Chapter 119
- Becky -
Silence as the voids of time slowly unravelled and space leaked out. The spinning of the world felt like it had stopped humming.
No... Not silence, really, but a heartbeat caught in between, linking the ticking of the clock. The world itself held its breath.
Josh's fists pounded against the ice I'd entombed him in. His mouth moved in a frantic hush, his fire burning inside the prison I'd made. My chest ached with every strike I refused to answer.
This wasn't his fight anymore.
My power glowed in my veins, surging through my blood.
It was mine.
The demon stepped through frozen air as though time were water. Space bent around her, warping the edges of my vision until I couldn't tell where one shard of reality ended and another began. Her smile cut sharper than any blade.
"You think this makes you strong, dear?" She purred. "To trap him?" To finally stand on your own? No... This moment only proves what you've always known. You're alone."
The shards glimmered around her. I waited for an opening to show a weakness.
"You're weak. You're a failure." Memories reflected in the shards were trying to catch me off guard once again.
Images played of me crumpled on the floor, unconscious, useless.
Flashes of me shielding others, never striking back.
Josh bleeding, screaming, breaking—always with me behind, too slow, too late.
"You weren't there when he needed you. You weren't enough. And when you had a chance to save him—his arm, his soul—you failed again."
The shard shifted to that moment.
Josh was screaming, his arm freshly ripped off, blood soaking the grass. As I kneeled beside him, hands glowing, time unraveling like threads between my fingers, I prayed I could restore him.
And failing.
The demon's voice coiled around me, velvet and venom. "You know what you are? Dead weight. He and all your other friends suffer because you are nothing but a burden. And even now, you hide him in your ice so you can pretend you're strong. But you're only keeping him from saving himself."
I almost wavered and fell to my knees.
I looked back at Josh through the frost. His fire blazed against the walls I'd built, his eyes locked on me. No sound, but I knew what he was saying.
"Don't do this alone."
I was locked between anger and something else. Pain, fear, I don't know, maybe her words really hit me. A failure, I only became a Waymaker because Baby didn't want me to get Kaysi hurt from saving me over and over again.
The icy blue blaze crawled up my neck and into my chest; my whole body pulsed with the light of time. I glowed like a supernova. Every heartbeat becomes an explosion, stopping and starting the world in a flicker. The air fractured into stuttering frames of existence.
The demon smiled wider. Delightful. "Yes, yes, so lovely." She licked, "Show me—show me what the little ice queen hides; don't hold back. Rebecca"
"Don't call me that," I spat. "I'm not the weak one anymore."
The floor erupted in permafrost. A spire of jagged ice burst upward, slicing the shards of glass like spears. I hurled them, my hands shaking with power.
The demon warped. Space twisted around her, folding her body sideways through reality again. She slipped between the spear, appearing inches from me, her silver hair brushing my face.
"So much anger," she whispered in my own voice. "So much love. And yet...it will never be enough to save anyone or yourself."
Her hand brushed my cheek—my own image staring back at me. For an instant, I saw myself: raw, broken, bitter, always chasing after someone else's shadow.
"No!" I roared, slamming my palms together.
Time shattered outward in a pulse. The world froze so entirely that even the light itself hesitated. Her hand lingered in midair; she dropped her arm, whipping the blood off her cheek because of the blast I sent. Her smile paused as she licked the blood, her body locked.
I stepped back, gasping for breath. Every vein in me burned with cold fire.
But then—
The air ripped.
Space tore open, and the demon stepped through the crack as though the burst of the storm of time never touched her. She clapped slowly, mocking, her void-black eyes glittering.
"Wonderful but weak. You really thought you could hold yourself against me. Time bends for you... But I am the in-between. I am the space that time can not touch."
The words she spoke earlier sank into my bones, echoing in my thoughts. "You can't protect him. You can't even protect yourself.")
She lashed out. The shards of glass spun blades ripping through the air in spirals.
I threw my hands wide. Time bent, slowing them mid-flight, but the demon twisted space, forcing them, and they reappeared, slicing forward anyway.
I ducked but felt the hot, searing pain slice across my arm again, and I cut my arm. Ice instantly froze against my skin.
"You hurt him more than any enemy he's ever faced. I know I see it all." The demon purred. "He burned for you. Lied for you, buried all the sins. Broke himself and changed for you. And you walked away, leaving him hollow and empty. And not just Josh, you hurt your so-called friends in the process."
Every moment she spoke, the words sank deeper than I thought they could before—they were true, and now I must pay the price.
"I know!" I screamed. The confession ripped out of me raw and wild. I know! Damn it. I left him. I broke us just as much as he broke me. I was afraid. I hated him shutting me out—I was sick when I thought he was dead. I thought I couldn't go on. And yet I walked away.
My nightmare turned into real life. The monsters I hid in myself prepared me for this moment. Now it is time I face all of them!
The demon froze, her smile twitching, faltering.
My tears turned to steam on my skin as my body glowed brighter, time crackling off of me like lightning.
I spread my arms wide. "But I won't run anymore. I won't hide behind him or anyone else ever again. I won't be weak or the one waiting for someone else to save me!"
I slammed my foot on the ground. The world convulsed. Every shard shattered at once, exploding to dust in the storm of frozen stars.
The demon hissed, her silver form flickering, bending, and reforming from the chaos like a lost signal. "Yes...yes, that's it! Break yourself open! Show me what you really are! I whispered. This may be my chance.
I surged forward, fist wrapped in ice, time splitting around me in streaks of blue light like a comet's tail. The warehouse screamed from the collision of the air that broke the sound barrier.
The demon dodged, bending space to meet me, her body warping, and her claws aimed for my heart.