Page 91 of Nocte

Watch me tear them all to shreds.

She’s coiled up now in a corner of the hall, trembling with fear at what she’s witnessed. Drenched in blood, she is. Beautiful, perfect, and mine to steal.

But I am too dirty to touch her. My hands are too red and bloodstained. Cassius’ voice is a whisper. Too weak. A thready, broken whisper, beyond my reach forever.

Caspian,he hisses and rages.You have?—

What? What have I done?

I wait but he can’t finish it. He doesn’t finish it, his final threat.

Because I have finally snuffed him out. Poof. He is gone. He and the others are gone. Gone for good—like the make-believe I pretended until now. I had my figurative fingers in my imaginary ears before. I could hear the hum and cacophony they made but I could tune them out. Shut them out.

As long as I touched and soiled my delicious, dear, little fae one, they went silent. Quiet.

But I have sinned too greatly, and now they are gone. All gone.

All.

Gone.

Done.

Silence.

I laugh and laugh and wait. I laugh and laugh and hear no one laughing back. I eye the bloodied mess I’ve made. The limbs scattered at my feet.

They will heal one day, maybe. Maybe not.

But I am not in their head anymore and they are not in mine.

The world is quiet, utter bliss.

And it hurts me.

It burns me.

I laugh and laugh just to hear a sound. Something. Anything.

I laugh and laugh and laugh.

I LAUGH AND LAUGH AND LAUGH.

Nothing.

Silence alone is what greets me.

My head is empty again. Broken again. The collective is gone, I have been shut out.

I have been severed like dear Cassiopea was.

Whatever happened to her, my sister, my ally, my dear one?

She is dead and gone.

And so am I.

CHAPTER35