Page 81 of The Reaper's Vice

I make it to Maggie just as the first girl, Cara, raises her dagger, poised for the kill shot. It slashes through the air, and I have just enough time to knock Maggie to the side, taking the hit along my right shoulder.

Blood and pain gush from the wound, but I don’t have time to tend to it. Adjusting my grip on my dagger, I crouch low, instinct and familiarity telling me Cara will take another swipe at my neck.

Her blade sails through the air, her eyes widening just at the same time as I spring up, shoving the dagger up through the fleshy part of her jaw. Cara lets out a garbled scream past her tongue pinned to the top of her mouth. I use her distraction to rip the blade out, using my momentum to swing back, dragging the blade across her throat.

Her body slumps to the ground as two more girls close in on Maggie. Thinking fast, I throw my dagger at the oldest girl, Keri. In the same motion, I launch through the air, landing square on the back of a red-headed Sarah as my blade hits home—right in the weak spot of Keri’s temple.

While Keri’s body slumps to the ground, I wrestle with Sarah, animalistic yowls pouring from our mouths as we kick, bite, and scratch at each other. She tries more than once to stab me with her dagger, but I anticipate each strike, twisting and contorting my body in such a way that she’s unable to get a single hit in.

“Stop protecting her!” Sarah rakes her nails down the side of my face. “This has to happen! You know it does!”

I wrap my hand around the blade of her dagger, ignoring the searing bite of the blade as I look into Sarah’s muddy-brown eyes.

“I willneverstop protecting her.”

I raise my knee, kicking her right in the pussy, and Sarah falls to the side, loosing her grip on her dagger.Just enough.A horriblesquelchfills the air as I deposit the blade into Sarah’s sternum, though the regret I expect to feel doesn’t rise.

My vision clouds with red as I rip the blade from her lifeless body. I straighten, my veins thrumming with hatred as I gaze upon the woman who has tortured us all for the past fourteen years. It infects every part of me—turns into its own living, breathing thing.

And it wants blood.

I’m not exactly sure what happens next—only when the red subsides, I’m standing in a circle littered with the bodies of girls I used to consider kin. I gaze down at my arms, noting they’re covered in the same color crowding my vision, the same emotion stoking the wildfire beneath my skin.

Red.

Shaking, I drop my dagger to the muddy soil. My eyes meet Maggie’s, and my chest cracks wide open at the horror written across her face. And I wonder… I wonder what she sees. Me, or the monster beneath my skin.

I don’t have time to ask because the Madam has decided to speak at that moment.

“What are you waiting for, Seraphina? Kill her!”

I shake my head, not taking my eyes off Maggie.My Magoo.“Never,” I whisper. “I willneverharm her.”

Maggie’s eyes fill with tears, and she steps toward me.

“Don’t eventhinkabout it, worm,” she snarls, her green eyes trained on Maggie. “If you touch her, I will kill you myself.”

“You can’t do that.” I pull my shoulders back as I shoot her a seething glare. “Youcan’tkill us. It’s not the design.”

Madam reels back, her face twisting as I throw her words back in her face. “That may be true. But one of youwillbe dead by the time the bells toll midnight. And that is a fact.” She looks at Maggie, then me. “The Sanctum will not tolerate this kind of disobedience. If you cannot follow the rules, thenbothof you will be dead by tomorrow.” Her eyes narrow on me. “You may think you’reclever,girl, but even you cannot escape fate.”

With that, she turns from us and leaves the circle.

I hobble over to Maggie, throwing a bloodied arm over her shoulders as she gives me a triumphant smile. “We did it,” she whispers. “We did it, Nina.”

“Of course we did.” I tug her close, pushing away the intrusive thoughts that tell me it’s far from over. Madam does not make idle threats, and I know we will both be dead when the clock tolls midnight if I don’t figure something out.

I lead Maggie back to our cabin, my heart heavy and my gut filled with unease. With each step we take closer to the four wooden walls, a plan forms in my mind—one I knowwillwork. I gaze at Maggie from the corner of my eye, the broad smile carved into her face—and I know what must be done.

The only problem is… I’ll have to kill myself.

Fear grips my chest as I imagine slipping into the dark nothingness, but I push forward. After all, this is forMaggie.

And there isn’t a single thing I wouldn’t do to protect her.

We step through the cabin door, cedar sap and sawdust clinging to my nose hairs. Both of us are silent as I direct Maggie to her bunk, pulling the covers up to her chin and tucking the covers in all along her sides. She giggles when I get to her sides, and I can’t help the mirroring smile that carves a path across my face.

“Get some sleep, Magoo. We’ll figure everything out in the morning.” I press a kiss to her forehead, my stomach roiling at the lie that falls from my lips.

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