‘No, over his. But if necessary, I’ll take Eliza.’
I can’t help but laugh. ‘Eliza wouldn’t touch you if you were the last prick alive.’
Roman rolls and pushes to his knees. Eddie notices and turns back to him, fingers gripping the handle of his blade. A flurry to my left catches my eye.
Coffin perches on a baseball bat. Clever bird.
I inch closer, mouthing thank you to the one-eyed crow as my hands close around the smooth wood. It’s heavy as I pick it up, my pulse hammering in my throat.
Dashing forward, I swing.
It connects with Eddie’s arm with a sickening, meaty thud that rattles my teeth. With a roar, Eddie stumbles back and lifts his knife toward me in his non-battered hand.
Roman groans. ‘Fucking run, Maggie.’
But running would leave Roman to Eddie’s knife. He’d be dead long before I could get back.
I swing harder. The bat slams into Eddie’s forearm as he charges at me with the knife. It skids across the floor in a metallic glimmer.
Roman takes the moment to throw himself at Eddie’s legs, tackling him to the floor.
I don’t remember moving, but suddenly I’m staring at the knife. It’s heavier than I expected when I pick it up. A shiver dances through me at the thought of the death Eddie’s favourite knife had wrought. I’d first seen it when we were just kids. I’d seen the pain it could elicit before I’d even hit puberty.
Tremors shake my body as Roman gets Eddie into aheadlock, choking him from behind while they lie on the floor.
Eddie’s laughter descends into a cough, blood bubbling at his mouth.
‘Go on then, Maggie,’ he taunts. ‘Show us what you’re made of, you finally going to make your daddy proud?’
I step closer, my eyes flicking to Roman, his brow furrowing at the knife in my hand. Will he hate me if I do this? As much as Eddie mocks me, this is my chance to prove myself. And if Eliza is to be believed, the first kill is the hardest.
A drop of blood wells beneath the tip of the blade as I press it to Eddie’s throat, Roman sliding clear of him. Eddie’s pulse flutters there, vital and strong.
‘You should have come in like you usually do, quiet and hidden, the knife filleting a throat before a man even knows you’re there, but you just had to gloat, didn’t you, Eddie?’
I can’t do it.
‘You wanted me to watch.’
‘You need to learn your place, Maggie. You’re not a killer. All you’re good for is being a bang maid and your last fucking name.’
A red haze descends over me, and for one horrifying second, I want to slice him from ear to ear.
Will it quiet the buzzing in my head if I do? I want him gone. The world will be a better place when he is.
My hands are shaking so badly that the knife trembles against his skin.
Roman’s voice cuts through it, low and urgent anddesperate. ‘Maggie. Look at me. You don’t have to do this. Not for me.’
A sob escapes my throat as realisation folds around me.
‘I can’t,’ I whisper.
Eddie explodes upward the moment he sees my weakness, snatching the blade from my hand and shoving me aside like I’m nothing.
I hit the floor hard, air escaping my lungs in a painful huff. Tears prick as I realise I’ve doomed Roman.
‘Stop!’ I scream. ‘I’ll marry you.’
