Chapter 113: Take the bait?
The word hung in the air between them, heavy and cold. Extermination.
He watched Mara react. Predictable. Her face drained of color, mouth falling slightly open as if the air had been punched from her lungs. Her hand, the one not gripping the edge of the archway, trembled visibly where it hovered near her chest. Fear. A familiar scent in the air around humans. Useful, sometimes. Annoying, often.
"Extermination?" Her voice was thin, stretched taut like a fraying rope. "Fin, are you... are you serious?" She took another shaky step back, putting more distance between them, her eyes wide and reflecting the pale light of the kitchen.
"You can’t just— they’re not all monsters! There are good people in the Association, Hunters who just do their jobs, people who—"
He tuned out the specifics. Good people. Bad people. Irrelevant classifications. The Association, as an entity, had marked him. Had hurt Meg. Had sent assassins into his domain – his domain. Sentiment wouldn’t stop the next attack. Only force would. The logic was simple. Unpleasant, perhaps, to someone like Mara, but undeniable.
They drew first blood, he thought, the memory of Jericho’s cold efficiency, of Rowena’s chilling smile, flashing briefly behind his eyes. They wouldn’t stop until he was captured or dead. The kill order proved that.
"...they have families!" she was saying now, her voice rising, edged with disbelief and something else – fear directed squarely at him. He saw it in the way she held herself stiffly, the way her gaze darted towards the door as if contemplating escape.
He met her gaze, his own expression unchanged. The green light in his eyes, remnant of the power he’d wrestled under control, was steady, unwavering. He needed the information. Her fear was inconvenient but expected. A tool, perhaps. Or just noise. He hadn’t decided yet.
"This isn’t you," she whispered, shaking her head, the movement jerky. "The Fin I knew wouldn’t talk like this. You... you’re scaring me."