I turned toward the sound of it. It was several shocked moments before I realized what I was looking at.WhoI was looking at.
“Die, wish.”
“Jonathan?” I gasped.
His face was completely deformed, his forehead sloping back, his nose and mouth elongated like a muzzle. His few remaining teeth were long and pointed, his gums bleeding profusely.
His body was in a similar, half-formed state, with long, gangly arms and legs bent awkwardly like a dog’s haunches. He was naked, half covered in fur and half in rotting flesh.
He looked like a shifter caught mid-shift, and now he pointed a gnarled, twisted finger at me.
“Die, wish.”
Witch.That’s what he’d been saying.Die, witch.
“What the fuckareyou?” I unsheathed the dagger and got to my feet, but disgust and astonishment—and a flicker of pity—made me hesitate. Was he in pain? Could he move? How had he even reached the summit?
What the hell had he done to himself?
He was pitifully broken, blood dripping onto the snow where he stood. A soft whimper escaped his lips.
And then he lunged.
Despite appearances, he was faster and stronger than a human. Stronger than me. He barreled into me at full speed—shifter speed—knocking me to the ground easily.
The beast was on top of me, pinning me in the snow, my arms trapped uselessly beneath his weight. I clung to Sophie’s dagger, but it didn’t do me any good. I couldn’t move.
Jonathan snapped his teeth in front of my face, spattering blood across my cheeks. It was a show of dominance more than a real threat, and I wondered how long he’d drag this out. How long he’d torture me.
He’d spent his entire adult life doing just that.
Rage bubbled inside, and a flicker of my magic stirred to life.
“You’re pathetic!” I shouted, squirming beneath his weight. Inside, my blood warmed, the magic humming through my veins. Gathering strength. “Look what you’ve done to yourself. You couldn’t hack it as a man, and now you’re just a freak. An abomination.”
“Not abomination. Choice,” he slurred. “My choice.”
“You didn’t choose this. No one would choose this. You tried to make yourself into something you aren’t—something better. And you failed, Jonathan. Everything you’ve ever done has failed.”
He swung his monstrous head from side to side, as if to tell me no.
Then, he howled. Gasped. Sputtered.
And I stared in horror as the bones beneath his face shifted, his body slowly returning to its damaged human form. The weight on my chest lifted.
I could breathe again.
I could move my arms.
“I wanted this,” he said, his words clarifying. “It was the only way I could—”
I slammed the dagger into his side, shoving his dead weight off my body.
Jonathan gasped, and I rolled on top of him, pinning him down. Blood leaked from the wound, staining the snow ruby red.
“It was your father’s way,” I said, my hands igniting with blue fire.
Take it. Take it. Take it.
