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I pressed the blade against her flesh, watching as it sliced through cloth and flesh and muscle and bone with ridiculous ease. Her eyes went wide, and pain began to fill the void. Yet it never touched me, held at bay by either the anger in my soul or Jack's steely presence.
I drove the knife deeper, ramming it through her sternum, lodging the point deep in her heart. Blood began to seep across my fingers, blood that was warm and sweet to my nose, stirring excitement through my veins.
No, no, no, part of me wanted to scream, but I pushed it away ruthlessly, concentrating on Caelfind, watching her eyes, waiting for the moment of her body's death, and the realization that she would never be free.
The knife began to disintegrate, and smoke seeped from the wound, lodging the silver deep inside. Pinning her spirit, the way Talon's spirit had been pinned.
Only she didn't scream the way he'd screamed. She merely smiled and waited, her thoughts filled with pain and yet amused.
Until the moment her heart finally gave out, and her body slumped to the floor.
Then she screamed. Screamed like a banshee, until her fury filled my mind and made it almost impossible to think.
Tell me how to rid this world of your master.
My words were little more than a pebble standing against a cyclone, yet still she heard.
He can only be banished by a priest. A priest of Aedh.
And your brother is one?
The last one.
Well, not exactly the last. But perhaps the last still retaining flesh form. And the dragons?
Behead them.
Can't they take over another body, as you can?
She hesitated, twisting in fury. No. Not without my help. Now, release me, as you promised.
I laughed - a harsh and hateful sound - and began to pull back. All these years of serving a dark god, and you still believe in promises?
Her fury followed me, nipping at my mental heels like a rabid dog until the force that was Jack stepped in and stopped her cold. I fell out of her mind, feeling like I was falling from a great height, and found myself on my knees, on the floor, trembling and shaking and sweating.
And then I felt the warm stickiness of blood across my hand, smelled again its metallic sweetness, and my stomach rose.
I pushed onto all fours, scrambled over to the waste bin, and lost every scrap of food and liquid I'd eaten during the day.
When there was nothing left to lose, I collapsed back against the wall and sucked in great gulps of air. It felt like I'd gone ten rounds in the training ring with Gautier, with every inch aching and bruised, and my head pounding. The only thing that was missing was the actual bruises.
It was a good five minutes before I had to strength to even open my eyes. Jack leaned against the rear wall, his hands on his knees as he sucked in air, the skin on his arms paler than I'd ever seen them and his fingers little more than skin and bone. Which just proved how much strength it had taken to hold Caelfind.
My gaze slid on to the stone circle. Maisie's body lay slumped in the middle. Blood gleamed darkly off the front of her shirt, and the thick scent had my stomach twitching again.
Or maybe it wasn't the scent of blood. Maybe it was just the realization of how easily - how very easily - I'd spilt her blood and ended her life.
I might tell myself that I would never be the killer Jack wanted me to be, but the truth was, that skill was already within me.
I could kill, and kill easily, when I had to. When I wanted to. When I needed to.
And do it without thought. Without remorse. And for no other reason than wanting to get home and get some sleep.
Bile burned my throat. I put my hand over my mouth and swallowed heavily, then forced myself to remember the lives Maisie and her cohorts had destroyed.
Because while I might hate what I had done here today, while I would probably suffer nightmares about it for weeks or months to come, the truth was, if it saved just one life, then part of me could not regret it.
As for the part that did... well, at least that proved there was still hope left. Today might have proven that the killer Jack wanted me to be already resided within, but accepting that part of my soul - becoming comfortable with it - was still a ways off yet.
