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“Ok,” Lozen said, “do it.”
Saber nodded and realized she was breathing fast and hard.
As she stepped toward the casket, Derek’s eyelids fluttered open, and he looked at her with cold, inhuman eyes. It looked like they were made of glass, and it startled her so much she almost dropped her stake and screamed.
“Oh my god,” Saber said. “He’s awake…”
“Do you want me to do it?” Lozen asked, anxious for the killing to be over.
“No.” She shook her head emphatically and took another step toward the casket, readying the stake.
“Why,” his voice creaked, and he fixed her with that cold stare.
Saber stopped.
“Because you killed people,” Saber said. “Because you were going to kill me.”
“I wasn’t going to kill you, justtakeyou.”
“Take mewhy?”
“Because he won’t talk to her… yourlover… won’t talk to Ysidra…”
His face was almost immobile, and his eyes still had that strange, glassy stillness. His mouth quivered horribly as he spoke, his tongue flickering like a black worm in his mouth.
“You killed the others. Kids.”
“They wanted to die,” he rasped. “Theywantedit. They invited it.Youwant it.Youinvite it.”
“No,” Saber said, but her voice shook. She remembered, vividly, the moment of telling Ansel she didn’t care, that she was willing to risk her life to be with him.
“Kill him,” Lozen said, her voice rising, snapping Saber out of her distracting thoughts.
“I know who you are,” Derek said, his eyes flickering over to Lozen. “Shanna was your cousin? Sister? Beautiful, tasted sweet. She wanted to get away,wantedescape.”
Derek sat up then, creaking, like his body was a broken piece of furniture that could suddenly move and was trying to reassemble itself.
“Kill him!” Lozen was almost shrieking now, fear and fury rising in her voice.
Derek looked back at Saber, and his head hung weird and crooked on his neck.
“Let me live, Saber, and you can be with Ansel. I will help you. You could be with him forever.”
“No,” Saber said, and he lurched, trying to get up.
“If you kill me now, I would not have even lived a normal human lifespan!”
He said it as though just realizing it, beseeching her, smiling, horrible.
“And you didn’t get to see your kids grow up,” Saber snarled. “Maybe you should have stayed human.”
“My kids.” He laughed a hoarse, ugly laugh, a hiss. “They never grew up, Saber. They were the price for eternal life, a gift to Ysidra.”
Saber’s eyes grew wide and she felt her heart thud.
He had always been a monster.
“Fuck,” Lozen said, moving forward. “Give me the stake.”
