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Quilla
“What the hell?!” I cried, watching the High Clifter pitch toward the ground, clutching the knife in his throat.
That he’d gotten from protecting me.
Veering my incredulous gaze toward Melaina, I roared, “You just said murder was bad!”
She waved a bored, dismissive hand. “Yes, I vaguely recall waxing on incessantly about the topic, but, sweets, I needed to prove a point, which I think I did rather well.” Motioning toward the man, she added, “See. He’s lying there, bleeding to death, all to protect little old you. So, voilà…” She gave a brilliant smil
e. “Useful!”
Then she strode forward so she could lean over him and retrieve her dagger from his neck with a savage yank. He gurgled and gasped, moaning out his agony as he curled onto his side, clutching the gushing wound.
“And besides,” she went on, wiping the blood from the blade off onto the skirt of her dress. “It won’t be murder if he doesn’t die. Which he shouldn’t because you can fix him back to rights—as good as new—with a single kiss.” She beckoned me forward with a curl of her finger. “Only you have the means to keep it from becoming murder, darling.”
I immediately backed away from both her and the dying man on the ground, shaking my head insistently. “But I don’t want to kiss him.” Was she insane? “We’ll start sharing dreams together if I do.”
“Oh, pish.” Melaina swiped that idea away with a flutter of her wrist. “That only happens if you bring him back from the dead, and since he’s still breathing, there’s no worry about that. Though…” She frowned down at the panting man. “I would hurry if you want to avoid that, because he looks as if he might expire at any moment.”
He really did too. He’d probably be dead in seconds if I did nothing. And his death would be just as much my fault as it was Melaina’s. Because I wouldn’t have delivered true love’s kiss.
But I didn’t want to kiss him.
What if I liked it? What if I started thinking positive things about him? I didn’t want to think positively about this man. He was a High Cliff enemy, and he needed to stay that way.
Damn my evil aunt for putting me through this.
“Tick-tock, darling,” she sang in her irritatingly taunting voice. “Do you want to save him or not?”
No. When she put it that way, I didn’t want to save him. I would love nothing more than to have all this true love bullshit just be over and done with already. But I’d never killed anyone before, and I couldn’t so willfully just stand there and let him die.
Sensing my decision, Melaina laughed. “You know what to do.”
“I really hate you.” I seethed, glaring at her as I slowly approached the High Clifter.
“Yes, I know, dear,” she cooed in a loving tone. “I hate you too. Now, chop-chop. Get to it and pucker up.”
Wincing as I knelt beside him, I swallowed down the sickened churn in my stomach. “You made a really gross mess of him, you know that?”
Eyes wild and hands clutching his throat, the man looked up at me and opened his mouth as if to speak.
No words came.
“I swear,” I warned him, uneasily bending closer. “If you try anything funny—”
Melaina snorted. “What exactly do you think he’s going to try? The boy is a hot second from death. He couldn’t manage anything amorous right now if his life depended on it.”
“Well, his life depends on him not managing it, so...” I lifted my eyebrows threateningly at him. “Behave or die. Are we clear?”
He didn’t answer. Not that he could; he was a bit too busy dying to form actual words.
Melaina stepped up beside me and gazed down at him as well. “He’s turning quite a remarkable shade of blue, don’t you think? I must’ve caught him right in the windpipe.” Brightening, she grinned over at me. “My aim is obviously improving.”
“Except you were aiming at me,” I reminded her.
A little detail I planned to fully address later.
Her shoulders fell as her smile flattened. “True,” she admitted only to shrug and return her attention to the dying High Clifter with a fresh grin. “Well, I’ll take a happy accident too.” Placing her hand on the back of my head, she nudged me closer to his face, which I naturally resisted. Shaking free from her grip, I growled and glared up at her. “What the hell? Stop!”
