Mercy Said No

Kaelum

A woman stands in front of me.

Small. Maybe five foot three. Her eyes are too wide, too bright, stretched beyond fear. Beside her sits a wilted floral arrangement.

The offering.

My sacrifice.

I stop walking.

If I’m going to kill a creature, I don’t want them frozen like this. There’s something cruel about ending a life while terror still owns it. Then again, death is kinder when it comes fast enough to leave no room for begging.

Nature has always been brutal that way.

These are my people. She is one of the creatures I protect.

And tonight, I have to kill her so the rest survive.

I’ve been standing here longer than I realized because the woman slowly lowers herself to the ground. She watches me carefully now, studying me instead of trembling.

If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was planning an attack.

But she looks exhausted. Like life has been carving pieces out of her since birth.

And she’s beautiful.

Fragile in the way cracked glass still pretends it can hold together.

“I know I’m going to die,” she says suddenly. Her voice shakes, but she forces the words out anyway. “But why? Why me? Why do you have to be thirsty while I’m alive? You haven’t done this in a century.”

I hadn’t planned to speak tonight. I only came to take the sacrifice, feed enough to continue my duty properly.

“Why?” she screams when I stay silent. The sound tears through the woods. “Can’t you fucking talk? I know I can’t escape you, but I’m right here. You’re about to kill me and you can’t answer one question?”

I blink.

In over two thousand years of existence, with fifteen hundred years soaked in sacrifice, no one has ever shouted at me.

No one has ever cursed me. No one has ever challenged me. So it’s true. The world has changed.

“Fucking dead-eyed moron,” she mutters. “Waste of beauty too. Pretty face for a disaster. I hope you choke on my blood.”

A smile touches my mouth before I can stop it.

“That’s not how it works, little wolf.”

The moment my voice leaves my throat, the forest reacts.

Cold rushes through the trees. Frost crawls over dead leaves. Goosebumps erupt across her skin instantly. I softened my voice for her, and still she folds into herself, gasping as if she’s struggling to breathe in the thick air. I watch her shake.

Then I laugh quietly.

“How does it work then?” she snaps. “It must be nice being a god. It must be nice deciding who dies. I hate you. I hate all of this. Just kill me already.”

“I do whatever I want, feisty.”

I finally step closer, and she lifts her head.

Her eyes are pale green. Soft and alive. The most alive eyes I have seen in a long time. They remind me of every stubborn thing the earth has managed to grow despite cruelty.

She holds my gaze.

And for one strange moment, I want to stay here.

Just looking at her.

Just existing in this pause.

Her face is delicate, almost painfully so.

Her eyes search mine again.

Not with anger this time, but hope.

She wants to live.

Even after everything life has done to her, she still wants to live.

“Can you make it quick?” she asks softly.

I sigh and walk toward her.

She steps back continuously until the cliff edge catches her heels.

Her hands lift between us instinctively, like they can stop what I am.

“Wait,” she whispers. “Can I say something?”

“You already are.”

Her throat tightens. “Can’t you kill someone else? I’ve suffered long enough. I don’t think I can die peacefully like this.”

“Feisty,” I murmur. “This is not a bargain. You don’t always get what you want.”

A bitter laugh leaves her. “I know that better than anyone. But can’t you be merciful like you always have been?”

“Sweetheart,” I say softly, “I hear the voices of your people. Their prayers rot the skies. They begged for appeasement, and now they will have it.”

“But I have lifted my voice in pain to pray to you too. Am I irrelevant? I have done that since I was born. Do I not matter? Do the gods segregate as well?”

“Feisty…” I say, but before I can continue, she glances at the edge of the cliff for a second, then turns back to me and smiles.

“I refuse to be useful to these people you love so much. Even in my death.”

I already feel it. I see the resolve and the hatred on her face. I see someone tired too.

She takes a deep breath like someone unready to die and jumps while screaming, like she wasn’t the one who just made the decision.

I chuckle to myself. These werewolves  never cease to amaze me.

“Please help me—please!” she shouts, and I turn to leave, but I stop in my tracks when the voices from below become clear in my ears.

“Did the Moon God finally take what he wanted?”

“I hope that’s her corpse falling down.”

“About time this mess ended.”

“Whatever. As long as our pack is safe, we can keep sacrificing the useless ones.”

These are the Alphas that are supposed to protect their packs? Here wishing a horrible, unknown death on one of their own. The lack of sympathy disgusts me.

I jump, following the screaming girl.

The wind splits around me as I descend after my sacrifice.

“She’s alive!” one of them suddenly shouts. “That bitch is fucking alive—”

The more I hear the voices from below, the more irritated I become.

I catch her midair with one hand before she hits the ground. Her unconscious body curls instinctively against me.

I land in front of the three alpha wolves and their pathetic followers.

They stagger backward instantly, shifting into their wolf forms. Their teeth bare at me. Fur raised.

“Who are you?” one alpha says. “And why do you have our sacrifice with you?”

“This is not the time to play savior, big boy,” another says.

Then I chuckle.

“If I stop playing savior, you all die.”

“Fuck off. You’re pissing me off. We don’t have time for this. Drop the girl and walk away unscathed.”

“I am not a creature you bare your teeth at,” I say calmly. “I exhausted every mercy in me centuries ago.”

Still, they circle me.

“Oh, disrespecting my sacrifice is one thing,” I murmur. “But posturing at me? That I will not tolerate.”

“Oh please, who are you? I said piss off. I’m not in the mood for this.” The alpha dashes toward me.

I reach for him in one movement.

I fling him so far his body disappears into the darkness beyond the trees. They’ll spend days searching for whatever pieces remain when he lands.

The others panic immediately.

Some try to run, but it’s too late.

I snap the first neck with two fingers.

The second dies before he finishes turning.

The third tries to beg.

I tear his throat out before the first word leaves his mouth.

The rest fall just as quickly.

Bodies collapse around me. Blood stains the earth.

I look down at the unconscious little feisty sweetheart in my arms.

“Lucky for you,” I murmur, “your people offered me better sacrifices instead. But still, you don’t get to live after laying eyes on a god.”