The Puppet Assassin [TTR sequel]

The Puppet Assassin - Ch 37 [hard times]

“Everybody has a choice,” I said bitterly. I could’ve ended my own life instead. He wouldn’t have stopped me from turning the knife onto myself in time to save me.

“Sometimes people are trapped.”

A tear trailed from the corner of my eyelid, down to my pillow.

“I love you,” he said again.

And I believed him. I’d never been so scared in my life.

“I didn’t know that being in love would be so scary,” I admitted softly.

His face turned serious, his eyes searching mine. “Say it properly.”

I sighed, closed my eyes, and looked up at him. “I love you, too.”

** **

I left the house, for it was Luke’s house I’d been staying in, a day later with slightly achy abdominals and a stiff wrist. Larkin was forced to stay.

“I don’t think you realise the actuality of what he did, Dizelde,” Garth explained, his hand on my shoulder as we walked back to our house. I don’t know if he was supporting me or if he was just being friendly but the casual touch seemed weird when it came from him. Garth always seemed more emotionally detached. “That knife wound of yours was near-fatal. It could have been fatal, if he hadn’t have been right there when it happened. It’s impossible to really know now, since he started to heal you straight away. Well, no, that’s not right. I’m pretty sure that Lark once told you it was impossible for us to save a life, yes?”

I nodded. “Unless you take the life of someone else.”

He frowned and tilted his head. “Well, yes, that’s sort of true. If someone’s heart has stopped beating, however, it can’t be done. It’s not possible to bring someone back to life, I should say. Anyway, without taking a life, which is completely outlawed in the magical community, in order to save someone’s life, the witch would have to use up his or her own. Now, you see, you probably weren’t fatally wounded because Larkin is still kicking.”

I could feel the blood draining from my face. My head felt heavy. My stomach felt full of lead.

“He – he could have died?!”

Garth stopped walking and breathed in slowly. I looked at him carefully, wondering if he was going to alleviate some of the details to go easy on me. Then he looked at me, his eyes hard. “He would have given his life for yours.”

My breath hitched and, to my surprise, rage flooded through me like a hot wave. “That bastard,” I choked out.

Garth’s eyes widened and then his mouth twitched. “That’s not the usual reaction for someone who hears that another person loves them enough to lose their life for them.”

I glared at him. “It’s not funny! How would you feel if you woke up, knowing that the person you love died because of you?!”

“Well, fury wouldn’t be the first thing that came to mind,” he said drily.

“I would rather die myself than wake up to such a thing! How could I live in life without him?!”

Garth peered at me with self-satisfied eyes. What was he seeing? “That’s twice now. You really love him?”

I stared at him and, in a second, my anger disappeared to be replaced with mortification and shock! What had I said? Had I really just blurted out that I couldn’t live without him? Wasn’t that just a tad drastic? I’d lived without him for nearly seventeen years! So that meant… So it meant… I felt tears push their way into my eyes as I stared at Garth.