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“Shall we what?” Peel your face off, perhaps?

“Pay a visit to my new friends.”

I couldn’t help my tongue. “Oh, you’re capable of making friends? Interesting.”

Don’t goad him, idiot!

“Funny elf.”

As he spoke, a bloodcurdling scream went off behind me. I spun to see another human woman running along the bridge, her clothes soaked with blood.

The first woman had died in her efforts to crawl.

“Help me!” She fell, landing on all fours. “By Aidan! Help me!”

The deity laughed. “Hear how she begs me?”

My skin crawled with so much hate. “Yeah, because she still believes you’re some glorious⁠—”

His hand closed around my neck, crushing my windpipe. “Just because I can’t kill you right now doesn’t mean I won’t stop trying.” He bared his teeth—the teeth of Hal, my former bestie and lover who betrayed me to save his own skin.

I kneed him in the balls, not expecting it to work.

He squealed like a piggy, his knees hitting the ground with a satisfying crunch. He grabbed my legs, his mean golden eyes flaring up at me.

“You—”

The same knee collided with his chin, sending him onto his back. Smack went his head, yay went my fucking delight.

I pounced on him, summoning my stakeblade into my right hand as I fell on him, driving the vampire-killing weapon into his chest repeatedly.

The cherry wood and steel instrument might be specifically designed for vamps, but it could stab the hell out of anything else if you put the effort into it.

“Fuck you!” I screamed.

Blood sprayed my face, my heart gonging in my chest.

This was who I was. A cold executioner. Born to do this. Only, I’d been trained to not be so emotional, to hunt and deliver the killing blow without anything other than rock-solid determination.

“Fucking piece of shit!” I roared, throat on fire. Furious tears ran down my cheeks.

This thing, this deceitful, evil thing. He’d made me believe in him, praise him, bend the knee at his temples. And for what? Nothing. For absolutely fucking nothing.

Let him hurt.

Let him bleed.

Let him suffer.

This was for everyone, including the vampires. They weren’t the real enemy. He forced them to be.

Everything I am is a lie.

With every stab, revenge resonated in my core. This wouldn’t end him, but the wet sounds, the blood, they were more valuable than any coin. A currency of suffering I was more than happy to dish out.

Calm down…

No, I wouldn’t calm down. Not until he left existence permanently.