Page 170 of The Seven Rings
He dragged his hands through his hair, breathed it out. Drank more of the tea until he could settle again, at least a little.
“There was something… Master and mistress of the manor. Sonya was no true Poole, but I was, and she’d give me forever. And I could have her. I wanted that. It felt like I’d die for that. Anything she asked me to do, I’d do, just to have that. Have her.
“Then the knife, in my hand. She said—I got this clear—‘Kill them. Kill them all. The cousin, her lover, then the friend.’ Get them out of her manor, and she’d burn the bodies. And we’d have forever.I could do whatever I wanted with her, if I did that one thing. Kill them all.”
As he struggled through it, he fisted his hands on the table. “For a minute, or however long, I wanted it. Do that and I’d have all of it. Her. Then she kissed me.”
Fighting not to be sick again, he breathed through his teeth. “She tasted like death. It made me sick, made me hard, then I was in the hall again, and that smell was everywhere. The taste of her was in my throat, and—wait.”
He bore down. “Blood. There had to be blood—she said. I was supposed to taste your blood, all of you. Animals, too. Some part of me kept saying no. Holy fuck no, but I felt like if I didn’t…”
He put his hand down, laid it on Jones’s head. “I walked into your room, saw Trey, saw you, Sonya. Whatever she did to me, it wasn’t enough. Just wasn’t enough. I swear to God, I’d have slit my own throat first. And the part of me that thought, just do it? Even that part got smothered in that smell. She was still in my head, that smell, her smell, all over me. But I couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t. I swear to you, I wouldn’t have done it.”
“You didn’t.” Near tears, Sonya reached out to grip his hands. “Owen, she couldn’t make you.”
“Give yourself a break.” Cleo nearly snapped it out. “She bespelled you. The fog? I’m going to say like a drug. You were in a trance, and still you pushed back through it, so give yourself a goddamn break.”
When he started to speak, she snapped again.
“She used you. Like she did Collin Poole all those years ago. And you know what this tells us?”
“That you’re right, you and Sonya,” Trey said. “She can’t hurt us. Not the way she wants to. She tried to use Owen to do her dirty work. She failed.”
“What if I hadn’t seen you? If you’d still been sleeping? If I’d gone in to Cleo first? I might have—”
“Stop it! You didn’t. You wouldn’t. You fought back.” Cleo gripped his hand. “She did all she could do. She raped your mind, goddamn it, Owen, and you fought back. You came back.”
“Clover blasted music. She had your back. Ours,” Sonya corrected. “And, Owen, when you came in, you looked sick, and you turned that knife on yourself. Whatever she did to you, you were stronger. Did you hear her scream?”
“No.”
“Believe me, she did. You beat her, and we’re all here. You’re a goddamn hero.”
“No, I’m not. You don’t understand where my head was, where my body was.”
“I know where it is now. And I know it’s almost three, so here’s what I’m going to say. Let’s go around front and watch her die.”
Sonya pushed up from the table. When she reached for his hand, he sat a moment, unable to speak or move. Then he nodded.
“Okay.”
They walked around the house together, and stood united.
The clock chimed. Overhead, the moon sailed full and white.
They watched Dobbs climb onto the seawall, watched her hair, her dress blow in the wind.
Hands clasped, they watched her lift her hands to the sky as the sea crashed below her.
She shouted out her words, her curse, sealed in blood.
And leaped.
And they stood as the air cooled into the first hints of fall.
“We’re here,” Sonya said. “We’re together. We beat her again tonight, and we’re going to keep on beating her.” Turning, she wrapped her arms around Owen. “Still my favorite cousin.”
For a moment, he dropped his head on her shoulder. “You scare her. I believe that. And I’m with you.”
