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THE HOPE AND REVERENCE in Finn’s voice as he asks Millard what his fate will be, breaks my heart. I recognise the tone of voice, the hope that you have pleased him. That he might spare you when he’s killed so many others.
Surely Finn knew this.
I did. But I hoped anyway. In the end, it’s all you have.
“And you?” Millard steps to Finn’s side. “You picked the wrong team, sorry. Win or lose Everleigh would never have killed you. She might never have loved you, but she would never have hurt you. Me, on the other hand, I love hurting people. It makes me happy. Makes me feel strong and powerful. Despicable I know, but true.”
Finn is backing towards the door, as if he’s got a hope of escaping. He must have been so bitter about Archer if that’s really the reason he betrayed Everleigh. Love can be toxic; don’t I know it.
I look at Millard now that his attention is on Finn, and, maybe because I know he’s going to kill me, if he can, I feel nothing for him. Not even disgust or fury. I am numb to him.
I see his beautiful face, his strong body, his fine clothes and I am indifferent. Will I live or die? I find I am indifferent to that too. Removed.
If he will kill me, he will kill me.
If someone can save me, then they will save me.
I am an observer now.
I watch Ceryn.
She is squirming with fury and impotence. She would kill every one of us in here if she could get herself free, I don’t doubt it. She must hate me with a passion, and yet she hasn’t looked at me with the anger she has directed at Finn, or Wolf or Millard.
And Finn. Poor Finn is crying, still creeping backwards, desperate to make a run for it, I think. Not going to happen.
Millard reaches inside his cloak and nods to Wolf. In three strides Wolf has reached Finn and grips on to him.
“Recognise this?” Millard asks me, holding out a small black vial.
I feel ill. “No! Don’t do it!”
He grins at me and shakes his head. “I’m not going to listen to you, little Ginny. But I thank you.”
He lifts the vial in a cheers motion and unscrews the lid. I can feel the thrum of evil emanating from the potion and it makes me want to be sick. Bile rises in my throat and I swallow it down. He is going to kill Finn using my potion. Another death on my conscience. I really should have drunk it down instead of giving it to him.
Why did I trust him when he said it was for himself? He’s a snake and a liar and a murderer. I know all of this and I still served him like a fool in love.
Ceryn’s glare has reached me now and her fury is intense; it’s a physical weight I can feel, searing my skin and burdening me. An accusation.
Finn is weeping now, his voice catching. “I’m sorry Ceryn. Tell my sister I’m sorry. Tell Everleigh I’m sorry.”
Millard sneers at him. “You are a disgrace. Whimpering and simpering like an old woman. Tell my sister I’m sorry. Tell Everleigh I’m sorry. Your sister will die of shame and Everleigh won’t remember your name in a month’s time. You’re nothing to her. That’s what got you into this mess in the first place. Remember? Unrequited love. It’s a killer...right Ginny?”
I blush and refuse to look at him. A fool in love. And he knows it.
Finn is quaking as Wolf holds his head back, cranking his jaw open.
“How much?” Millard looks at me. “What did it take to kill my father, Ginny? You made that draught too, didn’t you? And yet you thought I could forgive you, love you. You KILLED my father.”
The roar of his voice makes me shake, tears running down my cheeks. Pathetic I know.
Millard holds the vial up and lets three drops, then four fall on to Finn’s tongue. One drop would have done it. Though the more they swallow the quicker the end comes. Millard obviously wants to keep the draught, probably to finish me off. Poetic justice.
As the death draught seeps into his system, Finn stops fighting Wolf, then he starts gurgling, and then he starts to spasm. Slowly his skin turns black and I can see that Ceryn cannot look either as Finn dies slowly in front of us.
Wolf drops him to the floor with a thud and lets him take his last few breaths, abandoned and discarded. Used and no longer needed.
I am silently crying for Finn. For myself. For Everleigh. For all that I was and what I have become. For the regret that has come too late. The change of heart that is wasted as I have already betrayed my beliefs.
“Good work.” Millard nods at me and Wolf comes to stand in front of me. I make it easy for him, stand up and face him, ready for him to tie me up with Ceryn, so we can both sit and contemplate our lives while awaiting our deaths.
I have no fight left in me. Besides, what would be the point? I could struggle and squirm and argue and scream, but the result would be the same. At least this way they have no reason to hit me or hurt me. I am being good and compliant.
Wolf ties me into the other chair, the same way he’s tied Ceryn, rope around me and the chair, tethering us so that we cannot even stand up.
He leaves my hands loose in front of me and Millard presses the black vial, the death draught, into my hand. “Wolf and I have a few things to do. Tomorrow you will both die.”
Wolf moves the chairs so that Ceryn and I face each other, Finn dead on the floor beside us.
“Or, you could save me the job. If you feel thirsty that is.”
I clutch the vial in my hand but keep my eyes away from Millard. I cannot look at him. What is wrong with me that I was so entranced by him?
Wolf drags Finn’s body out of the cottage and Millard kisses my forehead before following him. “We’ll be back in the morning. Pretty sure no one will come looking for you before then, and there’s no chance of you escaping. Sorry, Ginny, we could have been so good together...”