A chill tightens the grip on my knife.
“If it pleases you, you may stab me again. Uncle Jim was like that. He had to go on… a lot of dates to find someone who liked to be stabbed. My mother went… out with him once, but… their interests didn’t line up… so she hooked him… up with her… sister.”
Her face pales, but there’s not a flicker of pain in her eyes. Not a flicker of fear.
“Richard,” Jace says, his voice low. But I don’t give a shit if she’s fully indoctrinated in this cult. She was willing to let her daughter be raped on her sixth birthday. And despite me having rounded up all the children who lived here, I seem to have missed one.
So I don’t give a shit if she’s a victim herself; I’m more than willing to live with her death on my hands if it means saving Cara and avenging my wife.
“It would please me,” I say softly, “if you died.”
“O…kay.” Stepping back, she pulls herself off my knife. Then she flings herself forwards, impaling her neck on the blood-slicked blade. Her eyes flutter shut as she slides to the ground, but her grin never wavers.
“Shit,” Jace says as he stands beside me, looking down at her. “That’s going to give me nightmares.”
I hand him my knife. “Get rid of this while I find Cara.”
“We should get a witch to bless it first,” he mutters as he pinches it between two fingers and holds it away from him. “What are you going to tell Arienna?”
“Can’t tell her anything if I can’t fucking find her,” I say as I march back to the man that pointed out Dab. “Where’s Cara?”
He points to a group of brownies.
All adults, they walk down the street, groping each other as they move. One of the women sees me and beckons me over. The two men beside her are kissing her neck. One’s groping her tits; the other has his hand down her panties.
“Do you want to come to my wedding?” She turns to kiss the man on her left. “We’re having an orgy!”
She points to a banner I didn’t notice at all.
Cara’s Sixth Wedding: Orgy Ceremony. Dress Optional.
Shit.Still no fucking regrets though.
My skin tight, I head for the meadow surrounding the town. I’m not ready to head back home yet. It feels too empty in her absence.
As I push through the flower stalks, bright colours wave above me. Ants and grasshoppers move through the dense greenery. Something bigger rustles on my left. Jace appears on my right, the knife I used to kill Dab gone.
But still my skin crawls. It feels too damn exposed on the forest floor. Would Jace and Evangeline let her stay down here? No. So maybe she’s in another city.
Maybe I should let her go.
I think about how torn up she was about Saragese. If I drag her back to my side, she won’t survive my world.
A growl claws its way out of my throat.
No.
She’s mine, and I’m hers dammit. If she’ll still have me. I will figure it out. With Evangeline as queen, that’ll allow me to shelter her from the worst parts of Raza. I can ease her in slowly. I can keep changing our barbaric laws. I can wait until she’s ready to be queen, and then I can –somehow– kill Evangeline so I can marry Arienna again.
Or maybe… Maybe I give my ex the crown. She’s crazy, but she won’t destroy Raza. She’ll protect my sister’s legacy perhaps even better than I. My chest tightens as I think about an actual future with my queen.
We can move up to Vyla’s border.
Fight for peace in a different way.
“How is she?” I ask Jace. He’s already given me his daily report on her, but I want to hear it again.
“She’s alive and well and doing better than you. She eats and showers every day. You want a berry?”
