Tammy.
I caught a glimpse of her dress before she disappeared into the shrubbery, chasing the shriek of another monster.
“Do you feel that?” Lee muttered. “The ground’s gone still.”
Relief prepared to take hold, but movement from the corner of my eye made me turn and take aim.
Róisín. Sections of her dress were splattered in blood, her pearly white hair pink with little bits of gore. I kept my gun raised as she came to a stop mere feet away from me.
“It is done,” she said. Although she didn’t smile, a glint danced in her eyes. “Are you pleased, hunters?”
Lee gave a little scoff but didn’t correct her. He peered at the blood-watered forest. “Something like that,” he said.
Monsters all dead. Eros' armed guards dead or unconscious. By all accounts, the loading bay was clear.
Breathing heavily, I dared to lower my gun. Shedidstop. She wasn’t going to keep spreading her wrath upon the innocents out in the world. Still, a voice at the back of my head begged me to kill her now while she least expected it. A voice that sounded like Tammy’s.
If I waited any longer, Tammy would do it herself.
“Get out of here,” I said.
Róisín blinked at me. “You made a request, and I answered it in full. It is only right that you listen to my request in return.”
An angry chill crawled down my spine. “I’m letting you live. What else could you want?”
“You carry a silver blade upon you.”
“I’m not going to drive it into your back the second you turn away. Justgobefore I change my mind.”
An odd energy resonated from her, humming through the forest like it shared a pulse with her. She tilted her head up and breathed deeply, admiring the trees. The smallest hint of a smile graced her lips, and for a second, I saw the type of beauty that could drive a person insane.
“I can think of no better place,” she whispered, more to herself than anyone. She looked at me beseechingly. “Let my lifeblood spill upon my final creation. I humbly beg you, hunter.”
Lee and I shared an equally disturbed look, but there was no mistaking her sincerity.
“Are you sure that’s what you want?” I asked, the ire in my voice softening.
“More than anything.” She slowly closed the space between us and lifted a hand to caress my cheek. She searched my eyes like she could find some unreachable answer in them. “If there is ever a realm where his forgiveness can be found, it is not in this one.”
A few years ago, I would have been overjoyed to comply with her request. But now, a part of me mourned that she wouldn’t have a chance to see the outside of a cage any further than this before she died.
But she was ancient and dangerous, and she had made up her mind.
I pulled the small silver blade from my pocket. Gently, I guided Róisín to lie upon a mossy patch of ground. She mostly kept her attention on the forest canopy, but her eyes flickered to me with warmth every few seconds. It struck me again—how fragile she felt as I wrapped my left hand around her shoulder to steady her.
“Thank you,” I said. Without her, this would have been next to impossible.
She leaned into my touch tenderly, but I got the sense she was picturing someone else. Who knew how long she’d been in that glass cage, or when was the last time she’d felt a kind touch? She was a perfect, unearthly beauty, lying there. I could understand, even through ample caution, why people would go mad venturing into the woods for just a taste of those perfect, lonely lips.
“I think that person you lost would be proud of what you’ve done here,” I said, glancing at the righteous carnage and foliage that littered the bay. I wasn’t sure what possessed me to say it, but it felt right when Róisín smiled ever so slightly.
“Eoin,” she murmured. “Yes. Perhaps he would.”
I watched her face the entire time as I drove the silver blade into her heart. She made a soft noise: something between a frightened gasp and a grateful sigh. As the light left her eyes, I swore the forest withered slightly.
Slowly, I pulled my blade free, the metal sliding cleanly back through flesh and bone. Róisín’s blood inked through her pearlescent gown, ruining the illusion that she was some glittering spirit. Now, she was just another body. Amonster.But something in my chest squeezed at that sightless expression on her face. I closed her eyelids before standing.
Foliage rustled. I felt eyes on us before I turned. Achingly familiar eyes I’d never thought I’d be at odds with.
