She brought up the dagger with her right.
“I don’t think you’re in the position to tell us what to do, do you?” She grinned and pressed the sharp knife against my throat. “Last chance. Where’s another bottle of Ashfall blood?”
“I told you!” I cringed away from her blade, cursing myself for being so pathetically weak. “He hasn’t given me another one! That other one wasn’t even planned. He just—”
“If that’s true, what do we need you for then?” Evelyn smirked, tracing the metal tip along my cheekbone. “Better to get rid of you so someone else—someonebetter—can serve in his bed.”
“For the last time, I’m not sleeping with him!”
“There’s only one way to make sure.” She smiled and pressed the dagger against my very breakable skin. It split with a sharp sting, the tickle of blood rolling hotly down my neck.
“Wait!”
Lydia’s fingers clamped harder as I struggled. “Just let it happen,” she cooed. “Fighting will only make it hurt worse.”
“Oh, I think a bit of pain would be good after she’s wasted so much of our time, don’t you?” Evelyn snapped. Rearing upright, she removed the dagger from my throat and grinned. “You really shouldn’t have gotten in our way, you know.”
And then she hit me.
Hard.
A ruthless punch to my face.
Stars exploded. Coppery blood bloomed in my mouth.
“That’s for wasting our time,” Evelyn spat as she pulled back.
She hit me again, this time in my stomach.
I tried to curl in and protect myself, but Lydia kept me trapped.
“That’s for thinking you’re better than us.”
She hit me again, right on my breast.
I groaned as pain exploded.
“And that’s for refusing to give us what we want.”
Every punch compounded in my skull as fireworks shot up my spine and gathered in the base of my skull. The migraine that’d been simmering since they’d arrived ignited, hijacking all my senses with shooting, searing misery.
I squirmed, wishing I could claw and bite and win—but that nasty dagger pressed against my throat again.
Panting, I did my best to look through the haze and beg. “Please...y-you don’t have to do this. You don’t have to kill me.”
“Yeah, we do.” Evelyn leaned close, her eyes full of evil satisfaction. “You’re lucky we kept you alive this long.”
Lydia’s fingernails gouged into my wrists, jerking my arms so hard they threatened to pop out of their sockets. “Do it.”
I fought.
My panic set off a tumble of dominos in my brain, shutting down my senses, making me blind and deaf and petrified.
Evelyn raised the knife, aiming for my heart.
She brought it down—
Chapter Forty-Five
