Blood Lands (Savage Lands #5)(2)

“Still no?” Istvan pinned his lips, flicking his head back at the guards. “Kill them.”

“Noooooo!” Hanna bellowed, her back curving as her worst nightmare played out, guttural pain streaking her face. “No! Please don’t hurt them. Please!” She begged. “Please!”

His self-satisfaction bloomed in the air, as rancid as body odor. It was an inconceivable choice he just laid at her feet, but one she would have to make.

“If you kill them,” he gestured to Scorpion and me. “You and your parents live. If you refuse, you all die.”

Tears streaking down Hanna’s face, she turned to look at both of us. I could see the agony and torment. I understood it. I also knew who she would choose.

“Please,” she beseeched Markos, her glistening eyes going up to her parents. “They’ve done nothing to you. Let them go!”

“You have two options, Hanna. Choose one. Or I will do it for you.”

A cry from Nora snapped me back up to them. The soldier holding her cracked the handle of the gun across the back of her head, and she stumbled to the side.

“Stop, please!” I heard Hanna wail, but all I could focus on was the guard. His eyes were wide and crazed, his body twitching with violence, as if at any moment he would turn feral. He was itching for blood, craving carnage.

“Just me!” Instead of Istvan, it was Scorpion’s voice that boomed out, jerking my head to him. His shoulders spread, chest puffed. His eyes were on Hanna, indicating he would be the sacrificial lamb. “Hanna can fight me…leave Brexley out of this.”

She stared back at him, expression unreadable, though her chest pitched in and out with distress and grief.

“You dare tell me what to do?” Markos barked, anger reddening his face. “You are nothing, fae. You think I care anything about your life or death? You are here for amusement only.” Istvan twisted his attention to Hanna. “I thought you would want to kill him, Hanna. He was the one who guarded you when you were being held prisoner. That is what you told me, right?” His question was a challenge. A single hitch in his tone.

A test.

Confused, Hanna’s mouth opened and shut.

No doubt she had told Istvan everything when she was being debriefed, being the perfect obedient soldier. It was what we were trained to do. No questions asked.

She didn’t know it was her death warrant and would be used against her. He got whatever information he needed out of her, and now she was worthless to him. Something to discard. Especially now if he thought her in any way “compromised.” And because her parents were imprisoned, Hanna’s return was a gaffe he couldn’t have. She wouldn’t have accepted their disappearance or whatever story Istvan claimed about them. She would have been a thorn in his side. Another reason to dispose of her.

“Here is your chance, if you really meant what you said, private Molnár. You stated you hated the fae, especially him.” Istvan motioned to Scorpion. “Wished him dead. Here is your revenge. Kill the vile trash.”

Hanna glanced over at Scorpion, their eyes meeting for a moment. Her body shifted with hesitation.

Weakness.

Istvan could smell it from miles away.

“Do not tell me you have grown soft for these monsters?” Istvan clutched the railing, baring his teeth. “Have they tricked your brain into thinking they are human like us? Have you become a traitor fae lover as well?”

“No-no.” Hanna’s head wagged, her voice cracking in half before her expression locked down. “No, sir.”

“Then prove it.” He waved to us. “You prove yourself…here, now, and not only will your parents live, but you might be reinstated back into HDF.”

“Hanna, do it! Do what he says.” Albert yelled from the stands, and Hanna clenched her jaw even stronger.

“He’s lying to you, Hanna.” I shook my head. There were so many dog whistles Caden and I learned to recognize when many did not. People only heard what they wanted.

He didn’t say her parents would be set free or even be treated well, just that they would live. And the strategic game of might be reinstated meant the chances were probably zilch.

Istvan’s glare went to me, his amusement ebbing, while Olena stirred at his side as if she was getting bored.

“Enough talking. Kill them, or you and your parents die miserable deaths. No one will remember you even existed.”

Hanna hesitated, her weight shifting nervously from foot to foot.

It was slight, but I caught the…dip of Istvan’s…head.

Bang!

The gunshot sliced through the arena, my attention jolting back to the stands with a harsh gasp. Blood from Albert’s head sprayed over Nora, his body falling hard to the ground.

Nora and Hanna’s shrill screams pierced the air with horror and grief.

Hanna collapsed to the dirt, deep wails sobbing through her, while a guard held Nora up, her body almost limp with trauma, her arms out, trying to reach for her husband as if there might be a chance to save him.

No remorse or reaction came from Istvan at murdering an old friend in cold blood. Istvan never had much substance before, a man solely driven to gain more power, but now he was becoming a replica of a cruel dictator. A narcissistic psychopath who only feels something when others suffer. And like with any drug, it would have to keep increasing to get the same high off it.