“Ivy, you shouldn’t do this. Leavon can’t strengthen your power. You can do that. I can help. He offers nothing and takes everything.”
She’s barely listening though as a new woman with fangs lunges at her.
“Iv—” My words are cut short when I have to tear the bitch off of my little sister.
But Ivy doesn’t relent. There’s a manic glint in her eyes that only the darkest of magic can ignite. She isn’t herself right now. She’s enhanced with a Monster inside of her, and that Monster is feeding off of this chaos.
With the splintered remains of a destroyed chair, Ivy grips a broken wooden chair leg and slams it through the woman’s chest. The woman’s empty scream is cut short. Blood gushes down Ivy’s hand, and she lowers the woman to the floor with ease.
It’s done.
She has killed someone. And I don’t know how to look away from the blood on her hands. I know when she realizes what she has done, neither will she.
“Ivy,” I say on a shaking breath. “Ivy.” She’s walking away. “Ivy, I’m your sister!” I scream to her.
Her steps halt immediately. Behind her, Ruiner stands near the doors, his hard gaze set on me.
“Let me take you home. We need to leave. This place is toxic. Leavon is toxic. And if you stay...”
I can’t say it.
I can’t say it because I’m terrified Synder is right. No Chosen woman has ever survived. Except me.
And if it comes down to Ivy or me, it’s a simple choice. It’ll always be her. I’d let her kill me.
“You’re not my sister. I don’t have a sister,” Ivy finally replies coldly, but I can hear the uncertainty in her tone.
“I am. My name’s Bellatrix Cuore. I was born with a heart condition, and when you were born, you were the healthiest, strongest little girl I’d ever met. You were my opposite. My other half.” Her eyes narrow on me, so I keep going. “Every Sunday, Dad would make chocolate chip pancakes, and Mom would make us go to church. Welovedthe pancakes. The church...” I shrug in an indifferent way that only a sister can show.
“How do you know that about my parents?”
My lips part, but she cuts me off.
“You’re a liar. You lied about that girl who was my roommate, and you’re lying now!”
The fighting of the room never stops for us, but it does the moment his patient footfalls carry across the bloody floor.
“Ladies, ladies. This is not how I conduct my festivities.” Leavon’s brown suit blends in to his golden skin, and when his shining eyes slide to me, bile burns at the back of my throat.
“Remove the ruin on her,” I order.
Ivy glances from me to Leavon and then back again.
His smile is a cutting thing when he looks me dead in the eyes. “Trix, you and I both know if I remove the repression ruin, it won’t change her mind. She’ll want to stay. Just like all the others.”
The use of that name, the name that only he used for me, slams into me like a knife. He remembers. Maybe he knew I’d come all along.
That’s why he chose Ivy.
To get to me.
“Then remove it.” My head lifts, and I have total confidence in my sister. I have more confidence in her than I’ve ever faked for myself in my entire life. “Remove it!” I demand through clenched teeth.
“Say you’ll stay. Say you’ll consider my offer, Trix, and I’ll clear her mind of the repression and the darkness that’s clouding her thoughts.”
Ruiner walks the floor then, striding closer to me at the sound of that trade. My jaw grinds, but I remember what my friend said. Only great magic like Leavon’s can fix what Ivy has been through.
And so I nod.