He managed to slash it across my forearm, the sudden pain making me jerk back just enough for him to throw me off. We both scrambled to our feet, circling each other like wild animals, blood dripping from my arm.
Mathew lunged at me with the blade. I caught his wrist, but he was desperate now, fighting with the fury of a cornered animal. We grappled, spinning and crashing into the wall.
Suddenly, he twisted free and drove the knife forward.
The blade plunged into my side between my ribs with a burning explosion of pain that seared through my entire body. I staggered backward, gasping as the world tilted.
Shit.
The blade was still lodged in my side, hot blood soaking through my shirt. My chest felt like it was filled with concrete.
My lung is punctured.
But something far more horrifying took shape in my blurring vision: Mathew grabbing Dakota and slamming her up against the far wall, wrapping his hands around her throat.
I pushed forward, determination overriding the agony. Three steps. That was all I managed before my legs betrayed me and I crashed to one knee.
My brave girl fought him with everything she had. She tried to knee him in the groin, but he twisted away. She clawed at his arms, punched at his chest and face, but his grip was unrelenting.
As I heaved for air that wouldn’t fill my lungs, she and I locked eyes across the chaos.
Both of us realizing we were going to die together.
66
DAKOTA
Blackness crept into my vision, and my focus blurred until everything became soft around the edges. My muscles weakened so that every kick, every punch, every desperate scratch lost its battle for strength.
This is it. This is how it ends.
I locked eyes with Axel across the chaos, wishing he could hear what I was trying to say rather than just see me mouth the words.
“I love you,” I tried to squeak out.
But Mathew’s hands were clamped too tightly around my throat, his fingers digging into my windpipe like a vise. The blackness encroached further, swallowing everything except Axel’s face.
At least the last thing I’ll see is him.
This was it. Axel was dying, too, blood pooling beneath him on the floor.
As my final breaths were withheld, I found myself grateful that my last thoughts were of love instead of fear. I was gladthat I had found Axel. That I’d found true love. Something had awakened inside of me that many people never got to experience in their lifetime. The feeling of being truly alive and free and full of joy. The feeling of being someone’s number one priority, being desired, being loved, being adored.
And being 100% my authentic self.
At least I got to experience it for a little while.
Goodbye, my love.
I will love you for all of eternity,I thought.
And then everything went dark as I slumped to the ground.
For a second, I thought I had died. But then I heard this inhuman wheezing sound, and I realized it was me. My lungs were sucking in deep gulps of oxygen so violently, it sounded animalistic, like I was drowning. My vision was returning, too, the blackness dissolving into light and blurry shapes.
I’m alive. How am I alive?
A figure moved in front of me, and through my tears, I saw him.
