“What’s the point of clinging to a corpse?” Aveline’s tone was light, almost mocking. “If you want a child, wait until Laurent and I have one. I’ll let it call you godfather.”
Her gaze hardened.
“I’m the mother. I decide where the beads go. Laurent’s injuries and nightmares are all your fault. If your child’s remains can atone for your sins, that’s merit earned.”
Laurent stifled a laugh behind his hand.
“She’s right, brother. Your child can wipe away your sins—help you, even. Better it died young. With a father like you, it would’ve ended up miserable anyway. Now it can soothe me, strengthen me. Maybe the King of Hell will be so pleased, he’ll fast-track its reincarnation. Perhaps next time it’ll be reborn as a dog…”
His words detonated inside me, splintering bone and soul.
I kicked him to the ground, seized the red-hot tongs, and drove them toward his groin.
“No need to strengthen your body now. I’ll castrate you myself. Or maybe—” I pressed the tips closer, “—I should pierce your skull. That way, no more nightmares.”
“Give me the beads, or die!”
“Gideon, stop!”
Aveline’s hand clamped my wrist, her strength crushing.
“Laurent is right. If you hadn’t committed so many sins, the child wouldn’t have died like that. Why keep fighting?!”
I froze. Disbelief curdled into rage.
In this life, I had only failed two people:
My mother.
And my child.
For countless nights, guilt suffocated me. But of all the mouths in the world, hers had no right to blame me.
If she hadn’t ignored my warnings, if she hadn’t underestimated the enemy—she wouldn’t have been captured.
I wouldn’t have sacrificed my son. I wouldn’t have lost my future as a father.
I remembered her then, cradling my bloodied body, begging the doctors to save me. I remembered her kneeling, tearing her knees raw, crying to the heavens:
“I’ll give the rest of my life for Gideon. From now on, I’ll live only for him.”
I lowered my head, laughing softly, shoulders shaking. Then I let the fire tongs fall with a clang.
Relief flickered in Aveline’s eyes.
“Gideon, you—”
Her words ended in a shriek. One of her ears hit the ground with a wet slap.
I wiped the knife across my cheek, smearing away the blood.
“Filthy.”
Then I smiled.
“Aveline, are you going deaf with age? I told you to beat him to death—you pretended not to hear. I told you to give me the beads—you ignored me again. Since your ears are useless…” I gestured to the severed ear. “Forget it.”
“Aveline!”
“You’re insane!” she spat. “You want the beads? Fine—get them yourself!”
Laurent howled, hurling the rosary beads into the pond. Clever—if he couldn’t keep them, he’d destroy them.
But I was no longer a man of flesh. Aveline had forged me into steel.
I grabbed Laurent by the hair, dragged him to the pond, and kicked him in.
“It’s winter, you’ll freeze him to death!” Aveline rushed forward, panicked.
“Freeze?” I chuckled. “No need. I forgot to mention—this pond has been home to piranhas for years. He’ll be stripped to the bone before the cold even reaches him.”
