush when I tumble onto the ground.

The force of the impact knocks the breath out of me. Bloodied and bruised, I roll onto my back, placing my hands on my chest as I stare up at the night sky and watch the smoke curling into the darkness. I struggle against the pressure in my diaphragm, fighting to suck in a deep breath. It fucking hurts, and my throat burns, constricting as my body screams in protest.

A thud beside me catches my attention. I glance over and see Onyx lying on the ground next to me. His arms are scratched and cut open, just like mine, from the broken shards of glass.

His chest rises and falls rapidly, his face dirty from the dust and ash that surrounded us in the building as he stares down at me. Onyx managed to land in a better position, so he didn’t knock the wind out of himself like I did.

“You good, baby?” He asks, his voice soft and tender as he reaches down to cup the side of my face. His touch is gentle, a complete contrast to the way that he shoved me out of the burning building without a second fucking thought.

That’s the thing about Onyx. He might be a monster, but he’s my monster. His edges are jagged and rough, and there isn’t a single part of him that is kind to anyone, except me. He might be brutal and rough, but with me, there’s always a tenderness lurking in his shadows.

“I’ve never been better,” I breathe, feeling my body finally allowing the air to pass into my lungs without fighting against me. Onyx’s hands find mine on my chest, lacing his fingers through mine before pulling me to a sitting position.

We both turn to look at the asylum as it goes up in flames, crumbling before our eyes. There was always a weird sense of attachment to this place. We had so many firsts here—separately and together. It was our playground. It belonged to us. And now it’s fucking gone.

“What now?” I ask Onyx, my eyes fixated on the flames dancing in front of us.

Onyx squeezes my hand lightly. “You know, we never really needed this place. It was a part of our evolution and now, we no longer need it. It served its purpose.”

I look over at him, catching the sinister gleam dancing in his bright blue eyes as he stares back at me. That’s the thing with people like us—once a purpose in our lives is served, it becomes obsolete. It’s no longer important. And Onyx is right. We’ve evolved. The asylum was a crutch, and this is the universe’s way of pushing us forward.

Quickly rising to my feet, I tug on Onyx’s hand, pulling him up with me. “You know, it is Halloween tonight.”

Onyx raises an eyebrow, a ghost of a smile playing on his lips. “And we got rid of our little problem…”

My lips stretch wide, a soft chuckle bubbling out. “You want to go celebrate?”

“What did you have in mind?” He asks, as we turn our back on the burning building, along with our past as we step closer to the forest—closer to our future.

With my free hand, I reach into my pocket, pull out my knife and flick open the blade. A sliver of light from the full moon above bounces off it, briefly illuminating Onyx’s face as I twirl it around my fingers. “I think it’s time we have some fun now.”

It all happens so quickly. Onyx’s hand drops from mine, and he swipes the knife from my grasp as his other hand clamps down over my mouth. The blade is pressed against my skin, just beneath my jawline, while his chest is pressed flush against my back.

“You want to play, little devil?” He breathes against my ear, slowly dragging the blade along my skin. My heart pounds in my chest, and Onyx’s erection is pressed against my lower back as adrenaline courses through my system.

I nod, my head bobbing against his hand. The movement causes the knife to nick my skin, and warm liquid trickles down the side of my neck. I clench my legs together as the warmth spreads between my thighs. Pressing my ass against Onyx, I feel how fucking hard he is beneath me as I grind into him.

Onyx drags his tongue along the shell of my ear, nipping at my cartilage. “Run.”