Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 118042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 590(@200wpm)___ 472(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 590(@200wpm)___ 472(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
But…I didn’t know how this was possible either.
I’d assumed the jewels had been punished enough to erase the very notion of escape. No one ever looked at Peter and me at night. No whispers, no winks.
Nothing.
But somehow, war had been delivered with a single command from an unseen man in the shadows.
Had it been Ben or Stewart who fired first?
How many guns did they have now?
How many guards were on our side?
Huge spotlights clicked on from the walls, scanning the gardens with giant yellow pools of illumination. One caught us in its arc. A guard high above and silhouetted by the moon, shouted in his loudhailer, “Sir…is that you?”
Victor waved his left arm, grunting in pain. “Don’t shoot, you idiots! I’m coming to you.”
I didn’t know if they could hear him, but he threw himself into a lumbering jog, forcing me to crawl and trip beside him. He yanked out handfuls of my hair, sending gushes of pain through my already overloaded system.
Every hedgerow we passed, I tried to grab one. To break off a branch and hit him with it. To find a way to escape and get back to Henri. “Let me go!” I screamed.
He ignored me, running faster like the coward he was.
If he got me into the battlement’s protection, I’d never get free.
I’d be used as collateral again.
Henri would be shot.
“HELP!” I screeched as loud as I could. “Someone!”
“Quiet.” He shook me. “Do that again, and I’ll rip out your throat.”
I’d lived too long with his threats. I had a physical reaction to his command and swallowed hard in silence, but then…the old me came roaring back. That feral creature who’d been born in these very gardens in a thunderstorm and a treasure hunt.
And I snapped.
Instead of fighting his hold, I leapt on him.
I threw all my weight against his trim torso and managed to knock him to the ground. He went sprawling in the grass, grunting in agony as he landed on his shot shoulder.
For a second, I couldn’t believe my luck.
Then adrenaline poured like gasoline, igniting every ounce of rebellion.
Falling on him, I slapped and punched and kicked.
He cried out as I became an unhinged animal. I raked my nails over his face. I tried to knee him in the balls. I managed to punch a few soft places, but then he gathered a lifetime of cultivated power and threw me off him like I was a damn mosquito.
“ENOUGH!” Struggling to his feet, he loomed over me. “Fuck’s sake, do I have to do everything myself?” Grabbing me around my blood-slicked throat, he pushed his thumbs into my larynx. “I should’ve done this the very first night you arrived.” His eyes flashed with evil insanity. “Au revoir, little pain in my ass.”
I tried to scream. I kicked. I scratched.
No use.
No use!
He cut off my air supply.
He coated me in blood, his and mine, blending, dripping…
Black spots danced in my vision.
My already tortured body faded far quicker than it should, thanks to so many nights of horror.
No.
Henri.
I gasped and choked.
I tried to hold on.
He went hazy, ghostly. The world faded and—
Victor bellowed as a bullet cracked from the hedges.
Rolling off me, he staggered to his feet and hopped on his left leg. Cursing with feral French, he looked down at the fresh bloom of blood on his trousers by his calf.
Scooting backward on my hands, I tried to put as much distance between us as possible.
My elbows wobbled and failed, sending me sprawling onto my back. Too weak. Too damaged. So useless!
Fuck!
My head roared. My empty stomach ached. My muscles were hopeless in this fight.
Limping toward me, Victor ducked to finish my murder, only another gunshot and a rustle of branches sent him reeling back. He spun and faced Mollie as she stepped out of the orchard, holding a scary-looking gun and pointing it right at Victor.
He froze.
She smiled.
She raised the muzzle to point at his heart. “Give the devil my regards—”
A horrifying pop sent Mollie tumbling backward. A spritz of blood erupted from her forehead. She fell like a brick wall, landing straight on her back.
“Sir, run!” a guard on the wall shouted in their loudhailer. Another pop released, kicking up dirt by my feet.
Snipers.
No.
Victor bared his teeth. He glowered at me and swayed in my direction. But then he smiled and winked. “I’ll see you in a few minutes, Ilyana. Once order has been restored, you’re the first I’m going to hang, draw, and quarter.”
He took off.
Cradling his arm, limping and cursing, he vanished past the invisible line of protection granted by his snipers.
Mollie.
Cupping my bleeding, bruised throat with one hand, I staggered to my trembling legs and stumbled to where Mollie lay.
Please, don’t…please don’t be dead.
“Mollie.” I dropped to my knees and cupped her cheek.
I recoiled in horror.
The perfect hole in her skull.