Finale (Caraval #3)(106)

Scarlett took a tremulous breath and forced herself to take a step closer. “I forgive you.”

For the longest heartbeat of Scarlett’s life, his expression remained indecipherable, but the flames lighting up his hands turned from black to gray, the color of regret. They crackled as they licked his fingertips, the only sound in the throne room, until finally, softer than anything Scarlett had ever heard: “I did love her. I loved her so much it scared me, and then I never let myself love again.” A golden tear fell down his face. “I wish I could take back what I did to her.” Another tear fell, followed by another and another.

Scarlett didn’t know if they were all for her mother. His eyes were wells of endless pain, as if her father was finally feeling the weight of all the unspeakable things he’d done.

The flames lighting his fingers died.

When he cried another tear it was clear instead of gold; it was human and it was beautiful and it was the last thing he did before Tella stabbed him in the heart.

“No!” Scarlett fell with Gavriel to the floor. Tella’s knife had reached his heart and he was dying quickly. It was what Scarlett wanted, but she wished she’d never had to want it.

His mouth twitched with something too forlorn to be called a smile. “We both know I don’t deserve your sorrow.…”

With the last of his strength, Gavriel picked up the white dagger she’d dropped. His fingers could barely produce sparks, but somehow he managed to quickly melt the blade of the dagger until it formed a crude flame. The flame-shaped blade glowed with a color she’d never seen before. If she had to describe it she would have said it looked like magic, reminding her of what Gavriel had said in the dungeon, about Fates transferring their power into objects.

He placed the knife back in Scarlett’s hand. “When I pass … this will free the ones I trapped.… Use it the way I would not have.…”

Then the Fallen Star died.

And Scarlett cried. She cried for the horrors he had been, and she cried for the wonders that he could have been instead.





59





Donatella


Tella felt as if the whole world should have stopped or cheered for her. She’d just slayed the Fallen Star. She’d killed the monster who’d murdered her mother.

She’d also come close to dying. She could still smell the smoke and the char from the flames that would have scorched her. Her hands shook and her heart raced. But then Jacks was there, sliding a cool, comforting arm around her and pulling her close. “It’s all right, my love.”

But it isn’t all right, said a tiny voice inside her head. The same annoying voice urged her to pull away from Jacks—there was a truth about him that she’d chosen to forget. But Tella didn’t want to remember it. She liked the seductive lie that was Jacks. She liked his cruel games and his teasing smiles and the way he bit her whenever they kissed. The throne room might have looked like a page ripped from a horror story, but Jacks was her Prince of Hearts and he’d turn it all into a fairy-tale ending. She leaned into his touch and the world became hazy.

“I did it,” Tella said, her voice tinted with disbelief.

“Of course you did, my love. But we need to get out of here now.” Jacks held her tighter as he tugged her away from Scarlett. Tella had seen her fall to the floor with the Fallen Star, but she hadn’t gotten up. She remained slumped against his lifeless body.

“Wait, my sister—”

“Look at me, Donatella.” Jacks twisted her around until she was facing him. “Do you still want to spend the rest of your life with me?” He asked the question as if it were the only thing that mattered in the world. Never in her life had Tella felt a question with so much power. Though Jacks looked almost powerless as he asked it. He was a mess of gold hair, sea-salt blue eyes, and bitten lips, beautiful in a way only broken things could be, and Tella wanted him exactly how he was. She wanted him fractured and chaotic and completely untamable. The feeling was as consuming as what she felt from him whenever he kissed her—as if it would never be enough, even if she gave him everything.

“You are the only thing I want right now.”

A ghost of Jacks’s smile returned, and yet it looked so much more real than every other smile he’d given her. He looked happy. Despite the death and the wreckage and the smoke in the air, he glowed in a way she’d never seen him glow before. “You’re all I want as well. But we need to leave right now or someone might try to stop us from being together.” He released her shoulder to capture her hand.

He roughly pulled her through the disastrous throne room as if their lives depended on leaving. Jacks stormed past Jester Mad’s abandoned stage, spilled puddles of wine, and a mirror that looked as if it had a person trapped inside. He barely stopped to open the massive doors that led to the sparkling glass courtyard.

Night had taken over and winking stars reigned from above, reflecting on the glassy ground as—

“Tella!” Legend’s voice cut through the night, loud enough to startle the sky and tie her stomach into a knot.

Tella closed her eyes, as if she could undo the effect Legend had on her. She didn’t want him anymore. She couldn’t even look at him when he’d been in the cage; one glance at him and feelings she didn’t even know she possessed had erupted. She hated Legend. She hated everything about him. But somehow the low sound of his voice still tangled her up.