“You’re a mystery,” she told him. “Where have you been the past three years? But of course, you’re not going to answer that.” She hooked her hands behind her back to start a cool-down stretch. “Anyway, the nuns at Saint Vivia’s decided to be neutral. They defended their relics from the Harvester but were alsonot willing to give them to the academy to be used in the war. Things might’ve been different if the purists and the doctrinists in the resistance didn’t declare one month into the war that they intended to destroy all relics when it was over. So that no one would ever start a conflict again over holy bones. Headmaster Wolff said we don’t deserve them, that humanity cannot handle the power and magic of the saints. I agree with him, I must say, but I don’t think we should destroy them. The nuns thought the same, so they organized raids when they heard about relics being moved. I went on a few. The convent’s relic vault is pretty full now, with bones confiscated from both the bad guys and the good guys. They only use them when absolutely necessary. The rest of the time, they protect them with their lives.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“You said you were in bad shape when the nuns took you in.”
Seraphina sat on the wooden cot, her hands on her knees. They were shaking slightly after the exertion.
“I don’t want to talk about that,” she said.
After a minute, Rune tried again.
“Can I ask you something else?”
“Go ahead.”
“Why did you hurt that man?”
She grinned. “Let’s say he had something to do with the bad shape I was in when the nuns found me.”
“You wanted to kill him, and you couldn’t.”
“Yes.”
“He must’ve done something awful to you.”
Seraphina puffed out her cheeks and nodded. She knew Rune couldn’t see her, but it was fine, because she didn’t want to stretch out this conversation. She’d spent a long time in the darkness of her own mind before she was able to not identify herself so much with what had happened to her. After two years,it had gotten easier, and the knowledge that she was finally doing something about it, that she was back out into the world, hunting the men who’d ruined her, made the memory of that day bearable. Sometimes, she could even talk about it. Before she’d left, she’d told Briar, described details she’d kept locked in, so deeply stored that when she brought them to the surface, she realized they’d turned fuzzy. She’d told Briar because she’d hoped her friend would understand why Seraphina had to leave without saying goodbye to the sisters who’d taken her in and nursed her back to herself.
“You shouldn’t kill him, though,” Rune said.
“What?”
“You said it yourself, you couldn’t do it. Because you’re good.”
She scoffed. “That’s not the reason. I couldn’t do it because I’m weak.”
“I don’t think you’re weak.”
Seraphina shook her head, starting to feel exasperated. “What do you think, then?”
“That you shouldn’t soil your hands with his blood. He should die, yes, but not by your hands.”
“No one’s going to avenge me, Rune. It would be nice if the world worked like that, but it doesn’t. He’s in a position of power and protected by it. And he’s not the only one. Four more men I must rinse off the face of the earth if I want to ever find my peace. And those four are much more powerful, dangerous, and unreachable than Hartmann.”
At that revelation, Rune needed a few minutes to think. He hadn’t known, but now he knew. There were five men on her death list, and Hartmann was the lamest of them, especially now, with his manhood shortened.
“I would do it for you,” he said, finally.
His voice took on a grave note. It caused a fluttering to spread beneath Seraphina’s skin. Her hands moved from her knees tothe edge of the wooden cot. She pursed her lips as she squeezed hard, feeling a dull pain in the finger Briar had once broken.
“I’d kill them for you. One by one.”
Chapter Six
She was going to die here, wasn’t she?
What did one say to that?
