Page 61 of V for Vengeance

When he looked at me, it was suddenly clear he hadn’t meant it as idle taunting. He wanted to torture her. The devilish gleam in his pretty eyes yearned for pain and destruction. An eye for an eye. Despite his obvious eagerness, he waited for me to give him permission to do it. I was left to decide this horrible woman’s fate, and I couldn’t figure out how I felt about it.

I opened my mouth, suddenly at a loss.

She’d tortured him for a lifetime. Several lifetimes by the sounds of it. She’d done things to him I’d never understand—or at least, I really hoped I never would. Could I be the reason she was tortured? Could I let myself sink that deep into a dark feeling I never thought I’d explore? But more importantly, could I let him? Could I be the reason Cash slipped back into the person he was all those years ago? Was vengeance worth this costly piece of ourselves?

When our eyes met again, his lips twitched up into a self-deprecating smile. “It’s your lucky day, witch. My darling is far too kind for the world we live in. Unlike you, she doesn’t go out of her way to harm, and she’ll be the reason you only have to suffer for a moment. Be grateful, hag. Have it my way, and you would’ve suffered for countless hours. Days. Weeks. Perhaps even years.”

His cloak-jacket flew out behind him as more of his black magic wrapped around Harmony. Sensation spider-walked down my spine, his dark magic so powerful it overtook every other feeling in my body. Something about the Dark Fae changed the longer the black ocean stayed in the area.

I hadn’t understood the term Hand of Death, but after watching the creatures around us mummify to ash, I was starting to get it. Like my abilities, it felt too powerful to give to any single person. No one should have this much power. I’d seen how power could corrupt someone, even if it was done to help others, and that was one of the things I feared since discovering the extent of mine.

Closing his eyes, Cash’s head tilted back, and he sucked in a deep breath. I couldn’t understand how in a sea of death he could look so beautiful, but the man was practically glowing. A jewel glimmering in a dark, endless night. The asshole was sparkling again.

Shit, I’ve got it bad.

Her death felt so quick that I’d only blinked and she was a mummified version of herself on the ground, gone forever, never to torment another soul. The rest of them were reduced to ash after his terrifying magic receded.

It was a scene I’d stumbled on before—piles of ash scattered across the ground, dozens of creatures gone in a second. But did they all have to be killed? Weren’t they victims like he’d been? Would they have fled if they could? If he killed her, wouldn’t the spell have been broken?

I wanted to ask, but it didn’t feel like I could. The way he stood there, silently scanning the world, sucking in deep breaths to soothe the pain I was sure ran bone-deep, it didn’t feel like the right time to get answers out of him.

Cash closed his hand around something in his open palm, and the small object was gone in a swirl of magic. Throwing his hairback in an obscenely sexy way, he made his way over to me. “See, no trouble at all, love,” he said, addressing the countless deaths he’d claimed after only seconds of using his power.

It almost didn’t feel real that Cash was this powerful. He was a totally different person with his magic back. It was hard to reconcile the present version with the one I had in my head. Forget that I’d gone off on my own, if Phillip had any idea what the Dark Fae could do, he’d want him gone. He wouldn’t believe Cash wasn’t our enemy, not with the power to mummify and destroy countless creatures in a matter of seconds. Serine, Harmony, those two didn’t stand a chance against him.

How could I convince my stubborn beau that Cash wouldn’t hurt me? How did I make a case for him before Phillip’s fear got the better of him and the man I loved made me choose? After what I’d seen, he didn’t stand a chance against Cash. Worse, he didn’t even know he didn’t. Fuck, this was messier than I could’ve ever imagined.

If it came down to it, would I make the right choice? Could I abandon Cash if they asked me to?

“Harmony used a fair bit of her magic to create a portal, so we caught her a little weaker than normal. Still, I had hoped to drag it out a bit, but—”

I jerked my eyes up to his. “Is that what you did to Serine?”

Cash peered over at the piles of ash scattered around us, unbothered. “Yes. Does it make you nervous, darling?”

Nervous was one way to describe it. I wasn’t worried about myself; I was worried it’d start a war in our group.

Jo might not care much, seeing how she hadn’t said anything despite her suspicions, but Sloan and Phillip would want him gone, convinced he was dangerous. And I wasn’t sure how to explain I knew he wasn’t.

Which was ironic.

If you asked me a few months ago what I thought about Cash, I wouldn’t have hesitated. I would’ve said he was dangerous and couldn’t be trusted. He’d blackmailed me to help him. He was there when my parents got killed. He’d worked with Eros for all those years. He complained about everyone and everything. But somehow, he’d gotten under my skin. He'd shown up when he had every reason not to.

If I couldn’t trust myself, then how would I ever learn to trust anyone else? Right now, my gut was telling me that I needed to fight for him. Even if that meant going against two people I cared so much about. At the end of the day, all I could do was ask them to trust me even if they didn’t trust him. This would be our first test since Phillip and Sloan promised to stay, and I really hoped I didn’t regret how it ended.

I valued their experience and opinions, but they didn’t know Cash like I did. They hadn’t witnessed the changes I had. They’d dismissed him from the start. Okay, sure, they had every right to, but if it was one thing I’d learned, it was that people could surprise you. Vouching for Cash could turn out to be one of the biggest mistakes of my life, but I didn’t think it was.

It really felt like I needed to do this.

Chapter 30

Playing Nice

Decided, I turned to Cash. “If I told you not to use your power, would you listen?”

I didn’t expect him to reply, but he was quick to say, “Yes, but you’d be smart not to decommission me just yet, love. If you’re worried about those barbarians—”

“I am,” I cut in, sighing. “They won’t believe you’re on our side. Let’s face it, they’ve been waiting for a reason to get rid of you.”

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