“You mean killing her,” Owen called over Maria’s shoulder. She stood her ground and didn’t let him in.
“Let him finish his tale and then we’ll decide what to do with him,” Maria said coldly.
“Go on, Nick,” Ariana said, starting to shake at hearing him tell everything as if he was simply reading a rather mundane news report.
“That’s right,” Nick answered in the same monotone. “It was poison. We misjudged how many were on our side, though, and the ones who weren’t questioned your absence. They demanded to hear from your own lips that you no longer wanted to lead them or be a part of the coven. They refused to believe you would just leave them.”
“Because she wouldn’t, you—” Owen tried to get past Maria again, but she was far stronger than her malnourished looking frame should have allowed.
Nick blinked a few times but didn’t snap out of his trance. Ariana waved for him to go on and he continued. “We thought there would be violence, a war of sorts. Then your mother showed up. I threatened her as if you were still alive and she pretended to be you. Made a speech about leaving the coven and that Milo and I would be in charge.” He stopped abruptly.
“What happened then?” Ariana asked, transfixed.
He shook his head slowly. “No one knows. No one remembers. That’s all Milo could make me recall.”
“What about this time around?” Maria asked. “Were you a part of the plot against Ariana this time?”
“Not at first. I thought it was rubbish. A bad dream or something false he’d planted in my mind. But then I—”
“I’ve heard enough,” Owen snapped, finally getting past Maria. “Ariana shouldn’t have to listen to it.”
“No, I want to hear it,” Ariana said. “Why’s he all beat up and tied in here if he was part of it?”
Nick spoke over them, cutting off their arguments. “But then I decided you didn’t really love me. I knew you didn’t, in fact, and it made me question if I really loved you.”
“I knew this wicked pile of excrement wasn’t your soulmate,” Owen said, kicking him in the thigh.
“Of course he wasn’t,” Maria agreed. “But Ariana decides what becomes of him.”
She put her hand on Owen’s sleeve and he backed up. Ariana found that her heart didn’t hurt as much as she thought it might at hearing the man she loved admit to killing her, at least one time. She supposed he was right and she’d been fooling herself all along.
Nick kept explaining as if he hadn’t been kicked at all. “I finally agreed to carry out the plan as it had been before. But I couldn’t do it. You didn’t deserve to die. I’m a greedy man, a wastrel, a womanizer, a liar, and terrible at gambling…” He took a breath to continue his list of flaws while Maria smirked.
“He has to tell the truth,” she reminded them. “Back to Ariana and why you’re here,” she said in her forceful voice.
“But I’m no murderer. I could never kill an innocent. I don’t think I could ever kill anyone. I was about to flee the country to avoid a duel when Milo found me. I don’t know what changed or why I was a part of it the first time, but I would never harm her now. I tried to stop them but Milo hit me with spells and that brute Bergen just hit me.”
They stood in silence for a while, his story having found it’s end.
“What do you want to do?” Maria asked. “He admits to killing you once.”
“That’s a murderer,” Owen chimed in. “Once is enough. He had a change of heart this time, but who’s to say this doesn’t keep looping around and around? What if there’s a next time?”
Ariana pressed her hands to her eyes, wanting to block out everything, not knowing what to do. In this moment, Nick was innocent. It wouldn’t be self defense as it had been with Milo and Bergen.
“Can you make him remember what happened the first time? After he… after my mother showed up?”
“Certainly,” Maria said. She leaned down and flicked him on the side of the head. “Remember,” she commanded.
He squirmed against his bonds and gurgled as if in terrible pain, squeezing his eyes shut. They backed away from him as best they could in the cramped confines of the shed. Ariana was about to tell her to stop whatever was happening to him when he took a wheezing breath and opened his eyes. They skated over her and Maria and rested on Owen, growing wide with fear.
“You,” he said.
“Me?” Owen asked. He looked a little fearful himself.
Nick broke down into tears, maniacally laughing through them. “Someone healed her, the poison wasn’t strong enough. She came back and called for … you.”
“I didn’t die,” Ariana said, nauseated with relief. She had to lean over and grip her knees. Maria bumped her aside and stood over Nick, who trembled and gurgled some more.
“Then what?”
“H-he knew who was to blame. He killed them like it was nothing, at least six dead in one blow. Milo and I and a few others tried to hide. They told me about him, his power and madness. You could see the dread in their eyes. They knew we didn’t stand a chance.” His eyes bugged madly and he laughed and sobbed until he fell limp against the wall. He looked up at Ariana. She’d never seen anything so pitiful in all her life. She knew it would plague her and she looked away. He giggled weakly and sniffed. “That’s why no one could remember. There was nothing to recall. He killed us. Killed us all.”
“No I didn’t,” Owen whispered. “I wouldn’t.”
Maria shoved him out of the shed. “What do you want to do with him?” she asked, staring contemptuously at the wriggling mess. The man Ariana thought she loved.
Now all she felt was pity
