Page 92 of The Endless One

Their eyes met. He hadn’t realized Sybil had even considered it, but looking back, he could understand why. She had been given so much responsibility, so much weight on her shoulders. Of course she had thought about it. She would have been mad not to.

As he walked over and picked up the knife, he placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “But you didn’t, Sybil.”

“I thought it,” she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. “I should never have even thought it.”

Again he squeezed her arm, because he wasn’t going to let her believe for even a second that was something he couldn’t forgive. It was natural. It had been the way of things for so long, and now, she couldn’t blame herself for wondering if something terrible had to be done.

He crouched beside his brother’s head, staring down into Ajax’s golden gaze, which was filled with so much hate. “Now I’m going to kill you, brother.”

“You cannot kill me,” Ajax hissed. “You don’t have the power to do that.”

“I do, actually. Now that my Jessamine is a goddess. Now that my coven is entirely together and stronger than any coven to ever exist, I very much do.” He took a deep breath and filled the athame with what remained of Jessamine’s magic. There was still more of it, still a well of endless magic in that realm they had created together. More than enough to kill the most renowned of their kind.

He drove the athame into Ajax’s chest, illuminating the spirit within him that was the god. And it was so small. Smaller than he’d thought. The tiniest of worms that had wriggled its way into Leon’s body and completely taken over.

“No,” Ajax said, now squirming underneath that sharp web that cut into his flesh over and over again. “You can’t do this. We will rule together. I will—I will let you rule, Elric. I will do what you say. You can become the God King.”

“I don’t want to be the God King,” Elric replied. “I want justice, and to heal the wounds you left on me for centuries. I will no longer wear the marks of your disappointment, brother. For this time, it is you who has disappointed me. There will be no pantheon of gods. Never again.”

He plunged his hand into Ajax’s body, yanking out the tiny, shriveled form of a god and tossing it into his realm, where it was bound, chained, and sunk into the deepest of waters that would never be illuminated again. He banished his brother to an eternity of darkness, where perhaps he would be able to atone for all his sins.

And that left… Leon.

The moment Elric returned to his physical form, he looked down into the gray features of the young man who had wanted to be king. The man who had done all of this with the intent to be the best of anyone. More of a man, a better king, whatever his reasoning for it had been, now it was all for naught.

Leon coughed, and a bubble of blood covered his mouth for a moment before it burst and splattered all over his features. “So it’s over, then?”

“What was your plan with all this? At the end?” Elric tilted his head to the side, like a curious raven watching a beetle try to flee. “Did you really believe you could control a god?”

“He promised me so much,” Leon murmured. “The world. He said that we would rule with each other, and that I would… that I would be a king no one would ever forget.”

“And what did we learn?”

“To never trust the gods.”

Leon’s eyes were already fluttering closed. Eyes drifting into that other realm, facing the darkness where his soul would wander. But no, Elric wasn’t done with him. Not yet.

He leaned down and murmured in his ear, making sure that Leon would hear him even as his soul started to peel away from his body. “It’s not over for you, Leon. You don’t get to escape into death. I’m sending you to her. To the woman you murdered on your wedding day, and she is going to make sure that you get every piece of what you deserve, you worthless tiny man.”

Then he drew the blade across Leon’s neck, just like the man had done to Jessamine. But Elric kept him in this realm a little while longer. Letting him feel the pain that came with such a mortal wound, letting him know that if Elric wanted, he could keep him here indefinitely. Feeling his body rot as all the blood poured out of the wound that only Elric could allow to kill him.

Finally, though, he let the man go. There was more to do here, for all of them.

He stood slowly, feeling the bones in his back and hips creaking as he surveyed the carnage that remained. There wasn’t much left. At least, not that he could work with. The people who remained were all from Orenda. They had all been suffering for quite some time. They needed healing. They needed peace. But they were not going to find any of that here, not when the witches of Inverholm had to piece their kingdom back together.

“Elric?” Sybil asked as she stood with him.

He knew the question in her voice. What were they going to do now? Jessamine was gone. They had all seen her fade in his arms, surely. Now they were without their goddess, and they didn’t know the next steps to take.

He took a deep, steadying breath and prepared himself to be a god yet again. “Now that Ajax’s curse has been broken with his death, the souls of the people of Inverholm should be returning. We will need to go into every home where we trapped them and start to heal their bodies.”

“How are we going to do that?” Sybil asked. “We don’t have a healer.”

“We do.” Even if she was far away for a while longer. “You have a goddess to pray to, Sybil. A goddess of life itself. While she is in her realm, she can heal whatever you want from her. We are not hurting her body or her mortal form. That no longer exists. Pray to her. Sacrifice to her. And we will heal this kingdom one person at a time.”

“That could take months.”

The words caused a shudder to run through him, but he nodded. “Yes. It could.”