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“Shut the fuck up!” I roar.
“Make me!”
He knows I won’t. I care too much about the people here to risk getting them hurt. All I can do is bluff. I’ve never felt so useless—it’s infuriating. The gears in my mind twist and turn, desperately trying to find a way out of this. “No more blood,” I shout.
“You’re weak,” I’m told.
“You’re cruel,” I respond.
“I’m winning.” He’s right. For the first time in so long, I’m an underdog. The challenge that it entails cooks inside of me like a crackling volcano; the intense molten lava slowly reawakening my senses.
Good. Let me be an underdog. If I’m ever going to become the man I need to be, it will be after I’ve had to overcome this. I have the object of my desire standing right in front of me. It’s time to take what’s mine.
“You’re a coward,” I taunt right back, desperately trying to pretend like Cat’s not there, ripe for the taking. I have to avert my eyes from her beauty, or else risk being hypnotized. One lapse in judgment could mean the end of me, of us. I’m fast, but bullets are faster. “You have to stab those who care about you in the back to get what you want. That’s not strong.”
“It’s smart.”
“It’s weak.”
Cat stands in the center of our showdown like a lighthouse braving a deep-sea storm. The waves are growing against her stone walls, but I’m doing my best to take the brunt of the fury.
I start pacing to my left. Like my mirror image, the traitor does the same. Cat’s eyes dart back and forth between the two of us. She stands tall, but I can see her long legs are shaking. It’s no secret that she’s being used as a human shield. One wrong move and it’s lights out. Behind her, my brother is limping, panting like a wounded beast. The world turns with us all.
“Stop running,” I command.
“I don’t run.”
“Then face me like a man!”
A blood-soaked gargle that almost sounds like laughter slithers through the smoky air. “I told you already, I’m the smart one. There isn’t a single soul in this entire world who doesn’t know you would win in a fair fight, but I don’t fight fair, not anymore.”
The ground vibrates beneath us as an explosion rumbles off in the distance. The fire is closing in. Memories of my parents and their final moments rush through my mind. Is this what it’s like to be burned alive?
I shake that thought from my head. I’ve been burned enough already; I’m not going to let it happen again. I keep pacing, circling my prize as her captor does the same. The fire seems to cool against the rage that festers inside of me at the idea that anyone could ever think that Catalina should be theirs. No, you idiot, she’s mine, now and forever.
A nearby stone statue collapses under the growing heat and shatters against the ground. Sweat drips down my forehead. “We can’t stay here forever,” I sneer.
“Sure we can.”
“You idiot...”
The devil just shrugs. “I’m willing to die in this fire, as long as it means taking you down with me.”
Who the hell does he think he is!? Frustration bubbles inside of me; I’m being cooked alive, by the fire and by my own fury. Sorrow and anger clash behind my chest. This isn’t a situation I ever thought I’d find myself in. There’s no preparing for this. I practically have my arms wrapped around a veritable suicide bomber, and he has his arms wrapped around the girl we’ve both fallen for. The difference is, he wants to cut her in half and share what’s left, but I don’t want a single hair on her pretty little body harmed. The thought of Catalina being hurt under my watch nearly crushes me with despair; I’m only kept from suffocating by the unfiltered rage that flickers up from the deepest darkest pit of my soul.
“So, let her go and let’s die together,” I offer.
“No, you’ll kill me the second she’s gone. She’s stuck in hell with us... unless you give up and leave. It’s the only way she’ll survive.” The bastard knows me well. I may be vicious, but I don’t hurt those I care about; that’s what’s making this whole situation so fucking hard, because I don’t give up either.
“I can’t do that. I’m not leaving her.” My eyes dart to Cat. “I’m not leaving you. I promise.”
My dark princess looks like she’s lost in another world. Sweat pours down her shiny caramel skin like rain, but her eyes are distant. Sorrow weighs on her sharp features so heavily I fear she might sink through the scorched earth—at least then she’d be free from this nightmare.
“Cat...”
“No,” she trembles, her gaze suddenly exploding back to reality. “We can’t die here.”
“You’re damn right,” I snarl. Blood pumps through my throbbing heart. There’s the girl I fell for. She won’t give up—as if I ever thought she would. I know what she’s been through. Lesser women might have crumbled and been swept away in the tornados she’s faced, but she’s a fighter. Together, we’re unstoppable.
