Inside the castle, we eventually found a slim door that wasn’t shut all the way, and there was a handprint of blood on the wall beside it. Molly must have staggered her way through the castle, rested here for a moment, and then yanked open the door and headed downstairs. We cautiously walked down the steps.
I expected the basement to be a dark, messed up place with chains, dead bodies, and other experiments. Instead, the overhead light was on and the room was mostly empty except for a few boxes and a washer and dryer. Even more surprising, Molly wasn’t hiding in the shadows. She was right where we could see her, seated on the concrete floor, her legs straight out in front of her with her torn dress barely covering her thighs, and her body slumped ever so slightly to the left as blood oozed out of her and trickled to the floor. Her skin was white as paper, and her breathing labored. She was tired and hurt. She was fading.
Her head didn’t move from its position, but her eyes lazily rolled over toward us as we approached. “Come to gloat?” she asked, almost laughing. Perhaps at herself. Molly shuffled her legs against the dirt-covered concrete, and with an enlightened tone said, “Oh. You’ve come to finish me off then.”
Max walked off of the bottom step and edged near her. “You tried to kill Cora,” he said, the anger dripping from his words.
“Oh, boo-hoo.”
“You tried to kill me.”
“And I failed at both. Typical of you to rub that in my face.”
“Is this fucking funny to you?”
Molly pressed her hand to her seeping wound. “Of all times for you to think I feel like laughing.”
“Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?”
Heavily, she sighed. “It must give you so much joy seeing me like this.”
“Believe it or not, I wanted none of this for you.”
“You never gave a damn about me, Max,” she said as she weakly shook her head. “I was always an afterthought to you.”
“People break up, Molly. I’m not gonna spend the rest of my life apologizing for us being incompatible. Seeing the shit you’ve done to everyone…I’m glad I went with my instincts all those years ago.”
She cynically laughed, but she was losing so much blood the laughter barely squeaked out. “It always works out for you in the end, doesn’t it? You get the girl, you get the victory, you get to be right, and you finally get rid of me. Must be nice being Maxwell Reid.”
“You tried to kill the only person I give a shit about. Fuck your guilt trip.”
Her eyes closed, and she smirked. “There’s the man that left me. I was wondering when you’d show.”
I walked forward. “Are you dying?” I asked.
“Well, I’m not healing. I guess me and your boyfriend are incompatible in more ways than one.”
I licked the dryness away from my mouth. “It doesn’t have to be this way, you know.”
Molly scoffed. “Like you care.”
“I do.”
She narrowed her eyes wickedly at me. “Why would you care about what happens to me? We were never friends. We were barely acquaintances. My existence doesn’t benefit you in any way. If anything, your life is better without me. You don’t have a single reason to give a shit.”
“Yes, I do. Owen.”
My mention of his name forced a startled reaction out of her. “Owen’s not here anymore,” she trembled.
“You think he’d want this for you? He’d hate to see us acting this way.”
“It doesn’t matter what he wants, because he’s not here. You made sure of that.”
I knelt down in front of her, and her eyes flared defensively at me being so close. “I loved your brother. I may not have known him all that long, but he treated me like family right from the start. The days we spent on my grandma’s roof shooting the breeze are some of my favorite memories. I think of them all the time. Hurting him, especially killing him, is the last thing I ever wanted.” Molly’s eyes were wet as she listened. “The way you feel about yourself as a vampire is the way he felt as a werewolf. He just…he wanted to be free.”
“Free…” she echoed.
“You and I were never able to get close and maybe I’m to blame for some of that. I wasn’t able to see what you’d been going through your whole life. I’m sorry life was so cruel to you.”
She looked away, and a tear rolled down her eye. “I don’t need your pity,” she said coldly, but her tone didn’t match the pained expression on her face.
“I know you don’t, but I’m giving it anyway.”
Molly focused back on me. “Why are you trying to be nice to me? I wanted to kill you.”
“Because all life is precious. Even yours.”
Molly let out a little chuckle, but her lungs were full of so much blood it came out like a hiccup. “Just like you to take the high road like you’re some kind of saint.”
“I’m not a saint. I’m just human.”
Something went off inside her head, and Molly’s eyes drooped with sadness. “You know why I still wear this dress?” she asked. “Because it’s the last human decision I ever made. The color, the fabric, the perfume…that was all me. I look at the fringe against my knees and I can almost delude myself into believing the girl who saved up to buy this still exists. That I might still be her.”
“You still can. With help.”
Molly weakly shook her head and blinked. “No. It’s too late. The dirt on my hands will never come off. I could live another hundred years, and it’ll never cleanse my sins. I just need to be stopped.” Her head dipped forward, the energy slowly
