Page 104 of Hybrid Heroics

“There are other prophecies,” he mused. “They all tell a different ending tonight.”

“I don’t care. The gods and the Fates get this one get out of jail free card. Everything else they need from me will cost them.”

He lunged, and I shoved him, knocking him off balance from his momentum. A blade flew from his outstretched hand, hitting my stomach. I glanced down, pulling it from my flesh and sticking it back onto my chain where he found it.

“Can’t we call this what it is, Alric?” I suggested. “You’re mad that Amelia beat you again, that the Fates wanted her to produce the prophesied child instead of you. I think she was a little over-achieving this time, though. She not only beat you, but she one-upped Catalina, too. Your mother conceived the most powerful dark mage her era had seen. Your sister conceived me—”

Pain flared across my face as his fist connected, breaking my nose and bloodying my teeth.

“And we all know which of us is stronger,” I finished. “It must suck to lose so often.”

He swung at me again. I jabbed my left hand into his solar plexus, knocking him backward with a gasp.

“And you’ll lose again.”

He shot forward, wildly swinging before he was even in reach. I sidestepped and grabbed the back of his neck, forcing him to witness the sea of bloody bodies.

“It’s not even about all the wrong things you’ve done to the good people… Look at what you’ve done to the bad people. Do they know they’ve followed you to their death? I bet they didn’t… Until right about now.”

I let him go, watching his shoulders rise and fall with his furious breaths.

Alric was more than just some bad guy I had to exterminate. This was the man who was partly responsible for changing the entire course of my life. He was the catalyst behind most of the trauma and baggage of everyone in this fight.

I could just kill him and walk away, but that didn’t sit right with me. Though I had shut down the emotional part of me, logic was still there. I was more than a vessel, more than the bringer of death.

I was mad.

For myself and all the shit I’d missed out on…

I was mad that York had been tortured for two years.

Alric.

I was mad that Stone had lost his parents so young.

Alric.

I was mad that Briggs’ parents were dead.

Alric.

That this man had stood behind the shadows and tormented so many lives.

Alric.

That he struck at the leaders who were supposed to be teaching us how to be good people.

Alric.

That he turned mates against each other and parents against their children.

Alric.

This would be more than an easy death. I wouldn’t take pleasure in torturing him for the precious minutes he had left to live.

Anger boiled inside me, coating my veins with thick acid. It was a calm fury that had built over time, the deadly kind that makes hurting someone satisfying on a deeper level than simple joy.

He would never hurt another person.