Mortal Wounds

Chapter Thirty-Six

Davian's POV

There is so much blood. Virgil's body is in tatters, his skin splitting with lesions. He is barely breathing, unresponsive to the fact I and his siblings are here, trying to get Invidian's soul to possess the body again. Lilu and I press my hands to his chest, sending waves of power to heal his body but the rate in which his body falls apart gets faster and we're running out of energy.

Marid slaps Ethelia's unconscious face particularly hard, growling in his throat. Lilitu nudges her sister with her foot. Vanitas helps Marid try to get Invidian to leave Ethelia's mind. Ascanius stares at the altar in the middle of the room with an unreadable expression.

"Get the hell out of her head," Vanitas shouts, kicking Ethelia in the stomach.

Lilitu rolls her eyes and wonders over to Tarren's body. It's more of a corpse at this point. She draws back her foot before kicking the corpse's head clean off, just for the thrill of it.

"Was that even necessary!" I exclaim in horror.

Lilitu picks up the head without remorse.

"Marid, would you like to add this one to your collection?"

"It's worth shit if I'm not the one who killed her," Marid hisses as if appalled by the offer.

Lilitu smirks before crushing the head with a single hand. Virgil's body suddenly jerks. He snaps his eyes open, coughs up blood. A wave of relief hits me and I can't help but pull him up into my arms.

"You're ok," I assure him, rubbing his back as he wheezes out some breaths.

Ethelia wakes up also, foam overflowing from her mouth. Her body spasms uncontrollably. Marid and Vanitas leave her, walking over to us. Ascanius snaps out of his trance and follows them. Virgil's body seems extremely weak, only managing to peak one eye open. I continue to send in a wave of power to heal him. He focuses his eye on me.

"Davian?" he rasps, his voice painfully soft.

"Yeah, it's me. You're alright."

"No... he said you were d...dead." Huh? He grabs my face, checking to see if I am real.

When he confirms I am he catches me off guard by flinging his arms around me and clutches me against his chest, "Goddammit, where were you?"

My jaw clenches. Oh, that's why the guy shoved me into Purgatory, it's so he could manipulate Invidian. How disgusting. Invidian already lost someone close to him. How dare he make him believe he lost another. I kiss his lips deeply to assure him I'm here.

"Trust me, you can't get rid of me that easily. I'm not going anywhere. If I was I would have left for Tahiti and learnt to become a fisherman ages ago."

He clenches the back of my shirt and presses his forehead against my shoulder.

"I fucked up. I keep fucking up. It was Anson who killed Henley. He was giving her pills that messed with her. He killed herself. It wasn't Ethelia," he admits, his voice becoming choked up with regret and anger, "I should have known! I should have suspected something! I knew something was off but I thought it was Ethelia's relationship that caused her to act out!"

I wince at that piece of information and hold him tighter. Anson is dead. He has no one else to blame Henley's death on anymore. He killed the man who was responsible for all this and didn't even know it. I don't blame him for this. It is going to be hard for him to find closure.

"And now my time is running out. I'm not ready to go."

"You're not going anywhere," Lilu interrupts us, reaching forward to pat the back of his head.