Slow And Steady (Dragonfly #6)

Sacrafice

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Zara
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    Zach coughed once, stumbling towards me with a drunken smile.

    "Hello dear sister, it's been a while since we met like this."

    "It's not him." Jay whispered in my ear.

    "Yes it is!" He snarled. "Allow me to explain."

    "We are tethered by history Zarathustra. You're Dragonfly, I'm Barranca. You're the good twin, I'm the evil one. I'm fated to die in Tenebris's arms. It's been repeating everyone hundred years or so, as Dragonfly's Magyk builds up again."

    I stared at him with wide fearful eyes. "W-what? You're not going to die Zach. W-we can make it out of this. Just like we did last time." I promised.

    "This isn't like last time. I am evil! I hurt people. I hurt you, I hurt Skylark, Seirra, Lysander, Jay, Dad, Mom, Jamborree, Ostend, Kennon, Annabeth, Ocaso, Arroyo, Xanthos, Scrylla, Gorbachav, Regulus, Feurige, Jelu, Ipa, Fulgura, Maddy, Gregory, Shakira, I hurt everyone. It's my destiny. It was written in the stars, and there's nothing you can do to stop me." He snarled.

    "That's not true!" I said to him.

    "You're our friend, Zach. Our destinies aren't written in stone." Jay said calmly.

    He started laughing. slowly at first, but then it rose to a fast, high, insane laugh. It bounced off the ground and cut through my ears. It was maddening.

    "You guys are hilarious." Then he slashed his claw forward.

    Jay jumped in front of me, blocking the slash with his wings.

    I jumped over him and tackled Zach. I had always been stronger than him, but I never saw myself in a position where I would have to use that against him.

    I clutched his body tight and pinned his arms to his side. I refused to fight him as tears fell from my eyes.

    All of a sudden for the first time in months, our link sprung up for the first time.

    I screamed and my head felt like someone was trying to rip it open with their blunt claws.

    :Zara?

    :Zach! What's happening to me?

    It was like I was sucking some of the darkness from him. It was drifting off of him and sticking to my fur. My mind began to feel fuzzy, but the link was still present.

    :Oh no. He said, with one, quick, breath.

    :What? What is it? I shrieked, letting him go, the black was still stuck to my fur.

    He looked up at me with huge eyes as tears welled up in them.

Half of his body was white again. Half of it black. I looked exactly the same.

    The side with our marks was glowing faintly.

    "Well this is interesting." A cold feminine voice echoed throughout my brain, I winced.

    "It's certainly and interesting twist." Another voice said, sharper, clearer, warmer.

    We each had one green eye, with one Dragonfly Mark.

    We both had one plain blue eye.

    "We're both the Dragonfly." Zach breathed. "We're both good."

    "And evil. We're half and half." I added.

    "It can go either way." The kinder voice said. "You both must live."

    "And you both must DIE!" The colder voice hissed.

    A sharp pain flashed through my skull and I screamed again, writhing on the ground.

    "NO!" Zach cried in agony. "Just kill me! Let her live, please!"

    "Yes!" The cold voice cackled in glee

    "No!" The warm voice warned. "Take it back Zach! Say no!"

    It was too late, before my eyes the black evaporated off my body like steam and zipped right back into Zach.

    He screamed, writhed, foamed in pain, coughing up blood. He looked at me with fear in his multicolored eyes and I could see one clear message reflected back in them.

    I love you.

    I don't really know what happened after that. I know I was screaming as well, I know that several voices were crowding around me and flushing through my ears like an uncontrollable whirlwind of sound and chaos. My brain wasn't working properly, I wasn't processing things correctly. I could barely sense anything past my raw, sore throat, the tears welling down my face in salty rivers that dripped down into pools of my own blood. Then all I could feel was fur, warm fur, blue fur, kind sliver-blue eyes that were focused on a horizon invisible to my own eyes. They were misty eyes, ones who's fur was wet with tears that mingled with my own as we held each other.

    I couldn't stop looking as my brother's still body.

    He had stopped moving, stopped breathing. His heart was still as a cold stone as an oily black substance  mixed with his own blood was still pouring out of his mouth.

    He looked so peaceful now that he was dead.