Page 188 of The Harbinger
I hadn’t even seen him move.
“Why? She trusted you.”
“I’ve already explained my reasoning. Now, put the knife down.”
Katya’s limp body lay at my feet, and the tears fell harder. “I was so mean to her lately.” I sniffled, and Sacha took another step closer.
“She doesn’t deserve your tears, Mia.”
“Yes, she does,” I shrieked, pointing the knife to him, then quickly back to my wrist. “I found out she knew about your plans all along, but she didn’t deservethis.”
“Listen to me.” He stepped closer, his bloody hands out. “She would have stood silently while I plunged a knife into your chest on my altar. There would have been no tears from her about your demise, no matter the friendship you shared.”
“You don’t know that.” Tears tickled my throat, and I shrugged my shoulder to wipe them away.
“That is something I know with absolute certainty.”
“How. How could you know that?”
“She was my friend long before yours.” His tone softened as he glanced down at her.
Did he regret killing her?
Blood soaked into the earth, darkening the soil beneath her with a glint from the night sky.
Mia, what did you do?My sister cried in my ears, and my vision blackened.
“Mia?” Sacha’s voice pulled through the haze, and I stumbled back, the knife slipping.
Mom’s anguished scream pierces through the heavy fog in my mind, causing my body to buckle under its weight. I feel every inch of my being as the sticky, thick blood covers my fingers and seeps into the carpet beneath me.
My sister’s bloodshot eyes loom above me, her words distorted and muffled, as if they’ve traveled a great distance to reach me.
Mom frantically rushes to my side, her hands working feverishly to stop the bleeding as she presses towels to my wrists. A tear rolls down her cheek, the weight of regret settling heavily in my chest.
Our gazes meet, and I see it in her eyes - the same gray sadness that now consumes me.
Mom’s voice cuts through, laced with panic and fear. She screams at me, urging me to stay with her, but my eyelids grow heavier by the second. The world around me begins to fade away as if I’m being pulled into a deep, dark abyss.
Sacha stood closer, the forest falling into place. The knife wobbled in my hand, and I dropped it, letting it slip from my fingers onto the ground. He rushed in.
His arms wrapped around me, squeezing me tight. I let go of the balloon building in my chest and sobbed into his shirt, my fists curling around his dress shirt.
“I’ve got you,” he said softly with a heavy exhale.
I breathed him in, wiping my tears across his bloody shirt, then beat his chest as I stomped my battered foot, my stomach roiling.
What’s happening to me? This wasn’t okay.
I pushed him off with a grunt. “Don’t touch me.” My tears rolled down my cheeks, and I wiped the remains away with the backside of my hand, avoiding smearing her blood across my face more so than it already had. “Don’t touch me.”
My feet moved backward away from him, my mind saving my heart from the biggest chunk that would soon fall off.
Sacha’s torn expression turned to stone as he picked the knife up off the ground, tucked it back in his waistband, then adjusted his suit shirt, the cufflinks twisting at his wrists, yet blistered with blotches of blood. He snapped his fingers, and I braced.
Dmitri rushed in, his hand grabbing hold of my arm, then jerked upward as two running figures stepped out of the woods.
Vlad and Yergi glanced down at Katya’s body and the trail of blood leading into the forest. Vlad turned his gaze, his hand swiping over his mouth and clasping onto his lips, pulling on them before releasing with a sigh. Yergi gulped, his accusatory eyes lashing me to bits.