Foam clung to his lips.
His hands twitched weakly.
Zuko let the man drop completely with a grunt, retracting his fangs as he wiped his mouth with the back of his arm. Blood smeared across his jaw.
That action shouldn’t have been as hot as it was.
“Didn’t want to do it like that,” he muttered. “But he gave me no choice.”
“You…” Eleanor’s voice broke. She took a shaky step forward, eyes locked on the crumpled form of the man she’d been pleading for. Her fingers trembled as she raised a hand to her mouth. “He’s—he’s not?—?”
Zuko glanced at her, then rolled his eyes. “Relax, Eleanor. He’s not dead. We didn’t vote on that yet.”
Her breath whooshed out in a soft, shaken sigh. Her shoulders sagged, just slightly. “Still,” she whispered. “You didn’t have to bite him.”
“Idid,” Zuko snapped, his irritation flaring in the way orange scales scattered his arms before fading back. “You want to know what it feels like to have this guy’s hands around your throat? Ask Aura.”
Aura was still sitting on the ground, rubbing her neck, face pale but jaw tight. She didn’t speak, but her silence was its own kind of statement.
“I think it’s obvious what we have to do,” Slater said with a shrug. Snakey coiled back into his shadow.
Dimitri nodded slowly, stepping forward and folding his arms. “This wasn’t just one attack. He’s dangerous. Irrevocably. Look at this place.” He gestured around us, at the decayed forest, the ground where the rot had spread, the village lost to time, and Aura and myself. “He did this. With a broken heart and a broken mind, sure, but it doesn’t make it any less horrible.”
Eleanor shook her head, voice rising. “But he didn’t mean to! He was grieving. His mate—he was trying to bring her back. That doesn’t make him evil; it makes him…lost. We have to try. The penitentiary. Psych eval. A healing ward.Something.”
“He strangled Aura not even a minute ago,” Dimitri said flatly. “And you want to rehabilitate him?”
Aura flinched.
“We are not executioners,” Eleanor snapped.
“Envoys aren’t,” I agreed gently, though even envoys knew when to eliminate a threat. Perhaps it was something she’d have to learn the hard way. “But there are agents who are. My mother is an executioner.”
“My dad kills shitty supernaturals daily.” Zuko shrugs. “He’s an agent.”
“Rune’s right,” Slater replied. “You think the agent coordinator would even let him live long enough to blink?”
“Enough,” Dimitri said, stepping forward. “We vote.”
The wind stirred the dead grass around us. The trees, barely clinging to life, creaked in the background. The magic in the air still felt wrong.
“I say we need to eliminate him.” I glanced at Eleanor with a sympathetic expression.
She turned her head, clearly in disagreement.
“Same,” Slater echoed. He didn’t look away from the warlock. I was sure he half-expected him to rise again. I did.
“Healing didn’t work,” Koa added solemnly. “There’s nothing left to reach. He’ll just be living this way. Elimination is a mercy.”
“Look what he just did.” Zuko just shrugged. “He needs to be put down.”
Dimitri grunted. “Agreed.”
“I agree,” Aura rasped, glaring at the man.
“I vote in favor of elimination,” Coralynn said softly. “It’d be cruel to keep him locked up for the rest of his life to miss his mate.”
All eyes turned to Eleanor. She wouldn’t look at anyone.
