They made me this. They trained me for this. Pushed and twisted and used me until this was the only way I knew how to fight back. I never wanted to be like them. I never wanted to end up as the monster they are.
A pool of blood starts to leak from Sylvia’s body, already touching my feet.I don’t know how long I sit there.
My breathing slowly calms, and the pool of blood spreads around my legs, my knees sticky under my body, my mind numb and empty.
“Is she dead?”
I lift my head and see Adrien standing in front of me. I gulp and finally let the words come out of my mouth as I stare into blank space.
“She saw Kiara.”
Adrien doesn’t need any more explanation. He knows what Sylvia is capable of. Well, shewas.
“And Varner?” he asks.
I lift my head to look at him again, his expression is calm, steady, almost proud.
“He’s probably in his office,” I whisper and finally inhale to wake up from whatever I was in.
“Let’s finish this up then,” he tells me, takes out his gun from the back of his jeans, and gestures with the gun for me to get up.
I push myself up and nod, something in me suddenly calms, like it’s been switched off. I take a few steps to my room, take my gun from under the pillow and get back to the hallway.
We calmly walk through the long hall going to the second wing of the manor, where the library is. My bare feet leave a trail of bloody steps on the floor.
We finally get to the second wing and open the library door, finding my adoptive father sitting behind his huge oak desk, smoking a cigarette. As soon as his head tilts up to see who’s paying him a visit, we point our guns at him in sync.
He lazily drags his hands above his head and rests his elbows on the wooden desk, watching us with that rotten little smirk, cigarette dangling between his fingers.
“So,” he says calmly, “what’s the grand plan? Run away? Disappear? Take your girls with you into a new life?”
“Shut up,” Adrien spits.
Varner ignores him completely. His eyes land on me instead.
“You do realize you won’t get far,” he says. “Not with Natalya.”
Adrien’s head snaps toward him. “What the fuck does that mean?”
Varner leans back in his chair, like he’s settling in for a show.
“She’s already claimed,” he says, savoring it.
My stomach drops. “What?” I breathe.
Varner sighs dramatically. “My golden girl was promised to Lucien months ago. Signed by me and old Devereaux. Arranged and expected. His son has been counting down the days until she turns eighteen.”
Adrien goes perfectly still. “You’re lying,” he says, but his voice sounds wrong. Rough.
Varner chuckles. “Believe whatever helps you sleep,” he says lightly. “But Lucien, and mostly his father, doesn’t give up what’s his. Not ever. If she disappears, he’ll hunt her to the fucking end of his days.”
My grip on the gun slips for a second. My heartbeat jumps into my throat. Adrien’s jaw flexes so hard a vein pops in his neck. Varner tilts his head, amused by what he sees on Adrien’s face. His breath shudders—not from fear, but from something sharper, deeper.
Varner smiles wider. “Lucien will smell that devotion on you the second he sees you. It’ll sign your death papers before you open your mouth.”
Adrien raises the gun to Varner’s forehead in one clean, vicious movement. Varner only has time to blink.
The shot cracks through the library like a whip, his head snaps back, and blood sprays the bookshelves behind him.
