To ruin an Omega - Chapter 442: Seeing Red 2

Chapter 442: Seeing Red 2

FIA

He sounded genuinely rattled. The light had blinded him, left him blinking and squinting, and he hadn’t seen what happened. He hadn’t seen the red.

I didn’t answer.

I hit him with the gift instead.

The force caught him square in the chest, and since he was still trapped inside his own barrier, there was nowhere for him to go. The impact drove him backward into the wall of the barrier, hard enough that I heard something crack. The barrier itself shuddered, fractures spreading across its surface like spiderwebs, and then it shattered completely.

Valentine fell.

He hit the debris in a heap, gasping, and tried to raise his hand. He even attempted to conjure another barrier. The magic flickered weakly in his palm, sputtering like a dying flame, then it went out entirely.

He stared at his hand.

“Fuck. My mana.”

He scrambled backward, moving like a cornered rat, and stumbled over something soft.

A body.

Number Four’s body.

She was half-conscious, her face pale and streaked with blood, barely moving where she lay among the rubble. Valentine grabbed her by the hair and dragged her upright, using her as a shield between us.

“Get up, you useless thing.” He kicked her hard enough to make her whimper. “If I die, you die too.”

Number Four didn’t make a sound. She just looked at me, her eyes glassy and unfocused, and I felt something twist in my chest.

Pity.

Valentine pulled her closer, pressing his back against a section of wall that had somehow remained standing. He was cornered now, trapped, and the fear in his eyes was sharp enough to cut.

“This girl is innocent in all of this,” he said quickly. “If I am hurt, she dies.”

I glanced back over my shoulder.

The sentinels had moved closer. Their golden eyes burned brighter now, reflecting like firelight, and I could see their forms more clearly. Massive wolves, fully shifted, their lips pulled back to reveal teeth like knives. It felt almost like they were waiting for my signal.

My gaze found Cian.

Garrett was by his side now, his wolf form bent protectively over him, and I saw Cian’s chest rise and fall.

Slow but steady.

He was alive.

I turned back to Valentine.

He tightened his grip around Number Four’s throat, making her gasp, and his voice took on a desperate edge.

“See reason.”

That was when they appeared.

Shapes at the edge of my vision, translucent and flickering like candlelight. I turned my head slightly, and they came into sharper focus.

Athena.

She stood there, her face young and unlined, exactly the way she must have looked before Valentine got his hands on her. Her expression was calm, almost serene, but her eyes held something darker.

Beside her stood my mother.

Not the woman I remembered, but a child. Small and fragile, her hands curled into fists at her sides, her gaze fixed on Valentine with an intensity that made my throat tighten.

A young boy appeared next. Then another woman. Then more, one after another, until they surrounded us like a jury.

“Can you see them?”

Valentine blinked. “See who?”

“It doesn’t matter if you do.”

I took a slow breath, and the weight of their presence settled over me like a shroud. I could feel what they felt. The rage. The betrayal. The pain that had followed them even after death.

“I see them,” I said quietly. “And I feel what they feel. I feel their resentment for you. They want you dead, and they want me to finish the job.”

Valentine’s face paled. “Even at the price of one who still lives?”

I looked at Number Four.

She was trembling now, tears streaming down her face, and her lips moved soundlessly. Maybe she was praying or maybe, she was just trying to breathe.

“If you let the girl go,” I said slowly, “I will ensure you do not suffer.”

Valentine laughed, but it sounded hollow. “Am I supposed to believe that?”

“When I had visions of what my mother and her mother went through, I heard you make a lot of promises.”

I crouched down, lowering myself until I was at eye level with him, and the apparitions moved with me. Their faces stayed fixed on Valentine, unblinking and patient.

“They had to believe you because they had no voice.”

I turned my head, looking back at the sentinels, and raised one hand.

“Back down.”

The command rippled through them. I felt it more than heard it, the effect that my order had on them, and the wolves obeyed. They didn’t retreat, but they stopped advancing and they stopped growling. Their eyes stayed locked on Valentine as they waited.

I turned back to him.

“So I would ask you.” My voice came out steady now, calm in a way that felt foreign. “What choice do you have now?”

Valentine stared at me.

His grip on Number Four loosened slightly, just enough for her to draw a full breath, and I saw the calculation happening behind his eyes.

He was weighing his options, searching for an escape that didn’t exist.

The apparitions leaned in closer.

Athena’s hand lifted, pointing at him, and the others followed suit. It looked like silent accusations and a persistent demand for justice.

Valentine’s hands started to shake.

“You are lying,” he whispered.

I didn’t answer. I just waited, holding his gaze, letting the silence stretch until it became unbearable.

Finally, he let her go.

Number Four collapsed the moment his hands released her, hitting the ground hard, and she crawled away from him like a worm with ruined limbs.

One of the sentinels broke formation, moving to her side, nudging her gently toward safety.

Valentine slumped back against the wall.

“There,” he said hoarsely. “She is free. Now keep your word.”

I stood slowly, brushing the dust from my hands, and looked down at him.

“I will.”

Valentine’s shoulders sagged. Relief flickered across his face, brief and pathetic, and he actually smiled. Like he thought he’d won something. Like he thought mercy meant survival.

I turned away from him.

The apparitions stayed where they were, their translucent forms hovering in my peripheral vision. Athena’s young face. My mother’s smaller one. All those others whose names I’d never know but whose pain I’d felt like my own.

They deserved this.

The sentinels watched me, their golden eyes burning with the kind of hunger that came from waiting too long for justice. Their lips were still pulled back, teeth bared, and I could feel the barely restrained violence radiating from them in waves.

I looked at each of them in turn, then spoke.

“Deal with him.”

Valentine’s breath caught. “Wait. You said—”

“I said I’d ensure you didn’t suffer.” I glanced back at him over my shoulder.

“I lied.”

His eyes went wide.

“But make sure he doesn’t die,” I added, my voice flat. “Not yet. Let him feel everything he put them through first. Every scar. Every burn. Every moment of terror. Then, when he’s begged enough, when he understands what he took from them…”

I paused, watching his face drain of color.

“Keep him breathing.”

The sentinels moved as one.

Valentine tried to scramble backward, but there was nowhere left to go. The wall pressed against his spine, and his ruined hand left a smear of blood across the stone as he clawed uselessly at it.

“No. No, wait, please—”

The first wolf reached him.

It didn’t go for his throat. Instead, it clamped down on his leg, just above the knee, and dragged him away from the wall. Valentine screamed, the sound raw and animal, and tried to kick free. Another sentinel grabbed his other leg. Then another took his arm.

They pulled him in different directions.

Not hard enough to tear him apart. Just enough to make every muscle strain, every joint scream in protest. Just enough to let him know they could rip him to pieces whenever they wanted.

I turned away before I could see more.

The apparitions watched me go. I felt their approval like warmth against my skin, like a hand on my shoulder, and then they began to fade. One by one, they dissolved back into nothing, until only the empty air remained.

Valentine’s screams followed me as I walked toward Cian.

They echoed through the ruins, bouncing off broken stone and shattered wood, mixing with the wet sounds of teeth and claws doing their work. I didn’t flinch. I didn’t look back.

I just kept walking.

Garrett lifted his head when I approached. His wolf form was still massive, still protective, positioned between Cian and the rest of the world. Blood matted his fur, and one of his legs hung at an odd angle, but his eyes were clear.

Cian lay beside him, his chest rising and falling in shallow bursts. The wounds in his torso had closed, but barely. Pink scar tissue stretched across the places where Valentine’s air blades had punched through, fragile and new.

I dropped to my knees beside him.

“Cian.”

His eyes opened slowly as if even that small movement cost him something.

“Fia.” My name came out rough, barely audible over the sounds still echoing behind us. “You’re… alive.”

“So are you.”

He tried to smile, but it came out as more of a grimace. “Barely.”

I reached for his hand, threading my fingers through his, and felt the faint tremor running through him. He was cold. Too cold. The blood loss had been brutal, even with his healing.

“Rest,” I said quietly. “It’s over.”

His grip tightened slightly, just enough to tell me he heard.

Behind us, Valentine’s screams grew hoarse, then broke into wet, choking sobs.

Once I was sure they had their fill, I turned back to face them.