He gurgles instantly, the sound wet as he chokes. His eyes bulge wide, veins bursting red across the whites. His mouth gapes open, tongue swelling as he tries to drag in air that won’t come.
His body jerks violently against the chains, wrists bleeding as the metal cuts deeper. His legs kick out, heels scraping concrete, searching for leverage that isn’t there. A strangled, animal rasp escapes his crushed throat, bubbling with spit that flecks across my face.
His face darkens—red to purple to something almost black. The stench of urine fills the air as his bladder lets go, liquid running down his legs and pooling beneath him.
He claws at my arms with his good hand, nails raking skin, drawing blood I don’t feel. His eyes lock on mine, pure terror now—pleading, knowing this is the end he earned.
I expect someone to pull me back.
Instead, Dredyn’s hands cover mine, adding pressure until his cartilage snaps audibly under our combined grip.
Chase convulses once, hard, back arching off the pillar. A final, wet rattle escapes him. His pupils blow wide, then fix on nothing.
His body goes slack and his head lolls forward, neck bruised black and purple, mouth frozen open.
Mara doesn’t move, doesn’t scream, just watches with those dark eyes, bearing witness.
Talon moves into action. “We need to wrap the body—move it.”
“We’ll put him in the freezer in the garage,” Dredyn says. “Keep him on ice until we’re ready.”
My knees finally give out, and I sink down to the cold concrete. The puddle of Chase’s piss spreads thin across the floor, and for a second, it’s not his body in front of me, it’s hers. Evangeline—face turned sideways, hair soaked, eyes open but already gone.
I found her like that—floating in inches of water. I remember the way my hands fumbled across her skin, the way I begged her to wake up. The way I screamed until my voice cracked because I thought if I was loud enough, I could pull her back.
I rock forward, palms pressed to the floor, heart hammering like it’s trying to escape my ribs. The memory rises up like bile, and all I can do—all I can fucking do—is pray that Chase felt even a fraction of that desperation. That same helpless, soul-tearing panic as the world slips through your fingers and you’re left clawing at death like you can bargain with it.
But there’s no bargaining, not anymore.
This was justice.
TWENTY-FIVE
MARA
Jasper doesn’t come back to himself after Chase dies.
He just empties.
One second, his hands are locked around a throat, the next, they’re hanging at his sides, and he’s slumped on the floor like someone cut the strings to him.
I’m at his side instantly, fingers digging into his arm, bracing him. “Jasper,” I whisper, close to his ear, but he doesn’t look at me.
My ex-fiancé’s body hangs limp behind us, eyes staring at nothing.
Chase Harrington.
Dead.
Murdered, by the man I love.
It was the first time I’ve ever watched someone die.
Dredyn and Talon move immediately, transitioning into cleanup easily, while I’m holding Jasper who’s going into shock. I don’t look at them, or Chase, again.
“Hey,” I murmur, tightening my grip on Jasper and pulling him toward me. “You’re with me. You hear me?”
Nothing.
