“But how are you getting around your blood oath?” I wonder, in part, selfishly.
“Ingrid knows a great deal about the order already.”
How?Perhaps the God Men have information on the order the same way the order does for everyone and everything else.
“I can’t, however, tell them about the location, or its leaders. But neither can I help it if they follow me there. This, here, is only the first part of our plan.”
“Traitor,” I bite out between my teeth, wishing I could turn around and say it to her face.
“Enough talking,” Ingrid sighs. “Give me the amulet now, or Iwilltake it from you.”
“No,” I seethe. “I’ll never give you the amulet. You can take it off my corpse.”
Her smile widens, almost as if she’s baring her teeth. “Excellent. I’ve been looking forward to defying this particular direct order since we first met.”
Direct order?“What—”
The next moment happens slowly, sedately, the world slowing down around me. Ingrid procures a Luger from behind her back and points it at me. Before I can get my hands up in weak defense, a click sounds—a gunshot rings out—a searing pain slices through my flesh—the force of it pushes me to the ground—I scrape my hands and knees, and collapse onto my back.
Time speeds up again.
A scream wrenches from my throat at the deep ache in my shoulder. I remember this pain.
Fuck, I’ve been shot.
How badly I’m shot, I’m not sure. But when I pull my hand away from the fleshy part between my shoulder bone and my heart, it’s coated in thick, crimson blood.Oh God, oh God.
“No!” Bes yells.
There’s some kind of scuffle, but I can barely hear it over the ocean waves crashing in my ears.
“Hawkins!” Cec calls out. Tapping me with his cane, he falls to my side. He must’ve broken free from Mara. “Are you hurt?”
I can’t talk through my clenched jaw, forced to groan instead.
“I assume that means yes.” He touches my arm gently. “Where are you hit?”
I grasp his hand with my bloody one, and place it on the spot where the bullet ripped through me. He doesn’t change his expression as he gently probes the wound. My vision swims from the agony of it; I bite down on the inside of my lip so I don’t cry out until I taste blood. Unaware of my struggle, he reaches around the backside where there’s an equal amount of pain. He merely brushes my shirt, though.
He breathes out a stuttered sigh of relief. “It’s a through and through that just missed your heart. You’ll be alright. I need to—”
“I said, get to your feet!” Ingrid screeches.
I expend the effort to peer over Cec’s shoulder, finding Ingrid pressing the deadly end of a Luger to my friend’s head.
At first, Cec doesn’t move.
“Stand up, untauglich. I won’t tell you again.”
He grimaces but does as she commands.
My vision blurs and my breathing thins, echoing loudly inside my head. I grab for Cec, but he’s no longer within reach. Mortal dread sets in now that I’m alone. My body begins to grow cold. If I don’t get some help soon, I’m going to bleed out.
But that won’t matter if the only people who can help me are already dead.
My head lulls to the side. Gurlitt still nurses the open wound on his arm that Bes gave him earlier. The two Liechtenstein Nazis flank Bes, their guns drawn—he’s on his knees and restrained, his hands pulled behind his back again. He’s already looking at me, and his eyes light up when I find him.
Ingrid finally speaks, to Mara this time, who’s probing the area on her cheek where a bruise is already forming. Cec must’ve hit her with his cane. “Good work. You and Kali certainly held up your end of our deal—well, most of it, anyway.”
