"Wh-what?"
"We can heal your daughter. There will, however, be a price. A blood price."
I looked at Kirkman's corpse.
"More than that, I'm afraid," the Huntsman said. "But I can assure you, they will all be equally deserving. The magic you need requires blood sacrifice. The exact nature of those sacrifices does not matter, so we will find you those whom we would take ourselves, had they committed crimes within our purview."
"They..." I swallowed, tasting vomit and bile and blood. "How many?"
Even as I said the words, my brain rebelled. Shouted that even one more was too much, that I could not do this again, could not.
The Huntsman didn't answer, and when I looked up, he was searching my face again.
"How many?" I repeated.
"I would need to make the proper inquiries and determine the sacrifice required. It will be more than one. Likely more than two."
I can't. I'm sorry, I just...
"It would not need to be like this," he said, his voice softer. "You were angry here. These would be fitting executions of killers who, like this man, cannot be allowed to live or they will continue killing."
I nodded. That's all I could manage. Nod, even as my brain screamed that I couldn't do it.
"Think on it," the Huntsman said. "While I conduct my investigations, you give it more thought. Meet me back here in a week, and we will discuss it further."
I nodded, and the Huntsman backed away, leaving me staring at Kirkman's bloodied corpse.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
I rose from Todd's memories slowly, almost groggily. I could see light and moved toward it until the light became a room, and I was sitting in front of him, and he was staring at me, his eyes round with horror, my hand still on his arm.
"You...you saw..."
The scene flooded back. Everything he'd felt flooded back.
I yanked my hand away as my eyes filled with tears.
"Not quite as innocent as you thought," he said, with a smile that was more grimace, like he was trying not to throw up. He pushed his chair back. "Okay, I...I'll go..."
He got one step before I leapt up and took his arm.
"No. Please," I said. "I knew...I'd already figured out...I just had to see...I'm sorry. I should have just asked, but I had to know."
"You didn't do it," Gabriel said from his spot near the door. "I did."
I shook my head. "I planned to. I would have. It was wrong, and I knew that before I did it, which only makes it worse."
Todd returned to his chair. He lowered himself into it and rubbed his mouth.
"I'm really, really sorry," I said, tears threatening again.
"No, you were right. And Gabriel was right to help when you couldn't. You had to know the whole thing. See the whole thing. What I did. What I didn't do. Couldn't do. I should have..." He shook his head. "I think that makes it worse. That I started it and couldn't finish. I didn't have faith. Your mother did."
"No, my mother was just willing to take the chance. It isn't..." I sat again. "It wasn't the same for her. It didn't feel the same. Killing someone."
"They all deserved it."
He sat with his hands on the table, his gaze fixed on them.