This is too much. Too much blood. To harsh. To unfair. My stomach rolls, but there’s nothing it to dispel. I reach for a hand to hold onto. Anyone. And I find Markov and Anna. Surprisingly, Danielle places her hand on my shoulder from behind.
For another fifteen minutes, Jasmine battles the remaining Bitten. Slaughtering them. Burring her blade in their chests. She’s bitten twice, clawed from front and back. But one by one, the bodies drop into the snow. Slowly, the snow around us goes from pink, to red, seeping further and further out, until there is no more white in the circle. Only blood-soaked slush and bodies litter the ground.
Jasmine pulls her blade from the last of the Bitten, letting her fall to the ground, landing on top of two other bodies. Her chest heaves, sucking the air in and out in desperate pulls. There isn’t a surface of her body that isn’t covered in blood. It clings to her hair, coats her skin in a thick slick. Her clothing is drenched in it.
And as she looks around to us all, a tear leaks out onto her cheek. Followed by another. Then, a rush of others. Soon, she’s sobbing. She collapses onto her hands and knees.
My heart twists as she drips blood onto the soggy, red ground.
“Please,” she sobs. “Just do it.”
Cyrus steps forward, picking up the blade from the ground. The one coated in red.
“Don’t!” I cry as my heart threatens to break into a million explosive pieces, stepping forward from the crowd. Something bites at the back of my eyes and my throat tightens. “Don’t kill her.”
“Why not?” Cyrus asks, annoyed at being denied more of what he craves.
“Because,” I say as Jasmine’s eyes rise to meet mine. They hold so much pain, yet still so much hatred. But all I can feel is pity. She’s made so many mistakes, taken every wrong turn. “Because everyone deserves a second chance.” I look up at Cyrus. “Let me take her in. Teach her the right way to do things. After all of this, do you think she’ll ever stray again?”
Cyrus walks forward, toward me, his eyes steady. “Compassion is a rare find in our kind, especially considering what this woman has put you through.” He stops in front of me and his hand rises to cup my cheek. “You’re a caring woman, Alivia. You have done much for your House and for your town. But second chances are not something I give.” Panic rises in me when I see the look harden on Cyrus’ face. “Not when an individual has put our kind at so much risk for exposure.” Without looking away from me, he addresses Jasmine. “Remember, you brought this on yourself.”
Cyrus whips around in a movement that is invisible with its speed, swinging the blade.
Jasmine’s head falls into the snow, her body collapsing into a heap.
“No!” I scream, leaping forward, as if I can stop anything.
But a strong pair of arms wraps around my torso, holding me back. “It’s over,” a British accent says quietly into my ear. Nial doesn’t let me go as I try desperately to get to Jasmine. “It’s over.”
Attention turns to myself and those behind me. Tears roll down my face as my eyes are transfixed on Jasmine’s ruined body. “I could have…” I breathe in and out, my voice broken and small. “She could have changed. She just needed… She just needed a chance.”
“She never gave anyone a second chance, why would she take one herself?”
The pain and terror inside me grows very still and quiet as I recognize that voice. I turn, very slowly to face its owner.
Christian Kask stands in the snow, his expression grim. Lillian stands beside him, a hand on his shoulder. Next to him is Trinity, a tear rolling down her face. Nial finally lets me go.
The final two members of the Broken House that I was never able to secure stand before me, amongst the many, many members of the House of Conrath.
“Brother,” Samuel breathes. He rushes forward to wrap his arms around the man.
My House and family are complete.
“Let this be a lesson,” Cyrus says, and attention shifts back to their King. “We do not tolerate insurrection. The monarchy enforces justice. And do not forget what this woman, who is your leader, was willing to do for a woman who killed her loved one. Who tried to take what was rightfully Alivia’s. Who did unspeakable things. Lady Conrath was willing to forgive. That makes her unique, and I hope you do not forget that. But I, your King, I do not share the same compassion. Do not forget who you follow. Hail, Alivia Conrath!”
Cyrus pumps his fist in the air with his great shout.
“Hail, Alivia Conrath!” Markov echoes, and he drops to one knee, his head bent.
“Hail, Alivia Conrath!” the shouts echo around me. And one by one, fifteen new House members and six old ones drop to their knees, shouting my name.