IMPERMANENCE

chapter thirty four - the beast

His skin was burning so terribly he felt it would melt right off.

"What is this?" he managed to ask. Dagger looked up to Alessia, his piercing eyes emitting deep violet rays onto her face. Alessia still had yet to move.

"It's you," she said simply.

Dagger brought his hands to his face and examined every inch of them. His fingertips had tingled earlier, and he could now see why. Long black claws; talons were hooked at the tips of his fingernails. They were coated in deep black, they reminded him of Zedo and Zachariah both. They were stained in death, tainting his skin.

The same violet hues grasped hold onto his tanned skin, the intensity of the color grew deeper the closer he drew his hands to his face. His eyes. Dagger blinked twice. Then twitched his head, then gave it a violent shake, hoping to erase the purple streaks his eyes had released.

They remained as they were.

Zachariah's cold body filled the gap between the two of them, his black robes reflected the violet hue from Dagger's eyes. Like an emotionless corpse, Zachariah merely stood silently.

"You're taking your anger out on the wrong person," Zachariah reasoned with him.

Dagger was unclear what to think, and still wasn't sure why his rage fueled onto Alessia in the first place. His body didn't feel like his own as unfamiliar parts kept tingling in pain.

"I glamoured a soldier to look like her brother and I forced her to use her power during the War. She was not aware of what she was doing. If you want to take your anger out on someone, take it out on the one who is truly responsible for your pain."

"Yeah, and who would that be? Your brother?" Dagger retorted sharply. His eyes coiled as the fury burning beneath him devoured him.

"Well isn't it obvious?" he said. "Me."

Next he knew, they were out of the cabin. He had seized Zachariah by his shoulders and practically flung them both out the door. They broke through the door, leapt down the steps of the cabin and crashed onto the ground.

Dagger tackled Zachariah to the dead grass outside of the cabin and pinned him to the ground with his sharp talons. Dagger felt his back muscles tighten spreading the leathery wings out wide. They spanned further than his own arms could stretch out.

Dagger hadn't thought about how to get on top of him, or how he stood from the center of his cabin and now to the grass, oozing with smoke, outside of the cabin. His emotions were running too high to feel in tune with his actions.

Dagger wanted to rip his throat out, the one truly responsible behind his brother's death, behind the War. He had admitted to it. The puppet master, through and through.

Dagger sunk his talons deep into Zachariah's white neck and was surprised to hear him let out a cry of pain. He was even more surprised to see blood trickle out from each entry point he had opened.

"Look at you," Zachariah sputtered. "The Guntheran snake puts his venom to use."

He sunk his talons deeper into his throat and kept them there.

More blood spewed from Zachariah's neck. Zachariah laughed, or tried to. Blood was trickling out of his mouth, not to be seen coating his blackened teeth.

Would killing him be the key to end his own suffering? Would this finally be what he had been searching for in life? That empty void that resided in his soul, would it now be filled?

"Sorry, assassin," Zachariah pronounced, alarmingly gaining composure. "Turns out, I still have a will to live after all."

Dagger felt Zachariah's clammy palm brace his chest. A shimmering black light emerged from his hands, slamming him straight back into the wooden walls of the cabin. The wings— his wings, they bent back when he forcefully came in contact with the wooden walls. The wood rumbled, bits and pieces of it collapsed. Zachariah's power had sucked the energy out of him. Now he was as defenseless as the Guntherans underneath the bell tower.