The trees thinned and the view ahead shifted, blues and whites overtaking the browns and greens as the seascape emerged. And there, sitting on the edge of the cliff, was the silhouette of a man stark against the pale sky.
Blukke and Dante shared a look, the former nodding in confirmation that he’d incapacitated the prince’s gift. Prim grabbed his arm, but only to use it for leverage as she pushed past him, running toward the cliff.
Dante paused, and when Blukke made to run after her, he held his arm in front of the shifter. “Let her do what she needs to do.”
Blukke clenched his jaw, shaking his head. “Don’t let her kill him. I won’t let her kill him. You know it’ll fuck her up. I’ll incapacitate her if I have to.”
“You won’t,” Dante said quietly, his eyes following Prim as she cleared the distance between them and the prince. She’d had time to think about what she wanted to do, and if revenge was what she wanted, Dante knew she’d never forgive his friend if Blukke stopped her.
Egan must have heard her, as he scrambled to his feet, turning around. Dante could clearly make out the prince’s boyish face. Though blotchy and red and stained with tears, his expression was blank. It held no surprise at seeing the handmaiden barreling toward him. It held no anger. It held no sadness. It held no fear.
Dante kept an eye on that face, readying to interfere if needed, as Prim closed in, her hands outstretched.
He kept an eye on that face as it became just a tiny bit smaller, the distance between him and the prince increasing as Egan took a step back.
He kept an eye on that calm, blank face as it lowered, the sandy brown hair flowing upwards as the prince stepped off the cliff, plummeting down.
Dante cursed, reaching his magic out to grasp the prince and haul him back up. Finally, that face showed emotion: disappointment.
Dante kept the prince suspended in midair, high above the cliff and Prim’s hands that now rested loosely at her sides as she tilted her head back to look at her prize. Both former assassins slowly walked to her, Vissick remaining perched in a nearby tree.
When Dante and Blukke stood on either side of Prim, the former asked without taking his eyes off the prince, “We’re taking him back to the castle, right?”
It was Egan who answered in that quiet, disinterested voice of his, his face back to blank. “Throw me off. Let me die.”
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Prim stared at him assessingly. “She didn’t want you anymore, did she? After she realized how unhinged you were? You did all that for nothing.”
“Let. Me. Die.”
Prim kept her narrowed eyes on him, her mouth thin. “No. I don’t think I will. I think a more fitting punishment would be making you live. Live alone. Without Neros, knowing he loved you and was doing everything in his power to make you happy and you repaid him by taking his life. Without Sarasha--Grenise, was it?--knowing you will never again feel her lips against yours because she is too disgusted by you to consider it. Without any of your friends or family as you rot away in a dungeon. Death is too quick. You will suffer.”
Dante could practically hear Blukke’s mouth going dry at the cold, cruel promise in Prim’s words. But they didn’t scare him. He took her hand. “Do you want to follow Sarasha’s trail now?”
Prim slowly, so slowly, dragged her eyes from Egan to Dante. “Yes.” She flicked her eyes quickly back to Egan. “Her, we will kill.”
The prince’s face twisted in rage, but Prim didn’t see it. She’d already turned around and started walking back toward the tree line. Dante and Blukke followed, the prince being dragged along behind them with a giant phantom hand.
When Dante sidled up next to her, she looked at him sidelong. “Don’t kill her. I just wanted him to think that,” she said quietly.
Dante took her hand again, squeezing it. As they passed the hawk, he called out instructions to find the woman, and Vissick took off, Blukke following in his avian form.
Prim kept walking instead of stopping to climb into his arms so they could follow, so Dante walked with her. “What are you thinking about, Bear?”
She sighed. “If I were Egan and you were Sarasha, I don’t think I’d kill a bunch of innocent people to get to be with you.”
Dante wanted to laugh, but he didn’t think she was joking. “Of course you wouldn’t.”
“Would you?”
“I don’t think so. But I’d probably threaten them.” He released her hand to wrap his arm around her waist, digging his fingers into her side and pulling her into him. “Or just take you anyway and fuck them all.”
Prim chuckled, lolling her head into his chest. Her head bounced against him with each step. “Why didn’t they do that? Why didn’t they just run away?”
Dante threw his thumb behind him, pointing at their prisoner floating along several feet behind. “Ask him.”
Prim twisted her neck to look at the prince as they continued walking, but she didn’t.
“Did you want to take him to the castle first? Is that why we’re not following?”
Prim stopped, running a hand over her face. “No, we can’t leave Blukke alone.”
Dante smiled at her concern for his friend, though he knew the shifter could take care of himself against Sarasha.
Prim stepped into him, wrapping her arms around him and laying the side of her head on his chest. “Thank you for helping me.”
Dante returned the embrace, stroking her back. “I shouldn’t have hesitated. I wouldn’t’ve if it was Blukke he’d killed.” He’d felt like an absolute piece of shit when she brought that up last night.
She pulled back, only to lower her glass eye protector over her eyes and jump into his arms, which Dante wrapped around her securely before launching into the sky and following the avian shifters now in the distance, Prince Egan rising above the treetops with them.