“But Valen couldn’t have known you were out protecting the city. No one knew you were a vigilante until you got caught trying to assassinate your brother,” I said.
“That’s the thing— hedidknow. Valen found out about my assassin work before this happened. I had to tell him, because he discovered my things while he was snooping around in my room. When I confronted him, he swore to keep it a secret,” Kallie said. “I couldn’t figure out why he didn’t use it against me for leverage.”
“If he’s the Dollmaker, exposing your assassin work could potentially expose him as well, and this is a game to him, one he doesn’t want to stop playing,” Charlie said.
“Exactly. He’s looking to impress me with these killings because he was one of the few people who knew I was hunting predators,” Kallie said in disgust. “And because heknewI’d give him attention if he became a serial killer, he started slaughtering girls that looked like me, in the hope that I’d start pursuing him. He wanted the thrill of the hunt, the excitement of the cat-and-mouse chase.”
“He sees you hunting him down as a romantic pursuit, a reversal of the courtship that had failed on his end,” I said sickeningly. This shithead was a real piece of work.
“But the killings haven’t stopped since you came to the Institute. If anything, they’ve ramped up,” Charlie said.
“Because he’s trying to taunt me. It’s a part of the game he plays,” Kallie said. “When we were together, Valen liked to push my boundaries, especially in public situations where I couldn’t freak out on him without causing damage to the reputation of the royal family. This is probably some sick fantasy of his— me locked behind bars, unable to stop him while he slaughters a facsimile of me over and over, to fulfill his sense of revenge and get back at me for rejecting him. He’s pushing my boundaries again, and since I’m locked up, I can’t say no.”
Kallie glanced at Marcus, almost in a needful way. “You’re being awfully quiet.”
“I just… don’t understand why you felt like youhadto win the King’s Contest in the first place. Valen sounds like a horrible person. Why did you want the crown that badly? It wasn’t worth it to be with someone so vile,” Marcus said. It sounded like it physically hurt him to imagine her being mistreated.
“I didn’t want to be queen. I wanted the opportunities it presented,” Kallie replied. She stood from her chair, irritated he’d asked.
Marcus pressed on with more questions. “How’d you begin your assassin work? You were barely a teenager when you started your vigilantism. Teenage girls don’t start going around killing people randomly. We need to know.”
Kallie took a slow, deep breath. She paused for a moment, contemplating what to say, before she finally spoke. “The first time was an accident. I didn’t mean to kill anybody, I justdid. But when I saw the effects it had on other people, how someone dying meant someone else could live… I realized there was a chance for me to make a difference. Maybe not in the most virtuous way, maybe not in the way I wanted, but what I could do to help my countrymattered. So I put aside any sense of self-morality and started on my work.”
“Tell us everything,” Marcus said gently. His tone remained open, telling her he was okay with whatever she had to confess, no matter how terrible it may seem to say out loud.
“When you’re a part of the royal family, or even in the noble class, people are always looking to take advantage of you. If they can’t manipulate you, they’ll use violence,” Kallie began. “When I was fourteen, a group of political terrorists had attacked one of my own. A person I dearly love— my cousin, Theodora. They abducted her and sent a ransom note to our family, trying to force my father to pass a decree he found abhorrent.”
Kallie began to pace. She moved quickly back and forth, her eyes staring at the floor, as if she was talking to herself more than to us. “My father had sent soldiers to find her, but it’d been days, and nothing had come up. My brother and I did what we could to rally our friends behind our parents’ backs. We were still kids, really, but I knew we had to get together and dosomethingto bring her back.”
Kallie quickly spun on her heel. “We were able to figure out where Theodora was. My brother was always excellent at research, and I quickly found out that I was good…reallygood… at finding clues and putting them together. Because we were kids, we had ideas about things the adults didn’t think of. We figured out where she’d been when she was taken, and where they were keeping her at the time.”
Kallie’s voice got darker. “My brother wanted to go to our parents, get their people on it. But I was worried if he did that, they’d kill Theodora before the soldiers managed to rescue her. I was sure I could save her, so I went off alone.”
Her words turned vengeful. Almost like she enjoyed this part of the story just as much as she hated it. “My parents… they gave me the best training available. I’d had a blade in my hand from the moment I could stand, and even back then, I knew how to wield it. I realize now that my parents knew I was a demigod, and wanted me to be prepared for whatever I had to face in the future. But in doing so, they’d unknowingly created a superweapon, a little girl who was able to slaughter anyone she wanted to, and slip unseen into the shadows, because who would suspect such a terrible thing could be done by a teenage princess? I didn’t have magic, because I wasn’t old enough, but I had a dagger, and I had my rage. That would always be the best weapon I could ever ask for.”
Kallie shrugged. “I snuck in… managed to sneak Theodora out. But as we were escaping, we got caught. The kidnapper tried to kill us. So I killed him.”
She turned away from us as she went on. “I should’ve felt remorse… some sort of regret for taking a life. But I didn’t. All I felt was relief that Theodora was safe, and that the person I killed could never hurt anyone else.”
Kallie crossed her arms, spinning around to face us again. “I thought that was the end of it. Then I saw on the news there was a murderer on the loose— someone who had killed his mate and kids. Fordays, that ate away at me. I knew I could do something about it, because I’d already done it once. So… I did. I told myself that after that, I was done. Yet I found him, and killed him too, and it wasn’t enough. It dawned on me that this didn’t have to be the end. I could stop all kinds of hideous people from doing awful things. And once that hit me, it seemed selfish to turn away, just to save my own soul.”
“It wasn’t your responsibility to save everyone,” Marcus said kindly.
“It became my responsibility once I realized I could do some good in the world, despite knowing the kind of sick person I was turning into. Worse than that, I realized I was the only person who had the stomach to do the job,” Kallie said spitefully. “Do you know how many people I had toallowget hurt, because the person I was hunting ended up working for someone else, someone who was going to do something evenworse? Do you know how many monsters I had to let go, so they could lead me to someone who was truly evil?”
Kallie’s voice shook with fury. “I broke into the Arcanea Alliance station so many times, and I reviewed so many tapes— so much gruesome footage, so many horrible crimes. And we’re not talking petty shit. This kind of stuff involved innocents…children.Police in the Arcanea Alliance were quitting their jobs or killing themselves because they couldn’t stand to watch what was on those tapes. That kind of stuff changes you on a level you guys can’t understand. Yet I sat there and forced myself to watch, because those videos contained evidence, which I needed to put these sick bastards down. I told myself I was strong enough to handle it. Theonlyperson strong enough to do what no one else could, and exterminate these beasts like the roaches they were.”
Kallie punched a pillar. Her hand went straight through the concrete, creating a hole, yet she kept on going.
“But it wasn’t enough. No matter how many psychos I put in the ground, more always cropped up. That’s when I realized… these kinds of people werecommon.They were everywhere, in every community. Yeah, you had your run-of-the-mill criminals, who you could just look at and tell they were no good. But so many of them were blatantly average. They were involved with schools, had regular jobs, shit, they were in the fuckingpriestesshoodfor the gods’ sakes. And nobody looked at them. Nobody knew who they were, except me, and even if I duplicated myself a hundred times, I could never catch them all. And that’s where the King’s Contest came in.”
She put a hand to her mouth, contemplating the past. “I knew if there was any chance— any chance at all— of stopping the horrors that I’d seen, I needed a crown behind me. I needed armies… money… unlimited power. I needed people who would comply with what I asked without question, because I would be their queen and that’s what duty would demand of them. I never wantedthe throne.I wanted the resources it could provide me, resources that I’d attempted to get on my own and couldn’t as a princess.”
Kallie gave a noise of disgust. “My parents had tried and failed for years to stop the underground crime rings in Malovia, but they weren’t willing to go to the lengths I was in order to put a stop to this. So I chose Valen as my partner for the Contest, and used him in order to win, because I knew I had to do so at any cost. But during my Trial of Competency, I made a mistake… I was too honest. I told the governing members of the Circle what my plans were, how we could put an end to the people’s suffering. I really thought they’d be behind me, that they’d think I was a visionary.”
Kallie shook her head. “All of them betrayed me. The Circle called my methods disturbing, even insane. Yet I’d dealt with this firsthand, and I was certain that only someone who had the balls to be just as twisted as these predators would be able to exterminate them for good. I wanted to haul each of them out one by one, every name on every list I’d compiled, and behead them in the public square, without a trial. That’sexactlywhat they deserved, and it would send a message to everyone who dared to think about harming an innocent. Yeah, I wanted my people to love me. But Ineededthem to fear me. Because when you’re dealing with monsters like the ones I slaughtered, that’s the only language they understand.”
She dropped her gaze. “It didn’t work. The Circle deemed me unfit to rule, took what I’d rightfully won away, and gave it to my brother.”
