Later on, when Beleth reflected on this, she wouldn't be sure what she was expecting, really. Maybe she thought that he'd just shove her in the snow and yell. Or maybe she knew that Cade was cracked right down the middle and maybe she wanted to provoke him into this rage and maybe this was just her attempt to self-destruct while using a convenient and unwell man as a scapegoat. She will wonder if it's healthy that she has no answer for this.

But in that moment, metal violently colliding with flesh, all she can think about is that she really fucked up.

She is, surely enough, sent sprawling into the snow with a shriek of alarm. The fighting lessons Merrick had taught her flitter feebly about her head, but then her hair is forcibly grabbed in that metallic hand, and blind panic shoves everything else aside. Instinct carries through, though. And Beleth's instincts for this situation are, for better or worse, screaming and crying.

The screaming is muffled when she's slammed into the snow, but by no means abates, and anyone close enough can hear that panic that's taken hold. In the back of her mind, under that encompassing panic, there's the cold comfort that at least when she's dead, she'll look like a perfectly innocent victim.

It doesn't really help.