“Don’t.” Koa’s growl was a subsonic roll through the small room.
“Why?” She pouted, making me roll my eyes. “Afraid she’ll be jealous?”
Casimir stepped in next, his gaze barely flicking toward her.
“Of what?” he muttered, positioning himself against the opposite wall, arms crossed.
“The golden boy speaks!” Eluned cackled, straining against the enchanted cord binding her hands and magic. “Tell me, do you all take turns with her? Can she satisfy even one of you properly?”
I remained in the doorway, watching this display just out of her sight. In the past, her words would have cut me to ribbons, each syllable another wound on my heart. Now they felt hollow, like the hissing of a snake whose fangs had been snapped.
Once, my only strategy against the Harrows had been silence, a retreat into myself where they couldn’t follow. But that had been ashield, not a sword. Now I had both: the strength to protect myself and the power to fight back.
With a deep breath, I stepped inside the room. Three sets of eyes tracked my every step, alert and ready to intervene if needed.
As I moved closer, I noticed that Eluned seemed smaller somehow. Diminished. She didn’t meet my eyes, but she was aware of my presence. I knew because she began to sing in that creepy little girl voice she used when she was taunting someone beyond reason.
“Hickory dickory dock
The mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck four
The mouse said ‘NO MORE’
Hickory dickory dock.”
Her head tilted at an unnatural angle, her eyes wild as she stared just past my shoulder.
“Tick tock tick tock.”
“Shut up, bitch!” Koa roared, taking a step forward, his fists clenched at his sides, and I hooked my index finger in his belt loop to stop him from charging her.
She laughed, and I waited until it trailed off before I spoke.
“I pity you, Eluned. ”
Her head snapped up, her eyes finally meeting mine.
“Pity?” she spat. “I made you eat ashes! I pushed you into the fire! I watched you starve! Ihurtyou! Over and over!”
“Yes,” I agreed with a sad little smile, “you did all of those things. And now look at you.”
Her face twisted with rage, and I gently drove the knife in just a little deeper.
“You never had a chance, did you? To be anything other than what you are? Instead of helping you like she should have, Arabesque only made you hollow.”
“Hollow?! I am aHarrow! I am—”
“Rotting,” I finished. “Like everything she touches.”
Screeching like a wounded animal, Eluned thrashed against the enchanted cord, trying to break free, trying to reach me with her clawed fingers. I didn’t flinch or say another word. There was nothing left to say. I turned away, feeling strangely light, as if some invisible weight had finally lifted from my shoulders.
“Look at me when I’m speaking to you, worthless!” she shrieked.
As her screams grew louder, wordless howls of rage and frustration, Casimir straightened from his position against the wall, face unreadable. Koa’s eyes blazed with pride. Zane gave me a small nod, a ghost of a smile touching his lips.
I motioned for them to walk out ahead of me and waited until they were crowded outside the door before I paused at the threshold, just for a moment. This was the closing of a chapter, the end of a story that had defined me for too long. Beyond this room lay a future untainted by her shadow. With a smile, I stepped through and pulled the door shut behind me, and the soft click of the latch felt like the period at the end of a very long, painful sentence.
