Page 91 of The Endless One

“Yes, you have repeated yourself ad nauseam for centuries now, dear brother. I do believe I have heard you loud and clear at this point.”

Elric slowly stood, leaning on the spear like it was a cane, as he looked down at his brother’s body, all webbed to the ground with glimmering gold strands. It was impressive to see how Jessamine had caught him. And of all the people to do so, it was somehow even more satisfying to know it had been done by her.

“Did you believe she was going to be your queen?” Elric asked, curious now that he didn’t have to worry about Ajax getting out. “My woman?”

“I wanted to offer her a better partner, one who could actually give her what she desired most.”

“So you knew she was mine from the beginning?”

“Of course I knew she was yours,” Ajax spat. “Why do you think I had any interest in a dead princess? I saw just how much you were willing to do to get her back, and I fucking knew I could hurt you with it. Just like all the others.”

Another memory bloomed in his mind. He’d forgotten in the early days how Ajax was so quick to go after whatever Elric wanted. But his brother had. Every woman, every man, anyone who had shown Elric more than an ounce of interest that was outside of the coven, they would suddenly become a concubine of Ajax’s. Sometimes it would happen so fast that Elric wouldn’t even realize they had wanted him until much later, when someone pointed it out.

Those people had always wanted a piece of Elric, to love him more than he was currently loved. But that all changed once the favor of the God King was pinioned upon them. They’d ended up leaving, just like everyone always did.

Until now.

Until her.

“How did it feel? Knowing she would never choose you over me?” Elric asked, needing to know the answer just as suddenly as he needed his brother dead. “I want to know.”

“I don’t care what your little whore wants. As soon as I get out of this, I’m going to—”

Elric didn’t let him finish his sentence. He lifted the spear and drove it into Ajax’s belly. His brother let out a little wheeze as the skin parted and the metal sank deep into the stone beneath him. There was nothing but the strange sound of his pained wheezes as Ajax looked at the wound in surprise.

“You cut me,” Ajax stammered.

“I know. And no one has managed to do that before.” Elric nudged the end of the spear impaled through his brother, watching as it bounced. “Such a shame that you never experienced the pain you inflict until this moment. Why don’t you tell me how you feel about that as well?”

“You know damn well it hurts. Now release me, brother. You have shown me your strength, and I will take you into my pantheon. We will rule this kingdom together.”

“I don’t think I’m going to do that, Ajax. I’m going to take your throne, and I’m going to do with it what you should have done all those years ago. I will be the god they deserve, and you? You will fade into memory and myth. And I will rule with my coven in your stead.”

Ajax bared his teeth as blood bubbled up his throat, coating the pearly whites that Leon Bishop had likely taken great pride in. There wasn’t much time until his brother’s form died.

Elric summoned another athame, watching as a group of shadows approached him. Witches. All of his coven as they circled around the man who had taken so much from them. Slowly, Elric removed his brother’s breastplate, baring the chest beneath it. It was an exaggerated version of what Leon Bishop had wished he would look like, but it was time to bleed the disease from that body.

He handed the blade first to Agnes. “You have lost more than anyone else in this coven. Make the first cut, my sister. In your grandson’s name.”

Her grin was full of heartbreak and justice. Agnes stepped up to the God King, who had destroyed so much of her life, and without hesitation, she drew the blade down his pectoral muscle. The bright red line welled with crimson that dripped down his sides. And as they watched, his brother became smaller.

“I sow into you my loss,” Agnes snarled. “I place in this wound all the ache of losing my grandson, the only family I have left. The only person who stayed by my side, no matter what mistakes I made. You took him from me, and now I give all of that anguish to you.”

It wasn’t much of a difference at first. But then Agnes passed the knife to Elissa. The young woman left another shaking, jagged welt. “For my love. For the woman who showed me what it was like to fly. I know that you will never experience a love like that, but you have prevented me from being by her side. You have hurt my friends. The people who…” Elissa’s words grew choked.

Agnes put her arms around her and took the knife as Elissa finished the spell. “I weave into you the bitter pain of realizing that I surrounded myself willingly with people who would never love me. And when I finally found friends who would, you took them away from me.”

And then a newer witch took the knife, another, and another. Line after line, they carved into Ajax’s body and placed into each of those wounds every bit of their pain. Their heartache. Their betrayal.

He watched with his heart in his throat as each of these women healed themselves. They wove into their spells all the pain that their bodies had been carrying for far too long. And now, they were allowed to get rid of it. They were allowed to place the blame on the person who deserved it most.

Something in Elric healed as well. Because while he loved this coven, and every coven that had come before it, this one was different. This one looked at him as the god who would save them.

Finally, the knife made it to Sybil. Her wrinkled, shaking hand gripped the hilt with a surety that surprised him. He had expected her to hesitate more than any of them, because that was who she was. She had lost so much, and few of those losses were at the hands of the god lying on the ground.

But she knelt in front of his brother and carved the longest line. She placed the tip of the blade at his collarbone and brought it all the way down to the spear at his belly and then circled that dripping wound. She continued to his hip as Ajax hissed and arched in pain.

“I sow into you my greatest regret.” She dropped the knife by his head and stood. “You made me question my own god. The god I have served for centuries. You made me think, for even a moment, that maybe he should be sacrificed again. Maybe it was better if I followed the old ways. And I will never forgive you for that.”