“Shut the fuck up!” Damien hissed at him.
“Please, Haydn.” Evelyn cupped his face to keep his attention on her. “Let me be yours. I will go with you willingly. But I can’t love you if you kill everyone. Give me this one thing so I can love you.”
Haydn’s eyes were locked on Evelyn, intoxicated by her words. “No more arguing? No more tears? I spare them and you will love me?”
“Yes! You want to make me happy. You said so in my room. This is how! Keep them alive, and you can have me!”
Haydn’s expression was slowly swinging from skeptical to hopeful.
“I don’t want to be in mourning when we get married,” Evelyn continued. “We can still have everything we want! Just move them out of the way instead of killing them.”
Haydn considered her proposal. A glimmer of something unpleasant passed over his eyes. “I want a compromise in this deal.”
“What do you mean?” Evelyn asked nervously.
“There are five heirs here. Three Connollys and two Ducasses. You can keep four of them.”
Evelyn stopped breathing.
“You can pick whoever you want,” Haydn added. “It doesn’t make a difference to me. But only four of them can leave this room alive.”
“I… I can’t!” Evelyn barely got the words out.
“Then I kill all of them.”
“No!”
“You can’t have it both ways. I will marry you, even if I need to drag you down the aisle. But I would prefer your cooperation. So I can kill five people today and carry you out of here kicking and screaming. Or I can kill one person, and four of your loved ones leave here unscathed. That seems like an easy choice.”
“I can’t sentence one of them to death!”
“You would rather they all die?”
“No! But?—”
“This shouldn’t be difficult, Evelyn. If Hannah doesn’t get to a Healer soon, she’ll die anyway. I can speed things along, and the rest of them can leave here alive.”
“She’s my sister!”
“What about your father, then? You were so mad at Alexander for lying to you for a week, but your father kept your own identity a secret for over a century! Can you really forgive him for that?”
“Haydn, stop! I can’t?—”
Camille’s confident voice interrupted them. “Pick me. Kill me and release the others.”
“Mother, no!” Leo yelled.
“I have lived a long life. I’ve already lost my husband and one of my sons. I would rather die for my remaining son and my daughter-in-law than lose them, too.”
Tears streamed down Leo’s face. “Mother, don’t say that!”
Evelyn’s eyes stung as she tried not to cry, both for Camille’s offer and Leo’s pain.
Haydn looked at her with anticipation. “There’s your Bargain, love. Your whole family and your soon-to-be ex-husband get to live. Only one death from a willing volunteer. Then you and I will be together. Just say yes.”
Evelyn made eye contact with Camille, who nodded at her.
Leo will never forgive me. But I don’t know what else to do.
