I yanked the drawer open with shaking hands, found the gun, and spun around.
But Victor’s blood-covered hand shot out, knocking the weapon from my unsteady grasp just as I managed to pull the trigger.The gun clattered across the floor, skidding toward the kitchen as the bullet fired upward and shattered the light fixture, glass raining down around us.
“I’ve always liked a woman with a little fight in her,” he drawled, stalking toward me, blood dripping down his face.“Makes it taste even sweeter when I win.And I always win, Ariana.”
I backed up, step by step, toward the kitchen counter.Toward the knife block.Toward the second gun.Toward any chance of survival.
“Is that why you targeted all those women?”I asked, my voice low and steady, even though my heart was thundering.“Because they had fight in them?”
“Women?”He arched a single brow.
“The ones you had sterilized.”
His grin widened.“You think you have it all figured it out.Don’t you?”
I blinked, a hint of doubt creeping in, but I pushed it down.This was what Victor did.Gaslit me.Made me question my own reality.
Not anymore.
“I do.And I also know that’s why you killed Henry’s daughter,” I said, letting his name crack through me.“Sarah.You killed her because she learned the truth, too.Because she outsmarted you.”
His expression flickered for a fraction of a second.Victor hated the idea of anyone outsmarting him, so I knew my statement would hit a nerve.
At least, Ithoughtit would.
Instead, he threw his head back and laughed.
Loud.Wild.Untethered.
When his eyes snapped to mine, something feral lurked there.
“I didn’t kill Sarah,” he explained calmly.“Although she goes by Nova now.”
The world tilted, my heart dropping to the pit of my stomach as my brain struggled to keep up with what he just admitted.
“What do you mean?Is she alive?”
“She is.She was chosen.”
“For what?”
“The same thing you were.So let’s go.”
He reached for me, and I didn’t hesitate.
I spun, grabbed the cast-iron skillet off the stove, and swung at his head.
He stumbled back, and I ran toward the gun on the floor.
But Victor tackled me, slamming me onto my back.Pain exploded up my spine as he wrestled the gun from my fingers and pressed it toward my face.
“I don’t want to kill you, Ariana, so stop fighting,” he hissed.“You won’t win.You should know that by now.”
My arms trembled, muscles screaming, but I pushed back with everything I had.
“Never.”My voice tore from my throat, raw and fierce.“I’ll never stop fighting you.”
His smile slithered across his face as he forced the gun closer.
