Chapter 218

I stared down Jane. That knife of hers was precariously close to me, and with us handcuffed together, I couldn’t exactly make a break for it. At this point, the only thing I could do to defend myself was keep Jane talking. And in the moment, I could only think of one thing to talk about.

The photograph that had been used for Elva’s curse still bothered me. Veronica had said that the talisman would have to have significant emotional meaning to the caster of the curse. For Jane to use that photograph meant that she had emotional attachment to it, and further, to Elva.

For so long, I had thought her entirely indifferent to her daughter, but the picture of Jane and Elva had meaning for Jane.

She couldn’t have been as indifferent as I’d thought.

So as that knife came closer to my ribcage, I hastily said, “What about Elva?”

Jane stilled her hand. “What about her?”

“It would hurt her to lose me,” I said, banking on Jane’s secret affection.

Jane’s voice was a low growl. “She’ll get over it.”

“I know you care about her…”

“You don’t know anything,” Jane snapped.

“You kept that picture,” I said.

“A frivolous attachment that I am better off without,” Jane said. “Or didn’t your little turncoat mention that part? It’s the nature of the curse. The talisman was a symbol, not the actual fuel. I didn’t just sacrifice that photo…”

I gasped. “You sacrificed the remainder of your feelings for Elva.”

“A small price to pay.”

“She’s just a child,” I said. “If you’ve ever cared for her at all –”

“I gave her up to you, Piper, so that you could give her a life. And what have you done? You brought her straight back here, tied her up with this royal sham, and made her some kind of political adornment.” Jane snorted bitterly. “She’s better off dead.”

“That’s not true.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Jane said. “You had your chance and you blew it. Now, when you are dead, I will return her to the fold where she should have stayed from the start. She will make a fine addition to the underground organization… Hawk will see to that.”

“No. Nicholas would never allow that.”

“He won’t have any choice.”

I shook my head. “You can’t do this, Jane. You know more than anyone how that would change Elva…”

“I tried to keep her out,” Jane said. For a tiny, sliver of a moment, there was a hint of regret in her voice.

“Then continue to do so,” I said. I saw a thread of hope here and grabbed it with both hands. “Let me go, and I –”

“Ah! You just want to be free. You don’t actually care about her.”

“No, that’s not –”

“I tire of your empty words, Piper. Just as I tire of your face. I will rid you of both!”

She lunged the knife. I twisted at the last minute, and it harmlessly swiped through my dress.

I reached for her arm holding the knife and held her away. We grabbled. Like this, with the wolf contained, our strengths were more or less equal, but where my biggest hardship over the years had been dealing with overbearing customers, Jane had been preparing for war.

Her skills far outpaced my own. So though I could hold her back, I couldn’t properly predict her movements, especially as she ducked to the ground and kicked by feet straight out from under me.

I landed on my back with an oof.

Jane raised the knife, and slammed it down – straight into my thigh.

“Aaah!!” I cried out, overwhelmed by pain. It shot through my entire being that spread outwards almost, spiking out across an invisible bond I didn’t understand.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t catch my breath.

Blood stained my dress.

God, it hurt so much. The metal pressed down near to the bone, slicing through muscle and fat. I couldn’t think, but for the pain. I couldn’t move.

“Fucking bleed out, you stuck pig,” Jane growled. She ripped the knife out of my thigh, and somehow that hurt worse. The blood poured down, staining the front of my dress crimson.

I trembled. I couldn’t find words, only cries of pain.

“You think I have any lingering feelings for you? For Elva?” Jane crouched over me. Her face was twisted with vicious mockery. Her lip was curled in disgust. “I have hated you since the womb, bitch. I have lived and dreamed for this moment. And now that it is here?” Jane began to laugh maniacally.

Even in my pain, I felt my broken hard crack even further. I didn’t truly understand how I could have still cared about Jane. She’d shown her true colors to me many times – attempting to kidnap Nicholas, cursing Elva…

Maybe I had hoped that underneath it all, she could somehow be redeemed. She’d held a knife to my throat before, but even then, I hadn’t fully been sure she’d push the blade into my skin.

But to see her now, so jovial in the face of my unbelievable pain? This eliminated all remaining doubt.

Jane meant to kill me. She had from the start, but now she had the means.

She was enjoying my pain. She wanted to bring Elva into the underground. She wanted to bring down the royal family. And like this, broken and tattered and weak, I could do nothing to stop her.

I could only lie here as the blood pooled under my thighs, spreading around me so that my dress is soaked with it.

I could only watch, as she lifted the knife toward the column of my throat. My neck was still marred with love bites from Nicholas’s tender attentions. Would Jane slice through those? Or could I remain Nicholas’s until the very end?

I wished I had more time with him. I would have been more honest about what I wanted… what he meant to me.

I wished I could say goodbye. To him. To Julian. To Susie, and the rest of my friends. To Anna.

To Elva…

My darling little girl. When she’d been abandoned, I’d stepped into the role of doting mother so that she would never feel alone.

But now I was going to have to leave her anyway.

I closed my eyes and sent a plea. I couldn’t see Nicholas, couldn’t hear him… but maybe he could still receive the message somehow, if the universe chose to be kind.

Please take care of Elva. She won’t understand.

Something quaked through my body then, like a roar that wasn’t my own. It was almost… comforting. It made me think of Nicholas. Of his protective instincts. Of his kind heart.

He was good with those orphans. He wouldn’t leave Elva out in the cold. Nor would he let Jane have her without a fight.

I tried to let the thoughts warm me, but I was growing very cold.

Blood loss, I knew.

The end was near for me.

Jane pressed the knife right up against my skin. A trickle of too-warm blood dripped down my cold neck.

“I hate you,” Jane said, voice twisted and ugly with her malice.

I looked at her, and even now, could see the girl she was when we were young. Her pigtails. Her bright eyes. The way she always followed me.

Tears fell from the corners of my eyes. I couldn’t stop them. I didn’t even want to try.

“I love you, Jane,” I said, because it was true. Even now, even after everything. She was and always would be my sister. I could hate her, and I did, but I loved her too.

Her face contorted further, evil joy replaced now by vicious fury.

“Eat dirt, Piper!”

I closed my eyes, and waited for the kiss of metal to slice through my neck.

Goodbye, Nicholas.