Then I feel a cool sensation on my temple. I shift my head slightly as I feel the barrel of his gun pressing firmly into my skin.
“Answer me,” he says through gritted teeth. “Or I’ll fucking kill you right now. End your life like you all did my father’s."
I close my eyes.
I should be afraid, but I’m not. That fear burned out of me in the woods when they said my name at the edge of the fire.
If he pulls the trigger, at least it’ll be quick.
I lean into the gun.
His breath catches, barely, a tiny shift I wouldn’t notice if I wasn’t pressed up against the weapon that could evaporate my skull.
“Do it,” I say.
My voice surprises me. It doesn’t sound hysterical. It doesn’t shake.
“Please.”
God, I’m so tired.
Tired of running. Tired of hiding. Tired of being afraid. Tired of being the Order's pawn, the girl with the mark burned into her skin.
If Callum pulls the trigger, it’s over.
No more rituals. No more fear. No more waiting for Cormac to find me.
Just silence.
I wait for the shot, but it doesn’t come.
Instead, I feel the gun pull back.
I open my eyes and Callum is staring at me, his expression something I can’t read. Disturbed. Maybe even unsettled, maybe even a crack in whatever narrative he had about who I am and what I came here for.
Suppose that makes sense.
He expected begging. Bargaining. Threats. Not this.
Not me asking for the bullet. It’s not that I want to die, exactly.
I just don’t care to fight to live.
I’ve been dead for a long time already. Tonight is just whoever’s turn it is to make it official.
"Shadowharbor is going to pull everything."
The words spill out of me before I can stop them.
He doesn’t lower the gun. But he doesn’t press it back to my skin either.
I take a breath.
“Every contact, every permit, every favor they’ve given you, anything they’ve helped you get licensed or legalized or laundered, they’re going to terminate them one by one.”
I watch his face carefully.
A flicker in his eyes. A muscle twitch in his jaw.
