Page 26 of Reine's Salvation

“Why didn’t you?”

Mystique shrugged. “I wasn’t interested. I like helping people, but I don’t want to charge them 500 bucks for it. Oh wow.”

They stopped. A large crowd had poured out of the cinema, but a couple was arguing so loudly they could be heard well above the din of other voices. Reine froze. Blood was in the air. The woman’s yelling grew louder by the second. Her words reached him. She accused the man of being a liar and having deceived her. The man tried to calm her down, but she was inconsolable.

“Who keeps order in this city?” Reine whispered to Mystique. “Shouldn’t they be here?”

“The police. I’m sure someone has already called them.”

“Call them again,” Reine urged.

“They won’t intercede in a couple’s quarrel.”

Reine shook his head. “That’s not a couple’s quarrel. She has a gun.”

“What?”

“Call the police.”

Reine made his way through the crowd. As if the woman had heard him speak, she pulled out the weapon from beneath her coat and aimed it at the man. People screamed and ran in all directions. Someone slammed him in the ribs, but still he ran forward.

“Isabel,” the man said, “calm down. We can solve this.”

“You lied and cheated on me and sold my wedding band to pay off your debts, and you want me to calm down? You deserve to die, to suffer as much as I have.”

The sound of a cocking gun rang loudly in Reine’s ear. He lunged forward, ready to take the woman’s weapon. However, as he did, he stumbled. He had reached out to her with his right arm. He had nothing there but a stump.

A shot rang in the air and out of instinct, he threw himself on the ground. He looked up. The woman was staring at her weapon and mumbling something. She pointed it at herself.

“No.”

Reine jumped to his feet and ran toward her. The sound of another shot permeated the air just as he crashed against her. They fell to the ground, the smell of blood pungent. Quickly, Reine rolled to the side and onto his knees. He crawled toward the woman. Blood seeped from a wound on her head. Her eyes were wide open, dead to the world, but not to him. In their depths he saw the smiling Inferum, slinking back into the shadow, followed by the woman’s soul. She was one of them now.

A sound caused him to turn around sharply. The man the woman had tried to kill lay on the ground, moaning in agony from a shot to his chest. Sirens filled the air just as large droplets of water began to fall from the sky. Thunder roared. Reine shook his head as a buzzing sound filled it.This is all your fault. You’re useless.

“Reine.”

He glanced up. Mystique had her hand on his shoulder. She kneeled at his side. He couldn’t tell if what she had in her eyes were tears or rain drops.

“You did your best,” she whispered as if she had access to his thoughts. “You tried to help.”

Reine nodded, but the humming in his mind grew louder. This had all been his fault.

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