Page 11 of For Her, He Falls

'Kindness?' I scoff. He doesn't know the meaning of the word.

Dozens of Banes have gathered around us, watching and waiting for a command from their Alpha. My uncle always loved an audience.

I need to get off this bridge and back to the keep. But Viktor won't take his eyes on me. The second I lower my guard enough to focus on transforming, he'll attack.

Panic begins to build as I realize I was barely able to shift into bats the first time. I don't have control over my powers to escape like my father did, and there's no one else here to create a distraction to buy me enough time to try. Viktor will kill me before I even leave the ground.

Somewhere in the quiet corners of my soul, something whispers within me. I sense it rather than hear it; not a message but a feeling.

Tristan is coming for me. I don't know how or when, but I'm sure of it.

But how can I wait for him when time is exactly what I don't have? I'm completely surrounded, and the only reason Viktor hasn't killed me yet is that he enjoys the sound of his own voice too much. I have to keep him talking.

My life just might depend on it.

Chapter Seven

'I suppose you think that what you did to me was also an act of mercy,' I tell my uncle, coaxing the conversation out of him. 'You turned me into your slave and let me think I was nothing!'

'That's exactly what you were. Nothing,' he replies as we circle each other. 'I should have rid the world of you the minute you were born. But I made a mistake. Vanessa gave birth to an abomination, but perhaps I could shape the mutt into something worthy. You were supposed to be Vanessa's redemption, but instead, you were just a waste.'

Lies. Foul, disgusting lies. I realize at that moment that he didn't spare my life out of mercy. He didn't even do it because he's above murdering a newborn babe. He wanted to use me. He hated the nightwalkers. He despised the fact that they were different and he was never able to defeat them.

All his disdain and disappointment toward me, it was never about me not manifesting a wolf... I was supposed to be his weapon, a way for him to wield the power of his enemies. I represent everything he hates and envies.

'You never meant to raise me. You wanted to use me. Instead, you just abused me for being something you didn't understand.'

Tristan is coming for me, but he'll never make it across the bridge, and I certainly won't last long enough to try and meet him halfway.

'I treated you better than you deserved, you wretch. And look at you now. Wasted to die on the wrong side of history. You could have been my greatest warrior. I made you what you are. I made you strong, and this is how you repay me?'

Wrong. My father's love and my mother's choices are the reason I am here today. Lucy, Nico, Amara, and even Mark made me strong. So did Tristan's patience and protectiveness, his courage and caring. Working in the garden, leaving the door to my room unlocked, washing away my pain, training in the villa... those are the things that shaped me.

'No. You held me back. You beat me and starved and denied me any sense of self. But I know who I am now. Everything that I am is not because of you; it is in spite of you.'

He lets out a low warning growl, but I ignore it, glancing around at the wolves watching us. Some of them are Banes, and I recognize their faces as they avert their eyes, showing me no pity. Others are foreign to me, presumably soldiers from the other packs that were swayed by Viktor's ambition and hate.

'But you're right, uncle,' I say, turning back to him. 'Look at me now. I'm just the scared little girl you beat and locked in the basement, but you brought a whole army to come after me. You didn't even trust your own pack to be enough, so you had to frighten and bully others into joining you. You couldn't kill me when I was an infant. What makes you think you can do it now?'

To his credit, Viktor doesn't come at me then and there. He's not used to this side of me, and he senses the bait dangling between my words. But as his eyes take in the warriors that surround us, I know I have him. He must kill me himself unless he wants the world to see him for the coward that he truly is.

Just the two of us.

'Have it your way, mutt. But don't fret; once I've personally disposed of you, I'll send your parents to join you in the afterlife.'

I try to conceal the triumph on my face when the wolves around us back off, clearing a circle around me as they make room for their leader to prove himself. At least this way, I get to face him one-on-one. At least this way, the odds aren't so horribly stacked against me. At least this way...

This way, I still have to kill him.

Viktor approaches me, his eyes blazing with fury. I know that he is a seasoned fighter. He didn't just control the banes with schemes and lies. He's massive and muscled and utterly merciless.

Once, during a pack meeting, one of the older men questioned Viktor on whatever they were discussing at the time. I don't know what it was. I was never privy to anything of consequence, but I knew the man must have crossed him publicly because, after the meeting, Viktor called him back into the pack house. I had to stand to the side and watch in silence as Viktor broke his leg with such brutality I knew even the magic of werewolf healing would never be enough to repair the damage. I'd been forced to clean up the bloody stain on the floor where the man's bones had torn through his skin.

So... fighting him may not have been my finest idea.

But it's too late now. He was going to kill me either way, whether he ordered his soldiers to do it or ripped me apart himself. If I'm going to die, then I'm going to make him work for it.

Let the Banes see their Alpha get his hands dirty for a change.

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