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They weren't freaking healing.

Sacrifice.

Oh my God, Adrian... What had he said about a sacrifice? I couldn't think straight to remember. This shit was not right.

"Stop this," I croaked out in a voice that didn't want to work right. "Please, Adrian, stop this."

I tried to stand but slipped on the blood and fell back into the tub. The back of my head cracked against the tub, and if it hurt I didn't feel it. All I was capable of feeling was horror and dread.

And remorse.

So much remorse.

A hand landed gently on my shoulder, making me jump. Hot air wafted across my ear as someone breathed on me. Normally, I would have told them to move back, to get away from me, but I felt frozen, rooted to where I lay sprawled in the tub, and I couldn't risk moving and taking my eyes off Annabell.

Her body hung limp between the men holding her and the blood flowing out of her throat had slowed down greatly. As did her arms. And they still weren't healing.

Just how much blood did she have left in her body? How long had she been bleeding for? I wasn't so sure, because my head felt fuzzy and I thought I might have hit it a lot harder than I'd originally thought.

"Stop trying to help her," Marcus whispered harshly in my ear. "Better her bleeding out than you. Stop fighting it and think about your own damn self for once."

I sucked in a lungful of air and my chest expanded. My entire body shuddered when I blew it out. Marcus had known this was going to happen and he hadn't tried to warn me or stop it in any way. He'd simply sat back with the rest and watched as he allowed it all to happen.

In that moment, I think I kind of hated Marcus Cole. Like, seriously hated his guts. He certainly wasn't the man I thought him to be, that was for damned sure.

The people holding Annabell's arms released her and moved back, bleeding into the shadows in their dark robes. With his hand still fisted in her hair, Adrian gave Annabell one last rough shake before he stepped back and let go.

Annabell flopped lifelessly to the floor. Her body bounced off the front lip of the bathtub. She landed on the floor with a loud smack and the room filled with an eerie silence.

She was Annabell the Destroyer no more. She was simply Annabell the Dead.

Because she was dead.

Dead.

Because of me.

The tears started falling free uncontrollably. I made no sound as they fell and there was no stopping them once they started.

Callously, Adrian waved a hand down at Annabell's prone body and clipped out, "Someone please remove the body before it offends Ariel more than it already has."

He turned his beady eyes on me and they were bizarrely earnest. "Don't you worry too much about her, dear. You had just told me yourself that you weren't friends with the sad creature and that you didn't want her here. If you look at it in that regard, I did you a favor. Besides, we've tried everything with her and she wasn't fertile. She didn't care to use her magic for anything worthwhile anymore and she could not bear children. That made her more of a burden on the rest of us here than anything else. Now there's no more burden."

He swiped his hands together, palms brushing against palms as if he were wiping the dirt off of them.

The words I'd seen her mouth flashed across my mind.Do right by all of us girls, we're counting on you.

The tears stopped falling and I sat up straight in the tub. I shrugged Marcus off and stared Adrian in the eyes, making sure the rage I felt coursing through me, eating me up inside, wasn't right there on the surface for him to see.

Yeah.

Fuck yeah.

I might have not liked Annabell, but that was nothing in comparison to what I now felt toward this man. Unadulterated hatred and so, so much more.

We're counting on you.

Oh yeah.