“There’s still a lot for us to deal with, but first, I want to give you a choice.”
She frowns. Is it the first time in almost a year she’s had her own choice in anything?
“I know what I would do with him.” I nod down to Vincent. Her abuser. Her captor. “And I’d wanted the right to kill him myself, but I don’t think it’s really mine to take. It’s yours.”
Her eyes widen.
“I want you to choose. What do you want to do with him? Torture him? Kill him? Leave him be and turn him in to the authorities? Do you want him executed, where you won’t have to see it? Or do you want to do it yourself?”
Liz swallows.
Vincent pleads with her with his gaze. “I loved you,” he whispers. “I did.”
“I did too,” she says with a hushed, sad voice. One tear slips down her cheeks. “But a lot has changed since last year.”
I wait those precious moments for her sentencing.
She curls her fingers, and Vincent’s body rises. His eyes betray his terror. His breaths are shallow, nearly panicked.
“You stole my heart,” she tells him. He trembles. “It’s only fitting I steal yours right back.”
Then, Liz’s hand glows golden with magic so bright I have to shield my eyes. There’s one final scream, a crunch, a splatter, and then… silence.
When I turn back, there is a gaping hole in Vincent’s chest and a bloody, still-beating heart sits in Liz’s open palm.
63
Reunion
The pressure in my chest eases in several different ways.
Vincent is dead.
My sister is free of the council.
And I can feel magic filling Jarron’s limbs.
Finally, the fluttering of purple wings grabs my attention. “That was intense!” Lola whisper-yells.
I huff out what I think is supposed to be a laugh but is a lot closer to a sob. “Lola, you did amazing. Are you okay?”
She nods. “Are you?”
I nod, but I turn to face Liz.
“Liz,” I whisper the moment she lets the heart fall to the ground. “I need to get to Oriziah. Can you—”
Liz snaps her fingers. I wince when Vincent’s head separates from his body in a sickening crunch. Lola gasps and flutters into my chest, like she’s hiding from the grotesque sight.
Liz examines the head floating in front of her.
“I did love him,” she tells me.
I cannot express how sad that makes me, so I don’t try. I let her stare into the eyes of the lover who betrayed her. He used her. Manipulated her. She may have been fooled by him once, but she sees the truth now.
It will certainly take her time to deal with what it all means for her now.
“To Oriziah?” she asks, eyes dead.
