I left her hale and hearty otherwise, to be fair. Life was precious, right? Even hers, stolen as it was. All I wanted I'd achieved. I'd rendered her inert, unable to harm anyone else, at least through magic.

While maybe she didn't deserve the keep the life she'd taken as her own, I wasn't a murderer.

Anymore.

She gaped at me, the beautiful young woman with the soul of a monster no longer big or scary or even remotely threatening, only a trembling and ordinary ...