Page 93 of The Heart of a Villain

“Yes. I understand. But you didn’t come to me, and you know why? Because I made a mistake.” We step back from each other, breathing heavily while we stare at one another. “I made a mistake when I believed you can be cured. You cannot!” He points at me with the sword. “At the first opportunity, you chose darkness and soaked in it, turning your back on us all. A heart filled with hatred seeks only pain, never resting because peace hurts them too much.”

“I’m like every one of your students.”

He shakes his head. “No. I gave you a chance time and time again through all these years because you didn’t fully lose your head. Until you killed an innocent, I gave you a chance to find something more than hate to hold on to. But you haven’t.”

“I’ve never killed an innocent,” I snarl at him, despising his implication as if I’m some kind of a demon.

My code might be different from his, but I still have one.

“You kidnapped Aileen. The minute you took her, you knew you signed your own death warrant.” He squeezes the handle, and the rain stops as abruptly as it has started. “I’ve never killed one of my own. This shall be another burden that I’ll have to carry.” He shakes his head at me, and for a second, I see remorse in his gaze, but not at the idea of ending my life.

No, he probably feels remorse for the boy I once was, who grew up into an ungrateful fucker who brought pain not only to him but his wife.

“I didn’t treat her like a prisoner, nor was she kept in a dungeon.”

He lifts his sword again. “Should that make me feel better? No one touches my family. Look at this,” he bellows while various screams ring in the air as the men continue to drop like dead flies. “You brought her to hell and let the darkness touch her. I would never forgive anyone for doing that!” He comes after me again, this time bruising my side, but I’m done being nice.

I deliver a blow to his gut with my elbow and then another to his back, the sword almost slipping from his grip when I push back against it, blocking any hit coming my way. “You changed. I can change.”

He sways to the side a little and winces, gulping for breath, the only bit of weakness he allows me to see. “Love changes us. Hate cannot change anything. It just drives us insane until no rational thought exists. And you can never be trusted.” I still at this. “You switch sides so swiftly you can never be part of a pack. You’ve been a loner, and you’ll always stay a loner. You cannot control your impulses, so sooner or later, you will commit a true crime in our eyes. I will never be able to live with myself if it happens.”

“Aileen changed me. I’d never do that to her.”

He pauses at my admission that shocks even me, but that’s the truth.

I’m hotheaded, but I’d never do anything to jeopardize my chance with her, if she gives me one.

“You fucker!” he bellows, getting my meaning at once, and then knocks me down, our swords falling away as he delivers hit after hit to me. “My daughter! You bastard!”

I hurt him too but mostly just block all this while he gets his fill. “I didn’t force her!”

This information only enrages him more as we engage in a fight, and I finally kick him away. We scoot backward, and then our gazes land on the two swords lying right between us.

At the same time, we reach for them, getting up and pressing the tip of our swords to each other’s throat, specifically where the artery is located.

If either of us just pushes forward or we move our hands, it’s game over for the other.

The instincts I’ve relied on since being abandoned on this island always urge me to save myself no matter what destiny throws my way.

I had to survive because I had a purpose and a vow to fulfill.

The vicious part of me, the villain, craves to just end his life right now and put a stop to all this. As then darkness will fully have its claim on me while madness would consume my mind.

However, there must be a prince living inside me as well, as he calls my name and asks me to do something I have never ever done in my life.

Surrender.

For if I don’t and hurt Lachlan, I shall have my victory… but I will destroy the princess.

Between me and her father, the choice is so easy and yet so unbearable.

People are liars. How can they see love as something amazing, when in truth it’s a feeling that tears your heart away and gives it to someone else?

Staring straight into Lachlan’s eyes, I lower my sword—to his disbelief—and then drop it on the wet ground.

The sun beaming through the dark clouds serves almost as a goodbye, the afterlife awaiting me, since I have only seconds to live.

“Why?” he asks, and I smile.

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