I stalked the town’s winding roads, moving like a ghost through the fog of language and strange customs, desperate to find her.
But what would I do when I did?
I was split down the middle.
One part of me still wanted to protect her. To wrap Alina in my arms and keep the world from ever touching her again. But the other part—festering beneath the surface—wanted her punished. I wanted her topayfor what she’d done to me.
Hostility, sympathy, confusion… it all churned inside me like poison. I couldn’t sort one emotion from the next, and I couldn’t make them go away.
As the sun bled into the horizon, my steps dragged heavier with each passing moment. Time travel had drained me of everything. My muscles ached. My mind throbbed. My soul felt like a hollow fucking shell.
I needed something—someone—to refill me.
When I reached the edge of town, I spotted a military encampment. Torches flickered. Tents lined the field like a row of beasts waiting to be stirred. I figured maybe I could find a willing prostitute there, get what I needed before killing her and walking away.
But to my growing frustration, there were no women in sight.
I muttered a vicious curse and turned away from the camp. My patience had thinned to a thread. All I wanted was release. Something warm, soft, and forgettable. Someone to take the edge off the day.
That was when I saw her.
A dark silhouette lingered in the alley ahead, half-drenched in moonlight. She smiled at me with a knowing gleam in her eye. Her blond hair rippled around her shoulders, catching the glow like a halo.
“Zara?” I whispered. My heart twisted. “Why the fuck does your spirit haunt me? You’re dead. Buried.”
But I was drawn to her all the same. Something primal surged in me—need, instinct, desperation. She wasn’t Zara. Nothing ever would be. But she’d do.
She stepped toward me, invitingly, and I followed.
Her fingers were warm when they touched my face. Her voice,low and sultry, spun promises of pleasure I didn’t deserve but craved anyway.
I gave in. I let her guide me deeper into the alley, where shadows cloaked our sins. We fell together onto the cold, damp ground. Her mouth found mine. Her hands roamed my body. She was skilled and practiced, and every movement was meant to make me forget.
And for a moment, I did.
I melted into her. Let her take what she wanted. Took what I needed.
But the moment it ended, something inside me snapped.
My passion had been satisfied. My strength was restored.
But the emptiness? The fuckingemptiness—it hadn’t gone anywhere.
And this bitch—she wasn’t Zara. She never could be. Zara was my one true love.
Rage boiled up inside me—hot, merciless, blinding. My vision blurred as I reached for the nearest rock. Without thinking—without hesitation—I brought it down on her forehead.
Once.
Twice.
Crack.
She was gone in seconds. Her body collapsed in a heap, limp and useless beneath me.
A twisted smile crept across my lips as I stood over the scene, panting. My hands trembled—not from guilt, but fromsatisfaction. Adrenaline surged through me like wildfire, my body still humming from the thrill of release, from the taste of death.
I turned and walked away, leaving her corpse behind in the dark alley where she’d offered herself like a lamb to the wrong wolf.
