My brain stumbled over all the other incidences, I hinted at bringing people back, but each time I was there in person. Only the freak time was Warwick, Scorpion, and now Andris.
“Yeah.”
“Both times you were holding or coated with the magic-infused afterbirth.”
“But I went through the book to save Warwick,” I replied.
“In theory, yes.” Ash tapped on his chin. “But now we know you were actually there. The infant was you, and you were the one who had the magic. The older version of yourself was simply a conduit. The magic you absorbed the night of the fae war is the same magic you used tonight to save Andris.”
In its confusing way, it made sense, and the significance of it sat heavy on me. I was capable of bringing people back to life.
“And the necromancers?” Luk asked. “Or whatever they are now.”
“They are basically like Scorpion.” Ash smiled at me. “Just lucky bystanders in the moment.”
They weren’t my targets but were in the path of magic, becoming recipients of it whether they wanted it or not.
“Damn, little lamb. I knew there was a reason I liked you. Got some kink under that hot human façade. You’re like a really fucked up reverse necromancer.” Kek winked at me.
Her words hit deeper than she expected, carving into my chest.
My mother was a witch. Human, yes, but cursed. I still knew so little about what led them to be necromancers. Why they were blighted in the first place, going from Wiccans to cursed necromancers. It seemed insane. The day before, my mother was feeding off souls from corpses and reanimating skeletons. Now she was alive.
The shock of finding my mother again was like a blast of freezing air. Shocking. Brutal. It left me numb. I had an entire family I never knew about, just miles from me, and I had no clue how to even wrap my mind around it. To come to grips with how I felt, especially when so many other things were colliding in, crushing me.
Killian’s piercing eyes and beautiful face entered my mind, right after the softness of Zander, the way he tipped his head when he looked at me.
They were gone. Dead.
Oxygen evaporated from my lungs, my spine curling as I tried to get my breath.
“Brex?” Ash came up, his voice sounding further away than it should have, his hand touching my shoulder. “You all right?” Concern shaded his timbre. Full of compassion and attentiveness.
I was being smothered. Everything was closing in on me, scratching at my skin, making me want to claw my way out. To run and never look back.
“Brex?” Ash rubbed my arm.
“Get out.” I tried to breathe.
“What?”
“Everyone out.” I curled over more, my voice hissing. “Please… get out.”
Ash hesitated, the empathy in his expression strangling me further.
“Go!” I needed air. Space. I wanted to be left alone.
Ash nodded, “We’ll be close by if you need us.” He waved for them all to leave the room.
Sucking in gulps of air, I saw Kek and Luk follow him out of the corner of my eye.
“Warwick?” Ash called to him.
Warwick pushed off the wall, heading for the door, but instead of stepping through it, leaving me in peace, he slammed the door in Ash’s face, closing us in the tiny room.
My chest clenched, sweat beading my hairline as his massive frame towered over me, choking me in his shadow, stealing more of my air.
“Kovacs…”
“Get the hell out,” I seethed. I couldn’t take anything more. Especially him. Because deep down, all I craved was to hear his voice skim up the back of my neck through our link, easing the panic building in my chest, the feel of him keeping the pieces of my broken soul together. The fact I yearned for it, needed it, tapped at a raw nerve of resentment and fury.
He didn’t budge, his stony expression gazing down on me, taking me back to how he had looked at me at Halálház.
Detached. Cruel. Empty.
Like I was nothing.
It lit the fuse in my body, detonating through my bones.
“I said, get the fuck out!” I screamed, my palms shoving at his chest, creating more fury when I didn’t move him an inch. The power to take his energy and use it against him was gone. All the magic I hadn’t even realized stirred in my veins was burned up, leaving soot marks inside and outside.
We were no longer on equal footing. I was also not the girl I once had been. I was stripped to the bones, burned, and left in a heap of fiery anger.
“What are you waiting for?” I seethed, pushing at him again. “You are finally free. You got what you wanted all along. The link is broken. So go!”
A rumble came up his throat, his body moving closer to me. Caging me in. Trapping me.
And the sickest thing was I wanted it. I wanted him to hurt me, to make me feel something other than grief. To slam me up against the wall and fuck me until I forgot how to breathe. To think. To move.
Make me forget.
Except forgetting would take away my most prized possession.
Anger.
I bared my teeth, inching up on my toes, getting close to his face. “Don’t tell me this isn’t exactly what you wanted?” I growled.
His nose flared, but he didn’t respond.
“Right?” I spat.
“Yes.” His low, harsh growl barely constructed a word, but it hit my chest like an arrow.
“Good.” I nodded, a malicious smirk upping my lip. “We’re both free now.”
“Princess—”
“Don’t fucking call me that.” I sneered. “I’m not some spoiled, fragile girl. I am a monster just like you.”
“You are nothing like me.” He moved closer; our bodies pressed together.
“You’re right. I’m worse. You may enjoy death, but I am it. Everything I touch crumbles into ruins. Everybody close to me dies. I’m like the fuckin’ plague.”
“Don’t say that,” he growled. Grabbing my arms, he slammed me up against the wall, the strike of pain spreading through my body like wildfire. It felt good. Anger made you feel alive.
“Why? It’s true. Admit it, I’ve done nothing but wreak havoc on your life since I entered Halálház.”
“You think my life wasn’t like that before you?”
“Only of your making. This is all me. Look around you. Look at the lives I’ve destroyed. Where are Eliza and Simon now?”
Warwick jolted at their names, the muscles in his neck plucking like violin strings.
“Get the hell away from me and never look back.”
“Think it’s so easy, princess?”
“Yes,” I snarled. “Because we both got what we wanted. We can finally walk away. No hard feelings. Free of each other.”
“You want to be free of me?” His hands tightened around my biceps, his hips pushing into mine. Desire flamed into more resentment as his hardness pressed into me.
“Be honest, Farkas. Without that connection, you’d feel nothing for me. You think you would have looked even twice at me at Halálház? Saved my life in the Games?” I snorted sardonically. “You’re not the type to stick around for happily ever after. So don’t pretend you were ever going to.”
His jaw cracked together, his lids lowering, and he stared at me, expressionless. His silence broadcasted everything he didn’t say.