Page 95 of Silent Schemes

The wind roars in, ice, salt, and city stink.

She stands in the middle of it, not moving.

Not hiding.

When I finally stop, the only sound is my own breathing, ragged and raw.

Blood drips onto the floor.

My knuckles are already swelling, bone starting to show.

Sienna says, “You done?”

Her voice is so calm it almost makes me laugh.

I walk back, wipe my hand on my shirt, smear the blood across my chest like war paint.

“Why?” I ask, soft.

She shakes her head, just once. “It wasn’t supposed to happen. None of this was.”

I stare at her, then at the vitamins. “You think you can just take from me? You think you can raise my child in a world where I don’t exist?”

Her mouth twists. “I thought you’d be dead by now.”

It’s almost funny. Almost.

I drop to my knees, press my bleeding hand to the floor, and laugh until I cough blood into my palm.

When I look up, her eyes are wet.

She says, “I can’t kill you. Not now. But he’ll kill Maya if I don’t.”

It hits like a bullet. “Who?”

“My father,” she says, and her voice is smaller than I’ve ever heard it. “He changed his mind. He was going to turn her into my protege, but now if I don’t finish the job, he’ll kill Maya. He said he’d make me watch.”

I stand, slow.

I walk to her, so close I can smell the iron in my own blood.

“You think I’d let him touch you? Either of you?”

She closes her eyes. “You can’t stop him. He has an army.”

I touch her jaw, gentle, smearing the blood along her cheek.

I whisper, “Iaman army. I’m a goddamn battalion for you.”

We stand like that for a long time.

The city wails outside, sirens chasing each other down empty streets.

The wind blows in, bitter and wild.

I look at her, and I see every reason I should end her.

Instead, I pull her to me.