I only inhale because I have no choice, but a second later it’s tugged out from me like a rope is tied to my lungs.
He’s worth it. He’s worth everything.
“There’s one half,” Reaper says, lifting the poker from my skin.
Dizziness takes over my head and I sway. My stomach churns and bubbles. Nausea clings to my insides and works its way up my throat from the pain. I swallow it down, not wanting to appear weak by puking or passing out.
I make a mistake of looking down. The tip of the poker is covered in my skin and dried blood, and the smell…
Oh god, the smell.
I gag again, the acid from my stomach burning a pathway up my esophagus, searing me from the inside while the iron poker ruins me from the out.
“Daphne,” Tongue’s voice breaks. “Daphne!” I hear Tongue’s voice in the distance as my head swims. My vision doubles. I see two of everything.
Two Reapers.
Two iron rods.
Two Tongues.
If I was feeling better, I’d try to make a dirty joke about that.
But Holy Moly.
I’m about to pass out.
“There.” Reaper tosses the poker on the ground and the metal hitting wood sings. High-pitched white noise blares in my head. “You did it. Fucking hell, Daphne.” Reaper kneels in front of me and takes the belt from my mouth. “You have a heart on your chest. It’s a warning. Second will be an arrow. You know the rest,” he informs.
“Let me go! Let me the fuck go. I can’t believe you’d touch her. Comet!” Tongue’s pointless broken cries for me fall on deaf ears as he struggles against his friends.
I try to smile, but the pain and smell is too much to deal with. Another wave of dizziness hits and I sway like a flower in the meadow in the middle of summer, only less graceful. I’m floating away.
“Let’s get you to, Doc,” Reaper says, holding his arms out to me. I can’t focus long enough on him to decide where his arms are, since there are two of him.
I sway to the left.
Then the right.
And this time, gravity wins, and I fall to my side. The burned flesh is still cooking and the agony spreading throughout my body is more than I could have ever imagined it could be. Even knowing the pain, I don’t regret doing this. If I had to get my entire body covered in burns to save him from, not only the agony of what the burn brings, but of the everlasting torture his memories would cause, I’d do it every single day.
I hear my name being shouted somewhere. I’m sleeping and someone is trying to wake me up, but it isn’t working. My eyes roll to the back of my head and darkness takes over.
I don’t mind darkness.
It’s safe here, peaceful, and quiet.
I fell in love in the dark.
And if I’m lucky, I’ll die in it one day too.
They finally let me go and I’m to my feet in less than a second. She’s lying unconscious on the floor, her skin charred, bleeding, and bubbling. Reaper kneels next to her and goes to slide his arms under her body to take her downstairs. I cross the room with long strides and shove him away from her. He stumbles back and hits the wall with a hard thump. He is sweating. Sweating from the concentration and precision it took to burn her beautiful skin.
I want to kill him.
“Don’t you fucking touch her.” I slide my arms underneath her limp body and pick her up, holding her to my chest. Her skin looks fucking terrible. “I bet you liked that, didn’t you?” I say to him, stopping in the middle of the doorway. Everyone parts ways, but I’m not done talking to Reaper yet. “This wasn’t you following the rules for a champion, this was you getting your revenge. How do you feel, Reaper?”
“What? Tongue, it’s nothing like that. I’d never hurt her intentionally.”
“But you did. And the difference between me and you? When I hurt Sarah, I had no idea what I was doing.” Talking to him is pointless, so I decide not to waste my breath with another word. He can tell me until he is blue in the face that he did this because she asked.
But I know better.
He’s been dying to get back at me, because if I were him, I’d feel the exact same way.
I pass Poodle, Patrick, Badge, and a few ol’ ladies. The girls are crying and Melissa steps forward