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Nox’s tendrils snaked over Jonas’s body and quickly wrapped him as the man gasped for breath with tears in his eyes.
“You definitely cracked a few ribs,” Nox mused as his tendrils flexed around Jonas’s middle. “I can feel them moving around in there.”
“Gross,” Thorn said, catching his breath and licking the blood off his talons. I didn’t bother to point out the irony in his statement.
Nox presented Jonas to us, wrapped in black like a mummy with blood leaking out of the corners of his mouth. Ruse and I took a few steps to rejoin the group. As I approached Jonas, his gaze dropped to the knife in my grip, and every part of him that ever appeared handsome or intimidating melted away. He looked pathetic.
“Please don’t do this, Logan,” he pleaded. “I can give you anything you want.”
“Why would I ever give you a second chance?” I scoffed. “You never gave anyone else a second chance. You just looked out for yourself.”
“If that’s what they told you, it’s a lie,” he insisted. “Theymademe do it. They forced me to bring you here, and all the others.”
“Right,” I said as I approached the bound man and poked him in the chest with the cursed knife. “That’s why they tried to save me fromyou.”
Jonas began to sputter his words, sensing I was losing my patience.
“I really can give you anything you want,” Jonas begged, returning to his attempt at bribery. “I can pay for your school. Get you a new car. You say the word, and it’s yours.”
“You know what I want?” I asked Jonas as my rage bubbled inside of me.
“What? Anything, I mean it,” he responded pitifully.
“I want you to rot in hell,” I said as I stabbed the knife firmly into his neck. Blood immediately poured out of the wound and rushed down the front of him. He gagged in defiance as the light began to fade from his eyes. I hoped it hurt. I hoped it was miserable for him.
Once he went limp in Nox’s binds, I pulled the knife from his neck and watched as the blade seemed to glow for a moment, as if it were thanking me for the blood.
“This thing is bad news.” I muttered as I studied the knife.
“What are you going to do with it?” Ruse asked with a joyous bark. “Seems like kind of a risky thing to have lying around. Or perhaps not. I’m clearly biased.”
The weight of the knife was heavy in my hand, and it felt like invisible roots coming off the handle were making their way through the skin of my palm. As tempting as it was to keep such a weapon, I didn’t want to risk keeping it around.
“I’ll burn it out back in the firepit with some salt and sage. It’ll be extra insurance to cleanse the darkness off along with the fire,” I decided.
“You’re certain?” Nox asked. “A weapon like that won’t be easy to come by ever again.”
“I am. There’s something about this thing thatfeelsunsafe.” I slapped the knife down on the edge of the spiral staircase just to get it out of my hands. “I’ll burn it tonight. Anything that isn’t entirely destroyed, I’ll bury. All of us have to agree to never speak of it, again, just in case the wrong people are listening.”
“Well, alright,” Ruse said as he hopped toward me. “I trust you.”
Thorn approached me and nuzzled affectionately into my neck with his massive head. “Are you okay?” he asked, and I was happy about the change in subject. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t free you. I tried.”
“I know,” I said as I gently kissed the tip of his skeletal snout.
Nox dropped the lifeless body of Jonas Silver into a pile on top of his own blood and withdrew all his tendrils.
“You didn’t answer his question,” Nox said as he strode toward me. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I think so,” I said as I nodded my head. “I’m just a little sore. Areyouokay?” I turned to Ruse. “You’re the one who took a bullet to the chest.”
“Oh, I’m fine,” the shifter responded dismissively. “Self-healing has plenty of benefits… but Logan, I am so, so sorry.” Ruse adjusted his tone as he shifted into a sparrow and perched on my shoulder. “I never would have if he hadn’t—”
“It’s not your fault,” I cut him off. “I should be thanking you… for letting me go.”
“I was trying the whole time, but whatever magick he was using against me wasstrong,” Ruse explained as he puffed up his feathers. “But seeing him put that gun to your head was stronger. I couldn’t let him hurt you.”
My heart soared in admiration of the monsters and the teamwork we’d put forth to stop the endless cycle of greed and violence. It took all my self-control to not hug bird-Ruse so hard he would pop.
