D E L P H I N I U M

He looked exactly as he always did: the mask, the armor, the cape made for war. As I faced my master for the last time, my knees shook. Perhaps that would always be my reaction when I was faced with what he'd done to me, no matter how strong I was.

The maroon-walled room was even bigger than I remembered. Perhaps it was the lack of soldiers inside. Orion and I were alone. A master and a student. A killer and a killer.

"I knew my soldiers would be no match for you," he said in Romanian. "After all, you were my best student."

I inclined my head. "It seems I have an affinity for destruction. You certainly taught me that."

The room was silent for a moment. Orion didn't move. "We both know why you're here."

"Yes," I said. "To finally kill you."

He cocked his head. "When will you understand, Delphinium? I am not your enemy. I do not wish to end your life. I only want you to be who you always should have been."

"No. You want a weapon. A means to strike fear into the hearts of those that dare not oppose you and a weapon to extinguish the lives of those that do."

"And that is who you are," he said. "It is unfortunate that you must go to the Mind Sweeper to see it. I do not enjoy seeing you in pain. You are like a daughter to me. However, all the trials you went through made you into what you are today: the strongest assassin in the criminal underworld."

"I was a child." I shook my head as I said it. "You made me stronger than I ever needed to be. I didn't need power, I needed comfort. I needed love. You only love what I can do for you."

"I want the best for you. And perhaps you cannot see how my methods will accomplish that. But I do."

My resolve was firm when I said, "I always wondered if you knew how thoroughly you ruined me. Now I have my answer. Because you see nothing wrong with this situation. You think what you did to me was good."

When the room went silent again, I could hear the muted explosions far below. A foghorn blared. "Why are you so hellbent I'm doing this?" My voice wavered. "It isn't too late. You can still stop this war."

He spread his arms wide, taking a few steps closer. "You know why, Delphinium. You lived it. The world is dark and evil and filled with people possessing those same qualities. They are not meant to be given free reign, or chaos ensues. Crime rises. Violence spreads. You know that firsthand through the inner workings of the criminal underworld and even in the world's governments. You see how quickly people turn on one another and start futile wars. Humans are naturally depraved."

"You're the most depraved of them all," I insisted, nearly laughing at the irony of it all. "You want peace by killing three-fourths of the Earth's population?"

"I want peace by controlling the people of the world. The cost of that peace is to cut down the amount of people being ruled by three-fourths. And I am the only one fit to rule this empire, because I am the only one willing to pay that cost."

Content to try to sway me to his side, he still made no attempt to attack. It made me wary, but I listened to him speak. "I was born into a war-torn nation. I knew hunger, oppression, desperation. That can happen no longer. I will recreate the world the way it was meant to be. This will be the war to end all wars."

"Your talk of enhancement is a cover," I said softly as I realized the truth. "You'll give the survivors power—but only because they can undergo the Mind Sweeper. They won't be able to defy you. You want an army of slaves." My knives flicked out at my sides. "You know I can't let that happen."

He said nothing, having known this from the moment I stepped foot in the throne room, armed to kill. Still, he drew no weapon, and it worried me. He was certainly planning many things at once and my mind was reeling, trying to work out what he was thinking.

The room seemed to darken further as the Tribunal appeared from the shadows behind Orion. My heart stuttered as I took in the unseeing black eyes and razor-sharp beaks on their masks. Three whips unfurled at their sides. They normally played any part Orion commanded. Today, they would be his torturers.

I held my ground, eyes still on Orion—he'd always terrified me, but there was a certain...unearthliness to the Tribunal that unsettled me to a whole new degree. Somehow, it was easier to face him than them.

"As I told you, I do not enjoy seeing you in pain." Orion's voice once again filled the cavernous room. "But I need my right hand back. No other methods seem to work on you, and you certainly won't come willingly." He unfolded his hands. "Swear allegiance to me, Reaper. Or suffer the consequences."

He would beat me until I was too weak to fight them as they took me to the Mind Sweeper a final time. Only then would he have the perfect child of war he wanted.

"I used to be a gun in your hands, but now I am my own weapon. I wield myself." I raised my blades. "And I will die before I swear allegiance to you again."

At that, the Tribunal advanced for me, whips lashing through the air. I leapt to action, dodging the tip of a whip to the face. The wind of it snapped next to my cheekbone.

Feinting left, I swiped a dagger out for the rightmost hooded figure. They moved so quickly that only a bit of maroon cloth from their robe flitted to the floor. A whip cracked down against my spine, ripping skin to shreds. I gritted my teeth to hold back a scream.

Righting myself, I dodged another swing of the whip and swung for the legs. And missed. They had a near-inhuman swiftness I couldn't match. A whiplash cracked against my shoulder and around my still-healing neck. I was yanked back a few steps before untangling myself and gaining the right to breathe again.

Focusing on my freely bleeding throat would do me no good now. There were three of them and one of me. There was no room for error. The entire army below was counting on it—one mistake up here could very well cost us the war.

A lash wrapped around my wrist, forcing one knife to drop. The other cut through the whip like chopping through a plant's stalk. Half of the whip fell uselessly to the ground.

In the midst of the chaos, I caught a glimpse of Orion sitting regally on his throne. Of course he would watch as his loyal subjects beat me to submission—he believed I had no way out. And he would only step in when he knew I was too weak to stop him. Another clue that he was aware of the power connecting his mind to the minds of his controlled soldiers.

Orion was the main prize. Not the Tribunal. I needed to engage him in combat before I was whipped half to death.

As the thought occurred to me, another whiplash struck my back and I recoiled. The Tribunal was hard to kill because it was near-impossible to get in close for the kill shot when they kept me at bay with those whips. But if I could kill them from a distance...

I whipped around and sprinted to the steps before the throne, unsheathing a smaller blade as I ran. Feeling the presence of the Tribunal on my heels, my heart raced as swiftly as my feet. I just needed to make it, I just needed to make it...

On the first step, I turned back and let the first blade fly. Normally, I would have my power to guide it as it streaked through the air. But now, all I had was my skill.

The sliver of steel cut through the air and into the red robe of the whip-less figure. In an event that I had been imagining for nearly four years, I had killed one-third of the Tribunal.

A whip was lashing out for me. Dropping to my knees to duck below it, I flicked two more blades out from the sheaths on my forearms to land in the unprotected chests of the remaining Tribunal duo. Both had their arms raised, believing they finally had me cornered for the beating of my life. Instead, nothing was stopping the small blades from meeting their mark in the center of their chests.

I remembered when I practiced throwing knives on live targets that would run about the training room in terror. Those lives hadn't completely gone to waste. They might all be dead, but so were the Tribunal now.

For a split second, I simply stared at the heaps of red fabric, the broken crow masks. I let my eyes rove over their forms to check for any sign of a human body underneath. Nothing. This place was filled with human monsters. I wondered if these were the real kind. Some part of me knew not to peel back their masks.

Unprovoked, I whirled on Orion, one of my larger daggers aimed for his neck, hoping the sudden movement would catch him off guard. Just when I was sure I would slit his throat, he lazily threw up his armored wrist to deflect my blade. When the two clashed together, I feared my blade would break on impact.

Knowing I had no time to waste, I struck out with a twin blade from my belt. He deflected it too. With both of his arms up, forcing my knives from his throat, the rest of his body was exposed. I twisted and brought up my leg to kick him in the head.

Instead, Orion dodged out of the way, throwing me off balance. Using it against me, he shoved me away from him so hard the air momentarily left my lungs. The lashes on my back threatened to tear open further at the movement. I stumbled back a few steps and then swept my hands down to retrieve my fallen blades. This fight would not be easy—I would need all the weaponry I could get.

When I fluidly slipped the knives back into their sheaths, I raised my eyes to see Orion standing from his throne. "You forget that I was the one that trained you," he said in that voice that filled the room. "You forget I was in the room every day as you gradually became who you are meant to be."

I remembered those days when I still possessed some semblance of innocence, still learning how to kill and torture. When Orion was displeased with my progress, he would take over for Tsolvskein. Despite his penchant for physically beating the lessons into me, those days made me wish for my normal teacher.

Today Orion would finally join Tsolvskein in the place madmen burned when they died.

Gritting my teeth, I lunged for Orion again, covered with blades he taught me to use. The first rebounded harmlessly off his metal-covered arm. The second barely scraped over a chink in his chest armor before he twisted and grabbed ahold of my wrist and drove a fist into the place my ribcage met in the center. I choked for breath, stars flashing before my vision.

Before he could beat me any further, the throne room shook, ground moving beneath our feet. The wall opposite the spiked throne began to crack with the explosion. Half the floor began to crumble, creating an incline of rubble below. I wondered if it had been one of my teammates to deliver the blow.

By some inhuman power I didn't possess, Orion kept his grip on my wrists and pushed me toward the rubble. He meant to shove me down the incline. A fall would leave me half-dead. Enough for him to have his way with me. I began to struggle in his steel grip, my heels scraping against the marble floor.

It wasn't enough.

Orion pushed me into the cavernous sinkhole.

I did my best to shield my vitals as I rolled down the treacherous pile of rubble. Pieces of steel and glass cut at my skin. Even as I hit the ground in a protective roll, the wind was knocked from my lungs once again. The open whiplashes across my skin hitting the cold ground was enough to blind me with pain.

As I gasped for air, I was vaguely aware of blurred light before my eyes. Surely I wasn't going unconscious now...

No, it wasn't my imagination, I realized. The fortress wall had fallen completely, spanning across a few floors. In the air outside, I could hear planes locked in battle, bullets spraying through the sky. I hoped they wouldn't take the opportunity to shoot up the cracked sections of the fortress. At least, not yet.

I coughed on the ground, unable to think or move until I could fill my lungs again. My heart was pounding, my head throbbing where it had hit the floor. Orion was coming down here. He would be here in seconds—

A gloved hand found my throat and was forcing me backward, backward to the open air behind me. A groan was let out of my clenched teeth when he shoved me into the ground, wounds bleeding against the cold debris.

Wind whipped through my hair as he forced my head to hang dangerously over the edge. "Swear allegiance to me, Reaper," the booming voice demanded. "Help bring light to our undying empire and solidify its permanence."

The world was strangely quiet now, only filled with the unceasing wind. All I could see was the blue sky, and even they was beginning to fade. Black spots peppered my vision. My mouth was drier than ever before and my limbs were filled with a strange numbness.

I knew it in my bones: this was how death felt.

He'd underestimated himself. Orion had never meant to kill me, but I could feel myself slipping away. I supposed it was good, in a horrible way. He would never again have my power in his fist.

My body was going limp under Orion's might. This was my own fault. I'd come here to kill him and now I was the one passing over the bridge to death. There was a line between confidence and reckless hope. Perhaps I was stupid for believing myself powerful enough to take on Orion.

No, I thought, correcting myself. Not stupid. Brave.

That bravery had kept me alive during these four torturous years Orion had a grip on my fate. It was what pushed me to keep fighting even when he'd taken everything from me. Because that's what I would always do: fight.

Forcing my heavy eyes open, I tightened my grip on my broken blade—too weak for him to be wary of it—and jammed it into the break in his armor, breaking it completely.

Though it wasn't a killing blow, he lunged back, the broken plates of armor falling from his abdomen. My broken blade stuck in his side.

Fingers touching my injured throat, I took the extra seconds to breathe as much as I could, taking gasping lung-fulls of air as I sat up.

I had wounded Orion, that was for certain. But not badly enough that he wouldn't be able to shove me over the drop again. I needed to get away.

Using all the strength in my arms, I shoved myself up to stand. My vision was still blurred, but I had no time to waste. Orion was yanking out the slip of metal in his side as I made a painful break for the incline of debris. If I could climb back to the throne room, I would have the high ground.

As I ran, I checked all the blades on my body. Still there. Enough to chop him to pieces.

Orion was hot on my heels as I began to haul myself up the incline, rocks shifting beneath my frantic feet. Several times, I nearly fell to my knees out of sheer exhaustion. Once, I even felt his gloved fingers brush against my arm, determined to wrench me back.

I was nearly sick with fear and adrenaline as I reached the floor of the throne room. Knowing Orion was only a step behind, I turned to the throne.

When the timing was perfect, and we had both built up enough momentum from sprinting to the dais, I whirled and sank a dagger into Orion's shoulder. "That was for all the people you've kept imprisoned here against their wills," I told him as he clutched at his injury with shock. "For the prisoners they didn't make it out."

From my belt, I produced another knife, which I slashed into his newly unprotected stomach. "For all the fallen soldiers you sent to slaughter, including Neve Barqui." He staggered back.

There was no place for him to attack me before I stabbed his leg, knowing it would severely inhibit his ability to move about the room. It nearly gave out underneath him as he took a step away from me. "For my family," I said. "And all the innocents you had me torture and kill."

I continued to prowl toward him, finally the only predator in the room. It was easy to cut across his ribs, spraying red blood—the only human thing about him. "For everything you've put my crew through. You're the reason they will never be the same."

He was staggering now, holding back the full weight of his pain. None of his injuries were bad enough to instantly kill, but that would change momentarily. "Delphinium, you know I taught you-"

"You taught me too well," I said in a low voice before gripping his injured shoulder and driving my longest dagger under his ribcage.

He gave an audible gasp and dropped to his knees before me. Orion was completely powerless as I reached down and pulled the onyx mask from his face, letting it drop to the floor.

For as long as I'd been imprisoned here, some dark curiosity had driven me to want to know what lay underneath Orion's mask. Did he have the face of the cold, brutal tyrant he was? Or was he just a normal man with a face full of fear like the rest of us?

But the face underneath the dark hood was barely recognizable as human. It was so horribly disfigured and scarred that I took a sharp intake of breath. Because of it, his age was indistinguishable, though he seemed younger than I'd imagined. I remembered what he'd said about growing up in a war-torn nation and wondered if his physical disfigurement was a testament as to why he was so hellbent on controlling people.

When his pain-filled eyes relaxed from the agonythey were screwed up in, he looked up at me. Even in his last moments, while he was at my mercy, those dark eyes were swimming with madness. And as he gave a few rasping, shaking breaths, something flickered across his face. Something like loss—not only because he'd lost this fight, but because he'd lost me. Permanently.

Perhaps he really did love me as a daughter in that dark, twisted way of his. But it wasn't enough. It never would be.

Bending down, I retrieved his mask and placed it to cover his pain-ridden face. It was not as much a mercy for him as it was for myself. As much as I hated him, recently I'd seen enough questioning eyes looking up at me before I made the light leave them forever.

I pulled my knife from his abdomen. "Thank you for making me strong," I said softly, feeling my blood coating my teeth. And then I slit the throat of the king of terrorists.

Only not just his throat. His arteries and spine severed under the razor-sharp edge of the weapons he'd taught me to wield.

His body fell front-first to the ground. The head rolled, ironically, toward the throne.

I picked it up by the bunching fabric of his black hood. The onyx mask had a crack spidering down the center. Lips twisting in a wry smile, I took one last look at the retched place and limped out the broken doors with my prize.

▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂

I wasn't sure how or why, but sometime during the fight in the throne room, my power had been returned to me. Because it wasn't necessary for me to defeat Orion, I didn't realize its presence until I was halfway to the exit. Out of nowhere, I became aware of the way it flowed in my veins, begging to be expelled.

I held back the tide of my power for now, a very specific location set in my mind. I needed to see it before this entire place was completely destroyed.

Orion's masked head dangled from my fingertips as I faced the Mind Sweeper for the last time.

I took in the straps that held my wrists and ankles down as I writhed. Saw each and every needle that pierced my skin, injecting me with their poison.

With Orion's decapitated head as the only witness, the Mind Sweeper was blown to smithereens.

The debris hadn't even settled before I turned away, delving deeper into the lower levels of the fortress.

The lower I went, the more flames racked the passageways. I assumed some explosion had been misplaced, starting a fire that raged across the inside of the fortress.

Whatever it was, it didn't stop my march. Any falling debris was thrown outward with my power. Though they were searingly hot, the flames kept their distance. No longer would this place hurt me.

I reached the ground floor, but it was barely distinguishable due to the entire place being swathed in raging fire. Unbothered, I walked through it, stepping over the burning bodies I'd killed on the way inside.

It was ironic, really, that the fortress was slowly burning from the inside out. This whole thing had begun in fire and now it would succumb to the flames at last.

Amongst the smoke, the light of day was barely visible through the still-closed gate. It blasted apart underneath my power. I didn't stop, didn't pause, as I marched through the exit and was swallowed up by the blinding light.