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Do I deserve this?

It’s similar to what Francesca, Xavier, and Rocco look like now—staring at the tree line before Parsons Manor, feeling like an imposter in their own life.

Instead of the inability to accept their accomplishments, they’re unable to accept their fate.

Am I really so vile—so evil—that I deserve to be hunted like a fucking animal?

I could answer that, but I’d rather show them.

Zade and Sibby stand on either side of me, a crossbow hanging loosely in their hands, the cold, gleaming metal identical to mine. The heavy weight feels familiar. I’ve been practicing for this very moment.

My heartbeat pulsates in my ears, drowning out Francesca’s incessant sniveling. We’re standing behind them, the brisk air saturated with anticipation.

“You know,” I say loudly, causing her to flinch. “You would’ve beat the shit out of me if I had cried.”

She shakes her head, refusing to answer. Her head is tipped down, a mop of stringy hair falling over her shoulders and revealing how badly she’s deteriorating. Her spine is protruding from her skin, poking through the threadbare t-shirt she wears.

Xavier and Rocco stand beside her with stone in their shoulders, holding tightly on to the façade that they’re strong and brave.

Such manly men, they are.

I’d like to see if that ideology holds firm when they’re running for their lives or if they’ll die in a puddle of piss and regret.

“You three are luckier than I was. There’s no maze or traps in here for you. Just the sharp tip of our arrows.”

“And if you can’t find us? Then we get away, and you’re fucked,” Xavier retorts pompously. He must feel so smart right now.

I smile. “You won’t get away.”

He tips up his chin, eager to prove me wrong.

“You placed several rules on me, but I’m only giving you one. You can’t escape out of the driveway. There are several armed guards stationed all the way down. If you want out, you go all the way through and find the road.”

He stiffens, and my smile grows. Xavier thought he could cut left, run twenty feet, come out to my driveway, and escape that way. If they were going to make it hard on me, the least I can do is return the favor.

“Which one do you think is tastiest?” Sibby asks, bouncing on her toes with excitement and restlessness.

I curl my lip in disgust, wrinkling my nose. “Don’t be gross. We’re not cannibals.”

Sibby scoffs. “I would never taint my body with demon meat. We won’t be eating them, but the vultures will.”

“She’s got a way with words,” Zade says dryly, a tinge of amusement in his tone.

That she does.

“Remember, Sibby, don’t shoot to kill. Find and bring her to one of us when she’s down,” I remind.

She grumbles in response but doesn’t argue. I want to experience all of their deaths, so just like the Culling, we’ll kill them together.

“Ready?” I call out. Francesca’s shoulders shake with sobs, but I pay her no mind.

Xavier and Rocco don’t verbally answer, but their bodies tighten.

“Run,” Zade commands, laughing when Francesca takes off and then immediately stumbles over her feet, nearly face-planting the dirt ground.

Sibby giggles, her bouncing increasing. She will be hunting Francesca, Zade will be after Rocco, and Xavier… is mine.

Zade wanted to line them up and test if he could shoot an arrow through all three of their heads at once, but I wanted them to swallow the same pill they forced down my throat. I wanted them to suffer as I did. To choke on the bitterness of having your life in someone else’s hands, just to have it thrown to the ground and fucking stomped on.