It was like she’d watched me.
My hands shot up to my ears, useless against the blades of her words. They ripped into me, flaying every shield I’d ever built.
“Stop!” I cried. “Stop it! For the love of God, stop!”
Zara laughed again—deep, feral, triumphant. “God? You think He hears the likes of you? Oh, sweetheart, we are far past prayers and redemption.”
Her gaze bored into me, savage and wild. “You’ve only begun to taste the pain you’ve dealt out for years. This is just the foreplay, you fucking snake.”
I dug my fingernails into the cold earth and dragged myselfupright, my body screaming in protest, my veins pulsing with fire. With a roar of defiance, I lunged forward, slipping through the trees, leaves slashing at my face, pain howling through every joint. Zara was right behind me, her presence thick like smoke, choking the air.
But I couldn’t run anymore.
I spun, breathless and wild, fury exploding in my chest like a bomb.
“Every fucked-up thing I’ve done—every lie, every betrayal—it was all forhim!” I screamed, voice raw. “For Balthazar! We share the same dream. We’ll drown the world in darkness together. We’ll rule it. And we’ll make itevil.”
Zara’s expression twisted into something monstrous—anguish, rage, grief, all tangled into one brutal snarl.
“You think Balthazarlovesyou?” she hissed. “You think he’lleverlove you the way he loved me?” Her voice splintered with fury. “I gave him children. I gave him a family. We were gods in the shadows—two halves of a perfect, unholy whole. And now you think opening your legs and pretending to understand his pain makes you worthy of him?”
My heart stopped. I stumbled back, breath caught in my throat.
“You… you gave himchildren?”
“Yes,” she said, her voice low, trembling now. “We had a life together. A dark, beautiful life. But it was all taken from us. Everything. You’re not his partner—you’re his distraction. A sick fascination born from your father’s betrayal. And heknowsit.”
I reeled. I didn’t want to believe her. But her words burrowed under my skin like worms, writhing with doubt.
“He never told me,” I whispered. “He never said anything about you. About… this.”
“Of course he didn’t!” she screamed, stepping closer. “Because he doesn’t want you to know howdeephis love once ran. How much he still aches for what we lost. If hetrulyloved you, would he have hidden the truth? Would he have keptmea secret?”
“He said you were gone!” I shouted, throat ragged. “He said you weredead!”
Zara’s eyes flared like twin embers. “And yet here I stand.”
The weight of her presence crashed over me, suffocating me. My legs wobbled, but I refused to fall.
“He makes mistakes when angry,” she said coldly, eyes gleaming like moonlit knives. “He probably believes I’m dead. He doesn’t realize I’m still breathing. And we’re going to keep it that way… for now.”
Before I could react, she lunged, her fingers clamping around my arm like a spiked manacle. Her nails bit deep, slicing through flesh. I shrieked, thrashing—but her grip was relentless.
“Who sent you? What the fuck do you want from me?” I screamed, panic clawing at my throat.
Her lips curled into a cruel, poisonous smile. “Oh, you poor, pathetic thing. Every mistake you make, I will feel it. I willknowit. And I willhuntyou for it.”
She leaned in, her voice dropping to a velvet whisper. “Balthazar is still bleeding from wounds I gave him… wounds you keep reopening. He’s blind now. Lost. But I am not. Andyou—” her grip tightened, “—are going to pay.”
I opened my mouth to curse her, to shred her face to ribbons—but it was too late.
Her hand snapped back and struck me hard.
Pain exploded across my face like a firestorm. My vision splintered. The trees, the sky, the creek—all shattered into blackness.
And then, there was only the dark.
I came to, my head pounding and my vision swimming. Disoriented, I was lying on a coarse bed in a small, dimly lit room. The air was thick with the scent of pine and dust. I jolted upright—then gasped in pain as my battered body protested.
