"No," I said, venom dripping in the one syllable. "You deserve a fate worse than death," I lifted him off of the ground with magic, forcing him to look me in the eye, "If something happens to my brother, if one little hair on his head is damaged, I will hunt you down Sebastian."
He smirked at me, hoping for the death he thought I was promising.
"I will hunt you down," I continued, "and make you watch as I do this same little number on Amelia. Then you will know what it's like to be responsible for the death of your sibling," I watched the panicked hysteria flood his face before I threw him against the wall, crashing him into the huge flat-screen TV and rendering him unconscious.
I left him on the floor, in a puddle of blood and raced to the elevators, using magic to accelerate the speed. I was to the bottom floor in a second and out onto the street in two more. It had started to snow heavily by now and the streets were blanketed with fresh, pure snow. I ran across the street to the first fast car I could find and blew open the door with magic.
I started the car the same way and was racing down the streets of Omaha as fast as the car would let me go. I had to get to the farm. I had to help save the Resistance. I was the one who had made them vulnerable. I was the one who had opened them up for attack. And I was even still the one they were fighting to protect.
But I had to be the one to save Avalon. I couldn't let him take my place as sacrifice. He was destined for greatness, not to die meaninglessly at the hands of Lucan. Something had gone terribly wrong. This was not the future I had been promised.
I was what went wrong. I was the problem. If it weren't for me, Avalon wouldn't be in danger, Amory wouldn't have to be fighting to save his grandchild and their group of loyal followers wouldn't be martyring themselves to right my wrong.
But more than me, Kiran was to blame. Kiran, the man I had envisioned a lifetime of perfect happiness with. The man who had just asked me to marry him. The man who had promised such sweet lies. He was to blame.
I leaned over in the car and vomited again. How could I have been so blind? How could I have been so naive?
He was a snake. He promised me happiness in one hand and betrayed me at the deepest level with the other. Happiness was not only impossible for us, it was impossible with this life. This life that suddenly held no meaning without my grandfather. Without my brother. With the blood of hundreds of people on my hands.
I would rectify this. I would make Kiran pay. I had no other choice. I would save Avalon and then I would finish Kiran, for good. And not have another thought about him again.
Chapter Forty-Three
By the time I reached the farmhouse, visibility was near zero. The heavy snow fall had turned into a blizzard and road conditions were dangerous. I threw caution to the wind, however, hitting the gravel road with my foot pressed firmly down on the gas pedal. I used magic to keep the car on the road and took the long drive in seconds.
I slammed on the brakes, jumping out of the car before it had completely stopped. Unnoticed, I stood in mortified awe for a moment watching the battle from afar. The discarded car rolled into a ditch. I could hear the windshield wipers squeak against the glass, as I decided how I would fit myself into the destruction.
The snow blurred the lines between Immortals fighting each other. The metal barn doors had been blown off, and the florescent lights from the structured ceiling bounced an eerie glow onto the wall of snow. Blasts of magic and explosions of electricity were the only other light sources in the gray blizzard of mayhem.
I stumbled forward, not knowing where to start. There were too many people in trouble, too many Guards to fight. A tear slipped from the corner of my eye; in the pit of my stomach grew the hopelessness, a feeling, only hours ago I thought I had banished forever.
Angelica, the wise, old woman lay pinned underneath the magic of a brutish Titan, his lips curled into the satisfaction of dominance. The image of the kind woman with bright violet eyes, twitching in pain, her long gray hair loosed and highlighted with crimson blood, broke something inside of me. In that moment I lost a good piece of me, a piece that stood for justice and virtue.
In its place grew the darkness of hate and righteous anger. A sticky, consuming cloud of malicious vengeance spread through my veins like wild fire and clarity found me. Dangerous, vengeful clarity cleared my mind and I let out a feral battle cry, announcing that I had arrived.
I started with Angelica, blasting the Titan away from her and slamming him against the white porch of the farmhouse. I heard his bones break and the crash of the wood from the porch echoed on the muffled, blizzarded battlefield.
I watched the Titan stand up slowly, healing his body while trying to identify the source who had sent him flying. I pulled the roof above him down before he could heal any further and then reached out my palm, draining his magic faster than I ever had before.
I wanted to run to Angelica, to move her, to help her, but there were others in more peril. Fiona, Ryder's wife was facing two Titans who were laughing back and forth as if her destruction was a joke. I was at her side in seconds, sending the two of them flying and taking their magic before they hit the ground.
There were more, nameless Resistance members, that I hadn't taken the time to meet or hadn't had the chance, but needed my help. The farm was surrounded by the brutal Guard, and the more Titans I destroyed, the more seemed to pop up, greedily taking the lives of the innocent.
I was furious, blinded by rage. I was the collector of Immortal magic, taking from those who killed so easily and saving those helpless souls that I had betrayed. I moved from one fight to the other, knowing the heart wrenching truth, that as soon as I moved on they would be caught in another unwinnable battle. But I had no choice. I had to find Avalon, I had to protect Avalon.