Galilee Rising(109)

"Because of me!" I blurt out. "It's me! It's all my fault."

Jordan turns, and his mouth drops open almost surprised I'm still here. "Shut up, bitch! This has nothing to do with you."

"No matter how much you don't want that to be true, deep down you know it is. Because no matter how much you think you love your brother, it doesn't hold a fucking candle to how much he and I love each other. Think about it. We planned this whole thing together, including me unmasking him. That wasn't my idea, Jordan. Unlike you I'd rather die than hurt your brother, but he convinced me to. He was willing to sacrifice his entire life, his career, just to keep me safe from you."

"Stop it, Joanna," Jem says.

"Shut up!" Jordan yells with a punch to Jem's already tender face. "You're lying."

"I'm not. And you know I'm not. Because you stopped me yesterday. And you may have told yourself it was because you loved him, that you wanted to save him. But really? You knew what it meant. That he would do anything to save me. Just like I knew what coming here would mean. That even if I die here today it's worth it because I die knowing I gave him a chance to be free of you. Because that's what love is. Love is crawling down into the pits of hell, fighting tooth and bone and nail to drag his ass out no matter the cost. This," I say, gesturing to the bomb and Jem on the floor. "Us…" I meet the love of my life's tear filled eyes so full of love, and the world fades. "Is true, pure, once in a lifetime love. It's everything. And you can't fucking touch it."

It's so quiet for a few seconds we can hear the blood dripping. I'm vaguely aware that Jordan glances from Jem, to me, then back at Jem, but I don't take my eyes from my hero nor him me. And for a moment all is right in the world because it's just us. As it should be. Until Jordan punches him in the face again. "Her?!?" He bashes again. "Her?"

Jem's head lolls to the side as Jordan stalks toward me, picking up the knife Jem lost on the way. "She's nothing!" The knife wielding maniac leaps onto the platform. "This bitch?!" he bellows as he slices my cheek with the blade. White hot pain brings tears. Jordan spins around so we're both facing the terrified Jem. He attempts to pull out the rod but after all the damage, his strength has left him. There's so much pooled blood that still pours from his chest a normal man would be dead already.

"Leave her alone," Jem says.

"Leave her alone?" He grabs my right ring finger, snapping it back with a crack. I can't stop the howl of pain. "Leave her alone?" He snaps the pinky, and I almost vomit in agony. "She can never love you as much as I do!" He punches me in my slashed cheek. For a moment everything goes from black to fuzzy. "Me!" he says, sounding far away. "I'm the one who protected you! Who loved you when no one else would?" He socks me in the chest, the sound of cracking ribs hurting almost as much as the physical sensation. "I am the only one who understands you!" He hits my face again, cracking my nose. Blood spews down. "We have the same soul! We're the same person. We are all we have in the world. I love you. Tell me you love me." Jem doesn't say a word. I'm still seeing spots, but I know Jordan leans beside me, wraps his arm around me, and presses a knife to my throat. "TELL ME YOU LOVE ME!"

Jem glances at me for confirmation. We both know no matter what he says, I'm dead. I slowly blink. No more games. If I die, I die from the truth. He owes me that. Jem glances behind me, his mouth twitching before meeting his brother's eyes. "I don't love you. How could I? You took advantage of me. You destroyed everything and everyone I ever loved. Including the brother I looked up to. Who kept me sane. Who was my best friend. You obliterated him, even from my memory. He ceased to exist in the one place he ever really lived: my imagination. You are dead to me. I will never love you. I loathe you. And it has nothing to do with her, or Uma, or Tempest, or anyone else. It's you. You're wrong. A mistake. An abomination. I wish you'd never been born. And death is preferable to spending another moment on this earth with you."

The knife trembles against my throat. I glance up at Jordan. Tears stream down his mask as his lip twitches. If he had a heart, I'd swear it was breaking. "Well. Then. I live to serve you, brother." He reaches into his belt and pulls out the detonator. "Nothing left to do then, is there? We came into this world together, we'll leave the same way." The monster's gaze moves down to me. "You first, though cunt."

"Now!" Jem shouts.

We both glance up at the ceiling as the machinery whirrs to open the panels. What…? The whoosh of air behind us draws our attention again. I turn and see a yellow flash zooming mid-air toward us. There isn't time to react. Liberty, force field glowing around her, grabs the arm holding the detonator, twisting it to almost a hundred eighty degrees as tendons and bone crack like kindling. The detonator drops. Before it completes its descent, she kicks Jordan in the crotch, grabs his shoulders to bend him down, and knees him in the jaw. He collapses on his back right beside me. Fuck.