She stopped tugging and leveled a glare at me. “I know that. I’m not killing them.” Dragging the Eve soldier to the edge of the cliff, she crouched down and pressed her thumb into the circular magick on the double’s hand before standing and kicking her limp body off the edge.
Her twin plummeted down the rocky crag and disappeared just as she breached the surface of the water.
“She had a suit on under her clothes,” she remarked tonelessly. “Stakes were strapped to her side. Is there a way to tell how long they’ve been here?”
“Yes, on the inside of their wrist a year is stamped. Most cover themselves and wait for an opportunity to strike, but some tear their magick tech out of their hands, leave their suits behind and make their way as far away from us as they can.”
“Defectors,” she said softly. “How many clones are on this island?”
“I’m not sure,” I answered. It wasn’t like I kept an inventory. “There can’t be many more.”
She nodded. “I’ll find them. I’ll send them back, Enoch.”
“How do you know when they will land?”
“I don’t,” she replied. “But just because my hand tech won’t take me home, doesn’t mean theirs won’t.”
I pursed my lips and pondered her logic, knowing it also didn’t mean it would. Their magick tech may not fully function, either. “So, you’re just going to stroll through the streets, dressed in that, and deliver a blow to anyone who looks like you, Titus, or Abram?”
“Then bring them here and throw them off the cliff, yes.”
I shook my head and tried not to smile. “It would certainly send a message.”
“I sure as hell hope so,” she retorted.
“What about the ones who want no part of Victor’s plans? The ones trying to be free? They’ve long since discarded their suits. If you toss them off this cliff, they will drown and die.”
“I’m not sure what it says about me, but I don’t care if they die, Enoch.”
“There aren’t many who defect from Victor’s cause, but even so, their numbers have dwindled of late…” I admitted. We might have killed a few innocents among the guilty. Completely our fault, though she’d receive no apology from me or on behalf of my siblings. I had to assume any soldier of Dantone’s a threat and deal with them accordingly.
The storm raged. The squall whipped her hair around and carried her scent to me. Eve’s eyes were fixed on the water below, almost as if she was hypnotized by it.
“I’m sorry I doubted you,” I finally offered, swallowing my pride and probably damning us both. But I had to say it. If she hurled herself off the cliff along with the others, I wanted her to know that I knew she wasn’t to blame for what happened to my people. Eve, as strong as she was, wore her heart on her sleeve, and I knew I’d broken it the moment I accused her of being part of the attack. “I know now that you wouldn’t have hurt my people.”
She stared at the churning water below. Mighty waves built and crashed against the dark rocks, leaving foaming trails across the water’s surface. “I wouldn’t have, but you were right not to trust me, Enoch. I did travel to kill you. For years, your death was all I lived for.” She sounded depleted, almost as exhausted as I felt.
“But you didn’t kill me.”
“I don’t think I could have if I wanted to,” she laughed harshly. “I think we both know that.”
“Did you want to?”
“At first, but then I saw how you treated others. How you protected them.” A sad shadow fell over her eyes and she hung her head.
Just then, a new set of scents joined hers and a familiar, deep-throated chuckle came from behind me. “Well, look what the cat dragged in…” Terah purred.
Over the centuries, she’d lost and then found herself in the ecstasy of the blood from which she fed. She smiled, baring razor-sharp fangs, and callously dropped Edward Thatch on the ground. Two puncture wounds on his neck wept blood down his now-pale skin and leeched into his white shirt, turning it the color of rust.
Terah had already fed from Edward, but could always find room for another drink. She grinned at Eve.
“Edward said he’d found you. He’s been known to lie, so of course, I didn’t believe him. But now I see that he was being honest. Hmm. That might be a first for him.”
Eve’s teeth began to chatter. Through the sheets of rain, she stared Terah down vigilantly.
“You killed him, you know,” Terah taunted with a tick of her head towards me, slowly advancing. I placed myself between her and Eve.
Eve didn’t respond, so Terah kept talking. “He was a shell of himself for decades until he finally realized I was right; that your absence was the best thing that ever happened to him. And now you’re back.”
“I fell into this time and place. I didn’t go home and come back here to make trouble,” Eve warned.
“Does it matter? Your army came for him, after all. But even thousands of you were no match for the three of us. Do you have any idea how weak your entire race is in comparison to us? We can snap you like twigs, or we can turn you into the very things you despise,” she threatened.
“Terah,” I warned. “Don’t.”
My sister’s eyes snapped to mine. “Are you out of your mind? You know who she is! This is your chance. Do to her what you’ve done to the others. Unleash her, brother.”
“What did you do to the others?” Eve asked from behind. The ocean’s roar tried to drown her out, but there was no sound more powerful than her voice.
I stared my sister down, arguing, “She didn’t know. The attack wasn’t her fault.”
Terah choked out a single, harsh laugh.
“Enoch,” Eve said sternly. “What did you do to the others?”
I turned to look at her, keeping Terah in my line of sight. “I turned them. And when they became the thing they loathed the most, I killed them.”
Eve shook her head and then pressed the heel of her hand to her temple. She winced, closing her eyes. “What’s the matter?” I asked.
“My head,” was all she could say. Her teeth raked together before she fell to her knees. “I need Titus,” she sighed before she closed her eyes and slumped sideways.
I caught her and tried to hold her upright. “Is he here? Eve? Is Titus on the island?”
She was unconscious. Neither my voice nor the rain roused her. But if she was asking for Titus, I had to assume he was here on Brutulo somewhere. And that she knew he could help her when I could not.
A giggle bubbled up through Terah at the sight of Eve’s piteous plight. She looked between her and Edward, who was still unconscious. “We should just leave them lying there. With any luck, the storm will favor us and drown them both.”
Ignoring her, I gathered Eve in my arms, carrying her quickly down the path into the ravine.
“Or not,” she quipped, rushing to catch up with me. Terah knew I would leave her behind on Brutulo. It was her decision to continue her fight over Eve and make herself unwelcome on my ship, or to learn to shut her mouth and cooperate for once in her life.
I paused on the deck as she dragged Edward aboard, his arm at an odd and probably painful angle. Terah grinned cruelly. “Are we going for a sail? It’s a beautiful day for it.”