Page 116 of Cinder
He walks through the streets of the small resort town like he has nothing to fear. But in a few minutes, he is going to learn he is wrong. He has the worst to fear.
For eight years, he has escaped capture.
While my darkness has grown stronger.
And tonight, I’m letting the darkness out to play.
I step in behind him. Follow him along the coastal path through town. Past the little restaurants and the cafés and along the boardwalk with the ocean beside us.
He leaves the safety of the well-lit area. Passes the movie theater and the bars down a small alleyway and starts to whistle to himself.
Fucking whistle.
He turns right into a more shadowy alleyway and it’s where I get him. I take him by surprise and push him into a doorway so we are face to face. It takes him a moment, but his surprise gives way to recognition and the fear sets in. His irises widen and he starts to panic.
“It was just a job. Just a fucking job.”
I bring the knife to his throat and tilt my head.
“This is for Alice and the baby.”
I slam my knife into his belly and twist. His eyes widen and blood bubbles from his mouth.
He sags against the wall, his body wanting to fall.
“Oh, no you don’t,” I growl, gripping his chin and forcing him to look at me. “You’re not getting off that lightly. That wasn’t a wound that will kill you…”
I slam my blade in again.
“That one might …”
Then again.
“That one definitely will…”
And again.
“But that one was just meant to hurt…”
He coughs and splutters and starts to beg me to let him go. “It wasn’t personal.”
A new wave of rage crashes over me. “Oh, it was very fucking personal.”
Blood spills down his chin. “It was war.”
I grip his chin tighter. “And this is payback.”
I finally run the blade across his throat and a stream of red sprays into the twilight air.
But I don’t let him slump to the ground. I hold him up so I can watch the life drain slowly from him. Watch the fear and the panic swirl with the cold trickle of regret as his life leaves him.
Only when he is finally dead do I let him fall to the ground.
The retribution is done.
The circle is closed.
And a new enforcer for the Knights of St. Boniface has been born.
