She yelled for help. Cowardness once again spoke louder than reason.
Eldric wasn’t completely on board with all this. He would have preferred to move on and let Desi become a traumatic part of their history rather than punish her for what she did, but he couldn’t deny Alissa and Olga their right to avenge their loved ones. Desi’s selfish motivations had brought two precious lives to an end, and there was nothing he could do to help her now. He stood there, watching, his lips pressed together in a pitiful stance, almost feeling bad for the woman as she begged for her life, humiliating herself while she crumbled under the rubble of her own doing, revealing her true self-centered, weak nature.
Olga’s glare was narrowed and focused, like a predator honing in on its prey. “You come into my house uninvited, followed by armed men. You bring killing into my living room to people who had never wronged you.” For every step Olga took in her direction, Desi’s heart paced faster. “You got my guest and my husband murdered for your own selfish reasons, then you ran away like the coward that you are, and now you ask me for mercy?”
Desi didn’t say anything, but her tears kept coming incessantly. Her clothes stunk of urine, a result of the overwhelming pain and fear she could no longer contain.
Everything she had done was to be with her children. All of her sins were a result of her desperate need to retrieve the life she once had and loved. Desi lied and deceived, killedand betrayed more than once, to be with her family. Ironically, that same motivation was the reason death was brought to her doorstep. The awareness of all her mistakes dawned on her, and the resolution in the eyes of the woman who was destined to be her executioner showed her there was no point in begging, no point in running away. Desi could at least be grateful that her family was not present to witness her tragic end.
Sensing her resignation, Alissa released her grip on the magic, but the healer did not move. She remained frozen, kneeling on the floor of her living room.
Her gaze met Alissa’s one last time. “I am not the real enemy, Alissa. I never was.”
The implication was clear. Desi was accusing the one who had ordered the assassination as the true culprit behind Freyah’s death. Alissa knew the general was far from innocent; he bore as much blame as the healer, and she would ensure he paid for his crimes when the time came. But the fact that, in her final moments, Desi still couldn’t acknowledge her role in the tragedy and refused to take responsibility for what she had done spoke volumes.
When Desi’s last words were spoken, they were directed at Eldric: “Don’t let my children see me dead. Please.”
He nodded, promising to grant her this final act of kindness.
Desi’s lungs filled with air one last time, her heart thundering under her ribcage. With eyes closed, the last image she saw was the face of her children.
She smiled.
It took four seconds.
Olga lifted her axe.
She moved it toward her target, a movement so swift it contradicted the morbidity of the action.
The sharp blade met the hard resistance of a neck, and Alissa recoiled at the sound that followed.
A head fell to the floor with a thud, her dark lips still frozen on the smile she wore when it happened. Her body followed right after.
Four mere seconds for the woman who had once been a devoted healer, mother, daughter, and wife to have her life ripped away. Four seconds to erase thirty-four years of existence. Yet, as fleeting as it was, it lasted longer than the moment it took them to steal Freyah’s life.
Alissa recalled the remorse that weighed heavily on her conscience the first time she took a human life in what seemed to have been a lifetime ago. She felt goosebumps when she realized that even though she knew the circumstances that brought Desi to betray them, seeing her dead didn’t spark any emotions in her, not guilt or regret.
Nothing.
The same way killing those guards just moments before didn’t even make her flinch.
Had she lost the part of herself that made her human to be unaffected by brutality and murder, or did she only feel that way because these people weren’t innocent, and the urge to save Eldric and avenge Freyah was greater than anything?
She hoped it was the latter.
It was as clear as day how Freyah’s murder had changed her in more ways than she could have comprehended. Losing her best friend made her bitter and heartless. She wasn’t sure she would ever recover that spark of empathy and compassion that allowed her to feel sorry for those who did her wrong.
When justice had been done, the group honored Desi’s request. Eldric and Olga buried her body in the woods as Alissa cleaned, getting rid of any traces of their presence at her house and the crimes committed there. She had seen so many of Desi’s treatment notes while being cared for in Nyfrel that mimicking her handwriting came naturally. It was almost too easy to leavea message for her children, penned in the familiar hand of their mother.
Had to go back to Nyfrel. I’m sorry.
Alissa was about to leave when she glanced over her shoulder, looking at the sheet of paper on the kitchen table. She turned around, picturing how Desi’s children would feel if their mother was gone again and all they had left of her were those words. In a final gesture of kindness, she added:
I will love you forever. Don’t you ever forget that.
Love,
Desi