Chapter twenty three: I'm dying

Freya's pov

Darkness shut in around me entirely. I didn't know where the earth ended and the sky started. The furnace that had once burned within me now howled to a distant hum, accompanied by a seeping cold crawling into my limbs.

And then a voice slice through the quiet.

"Freya… "

Finnick's voice

I didn't hesitate to speak, but my throat dry, my skin crawling heavily. Each move, each breath, was labor.

"Freya, please."

His voice was louder this time—fearful, like a roar__with fear.

But I could do no more than stay there and stiffened, accompanied by the whirling blackness.

I felt a tap on my shoulders, shaking me, calling my name. And then I felt goose bumps on me, drawing me towards the light.

I opened my eyes again and saw myself but no longer in the void.

Finnick was kneeling beside me, his face terrified and tight with worry. The familiar smell of pine and earth surrounded me, but there was something else__ darker.

“You’re awake,” Finnick breathed, his voice rough. “Thank the moon.”

I blinked, confused, trying to push myself up. “What… happened?”

"You passed out," he said, his voice calm but his eyes betraying the unsettlement he was holding back. "The god's mark—it's consuming you__drainning you."

I looked at my hands, the fissures still warmly burning with that black fire. They seemed to pulsate with a rhythm not mine. My heart thudded, a gruesome awareness settling in.

"I don't…" I paused, trying to hold on to the tremble from my voice. "I don't feel like myself."

"Of course You're not," he said, softly, gently. "You're bound to it now. The power of the god… you have it. It's changing you."

I squeezed my eyes shut, attempting to hold down the fear building within me. I was no longer Freya Kael. I was something more. Something deadly.

Something broken.

I struggled upright awkwardly, gasping. Finnick thrust forth to hold me up, but I pushed him back.

"No! I don't need your help," I growled, but my voice was audible than a whisper.

"I think You do freya," he said, his voice softer, almost a plea. "Freya listen to me . this is not you. The mark—it's killing your soul gradually. And it's draining you."

"I am not a weakling," I shut back." I didn't need anyone before this, and I don't need them now." The words tasted like clay in my mouth. Even as I was speaking, I knew I was a lie to even myself.

There was fear caged inside me waiting to explode. The god's flame had burned inside of me, and I had no idea how much of me was left__would survive 

I grinned my teeth and took a step forward, putting gap between Finnick and i. But when I did, the world around me started to blur. The ground under my feet shook, and the wind vibrated with power.

I sucked in a gasp, feeling it's pull. The god's power was dripping something away from me. Something greater than I could ever give.

 I didn't know how long I could hold out.

"Please, Freya You have to let us help you," Finnick's voice reached me, worried. " please—"

"Back off, stay away" I warned, my voice a growl. It wasn't me speaking any longer. It was the flame, and it was taking over. "You can't fix it. You can't fix me."

I pulled away, palms held up, fighting the temptation to let the god engulf me. The darkness inside me desired to burn all to ash. It desired to feed.

But I fought it__Not for Finnick. Not for anyone.

But for me.

Riven appeared, his eyes flashing to me with an inscrutable face. "Freya, you must hear us. We cannot battle this alone."

"Watch it," I spat back, the anger flaring. It was a flavor I did not wish to lose. "I am not helpless."

"You're not," Riven said, advancing, his voice softer. "You're just in danger."

The winds screamed past us, pressure building. My flesh burned as the fissures on my body radiated with heightened intensity, on the verge of consuming me entirely.

"Believe you're in control," Riven continued, his gaze fixed on mine. "But the flame doesn't obey like that. It doesn't serve. It consumes."

"Then let it," I sneered, venom hanging from every word. "Let it consume everything." And with that, I released it.

The air exploded. My eyes went black in a flash of gold and darkness. The flames roared, blurring out of me in a mad, uncontrollable blaze that knocked everything around me flying. Trees shattered. Rocks exploded. And the wolves—Finnick, Riven, Aelira—they all recoiled.

"Freya!" Finnick yelled. But I didn't hear him. I only heard the flame—the god—breathing in my ear.

"Yes…" it breathed. "Yes. Let go." The god was within me.

It was so much more than I'd ever dreamed of. Its voice. Its strength. The potential that it held.

But amidst the madness, I sensed it: something other. A pull followed by a voice, weak but unmistakable.

"Freya… don't listen to it." I stood stock still, It was his voice.

Finnick.

The attraction of the flame was great, but his voice greater. My mate. The man I had loved, the man I had struggled to keep from my head. He was the anchor that kept me grounded.

I fought it, though now it was harder, the shadow pulling at me like a tide pull. But I could not let go of Finnick. Not after everything.

I panted, breathless. My body shook, my hands trembling as I clung to what was left of me.

And the flame whispered for the third time. "Kill him. Destroy everything."

But I turned away from the god. I turned to Finnick.

"No," I breathed, my voice raw. "No more."

---

But the moment our eyes locked, reality slammed into me. I couldn't do this alone and I wasn't alone anymore.

Finnick grabbed for me, hand open. "Freya, I can help you. With you. We can do battle with this. We can battle them."

Before I could find my grip about him, though, something else happened. Mood changed.

Darkness arrived__Kade.

A curl of scowl about his mouth, and in his hand the final piece of the jigsaw: a black-bladed knife that bore a very old symbol.

It's not the god you need to fear anymore," Kade told him, his tone cold, emotionless. "It's me.".