Her curse mark. Shit.

Darious slapped his hand over the back of Ava’s neck. She welcomed his icy touch a hundred times over. It eased away the burn from having the plaster ripped off. But this was it. They were done for. There was no doubt Darious saw it.

He could only stare in complete shock, and search her eyes as if the answers could be seen with just a few glances. The memories of that day flooded into Ava’s mind. Her eyes welled with tears, recalling how desperate she was to fix herself back then.

She remembered begging Marc for his help until he came up with this solution. How much it hurt. How the pain felt like needles stabbing at her veins—like a scorching sun burned her neck. How the hot humid air clung to her every breath. How it all happened in the forest by their home, on a night so dark, the moon slept soundly among the stars.

The memory was engraved so deep inside, and staring at Darious made it come back, full and alive. Through a shaky breath, she replaced his hand with hers.

Raz chuckled, slightly moaning through his words. “Mmm. Who knew ripping a plaster off would be a new personal turn on of mine. It sounds so erotic.”

Whispers and glances escalated around them. A few stopped dancing to see what happened. Darious pushed Raz back. He stumbled into a group of people still dancing away, and before Ava could protest, they disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Darious left her alone. He just left her in the middle of the ballroom.

That son of a bitch. She couldn’t believe this. She had to find them. Raz might have answers about her birth, and stupid Darious just took him away to do who knew what to him. She had to find them fast before Darious did something drastic.

Everyone was looking at her, watching her trembling hands, staring at the bloody pocket knife on the ground, asking her questions. She ran away, stumbled and knocked into people. They asked if she was okay and she ignored them. There was no time.

Ava made her way through the crowd unscathed and outside on the large terrain. Mika hid away in a dark corner, secluding himself from the rest of the extravaganza. He was casually sitting on the short brick wall, and although every fiber of her being wanted to run off, her heart said go to him. She had to stop fighting her demons on her own.

Mika looked up from the ground and stood. “Are you okay? You look panicked.” He stepped closer. “What happened to your neck? Is the Black Rabbit here?”

He gently touched her fingers. She pulled away. “Not out here in the open. Come with me. I need to find Darious.”

As fast as her flats could carry her, Ava left the terrain and entered the beautiful garden surrounding the ballroom. Couples walked by, holding hands, others whispering to their partner in secret. Mika followed behind every step of the way.

To blend in, she took his hand. He intertwined their fingers and she ignored the sudden urge to let him go. They searched through the bushes and winter flowers for Darious. He had to be out here somewhere.

Mika pulled Ava to a stop where the trees met the garden. “Ava, what is going on? Why are we searching for Darious?”

She clenched her dress, afraid to say the words out loud because then it’d make them true. It’d make this real and no longer a mystery written on paper slips.

The gods are here.

“That guy who asked me to dance earlier turned out to be the god of desire,” she said, words trembling slightly. “The gods are here, Mika. They’re here and Darious took off with him and seems to know him.” Mika shifted and Ava confronted it. “What are you not telling me? Who is Darious?”

The breeze tossed Mika’s hair, tangling the razor cut strands into knots, away from his face. He glowed under the clear night sky, exposing every freckle and detail of his solemn frown. “That’s something I can’t tell you.”

Again, secrets. She was so fed up with all these secrets. “Darious was complaining to my mom earlier about keeping Gio a secret. It sounds like Amaranthine is just as guilty of withholding secrets from us.”

“As if you have room to talk,” he snapped. “You refuse to share your own secrets, so why should we share ours?” He glanced at her neck, but they kept moving on.

They reached the outer part of the garden, ending between the small makeshift forest and open field ahead. What was the point in hiding the curse mark from him? Darious already knew and he’d most likely tell him. Damn him.

When Ava stopped, Mika ran into her back. “You once asked me why my energy level is so low. This is the reason why.”

She slowly removed her hand from the back of her neck. The light from the moon exposed every detail of her skin: the dark intricate lines drawn on with perfection. How they permanently sat there for the world to see what cruel measures she took to secure her sanity.

Mika took his gloves off. Goosebumps tickled her skin as he pressed bare fingers over the mark. “This is… this is insane. What are you thinking!”

He took her by the shoulders and forced her to face him. “Do you know what this is? This is a curse mark. It’s dark and forbidden and ancient. Marc shouldn’t be using this. He knows how risky this is. You could have died!”

“I was going to die, anyway!” Ava snapped. “The Council has been after my head since the moment I was born. I had to do what needed to be done. I had no other options.”

Mika squeezed her shoulders. There was a pop in the trees. They both looked, but she didn’t sense anyone there. “There had to be other options. There always is,” he said.

“This is exactly why I didn’t want to tell you. You always blow things up and can't see the bigger picture, but guess what, Mika? This isn’t Amaranthine. This is Earth. And on Earth, it’s either kill or be killed. Breaking a few laws is a given in my line of work.”

“But that doesn’t make it right.”

One by one, she pried his fingers off. He said he understood, but he didn’t. He chose not to. No, he chose to follow the Amaranthine law, exactly like Marc, and it shouldn't surprise her. It was dumb to believe this guy might be different—like me.

Ava put distance between them and faced the darkened forest. It was chilly out and she chose to suffer. They’ve wasted enough time. Darious could be miles away by now.

“It doesn’t matter. Darious has seen this. It’s only a matter of time before I’m punished by your grandparents,” she said. “And I deserve all the punishment in the world.”

“Punishment for what? For killing Junipea? That was an accident!”

Ava hadn’t been completely truthful with them—with anyone. The twins only knew one side of the story. If Mika knew the whole story, she wondered how he’d react. She wondered if he’d still consider her a friend.

Someone snickered from within the tree branches. “You still haven’t told him? That’s so like you, Ava.”

Quick on his feet, the Black Rabbit jumped from tree to tree until he reached the ground. She glanced over at Mika and found the culprit behind him. She pushed Mika away and clashed with the crystal sword. Her knife trembled on impact.

The Black Rabbit flicked the mask up on his red curls and gave a playful smile full of dimples. He still wore Junipea’s face. “And here I thought you would run and hide again. Glad to see you’ve decided to fight this time.”

“Except she’s not alone.” Mika summoned his double blades to his side and was already on his way over to fight. He swung both swords at the Black Rabbit’s waist. He dodged every swing, toying with Mika under his quick footing.

The Bō came to Ava’s hand, vibrating under her raging energy. She swung it around. They clashed, the force shook her arms. Mika popped up behind the Black Rabbit, cutting the air by his neck. He was so close.

As if he sensed Mika, the Black Rabbit pushed Ava back and swiped out a blade from his cloak. He tossed it behind him. The blade cut Mika’s cheek, and missed him at the last seconds. Mika kept moving, his swords stabbed the ground.

Rocks burst into the air, trembling the earth under Mika’s super strength. The Bō morphed into a sword, but Ava was too late. The Black Rabbit stabbed his crystal sword into the rocks and shredded grass. A barrier shot up and it became their own personal arena.

Mika was on the outside. He hit the wall with his blades. It did nothing.

Dark electricity snaked the crystal sword, feeding into the Earth’s crust as the Black Rabbit released the hilt. He unveiled another long, sharp blade from his cloak. This barrier was smaller than the hallway back at the Capitol Building. Ava couldn’t fight with the Bō in here, even the double blades were too long.

She stabbed the sword into the ground and shoved her dress skirt aside. A knife shined brilliantly in her hand when she unsheathed it from her thigh. This will have to do.

He motioned his hand, egging her on as they circled one another. They were like two sharks, swimming in a pool, waiting for the other to attack first. She tried staying relaxed, mimicking his calm stance. Ava had been in many hand-to-hand fights before, but who knew what this rabbit had up his sleeves. She couldn’t take her eyes off him for a second.

The Black Rabbit flipped the knife in the air and disappeared. He popped up in front of Ava, knife in hand. She ducked as it sliced across the air. She attacked straight for his stomach. He stepped back, taking step after step as she kept cutting at his front.

His back hit the wall. Ava swung straight for his neck. He rolled away and aimed for her side. Their blades clashed for a brief moment before parting ways. A draft of cool air seeped into Ava’s dress. There was a cut slit, opened just enough to expose her skin.

Why is it so hard to kill him! She stepped forward and sliced towards his face. He knocked her wrist with his hand, attacking with his knife at her neck. She smacked it away and they fell into a dance, slicing and blocking at each other until they grew tired.

He slipped up first. Ava smacked his hand so hard this time he lost his grip. His knife clattered against the barrier, fell to the grass away from them. Using all the strength she had left, Ava rammed him against the wall.

Her blade pressed into his neck. It neither bothered him nor put terror in his mind, knowing death was a step away. If anything, it drove him, put a wild shine to his eyes. “Do it. I dare you,” he hissed. “It should be easy considering you've done it before.”

Ava pressed the blade closer, dug it into his skin. Red blood dribbled from the cut. His smile broadened, sending a shrill of fear into her hands. “I'm done with your games,” she snapped. “You will tell me everything you know! Starting with my birth!”

Her fingers were quick to act, swiftly unsheathed a smaller blade hidden in her bra. She cut him across the front. Blood gushed onto his shirt, onto the ground.

The Black Rabbit gasped out a chuckle and pressed a hand over his rib cage. “You were created in a test tube and born motherless in a cold and damp basement. All for the purpose of saving the planet. But you can’t even do that right. So what use is your birth?”

He smacked her across the cheek, and snatched the smaller blade from her hand. Ava raised the other knife to her face in defense. With each step closer, the wounds on his neck healed. He pressed a hand to his stomach. Sparks like magic electrified off his palm, healing the wound instantly through the cut shirt.

Fear took over Ava’s body. She gripped the knife tighter, pointing it right at him. He wasn’t normal. He wasn’t human. He was a demon.

A grin spread on his face, dimples pressing into his dirtied cheeks. “What you should ask is, what am I?”

He disappeared.

She expected him from the front; he appeared at her right. He sliced for her neck, she stepped away at the last seconds. He struck again, using Ava’s small blade this time, a typical Junipea move. “Am I human?”

With two knives in his hand, he attacked from all sides. He was quick, just like Junipea. She couldn’t afford to blink. Thin lines cut into her wrist, her hand and cheek, blocking had become her last line of defense.

“Am I a god?” He sliced up her front. The edge of the blade wisped by her skin, cutting another thin, irritable line. “Or am I just a monster in disguise?”

Mika pounded on the barrier from outside, madly trying to break in. Shit, I let him snatch my attention away.

The Black Rabbit grabbed Ava’s arm, twisting it around her back. His voice ragged in her ear, so similar to Junipea’s. “Why don’t we ask him?”

He shoved her up against the barriers wall, knocked the knife right out of her grip, and pinned her in place. “Tell me, Ama prince. What do you think Ava is? A human? A god? Or a monster? Why don’t we unmask all her secrets together?”

Mika hit the wall hard with his fist. “I’d never team up with some filth like you!”

“Aww. He called you filth,” he whispered in Ava’s ear. “Too bad that’s not the answer I’m looking for.” Junipea smashed her face against the wall. “Is she a human!” Smashed it again. “A god!” And again. “Or a monster!”

Her nose cracked. A surge of pain zipped through her face, blurred her vision. Mika doubled. Blood gurgled up her throat and out her mouth and onto the grass. The fucker broke my nose. He broke it.

Junipea yanked Ava towards his face. Her scalp burned at the ends as he gripped her hair. His smile reached the corner of both eyes, a full set of teeth flashed sharp.

“Monster.”

Before she could react, a blade sliced across her hair in one fell swoop. She was tossed on the ground, hit the grass hard, instantly froze on the chill of winter frost. Blood dripped from her nose. Ava trembled as she watched pieces of hair fall out of his grip.

He cut her hair, her long brown hair. Ava looked at Junipea through tear-filled eyes. He smiled and gently touched the short ends. The next time you cut your hair, he said, do it for yourself.

The Black Rabbit stepped on Ava’s back and forced her to the ground like a wounded dog, his heel dug into her spine. The wind knocked out of her. She couldn’t breathe. Everything spun. What was real and what was a memory? She was starting to hallucinate.

“She never told you how I died. Curious to know?” he teased.

“Stop,” she croaked. “Stop it.”

It’s not him. This isn’t real.

He leaned over, a hand cupped his ear mockingly. “Hmm? What was that? Tell him?”

This isn’t Junipea.

“I said stop it!” Ava stabbed the sword through his gut. He laughed.

He coughed up blood and held onto the blade, pushed it in further. “Just like this. A stab to the heart. But I wasn’t the one who was supposed to die.”

“Shut up!”

“I wasn’t supposed to die. I’m not the one you were trying to kill.”

“Stop!”

“I’m not the one you were fighting.”

The tears fell from her eyes as she remembered the last battle. The moment she lost control and went after her first and only target. “Please. Just stop.”

Vengeance and hate etched across his face, drove a stake through her heart with every truthful word. “Sam wants to know how Ava caught me? That’s because I stepped in front of her,” he said. “I stopped Ava from killing Gio.”

Junipea’s eyes bore into Ava’s.

“She was trying to kill her own brother.”

Mika hit the barrier again in the same spot. A crack chipped its way across like ice breaking on a pond. He got back up and swung at the barrier once more, thrashing, slicing, stabbing, until it broke across. Hope grew in Ava’s heart for a leaping moment. And obliterated in the next.

Through a wicked smile, Junipea took her chin. His lips met Ava’s. A bittersweet, nostalgic kiss that had her dying on the inside.

The taste of death.

Cool mint coursed through Ava’s veins, eased its way into her mind like an addicting drug, took over her heart and will and turned it into unimaginable terror. It was beautiful, this power that’d been missing from her life. She craved it so much, yet feared for what she might become—a terrifying monster.

A snap popped on the back of her neck, burned her skin. The curse mark evaporated into thin air. Marc’s powers no longer held down this power inside. It boiled at the edge, waiting to spill over into this world. It came out through wisps of black fog, poured into the air. Through her fingertips. Mouth. Tremendous, overflowing new energy.

The barrier shattered. Mika reached out towards Ava without hesitation and she reached out towards him, and it felt like maybe if she touched his hand a part of her would come back. Maybe a part of her could resist this new addiction.

Junipea threw Mika away. Darkness clouded over and consumed her soul.

A small bell chimed from far away.

It chimed closer and closer, gradually reaching the depths of Ava’s mind.

She laid on black shallow water, filled with an infinite void of dancing stars.

It was still—quiet. Deathly peaceful here. She could stay here forever. She could live in this space and be content. No more responsibilities. No more hardships or broken hearts.

But is that what I want?

The bell called her towards its soft, alluring glow. It floated just in front of her. She felt its energy, its voice. It told her to take it—that it belonged to her.

Ava was tired of feeling weak. She was tired of fighting what should be hers.

It chimed and rang, hypnotized her closer. She stretched a hand out towards it. She knew this would change everything. This was the power she searched for. This was what she lost. She craved it. Needed it. This energy. She’d die without it.

I’m within reach.

A sinister laugh pricked Ava’s ears, filled the entire empty space with nothing but the Reaper’s dark laughter. It was so vivid, too real to be a dream.

Hairs rose on the back of her neck. She felt his chilly presence, saw black leather loafers before his cold dead voice. “Survive this and I’ll give you a present in return.”

Like hell I want any presents from him.

He came closer, knees were in her view. “It would be in your best interest to accept.”

Before Ava met the Reaper’s gaze, she was pushed from behind.

Ava hit the ground. Wet grass stained her palms and evening gown. Her instincts were archaic. Muscles moved, sharp, animalistic—no fear of the consequences. Ava was kicked back down, again, a sharp heel pressed into her back. A hand locked onto her cape, twisting and turning it until it was impossible to move.

A horrific scream left Ava’s throat. She thrashed around, trying to get free. “Stop it. Let me go. It was in my grasp. I almost had it all for myself. I need this power. I need more energy. Don’t take it away from me. Don’t do it. I’m begging you. Stop, Marc!”

Ava’s piercing eyes found him, ready to pounce like a wild carnivorous beast, but it wasn’t Marc. Her instincts went into overdrive. A hiss growled from her lips at the tall figure looming over her body. The woman’s true identity was hidden from sight beneath a dark crimson skull mask, body cloaked in red.

Ava summoned the Bō, shifted it into double blades, and cut the cape off her shredded dress. The woman dug her heel into Ava’s stomach the moment she flipped over. It punctured her skin, pierced her with a steel-pointed tip. The woman flicked the crimson cloak back and withdrew a pistol, flashing a red planet badge on their belt—Mars.

Wind knocked the hood off her head. Platinum blonde hair cut through the breeze like a sharp knife. “Oh, I will enjoy taking my sweet time killing you, witch,” she sneered.

Fear ran through Ava’s body. Terrified. The woman stomped her stiletto on Ava’s rib cage. Ava screamed, coughing up blood. The pain was excruciating.

Out of desperation, she quickly flung her blades around, and went for the woman’s leg. She caught Ava’s blade with her hand and squeezed the sharp edges without so much as a drop of fear in her red blood. She let the other knife hit her calf. It hardly made a dent.

This was it. This was the end. This was how Ava died. She watched in fear as the woman aimed the pistol at her forehead.

And pulled the trigger before Ava took her final breath.