Page 94 of The Wicked
“I did.”
I was thrown back by how direct he sounded—like—like he was in the right. “What the fuck—he was just a fucking—he couldn’t have been more than nineteen! He was innocent!”
He brought the cigarette to his lips, sucked in, and blew out smoke calmly. “Sins are passed on from a parent to a child as long as they share blood. People need to live much better lives, so when they meet their fate, their families don’t have to pay for it.”
I took steps closer to him now, poking at his chest. “That. Isfucking. Bullshit! It’s bullshit twisted in a way that only makes sense to you!”
“I know.”
“Yet you still fucking do it!” I yelled in exasperation.
His brows dropped, and he looked irritated. “It had to be done. If they die, anyone who shares blood with them dies too.”
“Oh, for the love—says who!” I yelled.
“Says me!” he yelled suddenly, and I had to step back momentarily. He wasn’t one to lose his cool, but he just did. He threw the cigarette to the ground and closed the space I had created, getting into my face. “It is my fucking law, and if you keep running your mouth like this, you and your blood relatives will share the same fate. You know them, or you don’t.”
“Oh, please—”
“Don’t be a hypocrite, Zahra. I have seen you kill people without batting an eye. You don’t think they have family somewhere who would grieve them?”
“That’s different!”
“How is it different? Because they’re above twenty? A life is a life, no matter how old they are.”
My breathing was harsh as I shook my head, looking at him with a newfound hatred. “I hate you; I have never hated anyone as much as I hate you.”
“Okay.”
“You will rot in hell.”
“I know.”
“The world will be a much fucking better place without you in it!”
“As I have devised.”
I wanted to pull my hair out at how unfeeling his voice was. “You’re a fucking murderer! A fucking psychopath and serial fucking killer, a sick unfeeling fucker! A twisted monster! Child-murdering bastard—” His hand gripped my throat as he switched our positions and slammed my body against the car.
“And you’re beginning to get on my nerves.” He seethed, hiseyes a deadly mask of anger and something else I didn’t even care to put a name to.
I tried to struggle out of his grip, but he held firm.
I ground my teeth together, looking him dead in the eyes. “I will kill you. Mark my fucking words, Elio, you’ve just made it to my shit list. Watch this fucking face because it will be the last thing you see when you breathe your last.”
“I’m honored to have made it to your list, but I already calleddibson killing me. Genuinely sorry to disappoint.”
I stayed silent, my eyes flickering between his, his words loosening in my head, the meaning clear as fucking day.
“Get off me!” I yelled, pushing at him. He let me go, stepping away with his eyes still dead set on mine. “You’re fucked up,” I said, straightening. “I knew you had a few screws loose, but boy, are you messed up in that fucking head of yours.”
His jaw clenched, and he shoved his hands into his pockets.
I raked my hair from my face, and his eyes followed the movement.
“You’re so gone beyond redemption, and you can’t even see it, Elio,” I said, shaking my head. “Devil deserves better than having you as the only family left. You don’t deserve him.”
He remained quiet, eyes hardening, brows twitching, showing how my words had hit him.
