Page 80 of Starve
Cairo ismine.
The possessiveness surprises me, and it’s my good fortune that Tyler is too preoccupied with my question to take advantage of my momentary distraction.
“They respect him. They follow him,” he sneers. “He doesn’t even have to try. And yet he doesn’t want it!” The last words are thrown at Cairo, who is somehow on his feet, glaring sullenly at the cursed between us. “He could have everything—he could be like Agatha, but he doesn’t just take it. What’s wrong with you?!” He sounds desperate, and at his wit’s end. “Why won’t you just take what you could have?”
I don’t feel like playing fair, and when he looks at Cario again, I lunge forward, eyes fixed on his throat. But it’s clear I’ve miscalculated when Cairo snaps a warning and Tyler’s hand comes out quick as lightning to grip my throat, his claws sinking into my flesh in a way that would’ve killed me twelve hours ago.
“Stupid little bird,” he parrots, his eyes dark and full of hate. “Stupid,stupidlittle thing. You could’ve had her. You could’ve had everything.” When Moro tries to nip at him, he shoves her away, easily sending her sprawling, though she gets to her feet, wary of him and panting.
My heart races as his grip tightens, and I struggle in his grip as my feet leave the ground. His claws are sharp, and the pain is blinding as he digs them deeper and deeper into my neck, making it clear what his intentions are.
“But now you can watch her die, and we’ll see if that kills you too.” My eyes find Cairo’s, and I see his hand tighten on theworst of his wounds, his eyes are desperate and pleading. But full of a dark kind of acceptance.
He won’t make it.
He can’t save me.
Suddenly, Tyler is no longer holding me, and I drop to the ground when he is thrown to the dirt beside me. Hattie screams in his face, slashing wildly at him.
“Youpromised!” she hisses, tears streaming down her face. “You promised you wouldn’t hurt her, that you wouldn’t hurtme!”
Horrified, I watch as she swipes at him, and at how Tyler’s surprise and affection for her make him slow to respond.
“And you promised me you loved me!” he screams back, getting his leg between them to kick her away, causing her to land in a shuddering, sobbing heap at Cairo’s feet. He helps her to stand, even though it must pain him to do so.
Seeing all three of them there makes something click in me.
The broken girl who’d been so betrayed.
My dog, who’s saved my life now so many times, I owe her a century’s worth of filets.
AndCairo.
My body moves automatically, and I barely think to question it. In seconds I’m pinning Tyler to the ground, one hand around his throat and sinking my claws into his neck the same way he did to me. The blood is cold in my veins, and when I open my mouth, the sound that comes from between my teeth could never, ever be human.
But then again, I’ve never felt like this before.
Like a monster.
“It’s time for this to end,” I breathe, the words trickling from between my lips as my throat works in an unfamiliar way. I don’t sound like myself, and he jerks back from me, eyes wide and staring. Tyler tries to surge upward, but I push him back down,slamming him into the dirt so hard he sinks into it a couple of inches.
“This is for Hattie.” Without warning, I plunge my hand into his chest, feeling his ribs snap under my fingers as I reach for what I’m searching for. “For what you did to her, knowing she couldn’t understand.” He squalls like a wounded animal, fighting and bucking against me. But I’m immovable.
“This is for mydog.” My fingers curl around his heart, and I’m still holding him down with my other hand as I drive my claws into his heart, piercing the muscle as easily as if it were butter. “Mydog, who you almost killed for protecting me.”
“This is for Cairo.” I twist like I’m pulling weeds from my dad’s vegetable garden, severing the vessels, the nerves, and the connective tissue. “Because he ismine.” My claws in his throat have nearly met, and he tries to gurgle a response, but blood just bubbles on his lips.
“But most importantly, Tyler?” I lean forward until my face is just above his, our lips nearly brushing. My lips part in a grin, and somehow I know that the smile on my face is unnaturally wide, and bearing more of my teeth than should be possible. The horror reflected in his eyes certainly tells me as much, but all I feel is a sick, dark joy at his fear and his pain.
“This is for me.”With one quick jerk, I rip upward, pulling his heart out of his chest and crushing it between my fingers. The pulpy, gory mess leaks down my fingers while he watches, and his struggles get weaker and weaker.
I’m so close to him I can feel it as he dies. I can feel his breath escape his ruined body for the last time, whistling through his teeth. And I know I will never forget the way his eyes darken, going blank, as Tyler finally lies dead in the dirt beneath me with his heart and blood leaking from my hands.
Chapter 33
The world issilent for a long moment. Even the birds and the wind stand still around us, or so it seems. But a sharp, sorrowful cry breaks through the stillness, and Hattie stumbles over to collapse on the ground beside me, leaning over Tyler and cradling his face in her hands.
At first, I can’t understand why, or what she’s saying in mumbled, breathy words. How could she mourn him, when all signs point toward him turning her against her will and certainly not treating her well after?
