Is this man having a panic attack over the possibility of failure? Why would they want Bel to be immortal when they arrive?I hold back a shiver at the horrifying possibilities.
“What will they do to you when they realize you’ve failed?” I ask, feigning curiosity and fueling his fear of inadequacy.
“Youshut up,” he orders. “Just— shut the fuck up. You have no idea what you’re talking about. It wasn’t supposed to go like this.”
“How do they punish hunters who murder their own and then fail at their mission?” I cackle, resting my head on the chair beneath me and closing my eyes. I’m still fairly certain I won’t get out of this alive, but at least he won’t either.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he chants, still pulling out his hair and smacking himself.
“You could just leave, you know,” I suggest with nonchalance. I’ll catch him no matter where he flees to, but it’ll be easier if he’s not surrounded by concrete walls and spelled cages.
He starts laughing, a desperate, manic sound, “No. No, you don’t fucking get it, demon.”
If I keep him talking, he might be distracted enough when they arrive to take him by surprise. “What don’t I get?”
He gestures around us, “That was the whole fucking point!”
“What?”
“This! This whole thing was my idea,” he confesses with his hands on his knees, fighting to keep his breath steady. “This was supposed to be my way out. I ensured no matter the pain she faced, Bel left unscathed. She was 100% healed when I was done with her. The hand thing was her own doing.Ipushed her into the soulbond, ensured she would ask about it and make it happen.
“AndIknew it was only a matter of time before she came back to set everyone free.Imade sure everyone focused on you, letting her get away. ThenIpushed her and Fritz hard enough that they would come in after you. And everyone here is unprepared, barely out of training— thanks tome. So they were going to succeed, and I could slip away during the carnage. But now…fuckingIsla had to go and do this. She fucking ruined everything. I just wantedout.” His voice breaks on the last syllable, losing all steam from his outburst.
Now I really fall into laughter, looking at the crazed man in front of me incredulously, “You love this life. You relish the cruelty of it, in fact. You’ve spent five days cutting me to pieces. You just shot a man in cold blood, and now you want to act as if you’re the victim here?”
With no witnesses, no one to preen for, this hunter is deteriorating in front of me. “I am who I was made to be. I am who I wasforcedto be.”
I scoff, “As am I, and yet you think that reason enough to hurt me and my loved ones.” He and I face off, two monsters looking through a convoluted mirror.
“Do you think you are the only one who stands to lose something to this war?” His eyes start to water, “Do you think I have not also suffered great loss?”
Truthfully, no.“I do not think you could ever love anyone but yourself enough for their death to matter.”
“You knownothing,demon.”
“I know my girl and her best friend are here with a mystery cache of weaponry and explosives,” I tell him. “And I know that if somehow you survive their fury, the recompense you’ll face from your own will be almost as horrifying as the one Bel has planned for you.”
His face pales, knowing one way or another, this ends in someone causing him unimaginable pain on his way to his grave. I shouldn’t feel sorry for him, but I do. None of us down here fighting want to be.
“And I know,” I continue, “that if you flee right now, no one would ever be the wiser. This building is coming down one way or another. Surely, they’ll believe you went down with it. Just like you planned.”
He narrows his eyes, “You just want me to leave because you think it’ll help your chances of escaping.”
A sad laugh escapes me, “I don’t think it matters whether you are here or not. Orders have been relayed, choices made; the pieces will fall where they fall. You and I are insignificant.”
“I could just kill you first, ensure no one finds out about this,” he reminds me, brandishing some strange, handheld contraption. “Things have gotten a little more advanced since your last trip to Vankhala.”
My skin crawls just looking at the horrible little device, a circular thing with thousands of teeth-like spikes. “You could. But you’d have to get awfully close to use that thing, and there’s a good chance my saviors will get here before you can escape afterwards.”
“If I let you live, you’ll just hunt me down.”He’s not wrong there.
But trust must go both ways, so I sigh, making a deal I’m sure to regret, “I certainly can’t guarantee your safety if you kill me. But if you leave now, and swear never to try to find us, I’ll do the same.”
“Really?” his delivery is flat with disbelief.
“On my life, I swear it. I never see your face again, and you live. You don’t even have to free me. Just go before the girls show up and-”
This gives him genuine pause, brows furrowing in some strange emotion I don’t understand, “I don’t even get to say goodbye to Bel?”
