And Orion himself.
Born May 21st, his sun sign straddles the cusp, aligning with Gemini. Once he completes his ritual, he’ll end the cycle suicide by proxy.
I understood this as I first walked the shadowed corridors of this institute, feeling the chilling presence grip my soul like the Grim Reaper.
And I had a plan.
Fingers curled around the railing, I let a bitter laugh slip free. Did I honestly believe it would be that simple? Get the information I needed. Send Darby the evidence and have him intercept Orion before his next kill. Then just vanish.
In death, she will have her revenge.
Revenge won’t change the past.
For the first time since I stood on that beach and knew I could find him, uncertainty churns in my chest. Each ticking second frays another thread of my resolve, raging a war within as I desperately cling to that revenge. Without this purpose, Collins doesn’t even exist.
I can’t lose Orion.
I clutch the rail until the rough edge bites into my palms. Desperation flares hot in the pit of my stomach, and with it comes the brutal strike—the phantom sensation of cold steel. The scent of damp earth. The screech of insects. Forest trees overtake the salty air, the roar of the ocean overwhelmed by my roaring blood.
Gasping, I lift my gaze once more to the constellation. Orion, cast into the abyss of night, defiantly burning amid the endless dark.
“I can find you,” I whisper, pleading there’s enough time to intervene.
Swallowing hard, I light my cracked phone screen, preparing to make the call to Darby?—
And my gaze catches shadowed movement past the hazy cliffside.
Waves crash against the rocks below. The tide pushes against the dark shore. And there, bathed in the silvery moonlight, his familiar silhouette stands stark against the night.
A strangled sound escapes my throat. Relief seeps into me like the mist, slowly filling me with a mix of relief and dread.
My breath trembles. “Orion…”
Then I’m moving, my heart barely managing to keep up. My pulse suspends, not wanting to waste a beat. I escape the dome, time hanging motionless and speeding as I search the quickest path to him.
Standing torn at the edge of the cliff, I waver between the pier in the distance, and the steep descent down the rocky slope. Pressing my palm to the aching hollow beneath my left breast, I feel the frantic kick of my heart.
“Fuck it.”
I kick off my ankle boots and slip over the edge, toes feeling for purchase along the narrow stone shelves. Rough rock scrapes against my bare feet, fingers digging into toothed edges as I cling to the jagged wall, lowering myself inch by inch toward the shore.
Icy water seeps up through the hard sand, mercifully numbing the raw soles of my feet as I weave an unsteady path between slate sea stacks. Arms tucked around myself, I brace my trembling body against the whipping wind, coming to a sudden stop.
Orion stands off to my right, as motionless as the stones surrounding him, his gaze cast out over the gray, rolling waves.
For a brief second, I let a tendril of relief curl through me. “Orion,” I call his name, my teeth chattering. He doesn’t respond.
Something in the way he’s just standing there tightens a band of apprehension around my chest. My gaze drops to his boots sunk into the wet sand, the foamy tide washing over them before retreating.
I tilt my head back, anxiety pouring through my veins as I gauge the nearly half-lit moon hung in the black sky.
Muttering a curse beneath my breath, I lift the hem of my skirt and creep closer. “Orion, what does a half-moon mean for the tide?—”
My voice dies as I come around to face him, breath seizing at the devastating sight before me.
Dark red streaks his skin, spattered in brutality across his face. His gray thermal is stained and torn, hair caked in gore. Bathed in blood and violence, the light has vanished from his eyes, those blue-green waters churning with turmoil. Something fierce and cold stirs beneath their surface, as wild and desolate as an ocean abyss.
“Orion.” His name escapes on an unsteady whisper. A question, a plea—a helpless echo of the horror crashing through me.
