Begging Trinity not to shoot her.
I watch Trinity stare down her shaking arms at the gun in her trembling hands. She fights to lower the gun, to drop it back to her side, but it’s like her limbs aren’t her own.
She screams in her mind because she can’t move her mouth, can’t make her throat work.
She knows Rad will stop her heart. She wants him to. But he won’t. Not before his will is done.
Powerful magic roars against mine, Rad’s will, his bonded blood magic roaring in Trinity’s mind, striking me down.
I gasp at the exertion of his power, at the strength of it.
Saints, maybe blood magicisstronger than an affinity.
I think of the omegas who went before me who wielded affinities like I do. Were they cowed by a powerful alphas wielding forbidden magic?
No, they would have fought, to the death if necessary.
Trinity’s pleas fill my ears, but my attention falters as Rad laughs, soft and dark in my ear.
Of course.
I need to draw his attention away from Trinity, break the control he has over her. I need to gain the upper hand in any way possible.
I draw my foot up and drive my stiletto-clad heel onto Rad’s instep with all my might.
He falters, just long enough for Trinity to fight back.
Just long enough for me to slip into her mind and push him from it.
She looks up at me, her eyes no longer bloody, but clear. A baleful blue.
She’s free.
Trinity squeezes her eyes shut, whispers out a thanks I hear through the link between us, turns the gun on herself, and pulls the trigger.
Her last thoughts are of Jaime, how she loves him, and peace. The dark, quiet peace that awaits her.
My magic snaps back into me so quickly I stumble.
Chaos erupts in the ballroom, but I’m numb to it. I’m numb to everything but Trinity’s final wish for peace.
Rad laughs, despite the way tears of pain spill down his reddened cheeks, and I know now that he’s sick. More deranged than I ever thought possible.
“You’ll behave now, won’t you?” he croons, just as strong arms go around me, dragging me from the fray.
“Get her out of here!” Hawthorn tells Ian, and suddenly I’m in the alpha’s arms as he sprints from the ballroom, hexes firing behind us. One singes the back of his tux jacket, and he lets out a hiss of pain, but he doesn’t relent. He sprints all the way back to my cottage, holding me tight.
He doesn’t stop until he sets me down and locks the door behind us, warding it with spell after spell and shoving one of the kitchen chairs under the knob for good measure.
I sway on my feet, echoes of chaos and pain and freedom swirling through my head.
I freed her.
But it wasn’t enough. I wasn’t enough.
I couldn’t save Trinity Wells.
CHAPTER34
