Chapter 27: Because ....
" Whatever the consequences, I will face them. But spare her. Even if I die, she has to live. She is carrying my child. " Markus held Madam Butterfly’s eyes. " One request only. Even if you kill me — promise me you will see her safely home. That bastard Kaiser may come for her again. "
The word *child* brought a smile to Madam Butterfly’s face.
Saana, her face still buried in her hands, was stunned. *What a liar,* she thought.
" Kaiser will do nothing to anyone ever again — let alone harm your wife. I have seen to him. There. The body. " Madam Butterfly pointed to the corner.
Markus and Saana both looked, and saw the corpse lying in its pool of blood.
" Thank you, Lady. I understand — you saved my wife. I am forever in your debt. "
" Thank you, " Saana said too, and meant it now, understanding at last how Kaiser’s face had come to be stabbed, and how she had been saved from being defiled.
Madam Butterfly looked kindly on Markus.
" I mean no harm to you, or to your wife. You are going to be parents. There are lines I do not cross. Go, both of you — but never speak a word of this to anyone. Forget tonight ever happened. And take good care of her. You will have your family to fight over her, in time. Remember only this: the best things in life are always worth fighting for. "
Markus rose, and then knelt again at her feet, hands folded.
" Thank you — whoever you are. I do not know your name. But I can tell you have a kind heart. You have given us a new life, and we will remember you always. If ever you have need of anything, come to us. You saved my wife, and our child to come. We will always be in your debt. "
" You have repaid the debt already, " Madam Butterfly answered. " I had forgotten myself. You two reminded me of what I once was. I had gone empty of feeling — and seeing you, willing to die for your wife, has brought back the things I used to treasure. I believe in love again. "
" Thank you. Thank you for such words, " Markus said, his voice raspy. " I too was lost, until I found Saana. She showed me what it is to love someone with the whole of your heart. And I believe in love now, strongly, too — because — because — "
His voice broke, and he wept, and his tears fell on Madam Butterfly’s feet.
Feeling the drop of them, Madam Butterfly smiled, tender, and bent to lift him from her feet.
" Oh — you crying fool — "
" — BECAUSE LOVE KILLS. " Kei shouted as his body rose suddenly .
Markus — Kei — drove his eight hidden talons deep into Madam Butterfly’s throat, a horizontal Holy Slash.
The four pairs of talons went through her throat like a hot blade through butter, and before she could so much as blink, her head came away from her body and fell into Kei’s lap.
It happened so fast that the severed head still wore its tender smile, even as the eyes bulged in shock.
Her headless body dropped to the floor and began to pump blood from the stump of the neck with an eerie sloshing sound, drenching the boards red again.
Kei let the head roll from his lap onto the floor, and sat back with his arms and legs stretched out, and made a low sound as a delicious chill ran up his spine and spread warmth and ease through the whole of him.
His decoy had succeeded beyond anything he had hoped.
He turned it over, savoring it — how the plan to lure Kervyn in, using Saana for bait, had come off perfectly. He had thought, going in, that the mercenary would kill them both, Kervyn and Saana together. But the night had bent another way: only Kervyn had been struck.
And reading that, he had understood Saana would be spared — because she was being *saved*. Which left him still exposed, if Saana opened her mouth and spilled everything she knew in front of the mercenary. And there was the other risk — that the mercenary might strip Kervyn’s arm-gloves and find she had not killed the real Kaiser at all.
So he had improvised. Taken the gamble.
He had struck the back of his own head against a rock to bloody himself, and walked in to face the mercenary as the wronged husband. He had known he would have to play an emotional card to bring her guard down, and so he had spoken of love, and sacrifice, and a child on the way. He had counted, too, on Saana joining the ruse — a greedy, foolish female would — and her acting had been better than praiseworthy, and had helped him bend the whole scene his way.
The gamble had paid.
He was off the hook. For now.
He looked at Saana, and thought: *she has earned a good reward.*
