28 | THE END GOAL IS NEAR 

How Lusine Volkov had fallen so far the world would never now. But in the arms of Lycus she felt a slight warmth to herself for the first time in the longest time. Her shaking had ceased, but her insides still burned.

Now her outer composure was back, she pulled herself from her brother's arms and gives him a smile. "Thank you for everything, Lycus. I will meet you at the ship tomorrow morning, I promise." Her words were filled to the brim with false confidence, which he saw through with no failure, but he returned the smile none the less.

"I'm not leaving without you, remember that," He tells her, feeling the sudden urge to protect her. She was destructive and in her fragile moments, she was reckless. The worry he held for her was like nothing else, she'd been through too much to be left alone. She'd fought for her life too many times in her lifetime already, and now her mentality was paying the price.

"I'll remember that." And just like that her path was set. Set for destruction and she didn't care. Lusine had nothing left to lose, a little death wouldn't harm her now. She moved past her brother, bare feet striking against the floor as she ran from him up the spiralling stairs.

No matter how much Lusine changed, destruction would follow her. Embracing it was her only choice. Embracing her might take away the pain, take away the hair-ripping madness.

Lusine didn't need to see it to want it. The spear sat where she'd left it, propped against the wall beside the open window. Taking it into her hands she smiles the insane smile she wore so long ago, but now it was so incredibly false and worn so often that she was beginning to believe it herself.

Perhaps fighting was always the way out for Lusine. Her situation was dire, but she was strong. With her armour pulled on, fastened tight and her hair wild she turns to the large mirror on the wall, meeting those endless black eyes she had become so accustomed to over the last few weeks since her brother met his end. it had been four weeks since he'd been pronounced dead and four weeks since she had been seeing him everywhere she went.

Lusine Volkov was already broken, but she had been pushed over the edge. And now her bones ached, her veins flowed with the void and mapped her pale, ghostly skin. Running through her mind was the deaths she had caused as she stalked from her chamber, with her brother's double ended spear in hand. Regina, Pelia, Cloris, Lycus and soon to be Loki. Four deaths, four flames extinguished, five would mark her finale. After that, Lusine Volkov would be no more. After that, all that would be was the void. So close, it was so close to its final goal that there was now more void than Lusine.

The void. The void was who she was now. Every life she took brought her closer to the end goal. The completion. Whatever remained of Lusine Volkov at this point was far too weak to compete with the brute force of the darkness that consumed her from the inside out. Her bones were fragile without the magic, her brain dulled and tired and her body ready for peace.

Her legs carried her, her held her head high, to where she knew Loki would be from the sounds of battle. Brother against brother, they fought and fought, but there was only one ending to this tale of sorrow. The end was near, within an inch of her fingers. She could see the end, envisioning it made her smile.

Pacing out onto the Bifrost the smile never fades as the black veins crawl along her cheeks, claiming her skin like it was its to take. Fire raced along her skin, it burned her and spat at her but she didn't care with her eyes like tunnels, trained on Loki Laufeyson.

Turning to face her, breathing heavily from battling his brother he looks over her quickly. Thor takes one look at the anger and rage on Lusine's face and turns from Loki, taking his hammer with him.

"Now, this has been a long time coming, Lusine Volkov," Loki hums, amused at their circumstance.

"Your time to die is now, just be glad it is at my hand and not another's because I'm going to give you all the pain you deserve."

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758 words

there's literally going to be one more chapter after this, plus an epilogue, and then that's it! Black Lies will be completed and it's been a hell of a long time in the making. I just cant wait to write the sequel and develop lusine even more

love, lau <3