“I’ll gut you like a fish,” he said.
Better. She could work with that.
He came at her slowly, drawing a knife from his belt. Seraphina tracked his movements, the shape of him growing larger as he closed the distance between them. She shifted her weight to the balls of her feet and held her stick low, angledacross her body. Hartmann lunged, slashing upward with the blade. She stepped back and swung the stick hard against his wrist. The crack of wood on bone was music to her ears, and she heard the knife clatter to the ground. He cursed and dove for it, but she was faster. She brought the stick down on his shoulder, then jabbed the end into his ribs. He grunted and staggered sideways.
“You think you’re clever?” he snarled, circling her. “You think you can fight me, you blind little whore?”
She didn’t answer, just kept her stance wide and her breathing steady. He came at her again, this time with his hands out, trying to grab her meager weapon that was proving to be quite an inconvenience to him. She twisted it free and cracked him across the jaw. His head snapped to the side, but he recovered fast and caught the stick mid-swing. He yanked hard, pulling her toward him, and drove his fist into her stomach.
Pain exploded through Seraphina’s middle. She gasped and dropped to one knee, but as Hartmann moved in to finish her, she swept the stick low and hooked it behind his ankle. She jerked it back with all her strength, and he went down hard, his skull hitting the cobblestones with a sickening thud. He let go of the stick, and she rolled away, scrambling to her feet.
“Matteo is dead because of you!” she hissed at him.
She hit him across the back as he tried to rise.
“You coward, you ran when it was your job to stay and fight!”
Another blow, this one to his shoulder. He roared and pushed himself up on his hands and knees.
“You betrayed the academy and the Order!”
She swung again, catching him in the ribs, and he collapsed onto his side, wheezing. She stood over him, chest heaving, the stick raised high. He rolled onto his back, blood streaming from his nose and mouth, and she brought the stick down witheverything she had, striking him under the chin. His head lolled to the side.
“Because of you, they raped me and carved my eyes out!”
She shouted the last words so loud that if it hadn’t been for the river now at her back, its waves churning violently, people might have heard her.
What had happened to Seraphina two years ago wasn’t something to be spoken of. The shame, the filth she still felt on her body and inside it, the innocence she could never get back... Those were to be kept hidden, tucked safely in the recesses of her mind. She used to think that if she buried them deep enough, one day, she’d wake up and her heart would be light again because she’d simply forgotten.
What a foolish idea.
Not that revenge was the absolute answer, either. Killing them all wouldn’t erase what they’d done to her. But it was something.
Seraphina lifted the stick, ready to bring it down on his skull.
A hand caught it mid-air. Seraphina’s heart lurched. She spun toward the river, and the relic showed her his tall shadow standing in the gateway, the Danube roaring behind him.
“No,” he said.
“Rune...”
“I’ll do it.”
Chapter Fifteen
It was a woman’s thing, a woman’s misfortune and humiliation to carry.
Seraphina’s arm started to ache. The stick felt heavier with each passing second, and her grip loosened as her hand began to shake. She’d raised it high, ready to bring it down on Hartmann’s skull one final time, but now she stood frozen, caught between what she’d promised herself she’d do and what her body seemed unable to finish.
Below her, Hartmann groaned, the sound wet and incoherent. His skull was probably cracked from where she’d already struck him, his ribs were broken, and his mind was either too shattered to form words or too far gone to try. He was already done. All she had to do was deliver the last blow.
She couldn’t.
Rune didn’t let go, but didn’t take the stick from her, either. He was waiting for her to make up her mind, giving her a choice, even as he’d made his resolution clear. They stood like that, locked in place.
Seraphina didn’t know how much he’d heard before he’d appeared behind her, didn’t know if he’d caught the last thing she’d shouted at Hartmann. The thought made her feel unmoored, like the ground beneath her feet had turned to water. Like the Danube had spilled over to draw her in and wash her away, along with her shame and her sins.
If he’d heard... If Rune knew... Could she live with it?
