Page 92 of Of Songs and Silence

I raise my clenched fist, looking to both of my sisters one final time. For permission? For forgiveness? I can’t be sure.

Either way, I know that this ends today. Then my eyes meet Remy’s. One final look, in case this doesn’t work.

When Madame steps closer to Mel, bringing a hand up to caress her face, I set on fire what’s left of my soul to take advantage of her distraction, her rare moment of humanity.

Then I bring the dagger down with every last ounce of strength I possess.

There’s a choking sound, and she spins, betrayal in her amethyst gaze. In a lightning fast movement, she pulls the tooth out from her back, looking from it to me with an expression that morphs closer and closer to fury.

“Still not good enough, Aika.” She throws out an arm, backhanding me against the wall then stalking toward me.

Stars line my vision, and I can’t breathe. Everything happens at once.

Remy races toward me. Mel reaches out to stop Madame, and Zaina is getting to her feet, but I know it won’t be enough if we were wrong.

I have less than a second to worry that it hasn’t worked, that the final piece of our plan was a failure, or perhaps a trick from a woman who wasn’t ready to let her sister die.

Then Madame falters.

“Wha—” she cuts off, horror dawning on her features. “Poison.”

A bitter huff of air escapes her lips, followed by a thin rivulet of blood.

The auger shell that Danica had given us was filled with just enough poison to coat Khijhana’s tooth. It was the closest we could come to a guarantee—all we had to do was nick her skin.

Remy reaches my side, and Zaina slides across the bloodsoaked floor to get to Einar, wasting not even the time it will take her to watch this death unfold. I half-expect Madame to keep going, to try to get her revenge in her final moments even though we both know it would be in vain.

Instead, she turns back to Melodi, her hand still clutching the conch shell in a spasming, weakening grasp. Then she stumbles forward.

My younger sister reaches out to catch her mother.

Somewhere in the background, I hear Zaina’s frantic muttering, see her shaking fingers taking out vial after vial from Einar’s belt and forcing them down his throat, pouring some directly on his wounds.

Remy checks me for injuries before going to help my sister, holding Einar’s wound closed while Zaina works.

I should help, too. But all I can seem to do is stare at the only mother I have ever known. She was a monster and she was a person and I’m not sure which of those things feels worse right now.

Mel’s grip on Madame slips, and they fall to the floor.

Tears stream down her face, falling to mingle with the blood that seems to coat every surface of this room as she pulls Madame’s head into her lap. Then she gently takes the necklace she had held out mere moments ago and fastens it around her mother’s neck.

“You really are entirely his,” she says, her voice little more than a whisper. “Entirely my Makani’s.”

A cough wrenches out of her and she shudders once, then twice, before going completely still. Only then do I finally find the strength to move, to cross the short distance to her. Sinking down to my knees, I reach out with trembling fingers to close her eyelids.

For Mel’s sake, I tell myself.

Not because I can’t stand the sightless purple orbs, devoid of life, devoid of the hatred that burned from their depths, devoid of the rare moments of approval she was capable of showing.

Devoid of everything.

It’s such a quiet ending for a woman who did so much, so much less than she deserved, but so much more than I ever thought we would be capable of.

Finally, I get to my feet, but not before I whisper the goodbye that we never thought would come.

CHAPTERSIXTY-ONE

ZAINA

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