Forty-Seven ◑ The Lake

Time seemed to have stopped, reducing the world into this tiny alley in a marketplace of Ancient Crete.

Lucille was screaming, but she herself couldn't hear it. There was no sound, no anything, apart from the sight of the blade impaling Dimitri. The tip of the sword protruding from his diaphragm gleamed under the harsh light of the sun, now covered in the golden blood of the god.

Dimitri sank to his knees, his lips parted. More blood trickled down his mouth. His eyes were hazy with shock and pain, but he still lifted his gaze to Lucille's.

And in that exact moment, she knew that she was prepared to do just about anything to stay under those eyes.

Anything. Everything. If it meant keeping him there. If it meant her own life.

Rage and despair filled her to the brim, making her skin sing with a burning energy.

The next moments were a blur. Keiran attacked, all the while keeping the golden box out of harm's way. The men retaliated. The locals recovered their wits and tried to take Lucille, but she couldn't feel their hands closing over different parts of her body. Not even the weapons they tried to hit her with.

She could only feel herself getting warmer and warmer as she struggled to get close to the twins. Dimitri was now on the ground, motionless. The heat built up, growing more intense, enclosing her skin like an armor.

Then it exploded, going off like a bomb in the crowded alley in a flash of light and a thundering boom.

Her power of fire had just come back in full force, scattering dirt and debris, causing the people to scatter in fear as fire began to engulf the nearest stalls. The thugs fled. The locals released her immediately, some of them crying in pain and rolling over in the blackened ground.

She stood in the middle of the chaos, her senses returning. The smell of smoke was strong. Her ears were ringing. Her right wrist was smarting, dripping in blood, but all she cared about was the twins in front of her.

"Dimitri!" Keiran rushed to his brother's side as soon as everyone had cleared the place. He lifted Dimitri, draping his arm around his shoulders and supporting his weight without disturbing the sword. "Dimitri. . . ."

But the God of Death was unconscious now. Seeing him limp, pale, and sweaty replaced the subsiding heat in Lucille's body with a dark kind of chill.

This was her fault. Again.

Keiran absently pressed the golden box into her hands. Then, he began to move away from the scene, surprisingly careful even with his fast pace towards the edge of the forest. A lump formed in her throat as she ran after them. The remaining people parted to make way, their faces filled with fear as she passed them. She ignored them, though. Her eyes were glued only on Dimitri's face. Her heart was pounding impossibly fast.

If something worse than this happened to him, she wouldn't be able to forgive herself. If he died. . . .

No. That wouldn't happen. She'd die first before she'd let that happen.

The urgency of the situation hastened their actions. Seemingly in the blink of an eye, they were already back in the fortress of the trees and the shadows of the mountains. They found yet another clearing, much smaller than the last one and quite far from the stream, which was their only water source.

Keiran set Dimitri against a flat rock, angling his body so as not to move the sword around. Blood continued to gush out from Dimitri's middle.

With shaking hands, the God of Fate ripped a strip of fabric from his cloak and wounded it loosely around Dimitri's body.

Dimitri groaned in pain, beads of sweat appearing across his forehead.

The sound washed relief over Lucille like a wave. It meant he was alive.

She knelt beside him, taking his hand while stemming the blood flow with her cloak. She was sobbing now; she didn't even care. All she cared about was the sheer amount of blood coming from him.

The blood he'd been willing to shed because of her.

Keiran wrapped a hand around the hilt and began to retract the blade from behind Dimitri. It was a long and tense process, but after a while, he succeeded.

Once it was out, he secured the fabric around Dimitri, who laid on the ground with a sigh, his hand still in Lucille's.

◑≡◑≡◑≡◑

The rest of the day had gone by in a breeze, transitioning seamlessly into the night.

Lucille hadn't moved in hours. She was just watching Dimitri as he laid down on another makeshift bed, this time out of the stolen clothes. He hadn't bled for quite a while now, but he was still in deep slumber. He couldn't speak. He couldn't even fully open his eyes.

Keiran was beside himself with worry. He'd obsessively checked his brother every once in a while, feeling for a pulse and inspecting the wound. The sword had been discarded in the stream, and he himself had done it in pure anger.

For the first time since Lucille knew him, he was serious. Grave, even. It made her want to sink into the ground and never reappear.

Especially now that he was looking at her.

"I'm sorry," she said once their eyes met. "I'm really, really—"

"You do realize apologies are useless at this point, right?" he interrupted, his voice low but full of venom. "You always do that. You mess up then you apologize, like that changes things."

Lucille had anticipated something like this, but his words still burned in her chest like tattoos. She wanted to say something, but she didn't know what. Nothing seemed appropriate.

Keiran took this as a chance to continue. He poked the dried logs in the small fire he'd created, casting a worried look at his twin. "Dimitri doesn't mind what you're doing. He's built that way; he believes in the kindness of people, and look where it got him."

"I didn't want it either," she whispered.

"Really?" He stood and faced her, his anger apparent now. "It doesn't look like it, Lucille. Sometimes it seems like you're so desperate to get rid of us that you'd do unspeakable things, even if those cause you harm. I know we were harsh on you. I know we made you do things that you don't like, but we did our best to protect you."

She swallowed hard, tried to take his hand. "Keiran—"

"I don't trust mortals," he continued, pacing the ground now, "but for you I made an exception. The universe was calling me to do it, so I did. I saved you from death, because you still had a lot of life left to live and Dimitri felt it too. We tried so many times to save you from going back to your husband, but you did anyway. That's what I don't get. We gave you so many signs, but all it took for him to lure you was to manipulate your flashbacks and make Dimitri look like the liar."

Tears were now flowing freely down her cheeks. The pain in her chest was slowly becoming more intense, almost physical. "I didn't know. I swear I didn't. And I'm so sorry. . . ."

Keiran huffed, but there was no mockery in that action. He looked empty. Drained. "We're gods, but we're not just some decorations in your life. We're not disposables. We care for you."

*I know,* Lucille wanted to say, but only a sob escaped her. *And I'm sorry.*

"I'm only here because Dimitri needs me," he said, his voice whisper-thin. "If it isn't for him, I would have left you on your own. It's not worth it. I don't think saving you was worth it."

Her heart broke. One quick snap. For a second she couldn't breathe. She just looked up at him, but he was staring into the distance. She couldn't feel her body, but she managed to muster enough strength to straighten up and walk away.

Walk away from the only two people who cared about her. Walked away from the possibility of hurting them further.

Lucille headed into the woods, unsure of where to go and where she was now. Her feet seemed to have a mind of their own, taking her as far away from the clearing as possible.

What was she supposed to do now? She didn't know. How long had she been walking, how far had she gone? She didn't know that either. She didn't know anything.

Well, except for one thing. The dark, creeping thought that had remained in the back of her head since she'd found out about Cade and Agnes.

She stopped at the darkest part of the woods, covered by a thick canopy of trees. The moon wasn't visible. The sky was devoid of stars. There were only tears, pain, that dark thought, and a whole stretch of a still lake laid before her like an invitation.

Perhaps it would be for the best that she left them, left everything. Not only for tonight, not only for one time.

For good.

For them to be alright, she had to leave them forever.

Lucille sighed, a determined sense of certainty stealing over her as she slowly wade into the water. She kept going, her feet somehow finding purchase on the slippery rocks. The water was cool, calming against her skin as it rose up to her neck.

She went further, watching the water ripple before she sank her head in.

Gravity took hold, keeping her within the deep pool. The darkness that enveloped her was strangely warm, like a blanket, like a long release.

Lucille stopped holding her breath.

Then, she slowly let go.