Not just done with being afraid or done with running. Done with Arabesque Harrow’s existence. The certainty settled into my bones, cold and hard and unshakable. I might not have had much in the way of offensive magic, but I had something better: My monsters’ lessons burning in my mind, their love fortifying my spine, and Koa’s knife filling my hand.
“You’ve learned a few tricks,” Arabesque sneered, although uncertainty flickered in her eyes now. “But you’re still just a child playing with power you don’t understand. I’ve walked with demons, little girl. I’ve bartered with old gods. What have you done except hide behind your husbands?”
I didn’t bother responding. Words had never moved Arabesque. Instead, I took a deep breath, centering myself the way Casimir had taught me. The shadows around us deepened, pooling like ink all around me. Perfect for what I needed.
Arabesque maybe stood twenty feet away, her hair not even ruffled. Her pale green eyes glittered with contempt as her lips formed words of power. The air around her hands shimmered, dark and venomous, as she gathered a Dark spell in her palm like black flames.
“I told you before, Serafina. You belong to me. You’remine.”
As she hurled the curse at me, I reached for the spaces between light, and the shadow welcomed me like an old friend. For a heartbeat, I existed in the in-between, then I stepped out of the shadow realm, right behind her, silent as a memory.
Wrapping my magic around her, I called on the moon’s gravitational pull, but instead of hurling her into the air like I did with Zane once, I used the immensity of it to hold her in place.
“I wasneveryours,” I whispered, my lips at her ear. “Neither was Josslyn nor Brummy nor Papa.”
Her pulse jumped. Fast. Frightened. Human. For all her power, for all her cruelty, she was just flesh and bone. Not a goddess. Not a demon. Just a woman who’d made herself into a monster.
And home wasn’t someplace she could touch anymore.
“But you were right about two things. Me leaving wasn’t the end of anything, only the beginning of my happily ever after.” I tightened my grip on Koa’s knife. “And distance didn’t free me, butthisdoes.”
And I did it just like they’d taught me. Left side, between the fourth and fifth rib. In and out. Quick and clean. No hesitation.
Her body went rigid against mine as I gave the knife a swift jerk, my hands steady despite the blood slicking the handle, then I drew back both the knife and my magic.
And Arabesque Harrow crumpled on her belly in the dirt at my feet, eyes wide with disbelief even as the light faded from them.
The woman who had terrorized me, who had stolen so much of what I loved, who had broken Brummy and me down to nothing and laughed while doing it, reduced to a heap of expensive fabric over a cooling corpse.
And I felt… not joy. Not even satisfaction. Just a sense of finality. Of a chapter closing.
Everything around me suddenly seemed to exhale, vision sharpening, sounds clarifying. My heart hammered against my ribs and my chest heaved, but I felt light. As if I could float away on the next breeze.
Movement on my left had me turning to see Foster leap off the porch, Brummy at his side, his tail wagging as they sprinted over.
“Mission accomplished?” I was surprised by how much my voice wobbled, and I let Koa’s knife fall to the ground, my hands shaking too much to hold it safely.
“Mission accomplished.” Smirking, Foster held out a giant fist. “Good job, Little Boss.”
“You, too.” I bumped my bloody knuckles against his with a nod, then quickly stilled when the world spun.
“Brums says, ‘We win!’ and now he’s chanting ‘Bad Hurt Witch dead!’ ”
“Yeah, we won.” I stared at Koa’s knife lying on the ground next to Arabesque’s corpse.
He can get it back himself before they burn her,I thought inanely as starlight exploded behind my eyes.
“Foster?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you, um, maybe catch me? Think I’m going to—”
#
As if I were underwater listening to something on the shore, I heard Foster’s heartbeat first, then felt Brummy’s wet nose nudging my cheek.
“She’s okay, Brums. Just fainted.”
