Order of Scorpions

by Ivy Asher

The only thing I ever want to be to anyone is the last thing they see before they die.

There’s a part of me that welcomes the threat in his eyes while another piece of me promises I won’t go easy. My blood doesn’t run cold. Sweat doesn’t bead my brow, and there’s no hesitation weighing my muscles down as his eyes stay fixed on mine. All I can think is, if he’s going to kill me, maybe sooner rather than later might not be such a bad thing, and I wonder how many of them I could take with me before I go.

My proximity to this arrogant Order member doesn’t bother me. I don’t feel threatened, only challenged, and I’m done handing my power over freely. If this Scorpion wants to play, then let’s play. I sting too.

What happened to me is that they’ve finally stripped me of everything. This is what happens when there’s nothing more to live for, when there’s nothing left to lose.

I don’t want to get a taste of this life and love it, only to find out that it’s poison.

It’s not just life that’s hanging in the balance here, it’s as though they’re coming for my soul. No one ever taught me how to defend against that, and I worry I’m already losing the most important battle I may ever fight.

She’s yet to discover this about me, but I always get what I want. And I want my mate. I don’t care how long it takes or what I have to do. I’m tenacious in my focus and drive when I want something. I never give up.

“What doesn’t kill us fortifies us,” I offer gently, my strokes through her hair slowing as we stare at one another. I feel as though a part of her is reaching out to me, and something in me takes a hold of it and vows to never let it go. “We can take those things…” I continue, my voice growing deeper as purpose and regard settle like a tether between us. “Melt them down, mold them, and reshape them until they work for us instead of against us. Then, when we have weapons instead of wounds, we make the fuckers pay for what they did to us.”

I’ll burn to nothing if that’s what she needs, and then I’ll show her just how I rise from the ashes and take what’s mine.

I’ve let their tempting promises and charm weaken my resolve, but it’s time to get back to the truth I do know about this world. I am the only one I can really count on, and I need to figure out who the fuck I am and what the fuck I want, and I need to do it soon.

“Full moons, half-moons, crescent moons, all the moons, now just as deadly as my Moonling,” Curio tells me, and my eyes flick from the gorgeous little daggers hidden down my legs to his warm ardent eyes.

They should really consider a name change from Order of Scorpions to Order of Confounding Cunt Teasers.

Vengeance pressed against my lips, whispering dark vows of justice and punishment, and just when I leaned into the promised kiss, it all disappeared with a taunting laugh echoing in the air all around me.

There’s no judgment. No promises that it will get better. No exchange of horror stories to help me feel less alone. They just sit with me. Breathe with me. Hurt with me. Each of us floating in the abyss of unfair fate and the countless wrongs against us.

It may take me time to decide things, to move in one direction or another until I’ve worked through all the possibilities and consequences of my actions, but once I’ve decided on something, I go for it with a single-minded focus that helps make me the best at what I do. I don’t doubt. I don’t question. I take.

They’re mine, and we’ll possess and protect each other long past our last breaths, because even death will know it has no claim here.

Violence and death brought us together, but it’s the stolen kisses, the way our bodies fit under the sparkling stars and the searing sun, the laughter, and the precious moments between the blood and brutality, that ensure we’ll never be torn apart.

“We would follow you. There’d be no choice in it. Where you go, we go,” he whispers, as though he’s trying to hide his words from fate.

“I’m going to write my story in your fucking skin,” I growl. “Let’s see if you can survive what I endured. Ready?” Her eyes grow wide with fear. She screams as I press the iron blade to her back, but the sound is lost to the powerful control of Neith’s thura. “Perfect,” I viciously praise. “I screamed until no sound came out too. Now, let’s start with how I woke up in a cage and learned that iron burns.”

We are the dealers of death that creep from the shadows. We are the owners of each other’s destinies. We are the Order of Scorpions, and our reign begins now.