Mira's eyes jerk suspiciously, but only I see them. I follow to where they’re pointing and find that something is cradled in her arms. Something heavy and jagged.
A rock. But she's too far away to do anything with it.
We need a distraction.
Predators expect their prey to cower or to flee. They don't expect them to fight back.
"The king wasn't exaggerating," the noctis says, hands tucked into the waist of his trousers. "You are the prize of the Hunt."
"You have no idea."
Before his appetite is too far piqued, I bolt forward, cutting the space between us in the blink of an eye. He has no time to react. My shoulder collides with his sternum and the two of us tumble to the ground. He hisses, muscles straining to kick me off him.
"Now!" I yell at Mira, who's still petrified in place but watching wide-eyed. "The head! Hit him in the head!"
As if she's possessed, she shuffles closer and thrusts the rock out from her body. The noctis thrashes so much that I fear my own head might be struck, caught between the two of them, but I manage to hold myself away. Then Mira’s knees buckle. She drives her heavy weapon down.
The rock slams into the noctis' face with a squelch that makes my stomach flip. His body twitches on impact and it reminds me too much of the day I saw a noctis feasting upon my mother. I jolt away, releasing him in time to watch the boulder roll beside his bleeding skull.
He gurgles on his own blood and shattered teeth, his nose concaved and already making him nearly unrecognizable. If he were anyone else, the sight of him would sicken me. It would enrage me. But that's because I've only seen such brutality at the hands ofthem.
We didn't ask to be captured and released like a bunch of helpless piglets waiting for slaughter. This was self-defense. And what I do next is too.
My arms drag across the earth when I lean closer to retrieve the heavy rock. I struggle with the weight of it for a moment and try not to think about how it's the same size as a head and therefore might weigh as much as the heads the noctis put on spikes just outside of Hulbeck.
Weakly, the noctis before me raises a hand. A plea. It’ll go unheard just like ours would’ve if he had pinned us down and feasted.
He watches me through bloody slits of eyes and I wonder if this is the first time he's tasted his own blood. His own evil.
Without a second thought, I grit my teeth to prevent the furious scream from spilling like lava from my throat, and I bury the rock into his skull. Once. Twice. I beat his face until there is nothing left, not of him, nor of the memories that haunt and enrage me.
It's only Mira's gentle hands cupping my shoulders that finally makes me stop.
Using the hand she offers, I stand, equally relieved and surprised that she doesn't shirk away from the blood dripping from my fingertips.
Apparently reading my thoughts, she musters a smile. "You don't make it this far without having to do things you don't want to do."
I can't tell if she's talking about me or herself. In all likeliness, it's probably both.
In the wake of my monstrous actions, I can feel myself slipping back into the hollow darkness that has been most of my life. I can feel the chill of ice as it recasts itself around my heart, encasing it and keeping me protected from the world.
The noctis' body is still warm at my feet, and I can't turn away from it. From what I’ve done. From what I’m capable of doing.
I'm not a normal girl.
I grew up cold and alone and that's the only way I know how to live.
I shouldn't have come here.
But I’m here now.
"Thank you," she says. "For coming back for me. For saving me."
It shatters my heart in two. I don’t deserve her kindness, her appreciation. I almost left her. Ididleave her. Her and Elison both.
"Yeah, well," I say, voice hoarse and hollow. "It looks like you can handle yourself.."
This makes her blush, and she folds her arms over herself as if to hide it. The action makes her wince and I remember the blood drenching her arms.
