Page 112 of The Executioners Three
Okay, sure, Freddie supposed she could tip her head atjustthe right angle and follow this argument. Wealth and power could be used to control just as much as a curse could, and maybe the Allard Fortins weren’t worth all the adoration they’d always received.
But that sure as hell didn’t justifyanyof the monstrosities Born had committed.
“The Allard Fortins didn’t care about my father,” Dr. Born went on, upper lip twitching. “They didn’t care about me or my mother or how they’d ruined our lives just to protect their name and legacy. We had no friends, no money, and the stress of it—the shame—it killed my father.”
Again, Freddie found herself understanding, a twist of sympathy that spiked through her for the lonely, hurt boy Dr. Born might have been.
Except no! Don’t let him get in your head, Freddie! Keep stalling, keep thinking. You can get out of this!
“I’m sorry it was so hard for you.” Freddie was careful to keep her eyes locked on Dr. Born’s face. Careful to keep her hands up andnotlook at how close the knife was to her abdomen. “But you did have one friend, right? Theo’s dad. I saw the picture of you two, and he was devastated when he thought you’d died.”
It was the wrong thing to say. Freddie saw that as soon as the words left her tongue. But it was also too late to suck them back in. To hit CTRL+Z and undo them.
“You think Teddy Porter was my friend?” Dr. Born slowly, slowly pulled his knife away from Freddie. “The man who fell in love with an Allard Fortin, even when heknewwhat their family had done to mine? Oh, Freddie, Theodore Porter was not my friend, and the day that he abandoned me for Justine was the day I knew what I had to do.”
Oh crap.Freddie felt as her whole world flipped. As her organs andher brain and her eyeballs did a great heave-ho with this fresh monsoon of knowledge.Justine was Theo’s mother. Justine was an Allard Fortin, not a Charretière.
“I can see you’ve sorted it out now.” Dr. Born smiled, and his knife changed directions like a compass swerving north. “Theo here is the last of the Allard Fortin bloodline. And soTheohere is the one who must pay for all their crimes.”
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What happened next was a blur of so many things that it was an actual sensory miracle Freddie’s brain could keep up—and with only one contact lens too!
First, Theo released Divya in a hard shove that sent her toppling forward into Freddie. But where Freddie expected to land on Dr. Born and his gun, she instead hit only empty air and fell completely off the stage.
Her left wrist didn’t appreciate the landing.
By the time she was upright again, she saw that Dr. Born had stalked in close to Theo, and that Theo had opened his arms wide.
Dr. Born stabbed.
The knife slid into Theo’s abdomen. No resistance. No reaction.
Blood burst forth.
“No!”Freddie screamed at the same time Divya wrenched Freddie violently away from the stage.
“Freddie, leave him! We’ll get help!”
Freddie didn’t want to leave or get help. In fact, she wanted to attack Dr. Born with all her strength. The man was literallyslicinginto the guy she was falling for, and he would soon find the intestine. He would soon dig it out and make Theo walk his own bowels around the pole.
Yet before Freddie could push past Divya or shout at Dr. Born or attack, heat pummeled in.
This was no gradual dip out of snow and frozen autumn. This was a sudden wave of summer roast that barreled straight across Freddie.
One pulse, and it felt like searing flames had engulfed her body.
A second pulse, and the flames reached her skull.
And lastly, a third pulse with a voice attached to it.Come,it seemed to say.We have work to do. Our oath is summoning.
Oh no. Freddie pitched sideways. So hot. So lost. There was someone inside her head, and they were talking to her as if they’d always been there.I really did have this all wrong. Theo was the last Allard Fortin.
AndI’mthe Charretière descendant.
I’m Stabby.
I’m the Disemboweler.
