"I'm telling you, Kendella, I overheard him!" Lena hissed into the receiver, her eyes darting toward the nursery door. "I think Aurielle is alive. Kieran is on his way to her now... if he hasn't already pulled her out of whatever hell she was in."
"That's impossible!" Kendella's voice was a sharp screech on the other end. "She's ash, Lena. The fire—"
"The fire was a lie!" Lena cut her off, her voice trembling. "If she comes back here, I'm dead. She'll remember my face from that night in the hospital. Kieran will skin me alive. He'll make my death an art piece." Lena's eyes drifted to the hallway. "I have to finish it. If I can't have the life I wanted, I'll leave them with nothing. I'll kill the boy. I'll kill Adrien."
"Lena, no! Don't—"
Lena slammed the phone down, cutting off Kendella's protest. She didn't have time for cold feet.
A soft, sharp intake of air came from the hallway.
Lena spun around. Adrien was standing in the doorway, his small frame trembling, his eyes wide and glassy with a horror no child should understand.
"You're going to... kill me?" his voice was a mere thread of sound.
She let a slow, wicked smile spread across her face. "Oh, you little cockroach. You were eavesdropping?"
She began to move toward him, her steps rhythmic and predatory.
She let out a dry, haunting chuckle that echoed off the high ceilings. "Go ahead, run. Your father is miles away. The maids are on their shift change. The guards? They're outside, staring at the gates, oblivious o the monster already inside the house."
She reached for the silver fruit knife resting on the mahogany side table.
"I'm going to stab you, it'll be quick."
Adrien's survival instinct kicked in. He didn't scream—not yet—he just bolted. His socks slid on the floor as he turned, his small heart drumming a frantic rhythm against his ribs. He flew toward the grand staircase, his voice finally breaking the silence. "Somebody help! Mummy! Daddy! Please!"
He scrambled down the stairs, his legs too short for the pace, nearly tripping over his own fear. He reached the massive front doors, his tiny fingers clawing desperately at the heavy brass handle that sat far too high above his head. He was trapped.
Lena was halfway down the stairs, the knife held low, her eyes locked on his throat. "Nowhere to go, Adrien," she purred.
Then, the door burst open.
Aurielle's POV
The door swung wide, and Kieran stepped in first, his presence like a dark thundercloud. He stopped dead, his eyes locking onto Adrien, who was cowering on the floor, and then onto Lena, who stood above him.
Lena gasped, her face turning the color of ash as she frantically tucked the knife behind her back. But she didn't see me yet. Not until I stepped out from behind Kieran's shadow.
"Mummy!"
Adrien didn't even look at his father. He threw himself at me, his small arms wrapping around my waist so hard it bruised. I broke down instantly, falling to my knees and pulling him into my chest, burying my face in his curls, wrapping my arms around him so tight I feared I'd break him. He was shaking, a violent, rhythmic tremor that told me he'd been living in terror for a long time.
"She... she wanted to kill me, Mummy," Adrien sobbed, his voice muffled by my shoulder. "She had the knife. She said... she said you were never coming back. D..don't leave me again."
The knife hit the floor with a sharp, echoing ping.
Kieran's head tilted slowly, a gesture that was more beast than man. He looked at Lena, then at the knife, his mind struggling to rectify the "trained specialist" with the assassin standing in his home. "Lena?" his voice was a low, lethal vibration. "Why is there a blade on my floor?"
The glare I gave her was so full of years of suppressed agony that she actually staggered back.
I stood up, "Adrien," I said, my voice coming out with a cold, terrifying clarity. "Go upstairs. Right now."
"Mummy, no—"Adrien hesitated, his fingers clutching my sleeve. He had lost me once; he didn't want to let go.
"Adrien! Go upstairs this instant!"
He jumped at the sharp authority in my voice and scrambled up the stairs, disappearing into the shadows of the landing.
Kieran didn't wait for an explanation, instead he stepped forward, his face a mixture of horrifying guilt and murderous rage. He realized then that he had invited a devil into his son's bedroom. He reached into his pocket, his hand emerging with the heavy, cold weight of his gun. He didn't say a word. He just leveled it at her head.
I moved faster than I ever had. I grabbed his wrist, my fingers digging into his skin.
Kieran growled, his eyes flashing with icy fire. "Move, Aurielle. She touched my son. She dies."
"I promised myself," I whispered, my eyes never leaving Lena's crumbling face. "I promised myself that if I ever saw her again, I would be the one to do it. You don't know her, Kieran. You don't know what she took."
Kieran paused, his brow furrowing in confusion.
"She stole our daughter, Kieran."
Kieran staggered as if I had physically ripped his heart out. The "Devil of the City" actually paled. "What?"
"Adrien was a twin," I said, the words feeling like shards of glass in my throat. "I gave birth to two babies that night in the hospital. I was weak from the surgery... paralyzed. Lena came into the room. I thought she was my friend. I saw her pick up my daughter and walk out. I couldn't move. I couldn't scream. By the next day, she had fled the city. She sold my baby to a wealthy family who had lost their own child that night. She sold our daughter for millions, Kieran."
"You... I have a daughter?" he whispered. he looked broken. His eyes went distant, lost in the sudden, agonizing knowledge that he had a daughter out there—a girl he had never held. A girl who had been traded like a piece of jewelry.
"You don't deserve to live," I spat, grabbing the gun from Kieran. "You are worse than the devil, Lena."
I stepped toward her, "Who did you sell her to?"
"I don't know!" she wailed. "Rich people! They took her out of the country! I don't remember!"
I spat at Lena. "You are worse than the devil."
"Aurielle, please!" Lena began to beg, her voice a pathetic, high-pitched whine. "It was jealousy. I was jealous! I've always been jealous of you!"
"Jealous of me?" I let out a jagged, hysterical laugh. "I was a sex worker, Lena! I was a girl who danced in the dark to pay for a roof! I was nothing! You were a nurse! You had a dream, a family, a title! What could you possibly want from my life?"
"Everything!" she shrieked, her face turning ugly with envy. "In the orphanage, you were the star. Even when you were covered in dirt, people looked at you. You were the beauty,' and I was just the shadow."
I didn't hesitate. I didn't blink. I pulled the trigger.
Bang.
Lena's body jolted, her eyes wide with a final, shocked realization, before she slumped to the marble. A dark, crimson halo began to spread beneath her blonde hair.
Kieran stared at the body, then at me. He had seen death a thousand times, but he had never seen me like this. I was no longer the poet; I was the hunter.
A small, choked gasp came from upstairs.
I looked up. Adrien was there, peeping. He looked at the body, then at the gun in my hand, and finally at me. He didn't see his mother. He saw a killer.
"Adrien... baby..." I reached out.
Adrien didn't answer. He turned and ran into the darkness of the upstairs hallway.
The gun slipped from my fingers, as I
collapsed next to the woman I had just executed.