“You said you’d make things oh-so-good for me,” she hisses. “You said I was yourbaby girl. That’s sick, and when animals get sick, we put them down. I was never yours. I’m Julian August’s baby girl and I’m all grown up. This time, you’re the one who’s going to get fucked. I promise I’ll make it oh-so-good.”
“What are you talking about, you crazy bitch?” He’s scared now, his whole body trembling. Blood spurts from his wounds as he jerks his hand, trying to tear himself free. “You crazy-ass bitch. You’re just like him, just like Julian, two sides of the same coin. I’ll get you for this. You kill me and you doom them. All these spoiled rich boys you love so much. I already ruined that one’s father.” His eyes fix on me, and a white-hot bolt of rage strikes my chest. “We’ll ruin him, too.”
Claudia’s face is a pale moon. The weapon in her hands remains steady.
The light flickers behind her, and I catch a glimpse of the gold again. But it’s only a reflection of her face on a mirrored surface, haloed by her golden hair. A queen of hell with death in her eyes.
“He did it, Claws,” Antony says. “You know it was him. There’s no other explanation for the note he left on Brentwood’s body. He needs to die.”
Brutus throws back his head andshrieks. He sounds deranged, like a banshee calling down death and destruction. “The note…” he caws. “The fuckingnote.”
Claudia’s jaw clenches. Her eyes flick to me.
“Eli, get out of here,” she says.
I shake my head.
“I’m not warning you again. You don’t want to see this.”
My feet won’t move. I can’t turn away. Claudia doesn’t ask a third time.
“Alea iacta est,” she says.
She pulls the trigger.
The gunshot explodes around me. With it, the final shred of my old life disintegrates into dust.
With it, I lay my life down before my queen.
Blood splatters across the wall in a halo of destruction. Droplets rain down on me, anointing me in this man’s life – a lifeshetook to save Gizmo.
To save me.
She shot her uncle in the head.
She. Shot. Him. In. The. Head.
Brutus’ body slumps forward, still held in place by the blades through his flesh. His head’s a mess of blood and gore and… I turn away. I can’t look at it.
I turn away, and I see her.
My queen.
She runs to me.
“Eli—”
The air shatters with shards of sound that tear through my skull.Gunfire. I can’t see where it’s coming from or who’s shooting. All I see is Claudia running toward me as her reflection runs the opposite way.
That’s not right. How—
I freeze as bullets rip through the old tools and paint cans on the shelf behind me. I know I need to move, to protect Gizmo, but it’s all happening so fast, I can’t think. I can’t—
Claudia barrels into me, knocking me down. Her arms go around Gizmo, cradling my cat to her chest as bullets fly over us. My ears ring and my brain rattles in my skull and I don’t know if the shack has fallen silent or if I’ve been deafened by the noise.
All I know isher.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Antony and Noah tear off outside, their weapons raised. Gizmo wiggles out from her arms and Claudia presses her body into me, her heart and mine thundering against each other. Even though my hearing is fucked up, her beautiful voice reaches my ears, as clear as the emerald ocean. “Eli, fuck. I thought you were—”
