There were only a few of those: one with powers that controlled water, although he wasn’t trained to use it since he’d hidden his secret for years, and four regular humans with no extra gifts.
I admired their spirit, and while normally I would deny their help, I couldn’t get the words out that they were in over their heads. They deserved to fight for their lives as much as we did.
“Oh, hell,” someone cursed, and I looked over to see the water controller looking up.
“Don’t look at it, you’ll go blind!” I yelled and headed for the doors to the tower.
“Whatever you do, keep this tower secure. Dorian’s crew is around, and I have a feeling they’ll come to him once darkness takes over,” I said, looking each person in the face.
I could have stopped this, many years ago, but I’d been blind.
Dorian had been there all along, I should have seen it. I should have looked for him. I shouldn’t have stopped trying to make things right.
I’d damned them all.
One step in front of the other, I walked into the glass building, and made my way up the twenty flights of stairs toward my brother, and my enemy.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Dorian
My body glowed with the power of the sun’s radiation, absorbing every ray I could get.
I took it all, sunlight from all around the globe coming to me like a blast of light. Soon nothing but darkness would cover the earth. It would only last one solid day, but that was enough. I wasn’t asshole enough to doom the planet by holding the light within me until the plants wilted and nature slowly died. But I wanted suffering like my people had suffered. Like I suffered. So, keeping them alive was a necessity to that.
The moon had completely covered the sun, and now the night would take over.
When the last bit of sunlight was absorbed into my veins, my vision became tinged with a glow, and a subtle current ran over my skin. So much power.
“Dorian.”
As I knew he would, Draco had showed up a few seconds too late.
“Congrats on evacuating the city. Now we can destroy it without simpletons getting in the way.” I shrugged. My voice was deeper than before, the power inside me making everything I was more charged. My father had once told me that he felt like he was always harboring light, like a vessel, and it was a constant battle to keep the light contained during the night. I could understand his struggle.
I turned to see Draco standing by the rooftop’s only entrance and exit door. He ran up here and barely looked out of breath. Impressive.
“I beseech you, brother, it’s not too late. All isn’t lost—we can still be the light in the darkness together.”
He was seriously trying again to bring me over to the side of the heroes.
“I am the light and the darkness. It’s too late, brother.” I spit out the last word. He wasn’t my brother, and though we shared the blood of Apollo together, he was nothing but an enemy to me.
“Then there is no good inside you.” He knew that, but had tried to find some humanity in me anyway.
“I am the villain in this story—have been for over a millennium.”
I could see the future in my head spin to what he was going to say next, and I cut him off instead.
“No use in using her in your cause; you’ll only piss me off further.”
She was not part of this fight, and I would keep her name out of it for as long as I could.
“Then it comes down to us,” he sighed. Our battle was about to begin.
“It was always about us. This whole story has always been down to us—everyone else was just a side character. Easily disposable. Now, I have a world to take over, so let’s move this along. I’ve seen the ending enough times to know that you fail against my sword and lose those you care about. I’m quite eager to see that defeated look on your face in the present.” I positioned myself for the lunge that was coming, and even when his arms went around my waist, throwing us off the side of the tallest building in the city, I was prepared.
I flashed us to another building, and his fist came swinging toward my face as soon as our feet touched the ground. Dodging him was easier this time. I had a cleared head and could focus on his movements instead of Esme’s like before.
We traded blows, and I flashed to another building.
My hand moved up and pressed against his shoulder, pushing the light out through my hand. Draco flew back with a nasty burn on his skin. Sunlight was quite potent, especially in concentrated doses like that.
He rose and came back at me, even with his charred skin exposed to the cold.
“Things are getting too predictable, Draco, I think we need to shake this scene up a bit.” I moved to the side of his punch and touched his shoulder, digging my fingers into his wound and flashing us to where the heroes were surrounding Griffin tower. My crew was just coming out of the shadows.
I dropped Draco in front of his woman, who glared at me with hatred in her eyes as she helped Draco to his feet.
Her powers were caressing my brain, wanting me to open up to her and let those emotions wash over me. To control me.
“I’m immune, darling.” I winked at her and looked around the nearly empty city, the only inhabitants the few who stupidly thought to stand their ground against me.
“Your Hero Society is over. Join me and be free. Live the life you want without fear, or persecution from humans, who just days before this were willing to hurt you. They abandoned you, and yet you stand here for them? Give up the righteous cause! The gods were fools, and they died because the humans gave up on them. Don’t follow their fate.”
I did try, although I knew none of them would waiver. Good versus evil. To them there was no in-between. But life didn’t work that way—there was a middle ground. Good people could do bad things for good reasons, and vice versa.
No one spoke, as I expected.
“You guys want a fight?” I looked at Phillip and waited for the puppet master to make his move. We’d both been playing the same game, and both of us had chosen a path to follow. The outcomes were dwindling as we stood here staring at each other.
Seeing all the heroes here at once made my blood boil. Maybe I was a sucker for pain, but I wanted the fight right now.
The more I looked at them, the more I saw her face, and the more I wanted pain. The desire to destroy everything that made her pop into my head was overwhelming.
They all looked at me with a mixture of hate and pity in their eyes.
“Let’s dance, heroes.”
And just like that, the city was a battle ground, and only one side could win.
Everyone matched up with someone they figured were their equal in a fight: Leon and Ajax, Lilith and Monica, Phillip and Ron Presley, the kid from the hospital who could read minds.
Jesse and Echo had taken forms of animals and were battling like ones. Asher had caught the eye of Trix, a magician whose power was over shadows. He could become them and manipulate them. I wished I had time to watch that fight, but Draco was coming my way. He and I were the only true warriors in this battle. He was mine to finish.
Rose was fighting with a newcomer of their team that could play with water and the humans who stayed.
The rest of my army would handle them.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Draco
I heard the battle cries, the grunting, and shrieks of pain.
It didn’t have to be like this.
People were going to die, and I didn’t know how to stop it. I pleaded with Dorian, and now the only option I see to end this is to end him. Cut off the head of the snake. The body will wiggle around for a bit, but then it will die.
We fought, both of us taking hits, blood coating our teeth from punches to the face.
Sometimes he would let me land a painful blow, as if he wanted it. Not once did he touch his sword to fight me, even though it was there, ready and waiting to slice me. As if he liked the pain of my fists.
I coul
dn’t die, and while I would grow weary, the energy would come back to me quickly. He was still riding on sunlight, which would last him for days or until he gave it back to earth.
This Dorian was different than our last fight, when he almost died. He was focused and lethal, moving faster, anticipating moves either from watching me or seeing the future in his head. We could keep this going for days.
I looked around for something that could help me.
“You wanna make things more interesting?” He took a step back and flashed away. Moments later he was back and throwing a sword at me, aiming straight for my chest. I moved quickly out of the trajectory and then caught it as it tried to go past me.
“So fast,” he mocked and then reached above his head, wrapping his fingers slowly around the hilt, pulling his sword up and back around to his front.
Swords.
A true warrior’s weapon.
We would fight like ancient Greeks until the death, it seemed. Although it was obvious Dorian had trained after our original ancient time, I’d been brought up to fight since I could stand.
This was a battle he would not win.
I didn’t say a word as I raised my sword into position, taking deep breaths to calm and focus my mind. But then I heard a female cry out in agony, follow by a bellow of rage.
I wanted to look, to make sure it wasn’t one of my own, but Dorian took my momentary loss of attention and attacked first.
I vaguely heard Rose’s cry of sadness, but I knew she was alive. She was strong, but one of ours was hurt.
His sword clashed with mine, hard and loud.
He was done letting me get in free hits so he could feel the pain. This moment with steel was personal, and his rage was fueling him. He was all precision and skill as he was on the offense.
The whole area had become a war zone, and as we moved around the street, I saw the others in my peripheral vision, and my heart stopped.
Leon and Lilith were in the grass, lying together in each other’s arms, dead.
Pure, undiluted anger poured into my veins.
Dorian saw them and smirked. That smirk would be his undoing.
He came at me, and I pushed him back, moving quickly on my feet at the attacker now. He dodged and blocked my attacks, and while he had many years of practice and skill, I had years of experience.
Feeling like an asshole, I taunted him with my technique.
Pieces of building fell around us, and we were forced to separate or be crushed under the rubble. I had taken a moment to glance at my comrades when I saw movement coming. I didn’t care about Dorian, or anything else, as I took off into a sprint. All that mattered was stopping what I knew would be the end.
But I wasn’t fast enough.
My arms wrapped around her soft body, falling to the ground.
My Rose…my wife.
Her eyes were wide as they stared at my face.
“I’m sorry.” Tears flowed over my cheeks as the feeling of helplessness settled over me. There was nothing I could do. I looked down at the knife plunged into her stomach and began to weep harder.
“I love you.” My eyes moved back to her face, and I saw her looking at me with tears flooding her gaze. We both knew she was dying, that there was no fixing this wound.
“It wasn’t enough time.” I shook my head. We knew one day I would outlive her, but this? I thought we would have more time. I needed more time. I’d prayed for many years for time to end and take me with it, but now all I could think of was my need for more.
“Be with me till our time runs out.” Her hand was trying to reach mine, but she was weak. Instantly I wrapped my free hand around hers. Opening myself up to her, I felt her fears, her sadness, and her love.
“I’ll always be with you, no matter how long you live, old man.” She tried to smile but a cough shook her, blood tinging the edges of her mouth.
“My love…” I was breaking with every shallow breath she took.
I’d seen this future before it came to be, that losing her would be the end of me. I’d never recover.
She didn’t speak but pushed the entirety of her love into me until it filled me, drawing a sob from my chest.
“I promise I’ll find a way to you, my wife,” I vowed.
“I love you so—” She tried to say more, but her body was giving up. I held her hand, feeling everything she felt, when suddenly all emotions were gone.
My wife was dead.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Dorian
Death permeated the air around us.
Loss was inevitable on both sides, and both sides were prepared to die when they chose to fight.
Everyone had stopped fighting while Draco held his dying love on the ground.
My chest hurt, seeing them.
Seeing the great General Draco in tears as the woman he loved took her final breath.
The memory of me holding Esme’s dying body in my arms, watching the light leave her eyes, flooded my brain. Every soft curve of her body in that blue dress, the way her lips parted from being too weak, her hazel eyes filled with love as she looked at me.
Rose and Draco had looked at each other with love until she died.
I’d only stared at Esme in shock for what she’d done.
Echo, still in wolf form, began to howl for the loss of her friend, bringing my attention to the present. Phillip was crying and running his fingers through his hair. He gambled wrong with all of their lives, and now he’d have to live with the death of his sister. He could have stopped it; he could have stopped all of this, but he didn’t.
The fighting around us began again once Echo attacked the man who’d stabbed Rose, crushing his neck with one bite as she shook her head like the man was a rag doll between her teeth.
I stared at the back of Draco, still holding his dead woman.
“You and I weren’t made to love.” I took a step closer, watching as he slowly pulled the knife out of her gut, placing her hands gently across the wound before lowering her to the ground.
“Goodbye, my wife.” He stood, keeping his eyes on her.
I’d known a future of them marrying was probable, though for them, what was the point? He would outlive her no matter what.
He grabbed hold of the sword that he’d thrown to the ground and turned to face me.
I knew the expression on his face. I knew it because I saw that expression on my own after Esme died.
But I didn’t love her.
He didn’t speak as he approached me, sword at his side. Then he stopped, tears on his cheeks.
“I’d live and suffer for a thousand more years if I got to feel her love for me, even for one minute. I cherished her, I loved her, and I wouldn’t change a damn thing. She was my everything. You had love, and you threw it away like garbage; you are the one who truly suffers between us.”
His sword rose and moved to strike.
Renewed focus to end me was lit inside him.
He fought harder—faster—and I knew he wanted us both to leave this earth tonight.
But that focus in his head was diminished, and the agony of loss took over. It was easy, the movement that impaled my sword into his chest, almost as if he wanted me to do it, but he wouldn’t die despite how much he wished it.
My mind was racing, trying to catch up with all the feelings inside me. This wasn’t how I expected I’d feel. Something wasn’t right.
I looked into the future, seeing it as clear as I had before.
Phillip was walking toward me.
“You’ve lost, and we are free,” I stated, instead of the battle cry I’d seen in my future as Draco fell, sword to his chest.
He would heal, of course, but he would never truly live now that his love was gone.
Those who remained of the army on my side raised their fists in victory.
“We won’t ever give up. Remember that, Dorian,” Echo called out. She was completely bare, her body covered in dirt and blood after having fought in her animal’s
forms. Asher was by her side, but there was blood rushing down his head. He would survive; I’d seen it. So would she.
They looked down at their fallen comrades. Phillip’s sister was lying on the ground, eyes closed, hands resting on her bleeding stomach, where Draco had placed them gently after she died.
Leon and Lilith were embraced together on the grass. She had sacrificed herself to save his good soul from going to hell, damning them both to perish together. At least they had that.
Everything was playing out as the future had shown me, but something didn’t feel right. Something was wrong, and I couldn’t figure it out.
Phillip rushed to Draco’s side and pulled out the sword in one quick motion, blood pouring out from his wound. When I’d seen this in my vision, I had hoped it would hurt. Watching it now only made a grimace grace my lips.
Still, I tried to continue the course I’d chosen.
“You chose wrong, Griffin, and you lost everything.” I stared at him, speaking with no venom in my words like I should have had.
“You never deserved the love she gave you,” Phillip said, but he didn’t lunge at me like he had in my vision.
“What did you do?” I was at a complete loss. I was aching inside my body, not in the physical way but deeper, in my soul, if I had one.
Phillip stood and faced me.
“You’re realizing you loved Esme.”
I shook my head. No, I wasn’t. Esme and I had a short moment together, a passing star in the night sky. Bright and beautiful, but was over quickly.
“You loved her and lost her, as Draco has lost my sister. She died in your arms, though you pushed it far back into your mind until seeing them together. Hearing Rose take her last breath brought out those repressed feelings. You’re feeling Esme’s love, and you’re feeling the loss of that love.” Phillip was standing his ground.
“I didn’t love her!” I roared.
But even I felt it was a lie now. I’d found love where it wasn’t supposed to be, it was right in front of me the whole time.
“It doesn’t matter. There’s nothing we can do now. Let’s be done.” I tried hard to push back the feelings of regret and sorrow that were trying to consume me.
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