Page 60 of Veiled Justice
‘I’m done,’ I said to Krieg and even I was surprised at the darkness in my voice. ‘He killed her on Quintos’s order, not Katz’s. Katz was the middleman, acting as a freaking PR agent and treating this whole thing as a stunt. But Einar drugged Helga and killed her.’ I turned to him and asked, ‘Where did you put the finger in Nocturne?’
He smirked. ‘InGluttony.I wondered if anyone would eat it.’
I felt ill. I turned to Krieg. ‘Do with him what you will.’
Krieg studied me with his mercury eyes then he nodded. ‘Stay out of the way. If I lose, don’t hesitate to kill him with your powers.’ Then he unlocked the shackles from Einar and helped him up, discarded his mace and raised his fists instead.
Einar staggered to his feet and cracked his neck with a slow, deliberate roll of his head. His lips peeled back into a sneer and his twisted tusks glimmered faintly in the dim light. ‘Fool! You’ll regret this, Krieg.’ He flexed his broad shoulders and laughed. ‘Letting me get to my feet? Discarding your weapon? Your mercy makes you pathetic. And I’ll kill your bitch afterwards, too.’
Krieg said nothing; he was standing calm and still, his eyes locked on Einar with a predator’s patience. His tusks, sleek and jagged like forged obsidian, suddenly looked far deadlier than they had before. He planted his feet wide, the executioner ready to deliver judgement.
The silence shattered as Einar lunged. He let out a roar and swung a meaty fist, aiming for Krieg’s jaw but Krieg sidestepped at the last moment and the blow exploded against the wall behind him, sending plaster skittering to the floor.
Krieg countered immediately by driving a sharp uppercut into Einar’s ribs. Einar grunted, spittle spraying from his mouth. Krieg pressed his advantage by slamming his other fist into Einar’s gut and following it with a brutal head butt. His tusks scraped against Einar’s shoulder, leaving a trail of blood where they nicked the skin.
Einar staggered back and shook off the blows. He gave a guttural laugh. ‘Is that all you’ve got,Robert?’ He charged again, lowering his head to try and spear Krieg with his larger tusks.
Krieg braced himself and met the challenge head-on; the sound of their tusks colliding was sickening, like bone splintering under pressure. They were locked together, muscles straining as they pushed against each other, two immovable forces battling for dominance.
Einar snarled, twisted and shoved Krieg back a step then landed a savage punch to his jaw followed by a knee to his stomach. Krieg stumbled and a low growl rumbled in his chest as he wiped blood from his split lip.
Panic laced through me. Should I help? No: if he wanted to, Krieg could use his piping powers and this fight would be over in a blink. He wasn’t doing so, so he still had this. Probably.
Einar laughed again. ‘Getting tired,halfling?’
As Krieg straightened his gaze was sharper than ever. This time he was the aggressor and he rushed Einar, fists pounding him like iron hammers on an anvil. With blow after blow he drove Einar back until his back hit the wall. Even then he didn’t stop; he hooked an elbow into Einar’s jaw with a sickening crack and snapped his head sideways before he drove his knee up hard into Einar’s sternum.
Blood bubbling from his lips, Einar gasped. Rage flared in his eyes but Krieg was already moving. He grabbed Einar’s shoulders and spun him, slamming him face first into the wall with a bone-jarring thud. His voice was low and rough. ‘You killedHelga.’ He dragged Einar back just enough to twist him round. Einar’s legs buckled but Krieg didn’t let him fall. ‘No one else willeverdie by your hand.’
Before Einar could respond, Krieg lowered his head andcharged. His tusks punched through Einar’s chest with a wet, sickening crunch, and Einar choked on a breath that never came, his eyes wide with disbelief. Blood pooled around the tusks that were embedded in his torso and dripped in thick rivulets to the floor.
Krieg held him there for a heartbeat longer, as if making sure his judgement was absolute. Then, with a sharp jerk of his neck, he ripped his tusks free. Einar crumpled to the ground like a felled tree, the light already gone from his eyes.
The ogre king stood over the body, looking down, his tusks glistening with fresh blood. ‘Good job,’ I said into the silence. ‘But I thought you didn’t like to get entrails in your hair?’ Chest heaving, he looked at me in disbelief. ‘What?’ I asked.
‘Good job?’ he parroted. ‘I thought you’d be upset.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I killed someone.’
I stared at him. ‘You’re the High King of the ogres and he murdered one of your people. You were fully within your rights to kill him. Besides, I’m an Inspector in the Connection. You’ve heard what they call us, right? The JJE? Judge, Jury andExecutioner.Emphasis on executioner. If you hadn’t killed him, I would.’
Some criminals deserved bars for the rest of their lives but Einar would have thrived in that environment, become a God in prison.No: death was the only option for one like him. Years on the job had taught me that if you let the evil ones go, they’d kill time and time again and you’d be mopping up the bodies and blaming yourself for your initial mercy. It had been a damned hard lesson to learn and I was certainly a worse person for it, but now … I saw killing for what it was: necessary.
Krieg’s mouth dropped open. ‘Huh,’ he said finally.
I waited for him to tell me that I wasn’t capable of killing an ogre, but I was pleased when no such denial came. Then again, he’d just seen me slide into Einar’s head so he knew what I was capable of in a way that no one else did. And that was a scary thought.
The sun was coming up. I checked my watch: 5am. I was losing time fast, but now I had something to work with. Several somethings, in fact.
I smiled.
Chapter 34
Krieg shouldered the body and strode out of Einar’s house towards the main building. I guessed ogres were early risers because the building was already full of them. As he went inside, all conversation stopped abruptly.
I followed him in because … well … I was nosey as fuck; also Krieg needed someone to watch his back if Hanlon was still busy typing up my notes.
