Page 93 of Heart Cradle
“He wasn’t a threat anymore!” Maeve screamed. “You killed him when he was done, when he was on the ground, when he begged you… ”
“He knew what he was doing!” Eiran seethed, moving into her space. “He took the power they gave him, and he used it!”
Maeve jabbed a finger at his chest. “So what? You decided you’re judge, jury and executioner? That’s what you are now?”
Eiran’s face hardened, voice cutting clean through the air. “Yes.”
She stared at him, shocked.
“He was a problem,” Eiran said, calm and cold. “So I solved it.”
Maeve’s voice cracked. “He wasn’t even fighting back.”
Eiran shrugged. “That just saved me time.”
“You…” she faltered. “You didn’t even try to spare him.”
“I wasn’t interested in sparing him,” Eiran said, gaze steady. “He was a weapon waiting to be pointed again. I broke it.”
Her breath caught. “He… ”
“He talked,” Eiran corrected. “Cried a little. Didn’t change what he was or what he did.”
“You sound like a monster.”
“No,” Eiran exploded, voice cracking like thunder. “I sound like someone who almost lost their mate!”
Maeve jolted, eyes wide as his voice echoed through the room and he stepped towards her, fists clenched, the mask of cold detachment cracking at last.
“Do you not get that?” His voice shook now, but it didn’t soften. “Do you even fucking understand what that did to me?”
“He was fucking traumatised!” she shrieked. “And so are you! He didn’t need death, he needed help, he needed someone to see he wasn’t a fucking monster!”
“He was a monster!” Eiran bellowed, eyes burning. “A monster who looked you in the eye and chose to kill!”
“You’re not hearing me…”
“I hear every fucking word, Maeve!” he roared. “I just don’t agree!”
“Of course you don’t!” she spat. “Because this is easier for you, isn’t it? Just kill and walk away like it doesn’t cost anything!”
“Easier?” Eiran laughed bitterly, loud and sharp. “You think it was easy for me?”
“You didn’t even hesitate!”
“I didn’t have a choice!”
“There is always a choice!” Maeve shouted back.
Eiran’s hands flew through his hair. “What would you have done? Let him go? Hugged it out? Sung him a fucking lullaby?”
“I would’ve tried!” she shouted. “Because I’m not a fucking murderer, Eiran!”
That stopped him, his face froze. “Right, you only killed to escape, out of desperation.” he said finally. “And I guess that’s the difference between us.”
“Don’t do that.” Maeve’s breath hitched, hands trembling. “Don’t you fucking do that.”
“If it had been me,” he said, voice rising again, raw and loud, “on the ground in Haleth, if it was my blood soaking into the ground, would you have spared him?”
