Page 155 of A Curse of Hope and Shadows: Part I
Monster.
One of the villagers jabbed at Dimitri’s hind, making him snarl and yelp.
“Wait!” she said.
Eyes snapped towards her as she scurried down the slope. She held up her pistol. “Let me,” she said. “Please. I’ll be quicker.”
The villagers, some of whom she recognised as old classmates, looked about them doubtfully.
“Let her,” said Thomas, with an air of authority. “She won’t miss.”
They shimmied back reluctantly, and let her approach. Dimitri’s monster crouched in the muddy bank, scarlet seeping into the soil.
“Dimitri,” she said softly.
He snarled at her, but did not move. What was she doing? How could she possibly be contemplating hurting him?
“It’s me,” she continued. “Adeline. You know me. Youlikeme. You—”
The monster snarled, eyeing her pistol. Adeline swallowed, setting it down on the ground. She could still grab it. She was not defenceless.
“Hey, she shouldn’t be—” started one of the villagers.
“Hush!” Thomas snapped. “Let her try.”
“I don’t want to hurt you,” she whispered. “And you… you don’t want to hurt me. You don’t want to hurtanyone.”
“Tell that to Perry,” said the villager.
“Shut up!” Thomas growled.
“You are Dimitri Von Mortimer,” she continued. “You are grumpy and bad tempered, and you pretend not to like anyone, but you do. You care abouteveryone.You’re one of the most gentle people I know.”
The monster cocked his head, almost as if it were listening.
“And I know you better than anyone. I know how much you’ve been hurting, how lost and alone you’ve been, because I… I feel like that, too. But you are not alone in this dark, Dimitri. I am here. I’ll always be here—”
Someone burst through the undergrowth, skidding down the bank. She heard Jean’s voice yelling in the distance. “Guy, stop—”
Guy skidded to a halt a few feet away, spying the pistol on the ground. Adeline reached out to snatch it back, and Elliott moved to, trying to get between Guy and the gun.
And Dimitri, not knowing what was going on or who was his enemy, lunged immediately.
“No!” Adeline screamed.
Her fingers closed around the grip and trigger, and she shot wildly.
She aimed for the shoulder. She aimed, and she shot lower, because in that split second she was a sister before anything else, desperately trying to protect her little brother.
No matter the cost.
Gun smoke swirled around the glade, all sound vanishing at the crack of the weapon. For a long, unsteady moment, no one spoke, no one moved. A breeze brushed through the trees, the stream continued to trickle. All other sounds had vanished.
But worse than the sound of the bullet, worse than a scream, worse than the sound of snapping bones, was the sound of Dimitri slumping against the bank.
Still. Unmoving.
Adeline howled, scrambling towards him, not caring that he was a monster, not caring that he might be dangerous, because he was Dimitri,Dimitri,and she had to be with him.
