“And what of you?You are no longer innocent in this game, sister.Look around us.Do you not recall the thousands you slaughtered in the name of rendering me powerless?”
“Then we are as bad as one another and there is only one way to end this.You and I cannot continue to coexist.And I will not allow you to get away with murdering Gellara.”
“And what is it you propose?Given we are both powerless now?”She stretches her wings, fluttering them in the air, teasing out her frustration.
“We are, but there is a source of power in the city.One that is powerful beyond comprehension.I made certain of that…”
She stops in her tracks and glares at me.“Ah yes, our mutual obsession.Lucy could undo an angel…”
“Or perhaps the fabric of our entire realm and fate itself,” I add and Interitus nods at me.“Quite the predicament we are in.”
“Indeed.You want me dead, and I want the world ruined.What to do?What to do?”
Arrogance has always blinded a person.It blinded Ignatius to my trickery and it’s going to blind Interitus now.
“A covenant then?A truce?An offering,” I say.
“Go on…” she says and folds her arms, listening.
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.Only one of us will come out of this achieving our goal.I won’t let you destroy fate, and you’re not going to let me kill you.So perhaps we make a deal of sorts…”
She tilts her head.I have her attention.
“We help each other get the source.”
She scoffs.“You want to work together to get Lucy?”
“Yes.”
She laughs.“Preposterous.There is only one Lucy.One source of power.We’re hardly about to change the habits of eons and share, are we?”
“Oh, I have no intention of sharing.Once we isolate her, we fight to the death.It’s the logical option.Only one of us can use her for our cause.But neither of us can use her if we don’t possess her.”
Interitus’s jaw ticks.Her mind racing through all the plausible options.But there are none.This is the end of the road for us both.By tomorrow there will only be one survivor.One victor, and I plan on making it me.
“I see your point.”She strides up and down again.Always with frenetic energy.She moves from one end of the park to the other, over and over until finally she draws to a stop in front of me.
“So be it.”She holds her hand out, light glistening in her palm.Such a rare sight to see her wield light instead of destruction.
My smile is soft and sad.I didn’t know she possessed the ability.It makes sense now, of course.If I was capable of choosing darkness and destruction then she too had the ability to choose the light.
I think this saddens me, that I never gave her the benefit of the doubt and always assumed the worst.
She crunches my hand as she shakes it.And I’m snapped back to reality.“There is no going back from this,” she says as light wraps our hands in a blinding covenant.
My eyes glance to where her feet have come to a stop.She stands upon the spot Gellara died.
“Oh, I have no intention of going back.We see this through to the end.No matter what.”
“It is done,” she says.And for the first time in our long lives, we take flight…
Together.
39
Lucy
Lex barrels into the clocktower with Alistair, Eleanor and Cordelia.
