Prophecy: Tome of Heart

11. Looking Death in the Eye...

Myrna was calm, unmoved, just the same as she'd been when she had first returned to the shop. She stared off, eyes filled with conviction, as they spoke around her. It came as no surprise, she knew they'd be incapable of understanding, but she'd still told them what she had done. That wasn't the only thing she'd told them though, and now they knew everything-about Percy. Killing Liam had been the right thing to do, for all of them, not just for her, and not just because of what happened to her. It was better now, right? It was what she told herself, but she didn't like the way the others-her so called friends-pushed it back on her like she was the monster.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Toby felt a mixture of things. Disgust, fear. "Do you know what you've done?"

"What I had to." She was defiant as she gave in and looked at him. There was strength in her voice, in her presence, but he could see it in her eyes that the foundation she stood on was built on the sand. "What none of you were willing to do."

"You killed a man!" He wanted to reach out, to shake her, but he didn't.

"I kept us safe." Her gaze flitted momentarily to Cliff, who stood back from the rest of them, stricken silent and looking sick. "He was our enemy."

"You murdered him," Austin interjected with a gentle but more serious tone. He was like her, maybe more so now than any of them could ever hope to be. What had happened to her, the thing that had changed her so completely, had happened to him too. It made him more sympathetic, but also more aware of just how far she'd gone down the wrong path. "What's going to happen when Percy gets back and figures out what you did?"

"Out of anybody here, you should be thanking me." Myrna stood, glaring at him. Yes, they were alike in that way, so how dare he look down on her. "He's the reason you got taken. He's the reason you were tortured, beaten, cut open. It would have happened again, if not to you then to one of us. She'll learn to accept that. It was him or us, how is it any different than when you killed the Anchoress?"

"Because Liam was human." Toby stated it as if she should've already known. He shook his head for a minute before pointing to the tattoo on his neck. "Why the hell do you think I wear this around? Larry might've been a piece of shit, but killing him wasn't justice. We planned it, we tied him up and took away any chance to defend himself. I know you remember, and what you did is no different."

"So maybe it isn't, so what?" She turned on him with a snarl. "Maybe this makes me a murderer too, but you did what you had to then so you could do what was right. Sometimes that's the only choice we have, and I won't stand here and be lectured by you of all people on what's right and wrong."

"That's your excuse? The end justifies the means?" He laughed, though he was very unamused, and prepared to launch into a colorful tirade as the lights flickered. There was a low humming sound as they dimmed, and it grew louder before one after another they shined brightly and shattered. The ground quivered slightly under their feet, and out of reflex they retreated into one another, forming a line of defense as the books fell from the shelves and the pictures from the walls. Together they jumped back as the windows shattered and the door flew open.

"What did you do?" The carnage subsided and Percy stood in the entryway with tear stained cheeks and a hoarse voice. After everything else had finished, after Toby had returned from confronting his father, she had gone to Liam's apartment. She waited for him, but when he didn't come back she started to believe that he'd gone after Myrna, to plead with her not to do the spell. It had made her worried, so she too had followed in pursuit. It hadn't been very hard to find him, or rather, his body. The rest was easy to figure out. She felt a terrible betrayal, one like she'd never felt before, and somebody had to pay.