Briar Rose - Taekook

Chapter 29

His words make something in my mind snap. I lunge at him, catching him by surprise and tackle him to the ground. I hear the whoosh of air leaving his lungs and a rib cracks beneath my elbow. My scim makes contact with his throat, and I swipe downwards without even thinking. Crimson blood erupts from Lucius's neck, and he staggers backwards. It should have been a killing blow, but he is a Mask after all, and Lucius presses a hand to his wound, his features twisting into a snarl of fury.

Kill, kill, kill. The mask chants for blood. The monster howls for it. And the scary thing was, I wanted it. This repulsive man had made my soulmate suffer. He should die slowly and painfully. Be able to watch himself drown in his own blood. He deserved nothing less.

Blood continues to gush from the wound on Lucius's neck, but he stumbles forward, the fire in his eyes still burning. Fixed on me. I walk towards him, in no hurry to finish him off.

"Is this how it ends, Tae?" He whispers, so low that only I can hear. "One of us killing the other? In cold blood? Was Bloodcrest the only place that we could be best friends, blood brother?"

His words send memories cascading into my head unwillingly. Lucius and I winning our first training bout with a centurion. How both of us collapsed in giggles after successfully scaling the climbing wall. How one of us would always care for the other when they were too weak to go on. The time when we both cut our palms and left the blood to mingle, proclaiming ourselves blood brothers.

And now, I was about to kill the person that I did all of those things with.

My blood brother.

Don't falter now! The Mask within me yells. Or is it the monster? I can't tell. You fool. You'll regret it.

For once, I listen to the voice. Whatever Lucius had been before, it was gone. It was gone the moment he decided to break Jungkook's bones. The moment that he so carelessly cut his lips or flung him into the boulder. My soulmate's broken figure flashes before my eyes, and I suddenly can't control my rage. At this moment, he isn't my blood brother. He's just an enemy that wants me dead. An enemy that I must survive.

Lucius seems to notice the change in my eyes, though he does nothing about it. He doesn't move, doesn't speak. Only watches as I unhook a double-bladed dagger from my belt. The blood from his throat pours out onto the ground, staining it a vivid red.

"Foolish Taehyung," He murmurs as the light starts to leave his eyes. "You think love makes you strong? Where there is love, there's always pain. Always pain. You'll learn that soon enough." And even though he is dying, even as the blood streams out of his throat, there's a cold gleam in his eyes which makes me nervous. Like he knows something that I don't. Like if I let him live, he'll tell me.

But I don't wait to find out.

"You chose your actions, Lucius," I whisper. "And I'll choose mine."

I lift my dagger high, holding it there for a split second, before I bring the blade whistling down. Blood explodes on my hands, my face, my sword. I force myself to ignore it, digging my knife in deeper. Lucius screams, one high note that I hear over and over in my head before it fades away. His body slumps to the ground, lifeless. The mask that covers his face glints in the early morning sunlight, contorted in a permanent sneer; exactly like the one I saw on my nightmare battlefield.

Lucius is dead.

My blood brother is dead.

By my hand.

I drop my scim, now covered in his blood, and back away. A traitorous part of me loves the fact that it's his blood I see on my hands. That stains my tunic. He deserved to die. Hell, he deserved to be tortured, and then die a painful death. This was absolutely nothing compared to what he should have suffered. And yet...