━━━ ❝ I pity the fool who wants to be a God. ❞
&
━━━ There is enough fire inside you to put
all of Hell to shame, but you are
pretending to be water, for someone
who is too afrai...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
CHAPTER XIV. when masks fall
Isn't it poetic, that you cannot kill a monster, without becoming one yourself.
"Have you come to save me, Dirtyhands?"
That you cannot trade a soul for souls, without shaking hands with the devil.
"It depends. Would that make me a hero?"
So tell me, who is the monster?Was it the people who forced me to be everything I shouldn't have become?
'I hope so,' she never said aloud.
Myself? Who bent and broke so easily, spineless without morals and utterly cruel.
Or should it have been you? Who vowed to save me, but it was you who I needed saving from?
Heroes die, every single one I know. I've long decided that there was nothing honourable in being a hero. But one of us has to die, Kaz.
For pretending to be heroes who could save, when we damn well know it was us that the world needed saving from.
━━━━━━
"Back last spring, we intercepted a shipment bound for the Wandering Isle. Three corpses, properly cleaned. Adira, Ris and Leia Valentine died in Ketterdam."
Last spring, Leia was locked in Hellgate. While she was busy facing her monsters, someone had ripped her heart out from the back. So guileless, she should have expected it.
"Tell me everything." Her breaths stilled, feeling thankful for the cold stone wall supporting her head. Her world was spinning on a totally new axis now. "And I mean everything. Or I'll incinerate a limb for every time I hear your heartbeat skip."
With no one to keep her in check, Leia herself was law. Obey, or don't, it didn't matter. Pekka would hang from the noose all the same. Pekka shook his head in denial, mumbling that she was no Heartrender.
"That's one," Leia channelled all the Fox King's confidence, finding joy in witnessing Pekka's controlled fear shatter. "I will put it on your ledger."
"T-there is nothing for you to summon," the Darkling imposter reasoned.
Too casually, she replied, "Then I create."
"M-merzost" Disbelief crossed his face. "You wouldn't."
"There is nothing I wouldn't do," she arched at a brow to Pekka, "ask him."
Pekka tensed, now trying to stick his head out wanting to land a gaze on their other companion. "What the hell is this mersot nonsense?"
"It means she can kill you." Not us. He is confident that he wouldn't become my victim.
