Fate's Surrender (Eternal Sorrows Book 3) by Sarra Cannon (android based ebook reader txt) 📕

The Dark One shrugged, as if that had been nothing at all. “You’re the one who brought me here to this pitiful world.” She glanced around. “Doesn’t seem like your little plan has worked out all that well, after all.”

The fight inside Parrish told her to run. Or to lift her sword or gather some of her power into her hands. But she couldn’t. The power of the Dark One’s presence held her to the spot, her knees trembling.

With what confidence she could manage, Parrish squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. “We’ve kept you in prison for centuries, haven’t we? I wouldn’t say we’ve done such a bad job.”

The Dark One smiled through the woman’s eyes and face, and Parrish wondered how it must have felt for her to be locked away alone for so long with no power. No one to talk to.

She obviously enjoyed having some of her freedom back.

Parrish hadn’t realized the Dark One could take such direct control of a zombie, but she wasn’t entirely surprised, either. With every new death and awakening, she grew in power. There were likely over a billion deaths worldwide now. Maybe more.

What more would it take for the Dark One to go free? Did everyone have to die? Or was she on the brink of freedom, even now?

And if this was how her power felt when she was using a dead human as a vessel, what would it be like to face her in person?

Parrish sucked in a ragged breath.

“You used to love me, though you’ll never remember it now,” the Dark One said. “You were once like a daughter to me. You were a lot like me, in fact.”

Parrish lifted her chin. There was no way she’d ever loved this woman. “I don’t believe you.”

“It doesn’t matter what you believe.” The Dark One leaned against the side of the bus, so close Parrish had to turn her head slightly to see her face. “It’s practically over now, anyway. I have almost everything I need to retake what was stolen.”

Parrish wanted to move, but at the same time, she wasn’t entirely sure she had control of herself.

The magic surrounding the Dark One was both intoxicating and terrifying at the same time.

“Then why show up here, if you’re so close?” Parrish asked. “Just to see me one last time before you kill me?”

The woman studied her and laughed.

“I don’t want to kill you,” she said. “Not here. That would be too easy for you.”

Parrish glanced at her, confused.

“Too easy for me?”

The Dark One’s eyes flashed, and she leaned in closer, running a jagged fingernail across Parrish’s cheek.

“I want you to suffer for a thousand years, the way you made me suffer,” she said, almost growling low in her throat. “I want you to watch everything you’ve ever loved be taken from you, including the home you once adored and cannot even remember. I will force you to remember, and then I will kill everyone who aided you or opposed me in any way, including the Guardian’s Council.”

Parrish recognized that term from one of her dreams of the old man, Tobias. He was part of the Guardian’s Council.

“I’ve had a thousand years to plan my revenge on you and the world who betrayed me and denied my gifts,” the Dark One said. “And I will not let you die in a brief flash of pain. I will torture you in a million twisted ways you could never imagine. I will make you beg for death. I will bring you to its merciful edge, and then I will give you life so that I can do it all again.”

Parrish’s lip trembled slightly, but she kept her head held high. As long as she wasn’t going to die here and now, she could endure whatever she had to so that she could fight back against this horrible monster of a woman and all the pain she had brought to this world.

“I will hunt you down first and kill you before I’ll let that happen,” Parrish said, daring to look the Dark One in the eye.

The woman laughed.

“That’s the strength I was looking for,” the Dark One said. “Even though you cannot remember your true self yet, you are strong to your very core. I have always loved that about you.”

“We beat you once. We can do it again, with or without our memories,” she said.

“If you had beaten me, we wouldn’t be standing here now,” the woman said. “Between the five of you with all your power and knowledge, you couldn’t figure it out, and you’ve gotten no closer to the truth after all these years of rebirth or reset or whatever it is your ancient one likes to call it.

She leaned in and whispered.

“You did not beat me, Parrish. You enraged me, and the entire universe will suffer for it. I promise you that.”

“No. We won’t make that same mistake again,” Parrish said. “This time, we won’t lock you away. We’ll kill you. That’s my promise.”

“I cannot die,” the Dark One said, leaning closer. “But I can kill. And I’ll start with your sister. I have her now, in fact. She plays her violin so beautifully, it seems to weep in her arms. Such an innocent girl. I will enjoy introducing her to unimaginable pain in your presence.”

The Dark One kicked at the hunk of melted metal near her feet.

“Maybe I will turn her into one of my toys and send her after you. Let you kill her a second time. Won’t that be fun?”

Parrish laughed.

“You’re a liar. You don’t have my sister,” she said. “She got away from you, and you’ll never find her now.”

Surprise flashed in the Dark One’s eyes for a brief moment, but her surprise quickly turned to rage. She gripped Parrish’s jaw in her hand.

“You obviously don’t understand,” the Dark One said. “I am death, and eventually, everyone belongs to me. Even you.”

A thick wooden bat came