“Care for our mate, Paxton,” Zak ordered. “Axel and I will stay guard for the night.”
Zak and Axel parked themselves like icy, lethal statues, facing Lucifer and Ares at the corner. Ares sneered to provoke us further. He tore a shred of fabric from the hem of his shirt to bind the cut in his thigh.
Everyone bled in the Void.
I wondered if we could regenerate here. Lucifer must have been thinking the same because he watched Ares tend to his wound with keen interest.
“Axel, Zak,” I said. “You suffered worse wounds. Let me take the first watch while you tend to yourselves. I’ll take a look at your wounds later.”
“Not a chance, Cookie,” Axel said. “We’re fine.”
“Why do you keep calling her Cookie?” Ares snickered. “It’s the worst, corny nickname, a name for pussy. But then, you’re both pussies.”
“Shut your fucking filthy hole. Don’t ever talk to me. Don’t ever talk to her.” Axel raised his blade, ready to charge his father, but Zak clasped his shoulder with a firm hand.
“Don’t take his shit bait,” Zak said. “We need to preserve our energy, so we can better protect our mate.”
“There’s no need for you two to stay there and gawk at those eye sores,” I said. “They stay in their corner, and we’ll stay in ours. The rule is simple. If they cross the line, we stab them.”
“That’s reasonable,” Zak said.
We trod to the opposite corner from Lucifer and Ares. While we checked and tended to each other’s injuries, the monsters howled vehemently outside the cave, the scent of our blood driving them into a half-frenzy.
A slew of mutants jumped onto the top of the cave bunker, trying to find an opening from the roof.
My nerves stretched thin and tight, like a string at the breaking point.
But as time wore on and the monsters couldn’t get inside the cave, the adrenaline in my system gradually dissipated. In its wake, fatigue overtook me while grief hollowed out a space in my heart. I collapsed on the ground and curled into a ball.
Rage could no longer sustain me as tribulation drowned me in its acidic waves.
Paxton crouched a few feet from us to stay watch. Zak and Axel cuddled close to me, blanketing me with their warmth, yet it couldn’t expel the glacier in my bones, or the ice in my soul.
The images of my Héctor disappearing into the teeth and claws of the monsters replayed in a never-ending loop in my mind. I prayed for my death, so I could join him in the Beyond. I wouldn’t let him roam alone in that bleak realm. I wouldn’t let him roam alone in any realm. He’d been so lonely for eons. He hadn’t had anyone until he met me. He couldn’t touch anyone until he had me.
For the first time, I didn’t respond to my mates’ gentle, comforting touches. I was so sorry I let them down, but I didn’t have any strength left to be present. I couldn’t be there for them this time.
The demigods and I were like a catalyst when we were together. Light one match and shit blew up. If we hadn’t met and joined, life would have continued as normal. As soon as I had fallen for them and mated with them, I brought to them one disaster after another.
I was the path to their destruction.
Héctor would still be alive if he’d never met me, if he hadn’t vowed to cherish and protect me with his last breath. Now he was gone, every piece of him in those beasts’ bellies.
How could I bear it?
My head dropped to my knees. I wanted to die with him and I’d find a chance to perish.
Through our mating bond, I knew that my sorrow was hurting Paxton, Axel, and Zak like twisting a white-hot knife in their guts. Their grief and helplessness rippled back to me like dark tide in a hollow night.
“I know you love him more than anyone and anything,” Axel said, his voice full of despair. “But we’re still here. We’re your mates, too. We’ll always be here for you as we love you more than the world. We need you to come back to us and see us as you see him, Cookie.”
“Practice your words first, Axel, if you don’t know how to comfort our grieving mate,” Paxton barked. “Buttercup isn’t like any other women you were used to. Take care with her, or get the fuck out.”
“Why did you bring up other women in the far past?” Axel hissed. “Are you trying to drive a wedge between Cookie and me? Too bad that you won’t succeed, swimming boy. I’ve never showed any interest in any woman since I saw Cookie. It’s you who needs to practice how to treat our mate. Have you forgotten how you roughened her up? If we hadn’t forgiven your sins, you would never have had the opportunity to join our rank.”
“You never put in a good word for me,” Paxton sneered. “You tried to have my Buttercup all for yourself. I admitted my sins against our mate. Héctor beat me half to death for that, and I was grateful for his just punishment. I’ll spend my life to making it up to Buttercup and love her with all I have.”
At his mention of Héctor, I sobbed harder.