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For the first time in weeks, Kathryn can't move.
Ward's blood is all over her, in her mouth, in her hair. Her fingers tremble, taunt against her bag. She feels Sarah sob against her leg, holding the corpse of her father, loving it even after he died in his sins.
Kathryn's dad had come back with them. His sins were splattered all over his daughter, who didn't recognise the man in front of her. This couldn't be her father. This couldn't be Henry's brother. This couldn't be– he had been so... He had been weepy, when she confronted him, angry, sure, but not... He wouldn't have killed someone and smiled.
She can't even react when he takes her back pack from her. When did he get here? Has he just been following them the whole entire time?
The thought enrages her. Good. She needs it.
"What have you done?" she asks, as coldly as she can. "Why?"
But he keeps smiling, as if he hadn't just killed someone. Ward, yes, but someone. "It's going to be okay, Kitten," he coos softly at her. "We're going to go home, now. Back to Kildare."
Even now, when he tries to reassure her, she can see the edge in his eyes, the emptiness she never saw before. The gold hunt was everything to him, nothing else mattered. She'd known that, how could she have not? He all but told her.
Now, she just knew how far he'd go.
She swallows thickly, puts on a bravado she doesn't have. "What makes you think I'm going to follow you?"
"Because I'm holding the gun, you fucking idiot." He laughs, without a trace of humour. "What do you think is about to happen, Kat?
She blinks, physically recoiling from him. Kathryn takes a deep breath. She has no idea what to do. Her father's gun goes from Big John, to John B, to Sarah, and she can only stare because she has no idea what to do and nothing makes sense. Everyone holds their breaths, because if he just killed Ward, they're not entirely sure he won't just kill off another one of them.
Edward tilts his head at his daughter, and grins. "This is our thing," he tells her, and the gun settles on her. "This has always been our thing."
She knows the underlying threat. He'll kill everyone else if he has to.
