Meridan said nothing and the longer she left Lyla without an answer, the faster she seemed to lose interest. She began wandering Addison’s shop, running her fingers along various metal scraps scattered throughout the space like a child.
Meridan took that opportunity to lean toward me and whisper, “She sounded like Mullins. That’s why I opened the door. I thought it was Mullins.”
A sharp chill struck my nerves, slicing through me like shards of ice. I instinctively tugged Meridan behind me.
“Take the supplies and hurry Addison along,” I whispered.
She walked briskly and quietly toward the back door, eager to leave the shop where Lyla was wandering. Just as she left, Lyla chuckled.
“If I wanted to, I’d have done it already,” she said, slowly turning to look at me, her lips stretched into a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
“Done what?” I coaxed.
“You know what. But I’m looking at Dahlia, the heretic. The betrayer. I had hoped to see you one day. Hear your voice. Find out what the fuss is about.”
“Why do you care? Why are you even here?”
“Why? Because father is upset.” Her eyes continued to darken like splotches of ink were spreading from her pupils. Her smile flattened and her gaze pierced right through me, looking into the void. “And we hate when he is upset.”
I slid my foot back toward the door. I could hear Nox snorting and stomping his big hooves against the soft ground. He was uneasy like a deer sensing a wolf nearby. We all were. Lyla took a slow step toward me, her long fingers moving like the legs of a prowling spider, tipped with dirty, sharp nails.
“Are you afraid, Dahlia?” she said, her tone changing. Mutating. Bending into something vaguely familiar. “Don’t be afraid.” Her voice had shed the youthful eeriness completely and instead… I heard my mother.
I reached across my body to grip Vidar’s sword with my other hand. Her eyes followed my movement, excitement shimmering in her dark gaze.
“Eager to kill me?” she said, maintaining my mother’s exact pitch. “Again.”
My impulse said to talk back, but I knew it wasn’t her. My mother was dead and Lyla was nothing but a poor imitation.
“Or,” she continued, speaking in her own cadence once more. “Perhaps you’re just determined to killallof your sisters.” Her face turned down, shrouding her eyes completely in shadows.
Suddenly, I heard heavy boots on the wood floor behind me.
“Fucking cunt,” came Addison’s voice.
Before I knew it, the loud pop of a pistol firing filled the shop. Lyla’s right shoulder jerked back, but she remained standing, the smile slowly returning to her lips. The smell of gunpowder and smoke filled my nose and Lyla’s laughter flooded my ears.
“Wagon’s loaded and ready,” Addison said.
I pulled Lady Mary from my belt and stepped back, watching black blood bloom on the already stained shift Lyla was wearing.
She took another step toward us and Addison pulled a second pistol out of her thick, leather belt and fired another shot, that time hitting her in the abdomen.
I grabbed Addison by the arm, pulling her toward the door as Lyla doubled over, holding her palms to the new wound. Before we could see if she would recover, I closed the door behind us. Meridan had just finished propping open a wooden gate and was running back to the loaded wagon where Nox was hammering his front hooves on the ground, ready to run.
“Two bronze slugs will keep her down,” Addison said, climbing onto the bench on the front and grabbing the leather straps.
“No,” I said. “They won’t.”
Meridan and I climbed into the back as Addison flicked the reins. Nox jolted forward just as the back door burst open, the wood splintering off the frame. Lyla, her front covered in dark blood, walked out, the same blood dripping from her smiling mouth. But now her blunt teeth had changed. Every one of them was tapered to a sharp tip, making her smile almost as menacing as the sons’.
“You have no friends here, Dahlia,” she spoke in my mother’s voice. “Run, traitor. You won’t get far.” Her voice faded into the distance as Nox hurried out onto the road. “You are only on these shores because weletyou in. We won’t let you out!”
Addison flicked the reins again, commanding Nox to go faster. Villagers and sirens began to filter from the buildings, coming to the street at the sound of the ruckus.
“There are pistols in the leather bag under my bench!” Addison shouted.
Meridan and I quickly dug for them, hanging on to the sides of the wagon as it bounced over the brick.
