I push her off, ready to toss her through a thousand windows if I have to. But I've barely completed the thought when I'm sideswiped by a horrible, sharp, squeezing pain.
Watching as Drina steps toward me, face pulled into a grin, paralyzing me so that I can't even stop her. '
"That would be the old head in a vise with serrated jaws trick."
She laughs. "Works every time. Though, in all fairness, I did try to warn you. You just wouldn't listen. But really, Ever, it's your choice. I can ratchet up the pain-" She narrows her eyes as my body folds in agony, slumping toward the floor as my stomach swirls with nausea. "Or, you can just-Iet-yourself-go. Nice and easy. Your choice."
I try to focus on her, watching as she moves toward me, but my vision is distorted, and my limbs so rubbery and weak, she's like a fast-moving blur I know I can't beat.
So I close my eyes and think: I can't let her win. I can't let her win. Not this time.
Not after what she did to my family.
And when I swing my fist' toward her, my body so feeble, clumsy, and defeated, I'm surprised when it lands square in her chest, grazing the front of her, before falling away.
And I stagger back, devoid of all breath, knowing it wasn't nearly enough, didn't do any good.
I shut my eyes and cringe, waiting for the end, and now that it's inevitable, I hope it comes soon. But when my head clears and my stomach calms, I open them again to find Drina staggering back toward the wall, clutching her chest, and staring accusingly.
"Damen!" she wails, looking right past me. "Don't let her do this to me, to us-"
I turn, to see him standing beside me, gazing at Drina and shaking his head. "It's too late," he says, taking my hand, entwining his fingers with mine. "It's time for you to go, Poverina."
"Don't call me that!" she wails, her once amazing green eyes now blurred by red.
"You know how I hate that!"
"I know," he says, squeezing my fingers as she shrivels and ages then fades from our sight, a black silk dress and designer shoes the only evidence she ever existed.
"How-" I turn to Damen, searching for answers.
But he just smiles, and says, "It's over. Absolutely, completely, eternally over." He pulls me into his arms, covering my face in a trail of warm wonderful kisses, promising, "She'll never bother us again."
"Did I-kill her?" I ask, not quite sure how I feel about that, despite what she did to my family, and all the times she claimed to have killed me.
He nods.
"But-how? I mean, if she's immortal, then wasn't I supposed to cut off her head?"
He shakes his head and laughs. "What kind of books are you reading?" Then his face becomes very serious when he says, "It doesn't work like that. There's no beheading, no wooden stakes, no silver bullets, it all comes down to the simple fact that revenge weakens and love strengthens. Somehow you managed to hit Drina right in her most vulnerable spot."
I squint, not quite understanding. "I hardly touched her," I say, remembering how my fist met her chest, but just barely.
"The fourth chakra was your target. And you hit the bull's-eye." Huh?
"The body has seven chakras. The fourth chakra, or heart, chakra as it's sometimes called, is the center of unconditional love, compassion, the higher self, all of the things Drina was lacking. And that left her defenseless, weakened.
Ever, her lack of love is what killed her."
"But if she was so vulnerable, why didn't she guard it, protect it?"
"She was unaware, deluded, led by her ego. Drina never realized how dark she'd become, how resentful, how hateful, how possessive-"
"And if you knew all that, why didn't you tell me before?" He shrugs. "It was just a theory I had. I've never killed an immortal, so I wasn't sure if it would work. Until now:"
"You mean there are others? Drina's not the only one?"
He opens his mouth as if to say something, but then closes it firmly. And when I look in his eyes I see a flash of-regret, remorse? But just as quickly, it's gone.