I’ve always had a choice to make – to be me, or him.

I can’t be him.

I realise this at that moment, with great embarrassment and disappointment in myself because if there was ever a time I should be protecting my own this is it. I can’t kill again and still think that I am a good person. Every atom of my being is screaming at me for it!

It is in my want to cure him.

I know I could do it if I had the time and focus and energy. Who could be a greater healer than the devil’s child? One who has true evil running in her veins but who won’t ever turn to it. I know now that I won’t use what my father did. I made my choice when it came to evil. I made my decision. I will not back down no matter what the circumstances are – I am better than him, I am better than I ever knew I was and it is so sad it has taken this moment for me to know!

My heart is pure.

Still, I have a woman who loves me and who I would one day make my wife if I could and we have a child to protect.

I lower my horns and look directly at him.

– What the fuck are you doing, Mr Udnam?

He points the knife at me and it is sharp as anything I’ve ever seen.

– I don’t want to do this, Jessie. I have no choice! My fiancée lays with you in that bed, my daughter turns to you, every corner of my house vibrates with your energy. The whole building does! I am taking it back for me, for my family, for my future tenants. Luckenbooth is not your home any more. You have horns on your head! It reminds me every single day that you, Jessie MacRae – you are evil!

I laugh.

– What are you laughing at, Jessie?

– It’s fucking ridiculous, Mr Udnam. What you are is, what you say other people are – over and over again.

– Liar.

– You’ve left bruises on her, you’ve hurt her again and again. Now you want to do the same to me. Don’t pass this off as some fucking mercy mission, Mr Udnam! I’d advise you not to touch me, in this life or the next.

– You’re a witch!

– No, your fiancée is the witch, she cast a spell on me without even trying the first time I saw her and there is little she can’t cure given the right herbs. I am not the witch, Mr Udnam. I’m the devil’s daughter and I have no fear of evil, not of my father, or of you!

The child cries out.