My mouth is raw and dry when they finally remove the gag. I resist coughing and instead lift a hand to strike my father across the face. He catches it midair and throws it back down to my side. His dark hair glistens in the overhead spotlights. Long shadows stretch over his grim expression. He doubles back with a firm backhand across my face, the force of which sends me to the ground.
Damian and Gage try shouting but it comes out muffled. They fight against their ropes but it’s futile.
The two guards pick me back up and set me on my feet. I level my father a dark, seething glare. I hope he can see how much I’ve grown to loathe him.
“Come on, Emery.” He grins maliciously. The guards drag me until we’re five feet away from Cam. His breaths are heavy. I don’t know how much longer he can hold out. He’s already so wounded.
Fuck, I don’t know how much longer I can hold out either.
Greg waves away the guards and places the muzzle of his gun to my temple. My muscles seize up and my breath hitches as the warm steel meets my skin.
My heart pounds so loudly in my head that all thoughts go to the wayside. All I see is Cameron, bleeding in front of me while forcing himself to keep his eyes on me. I’ve never seen so much pain and grief in a man’s eyes like I do his. If this is where it ends for me, I’d be okay with it. As long as I know that I was loved as much as I can see in Cam’s eyes, the rest of the world simply melts away.
“I’ve learned the hard way that it’s easier to make the dogs put themselves down.” Greg’s voice is that of a serpent’s as he drops a knife and kicks it to Cameron. “Either you both die, or just you, my friend.”
My jaw clenches and I have to swallow down the despair. “No,” I say with a trembling voice.
Cameron looks down at the knife with weary eyes and slowly picks it up. He leans back until he’s sitting on his heels. Shoulders slacked and the loveliest, broken smile across his lips.
“I’m a dead man anyways, Em.” His voice is low and raspy, tearing my heart out as he winces, dragging the knife over the stone floor and bringing it to his throat. “I loved you completely. In a way we never got to fully explore together. You were the sunlight over a frozen lake. The whisper of happiness I got to know. I love you, Em… I love you. Now, look away,” Cam says gently, but I can’t do as he says, I can’t let him go alone into the dark.
I just got him back.
The knife meets his throat and he’s about to drag it across his skin.
I scream and fall to my knees. Cam’s eyes are closed, but the excruciating look on his face tears into me, leaving scars seared deep into my soul.
“I’ll make you watch a thousand deaths like his, Emery dear. I’ll break you until you fucking listen to my goddamn orders and—Urgh.” A shudder crawls up my spine and I slowly look to my right, where the gun my father had pressed to my temple is pulling away.
Greg gurgles on his words, a seven-inch knife keeping his jaw from shutting. His tongue is split in half and the muscle hangs on either side of the knife, flopped over his bloody teeth.
I shift to move away from the grotesque scene and fall to my shoulder. Cameron tosses his knife and quickly wraps me up in his arms, holding me close to his chest and breathing heavily as we both stare at Greg. He’s convulsing on the floor with Reed’s knife shoved in through the base of his skull, the tip of the steel curving through his upper lip.
Reed smiles widely as he exhales a held breath, brushing his blond hair back with a bloody hand. “Jesus, was anyone else getting sick of hearing that old man talk?” He winks at me and whistles to the guards. They instantly move, untying Gage and Damian.
What the hell?Reed just…he just killed him effortlessly. Why? Why all of this if he could just kill him all along? My jaw trembles and I stare up at Reed with confused, angry eyes.
He crouches down and pats my head. Cam’s arms tighten around me protectively.
“If you think your worthless father was harder to kill than that you’re wrong, Emery. Timing iseverything,” Reed says with a disturbing grin.
“But why bring us here?” I grit my teeth.
He tilts his head. “To bring me the other problem, of course. Belerik. Two birds, one stone.” Reed sets his gaze to Cameron’s arm where the black veins have spread further. “Be right back,” he mumbles before standing and walking to my father’s close circle of guards. They don’t look shocked at all at what he’s done.
He waited to kill my father just to bait Lieutenant Erik in… A cold shudder rolls down my spine.
Cameron is still trembling, his arms holding me so tightly that I’m not sure if he’ll ever let me go. I hope he doesn’t.
I wriggle in his hold, folding my arms over his neck and squeezing him tightly. “I thought I lost you.” I weep into his shoulder. His birch scent is thick and soothes my heart. He strokes his hand down the back of my head gently.
“I’m sorry for everything I’ve done to you, Em,” he whispers, caressing the bite on my neck with the pad of his finger. He pulls me back and stares into my eyes. Hot summer storms are waking in his gaze, pulling me in and promising warm nights of our hearts pressed close together.
I memorize how defeated he looks in this moment. The smeared red stains across his cheeks, the swollen lip and cuts across his brow. His jaw is already bruising. I delicately clasp his face into my hands and bring my lips to his.
He inhales sharply and wraps a hand around my lower back, pressing into our kiss deeper before setting his forehead on mine, whispering, “We’re not finished quite yet, love.” His British accent skates over my lips and melts my heart.
I nod. We still have to free ourselves from the Dark Forces.
