A Storm of Paper Starlings

44. Sorry I Stabbed You

A/N: The horror continues, but the gory part is over quickly.

"NO!" Amethyst screams, and it sounds like someone's ripping her spine out through her throat.

My gut is a sick swamp. There's no way I saw what I think I did. My body sways, but my feet are still rooted to the ground, the strings binding me to Sean snapping like elastic inside my hollow chest. My stomach heaves, and I puke onto the forest floor.

Not-Amethyst drops the sword and drives another stake into Sean's chest, grunting with pleasure. Her hair swings back into place like it's been hit by a backdraught, and Sean's empty clothes drop to the ground. She looks down the hill when voices grow louder, then darts through the trees, speeding down the hill to the house.

Those below yell as they give chase, and my feet finally move. I inch my way closer to what's left of Sean. The pain is sharp in my throat and dull in my chest, like this weapon hasn't decided what it is yet, like it doesn't know the best way to hurt me. The tears come anyway.

"His teeth, his teeth," the air around me hisses.

Amethyst overtakes me while I stand there, stunned back into stillness. If she makes it to the tree where Sean was bound, they'll see her. I lurch after her and wrestle her to the ground, clamping my hand over her mouth while I cage her body with my aching bones. Her legs thrash between mine, and her fingers claw at my arms.

"If you shout, they'll find us," I whisper. "They think you did this."

Amethyst nods, blinking out tears. I roll off her, and we crawl quietly to the tree line.

Daniel crashes into the trees behind us, muttering into the darkness. "Violet? Amethyst?"

I whisper to him from behind a tree.

The commotion below grows so quiet, it's a shock when the hemlock shouts from her hut in the woods. "How dare you barge in here?"

If she shook Magnus off, where the hell is he? What if she poisoned him so badly, he can't get back?

Amethyst is on her knees scratching at the dirt, clutching Sean's empty trousers. Tears streak a well-worn path down her face as she looks up at the bloody shirt still pinned to the tree. She grabs a small leather pouch from inside her jacket and unrolls it. A small silver knife falls to the ground. She wipes it on her leggings and slashes at her arm, bleeding onto the only visible remains of her father: a scattered pile of teeth.

"No." I lunge for the knife. "What are you doing?"

She pulls it out of my reach with a sob. "Bringing him back."

"You can't bring him back, Amethyst." Daniel lurches out of the darkness. "He needs vampire blood and—"

"Vampire blood? Then I'll go to Mara and become a vampire."

"Sean didn't want that," I say. "You know he didn't."

"But he thinks I did this," she says. "But it was Mara. She looked like me, but her aura... Dad can't read auras. He didn't know. He just saw me and thought she'd turned me."

"No, you're wrong," I tell her. "He heard you... he heard you scream for him, and he looked round to find you, and he saw me. He saw me, and he smiled. He knows it wasn't you, Am."

"You?" she says.

"Yeah, but only because he thought I was you."

"No." She shakes her head. "You have vampire blood. His blood." She lurches forward, and before I register her intent, she drives her knife into my arm, dragging the blade through my flesh.