(Directly continued from day 15: Drugged)

“What are you doing?” Margaret asked, doing her best to keep her voice steady. Aside from the obvious fear, there was the shakiness from the drug still in her bloodstream, and she wondered if she looked as pathetic as she felt. “Adrian?”

Her nephew’s face didn’t betray his feelings. Even his mouth under the ornate mask didn’t so much as twitch. He just came closer and knelt in front of her, knife at the ready.

“You’re too smart for such questions,” he shrugged. “Are you stalling for time? No one is coming to save you, you must realize.”

“I just…” she struggled to take a full breath, “I just want to know why…”

A gloved hand gripped Margaret’s jaw to lift her head up. Breathing became even harder as her neck was twisted to stare in Adrian’s shadowed eyes.

“Is the drug still working?” he wondered with detached curiosity. “You always did come up with good ones… you know what this is for, don’t you?”

She did. But knowing wasn’t the same as believing, and for some reason, even after helping him kill so many others, she couldn’t believe such a fate could apply to herself.

“We could – we could find someone else,” she struggled out. “There are others, more removed family…”

Adrian sighed, “Stop this. You know what the conditions are. Being family isn’t what matters.”

“I have actually been thinking, maybe the last attempts all failed because I didn’t care about them enough. Father, mother… No, it’s always been you. You understood me like no other. And that’s what this is about, no?”

He didn’t move as he spoke. Her neck hurt from the uncomfortable angle, but she knew there was no cruelty behind it – just function, to have her look him in the eye as they talked.

The corners of his mouth turned a bit downwards and he leaned down to speak in her ear, monotone, as if reading instructions from the manual, “Within a year of making contact, an offering must be made. The sacrifice must be related to the caster by blood or family, and have at some point shared a close and positive emotional connection to them.”

Margaret trembled, either from the cold, the fear or the rage, while Adrian turned her onto her back and continued, “I should have realized before that it could only be my beloved aunt. Cheer up. Even after your failure, you still have use.”

“I hate you!” Margaret choked out. “How dare you?! After all I’ve done for you, after all the lives I took – for you, for your ambition!”

“And I am grateful for all of it. But now, this is the best way you can help me.”

She wanted to spit in his face, but all she could manage was gritted, “May you burn in Hell!”

“Hardly. I plan on ruling it one day.” He raised the dagger and then added, “I’m afraid you’re going to be the one burning now.”

The knife came down.

“Goodbye, Aunt Peggy.”

—–

Ah, this Sunday’s theme for me seems to be “get rid of things that have outlived their usefulness”, what with this story and White Cat Legend chapter 71. How fun!