Page 121 of Mortis

I opened my eyes.

“Your mother was a monster. She helped murder innocent people. And when you were cornered, she offered your soul in exchange for her own life.”

Sebastian’s hand flew into my hair. He gripped the smoky strands and wrenched my head backwards. Fury contorted his features. His jaw clenched, mismatched eyes wild, teeth bared inches from my face.

“You lie!” he hissed. “My mother tried to save me. She begged you for mercy. For both of us. And you murdered her anyway!”

My lips twitched.

Clearly, we remembered that night very differently.

“You threw me aside and snapped her neck!” he roared. “I had already lost my father, and then you ripped my mother away from me too.”

“I spared you,” I replied evenly. “I showed you mercy.”

Sebastian leaned closer until the tips of our noses almost touched.

“That wasn’t mercy. That was humiliation.” He released me with a violent shove and stepped backwards, slamming a palm against his chest. “You decided I wasn’t even worth killing. You slaughtered everyone I knew and left me sitting in my mother’s blood.”

I slowly shook my head. “You were innocent.”

Sebastian barked out a laugh devoid of humour.

“I was weak. And you didn’t just rob me of my parents. You robbed me of my inheritance.” He threw his arms wide, gesturing towards the cloaked figures surrounding us. “My father had everything. Wealth. Influence. Longevity. Our family was chosen by Mammon. He told me that my entire childhood. We were chosen, and one day, everything he had would become mine.”

His hand shot towards me, one trembling finger stopping inches from my face.

“And you took it from me.”

Arlo scoffed beside me. “Fuckin’ hell. He’s monologuing like a cheesy supervillain.”

Whether Sebastian ignored him or simply didn’t hear, I couldn’t tell. He dragged both hands through his salt-and-pepper hair, and when his gaze returned to mine, his eyes had taken on a feverish gleam.

“I spent decades rebuilding what you destroyed. I scoured these catacombs and my family’s estate for anything that survived. Records. Journals. Scriptures. I spent thousands reclaiming sacred texts and artefacts that were rightfully mine, while museums left them gathering dust behind glass.”

He began pacing. Back and forth, back and forth. I wasn’t sure he was even speaking to me anymore. The words simply poured from him, decades of obsession finally given an audience.

“I found descendants. Recruited new followers. Built a congregation larger than my father commanded. I learned every rite. Every prayer. Every ritual. Everything necessary to fulfil the promise our ancestors made to our Lord.” Sebastian stopped. Slowly, he turned towards me, and a manic smile spread across his face. “All that was missing was you.”

“Leave him alone!” Teddy shouted from the altar. “Don’t you fucking touch⁠—”

His protest became a muffled cry when the man beside him clamped a hand over his mouth, and every muscle in my body locked.

Kill him, the Beast snarled.

I remained still. Sebastian bent towards me, resting his hands on his thighs.

“My father was promised eternity.”

“No.” I shook my head. “Your father was promised protection from natural death.”

“Semantics.”

My lip curled. Crimson burned through my vision as the Beast pressed closer to the surface. “The knife that killed him would disagree.”

Sebastian recoiled and his arrogance faltered. The rage disappeared, and I saw the child instead. The little boy staring up at me from beside his mother’s corpse. Mismatched eyes filled with grief and terror, tears streaming down his cheeks.

I had forced the Beast to spare that child because he was innocent. Because he didn’t deserve to die for choices made by his parents.