Page 86 of Kill the Beast
Lyssa glowered at her. “Why does that matter?”
The little witch twisted the hem of her dress in her fingers. “I know Rags said the curses are all but impossible to break, but maybe we can figure out a way to free him.”
“I’m going to free him by killing him,” she snapped. Alderic had been right, after all—now that she knew what he was, there was no way that she would be able to break his curse any other way.
“But he’s your friend!” Nadia protested, leaping to her feet. “You can’t seriously still want to—”
“He wants to die,” Lyssa lied, thinking of the wretched look on Alderic’s face when she’d realized that this was no longer the case. “He hired me to kill him, and I’m going to do exactly that.”
“But—”
“It’s not your decision!” she shouted, slamming her hands down on the table.
“She’s right,” Ragnhild told her apprentice gently. “I understand how you feel, given the circumstances, but it’s not up to you. This is between Lyssa and Alderic.”
“This is why I didn’t sacrifice anything to save you,” Nadia seethed. “Because I knew you would never do the same for any of us.” She stalked out of the kitchen; after a moment, her bedroom door slammed shut.
Ragnhild turned to Lyssa, who was still gaping after the little witch, her words like a punch to the gut. “Do you have everything you need for the sword?”
“I do,” she replied after a moment.
“And are you still willing to do what needs to be done?”
Lyssa took a deep breath, trying to steady the frantic thud of her pulse.
Would she be able to run Alderic through with a blade she knew could end his life?
He is the Beast,she reminded herself, furious that there was even a question in her mind about whether she could do it.Whatever you might have felt for him once, that changes everything. He killed your brother. Cut Eddie’s life brutally short with one slash of his claws. It is time to return the favor.
“Yes,” she told the witch. Fulfilling the oath she had made that night was the only thing that mattered. She had let Alderic cloud her mind and distract her from her purpose. It would hurt, to kill him—she couldn’t pretend otherwise—but she had experienced pain and loss before. She could contend with the complicated tangle of her feelings after it was done. “Yes, I am still willing.”
Ragnhild struggled to her feet. “Then let us begin. We have precious little time to waste.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-TWO
THEY BEGAN WITHLyssa’s blood.
The smithy table was now cluttered with the tools of Ragnhild’s spellcraft—twine and candles, bundles of dried herbs, feathers from crow and owl tied into fans. It was dark inside, the forge cold and quiet, though Ragnhild began lighting a few stubby candles carved with strange symbols. Her apprentice was conspicuously absent.
“Where’s Nadia?” Lyssa asked as she watched the old witch set up the ritual they were about to perform. It had a dual purpose—to cleanse the smithy to prepare it for what was to come, and to drain some of Lyssa’s blood to use for the forging itself.
“She said that she wants nothing to do with this,” Rags told her as she finished lighting the candles. “She feels a great deal of fondness for Alderic and wants no hand in slaying him.”
“Why does she care so much about him? Because he bought her a stupid present?” Lyssa’s nerves were frayed, and Nadia’s attitude was bothering her more than it should.
Ragnhild looked at her reproachfully. “Because she feels a kinship with him.”
“Why?” she demanded, rankled by the idea.
“You’ll have to ask Nadia that later. Now, we have work to do.” She gestured to the ritual space she had consecrated. “Sit within the circle, cross-legged, facing north.”
Lyssa stepped over the rough chalk circle the old witch had drawn on the smithy floor, settling herself as instructed while Rags donned her ritual robe and pine-bough crown. She lit a stick of incense, wafting the heady smoke with the crow-feather fan.Then, from the smithy table, the witch selected a broom she had made herself under the light of a waning moon, and whacked Lyssa across the shoulders with it.
“Ow!”
“Hush,” Rags said. “I’m cleansing you.”
