He Left Me - KotLC fic (after Unlocked)

Chapter 10

Two short chapters, beans. Sorry for my inconsistency, but I like the idea of how this next one would end. 

Vespera and Lady Gisela floated above the students, their black cloaks fluttering in the wind.

I struggled to stand, holding my chest. I lifted myself onto my knees, falling when I tried to rise farther. My lungs felt like they would fall into ribbons the second I let go of my ribcage, even as the pain slipped away with every breath. Wylie, also struggling, moved closer, and we gripped each other for support as we stumbled to our feet. The students began to scatter back into the buildings, crawling if they couldn't yet walk.

"Sophie! Just the person I was hoping to see." Lady Gisela floated closer.

"Somehow, I doubt you missed me that much." I let go of Wylie, willing my knees to remain steady. I felt him move away, probably helping the others rise. 

Gisela wrinkled her nose. "Such a shame that my son's habit of talking back was wearing off on you."

"A shame for you, maybe. I enjoy it. " I took a few steps towards them, trying to muster the rage needed to inflict. But when I prepared to push the anger outside my head, there was something missing. I had nothing to calm me after, nothing to help me keep control, and my brain knew it. I couldn't inflict.

Instead, I smirked, pulling all the sarcasm I had in me. "Someone has to keep alive his... what word did you always use? Legacy?"

She dropped to the ground in front of us. Sandor rushed forward, but she raised a hand. "No, goblin. You don't want to do that. I have ways to hurt Sophie that you couldn't prevent."

Sandor snarled and raised his sword, but then froze. Vespera held him in position as she floated down next to Gisela. "Telekinesis is such a helpful talent, don't you think? It's even better with enhancement." She lifted a hand, showing off a gadget on her wrist that flashed in the sunlight. It looked similar to my Sucker Punch.

Sandor began sliding backwards until he was standing where he was before, and Vespera grinned. The goblin strained against her hold, but she held him steady, blocking the other bodyguards as well.

I stepped forward. "What do you want?"

"I bet you can guess." Gisela smiled, narrowing her eyes. "Where is my son?"

"He's dead." I leaned forward and smirked at the look of shock on her face. "Maybe you should have thought that experiment through, but I guess Mommy Dearest didn't love him that much."

Lady Gisela stalked forward and slapped me across the face. I let her, taking the blow. My teeth split open my cheek, and I tasted iron. With a wink, I spat blood on the bottom of her cloak.

Gisela snarled, sweeping her cloak out of the way. Vespera held my friends and the Councilors at bay with her telekinesis as Gisela stabbed a gadget reminding me of a needle into my arm before I could react. I froze—not of my own doing. The gadget sent a pins-and-needles feeling through my arm, and I couldn't move at all.

"Where is my son? Where did you hide him?"

"If you needed him that badly, maybe you shouldn't have killed him." I smiled, knowing my teeth were coated in crimson. I looked insane, and I was enjoying it. She killed him. She deserved a little insanity. I was almost surprised I could still talk, but I wished with all I had that I could inflict with the anger rising in me instead.

Gisela, making a sound remarkably like Sandor when Bo gets on his nerves, slapped me again. The jewel on one of her rings sliced my cheek open, and hot liquid dripped down my cheek, mixing with the blood on my lips. "My son needs to face his legacy. And you need accept that you're just a little lab rat who can't help him."

"So sweet of you to assume I was made in a lab. From what I could see, the High Seas hideout was more of a cave. But you did your experiments in a bedroom, so I guess I won there."

Gisela glared. "Tell me where he is."

"The Wanderling Woods, bitch."

My wrist snapped backwards, and I stifled a scream. Vespera loosened her hold on someone else to break the bone, or maybe she just was that powerful, but before I could recover, she broke a finger on the same side.

I choked, refused to let them hear me in pain. They had hurt me enough when they made him leave. "Keefe hated you. He never would have helped you, and he never will, because he's dead."

Another finger snapped. I gritted my teeth at the fire shooting through my hand and laughed. I could see the fear on her face at my insanity. Perhaps my mind had broken from the stress, but it didn't matter. She broke me when she killed him, and apparently it was my reason that finally snapped.

Gisela narrowed her gaze at me, before glancing back at the Councilors. I couldn't turn around, but they must have been doing something, because her gaze froze in that calculating way.

"You can destroy me here, but the Councilors are about to capture you both. You can continue torturing me, kidnap me even, or you can run. But if you take me, I can promise that I will make life hellish for you." I grinned at her with bloody teeth, even as a third finger broke with an awful crunch.

"Run, Gisela. Run fast, and run far, because I will hunt you down. And when I do, I will kill you for killing him."