@deliverthem: I LOVE YOU. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANTED TO HEAR?
"fuck you!" unasked for, unwanted, the oath bursts from your mouth anyway, like spitting blood. "fuck you, why would you --?"
flint looks haggard, near-skeletal among the mist and the trees of the island, but you know better than to be fooled. you see the blood on his sword, on his clothes. there are no others left alive who'd underestimated his competence. or his cruelty.
you knew that this moment would come. the inevitable parting of ways, where flint's hunger for his war would drive you and madi into that endless storm. where you'd outlive your usefulness as his tool, his right hand, and you'd end up in the ground for it. like gates, like mrs. barlow, like thomas hamilton. there had been a time when -- no. there had been a time you'd believed that you and he were truly partners. that there was nothing that could come between you, not the english in nassau, nor billy's pitiful attempts at manipulation. that since you'd revealed your scheme to him in that longboat, flint had finally come to see you as an equal. to listen to you, even.
surely that's what mr. gates had believed too, while flint's hands were closing around his neck.
you'd stared into those dark depths, and he'd looked back, and he'd seen something -- how empty you are, how base, your wretched, rotten heart. something. and now, cunning and desperate, he thinks to fashion this insight into a weapon to use, proclaiming love to prepare you for the killing blow? you aren't that naive.
"i see you," you say, too loudly. your words ring in the stale air of the forest. "i see what you're trying to do." the hand holding your sword has begun to shake uncontrollably, and your eyes burn. "if you think i'll stand here and listen to more of your lies, your false fucking promises ---" anger, hate, something else blocks your throat like a rising tide. you swallow harshly. "there really is no lie you won't tell to achieve your ends."
