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“Eyes on me, Gail,” I snarl. “Look at me.”
She doesn’t.
“Iwantto spare her, Cillian. I really do. I mean, she’s my true love’s daughter. His blood.” Slowly, her crazy eyes slide back to me. “But you have to help me there. Kill yourself. Or I’ll kill her. It’s that simple.”
There’s nothing simple about any of this. There are too many variables. Too many other potential and probable victims.
I breathe, channeling all the hate and the violence and the darkness inside of me as my eyes drag to Neve. To Ares. To Una, where they burn into hers.
The thing is, Iwould.
Iwouldcut my own throat to save her life. But Gail isn’t stable. Or remotely in touch with reality. And there’s no doubt in my mind that she could very well kill the woman I love anyway.
I exhale slowly.
Then inhale again.
Focus.
I have to focus past an unfamiliar feeling surging in my soul while the concept of failing Una and letting her get hurt or killed edges insidiously into my mind.
I’m pretty sure that unfamiliar feeling isremorse.
My teeth grit.
Yeah, not fucking today.
I turn to glance at Neve, her eyes so big and filled with tears of pain and fear as she looks at me. My gaze slips to Ares.
Then Una.
You will not die here, none of you.
Quietly, hefting the weight of the knife in my hands, I turn back to Ares tied to the cross. He’s looking at me, and the knife in my hand, and I watch him slowly shake his head.
“Cillian…” he mumbles through his gag. Though it sounds more like “kuhleenn”. His head shakes slowly side to side. “Shull kuil ushh hnnywhay.”
She’ll kill us anyway.
Fire churns in my heart and my mind works as I heft the knife again.
“I’m afraid we’re abitpressed for time here, Cillian,” Gail snaps. “You have five seconds. Do it.”
My gaze slides to Neve, sobbing on the floor. Neve, who’s been through so much. Who’s already had to do this once—watch her husband almost die.
“Five.”
My eyes move back to Una, whom I never saw coming.
Who changed me.
Who makes me fucking feel in ways I didn’t think I was chemically wired to be able to feel.
Whom I love, more than I’ve ever loved anything, or anyone, in my life.
“Four.”
Who willnot. Fucking. Die. Here.
