Falosa

The instant I came back to the forefront I was hit by a barrage of questions and insults. Geayu was clearly panicked and pissed. I had no idea what just happened. After Zendar did the forced takeover I was unable to see what happened next.

"What the fuck did you do to Zendar?" Johnathan asked, grabbing me by the collar of my shirt. "This is your fault. Everything that just happened is on you Falosa." I had never seen him so angry before, his eyes sparked with a flame that raged from the depths of his soul. "What the fuck did you do!"

My head banged against the wall when he slammed me against it. "Answer me!"

"I shared my location and had his lover ripped apart by hellhounds," I whispered, bitterness dripping off my tongue.

Johnathan dropped me. "Jesus. You're a monster."

"Why?" Geayu whispered. "Why would you wage war against your other half, knowing that there would be consequences?"

"He convinced me to kill myself to escape Lacey, and now I'm dying and it's all his fault." I coughed. Blood came my throat, splattering Johnathan's boots.

"That's a lie, he was trying to save you," Johnathan whispered, his lip trembling as he spoke.

"Sure has a funny way of saving me by condemning me to die," I spat.

Geayu started pacing. "Taking revenge was foolish and unnecessary. Several of us almost died as a result of your actions against Zendar. Now we have no idea what he will do against us next. We'll have enemies from both sides. Do you have any idea how hard that is going to make it to navigate this mess? The demons, the council of demi's, and you are our enemies, we have no more allies we can trust."

"They're not summoning just any demon lord. They are summoning Tragore in Bristol." I looked down at the floor, not wanting to see everyone's judging gaze. I owed no repentance. A life for a life. It was an equal trade. "Zendar will do everything in his power to stop us from stopping it."

"Then we should leave you in your chains, to prevent Zendar from teleporting and ruining or missions. We had already planned a raid tonight and I intend to carry it out." Geayu nodded at Johnathan. "You'll be in charge of keeping Zendar from following us."

I fell to my knees, vomiting blood and bile on the floor.

"You really are dying—" Geayu's voice softened. "When did this start happening?"

"After I received the heart of the demon." I shuddered as another wave of nausea overtook me and more bile burned up my throat. "Once I'm gone, Zendar will be all that's left of me."

"Good," Jalin said coldly. "Even that psychotic demon seems to have more sense than you." She kicked me in the stomach, knocking the wind out of me and put her foot to my chest, pinning me in place. "I outta just put you out of our misery."

Her rainbow hair flowed behind her as her emerald eyes glowed with a hatred unmatched by anyone. "You took everything from us, and by your foolish decisions you've managed to do it again." Jalin put the blade of her knife to my throat, pressing hard enough to draw blood. "Give me one good reason not to kill you now."

I spit out blood and looked away. "You'd really kill a dying man? How pathetic."

"You can't even help us with the raids anymore, what use do you have?"

Geayu grabbed Jalin's arm and yanked her back with surprising strength. "We need to go."

They turned away, saying no more as they left into the night.

Even Kalon remained silent, his gaze landing everywhere but on me.

..... ..... ..... ......
After the majority of the group left, I sat in silence across from Johnathan as he whittled something into existence. I wasn't sure what he was making yet, but he was really focused. He looked up every two seconds, making sure I hadn't moved, but said nothing. His eyes were narrowed into slits, his breathing heavy.

"If you have something to say, just say it," I said, tired of the weighted silence.

He stopped whittling and pointed his knife at me. "You're an asshole. You wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't attacked his lover and you wouldn't be dying if you had listened to me and never went to Lacey in the first place." Johnathan went back to harshly carving. "This is all your fault and you keep acting like it's Zendars."

I rolled my eyes. "He's a demon and deserved what was coming to him."

Johnathan growled, slamming the wood down on the table next to him. "He is living being and deserves to be treated like one."

"No. Demons are lesser."

"Fascist."

I gawked. "I am not a fascist."

"You so are, and racist as fuck," Johnathan said with a deep frown.

A long silence stretched between us as we just stared at each other, saying nothing, doing nothing.

Clearing my throat I looked away for a moment before looking back. "You like Zendar better, don't you?"

"Yes, I do." Johnathan had nothing but honesty, he didn't even blink when he said it.

"He's a serial killer."

"So are you, under the guise of a warrior."

I opened my mouth, attempting to form a retort but none would come. He wasn't wrong. All this time I had sought to justify my actions, but I wasn't any better. I hung my head in submission. "You're right, I'm not better than Zendar."

"Oh far from no better."

My head snapped up. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Setting down his knife, Johnathan crossed one ankle over the other. "You're worse, cause you think you're justified, you believe you are a hero. . . No good deed you do will undo the harm you've done. There's no atonement for evil like you."

There wasn't. I was headed for hell. I knew this. "What now?"

"We wait for Zendar to come back so I can have better company."

Johnathan's sister passed by, cleaning up the mess of blood I had made earlier. Her dark eyes looked between us, it was clear she was trying to draw some kind of conclusion about the situation. "Why's he in chains? And why does he keep vomiting blood?"

"Eliza—I don't want to involve you in this mess," Johnathan said quietly, his gaze softening when he looked at her.

Putting a hand on her hip, she cocked it to the side and raised her brows. "You're going to bring your friends who are on the run into my house and tell me you don't want to involve me?" She threw another tattered rag on the ground. "Tell me everything right now, Johnathan. You bring it into my house, I am involved, that is that."

"Eliza—"

She wagged her finger. "Don't you Eliza me. Start talking."

"I can explain, if you want," I offered.

"No one wants your bias and inaccurate opinion," Johnathan snapped. "I first met Zendar at the tavern, he seemed lost and didn't know where he was going. I didn't know he was a duel soul though, but I did sense something different about him."

"We talked and one thing led to another and we got to know each other very well. He started coming to my tavern after his missions. We would talk about his quest for freeing the demons from the tyranny of their leader. Of course I didn't realize all the things this entailed, but I wanted to help him in any way I could." Johnathan looked down at his hands. "I know what it's like to be beneath someone who doesn't care about what happens to you, whether you lived or died. Zendar was different. He wanted a better future for the demons, I supported that."

Johnathan pointed a finger at me and narrowed his eyes. "Then this asshole had to start interfering with his plans, tried to get Zendar eliminated, and even went so far as to kill his lover in petty revenge. So now of course Zendar wants payback and that's why he's chained."

"And why is he dying?" Eliza asked, getting on her hands and knees and cleaning the blood from the floor.

"Poor life decisions."