“Yes, need I repeat myself?”
“The villagers are going to come looking for you, then. They’ll bring guns. Weapons even you can’t outrun.”
You dismissed her fears with a wave of your hand.
“They won’t. They’re too scared.”
Magdalena let out a short, cruel laugh, and I could see the flash of rage beneath. She had been able to hold back her contempt for you and your secrets while distracting you, but now the mask was slipping.
“They’re going to topple your little regime,” she went on. “All because you were spied nibbling on some stable hand in an alley, is that it?”
Your temper snapped. You took a threatening step forward, and I threw myself between your bodies before I had the chance to think it through.
“Don’t touch her,” I hissed, with more force that I would have thought possible just days before. But, like Eve, I had taken a bite of forbidden fruit and been rewarded with all the knowledge I had hitherto been denied. I knew just as much as you, and I knew you were just as mortal as any human man, under the right circumstances. You could kill us, yes. But that meant you could also be killed.
You staggered back as though I had spat at you, confusion flashing across your face. Then your eyes darkened and before I had the chance to run, you seized me by the throat.
I let out a horrible, ugly gasp, and I saw Alexi move in a blur at my side intending to strike you, but Magdalena held him back.
“I’m getting tired of you constantly undermining me,” you said through grit teeth.
I writhed under your punishing grip, tears springing to my eyes. You squeezed so hard I saw stars.
“I won’t tolerate sedition,” you said, bringing your face close to mine. “I made you and I can unmake you. You belong to me, Constanta. Blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh. Say it.”
“Blood of your blood,” I wheezed, barely able to form the words.
You tossed me aside and I let out a cry like a kicked dog when I hit the floor.
You had a few choice words for Magdalena and Alexi, but I didn’t hear them. I was crumpled on the ground, massaging my throbbing neck as sobs wracked my body. I was shaking like a leaf in the wind, more terrified of you than I had ever been.
As soon as you had stalked down the halfway, Alexi and Magdalena were at my side, cooing gently and petting my hair.
I brought shaking fingers away from my bruising throat, and Magdalena dropped the lightest of healing kisses on the wounded spot.
“Did you find anything?” she whispered into my hair.
I nodded and swallowed hard. I had found something else too, buried deep underneath habit and fear and years of loyalty to you. Anger, white-hot and blinding. Bright enough to illuminate even the darkest night.
“Yes. I found what I was looking for.”
Magdalena cast a wary glance over to Alexi and then back to me.
“We three are in agreement, then. We will stand against him?”
Alexi squared his shoulders and in that moment he looked every inch a prince, ready to lead his troops into war.
“We don’t have any other choice.”
The villagers arrived before we could formulate our plan. It only took them a few days to gather their courage and assemble a small band of men, armed with axes and guns. They crested over the hills shortly after nightfall, marching with lanterns held high and murder in their eyes.
Alexi saw them first, and burst into your room to beg you to do something about it. One or two humans were no problem for creatures such as us, but there were at least two dozen men out there, armed to the teeth. Ready to draw blood after finding you curved over the body of a boy, draining him of life. Provincial life had preserved old superstitions, and I suspect they knew exactly what you were. They had come to root out the preternatural scourge in their midst, who surely must be responsible for the rash of disappearances that had been afflicting the nearby towns.
We had tried to warn you about hunting from so small a pool. It was bound to attract the wrong kind of attention. But keeping us isolated was more important to you than keeping us all safe.
“Let them come,” you said, turning your nose up at Alexi’s terror. “You think I haven’t seen my fair share of mobs before? They won’t get past the front gates. They’ll sooner piss themselves with fear.”
“They’re angry,” Magdalena said, peering out the window with her hand pressed to her chest. “And they’re grieving. Do not underestimate what they’re capable of.”
“Shouldn’t we be running?” Alexi asked, his voice tight. “Or building a barricade?”