Page 88 of We Were Eternal Once

Bury her. I needed to bury her.

Of course, how could I be so stupid? You said so when I was created, that the dirt of my grave would give me strength. Perhaps it would resurrect Zora? Beneath me was only limestone and packed dirt. I wrenched the cross from the wall and used it to dig into the ground. It breaks apart after a few swipes, the silver not strong enough to withstand my frantic digging. I abandon it for my hands. My nails break and regrow, break and regrow, my blood painting the limestone.

It takes hours, but at last I have a hole for her. I have to break her bones to fit her into it, but she would heal when she awoke. It will be painful, but it would be fine.

The sun rose and set, rose and set. Exhaustion tugs at me, but I will not give in. I need to keep vigil.

I ate the other human man to keep me awake.

She did not rise.

She did not stir.

I push her hair off her face, only for the skin to come with it, exposing the white of her skull.

Zora was dead, she wasn’t coming back.

I have nothing left to give. My voice is hoarse, my lips chapped, my eyes burning. I could not sob my tearless cries anymore. I could scream my voice raw then let it heal then scream again. I did all of this and more, and more, and more—until I collapse onto the ground.

I killed her by not believing her. I killed her by not protecting her from Caterina, from not acting sooner. My indecision, my uselessness, my…

No.

This was not my fault. This was Caterina’s. I stand, swaying on my feet. It’s been days since I slept. I didn’t need sleep to kill Caterina, I just need to do something first.

I need to find you, so we can do this together. Zora would have been in our family, she would have been one of us. You will join me in outrage, won’t you?

You have to. You have to do this for me.

I cover Zora’s body with limestone, protecting her from the creatures that crawl through the tunnels. I take a piece of the broken cross and etch her name into it with my fingernail and place it atop her grave.

“Don’t worry,” I whisper to her. “I will avenge you.”

I walk back to the house.

The Fall

Icount each of the gems on my bracelet. I don’t remember when I took it back from Zora, but it is mine once more. It will be a beacon of my rage, a reminder of the debt that is to be paid.

Caterina took my only friend, and I will destroy her. I will destroy her printing press, her secrets, her everything. It won’t be enough to kill her, no. There is much else to do first.

First I will find her little informants, the moths and butterflies that whisper the secrets of the city to her. They must be who informed her of Zora, who followed her where we could not. I would catch them one by one and drain them. Then I would string their bodies up where she could see them, so she would know they did not just disappear.

They were taken, just as she took Zora from me.

Then I will go after her businesses. I will break the printers, I will melt them down to nothing. I will burn the buildings and the humans inside them.

Next, I’ll go to her home. I will sneak in when she is not there and destroy things. I will dig through all her effects to find what she loves most, and I will take it as mine. She will be afraid to leave her home for theft, but afraid to remain within her walls and confront her assailant.

Will I tell her it’s me? Will she know?

Do I return to Le Sang Bleu so I can watch her fall apart as her life crumbles? Yes—I will turn a sympathetic ear to her sorrow. I will find other things to destroy, other ways to hurt her.

And then, when she has nothing, when she begs for death, I will finally kill her.

I plot this as I move through the streets to our home. I count each gem, blood flaking off my fingers as I go.

One—moths and butterflies.