Page 107 of Two Sides of Sin

“You are going to look the other way,” I said, my voice a deadly whisper that promised nothing but violence. “If you try to call this in before I clear the perimeter, if you try to follow me, I will rip your heart out of your chest with my bare hands. Do you understand?”

Miller couldn’t speak or breathe, but he gave a frantic, jerking nod, his face turning a deep, suffocating shade of purple.

I released him, letting him crumple to the cold cobblestones, gasping for air.

I didn’t look back. Deserting the battalion meant nothing to me now. I broke into a supernatural run, dissolving into a silent, terrifyingly fluid blur as I slipped past the perimeter fences and vanished into the foggy ruins of the city.

The blind rage in my blood locked onto the magnetic, invisible pull of the girl across the world.

Just hold on, Sage baby… The deadly promise burned in my chest as the shadows of the cathedral fell away behind me. I am coming.

Chapter 60

Sage

Iwoke up to the blinding sunlight of the twelfth floor.

For the first few seconds, my mind was completely blank, floating in a thick, heavy fog of a hazy dream.

But as the heavy weight of sleep began to recede, a deep, primal alarm started screaming in the back of my skull.

Something was wrong. Something was very very wrong.

I was no longer curled on my side with the plush hotel robe twisted around my legs, the way I had fallen asleep.

I was lying perfectly flat on my back in the dead centre of the massive king sized bed. My legs were perfectly straight. The white duvet was pulled up to my waist, oddly free of wrinkles.

And my hands… my hands were folded flawlessly over my stomach, right over my sternum, like a corpse laid out for a viewing.

It was a shot of me, captured from directly above, sleeping soundly in the very hotel bed I had just awoken from. Cast across the white sheets, cutting right over my sleeping form, was the ominous, unmistakable shadow of whoever had been holding the camera.

“No,” I whispered into the empty room.

In a complete panic, I threw the Polaroid off me as if it were coated in acid. I scrambled backwards, my spine hitting the headboard with a thud. My chest heaved, dragging in frantic, shallow gasps of air as my wide eyes tore across the room as I started to panic.

The room service tray was gone. My discarded clothes were folded into a neat square on the armchair.

I brought a shaking hand up to my face, my fingers tangling in my hair. It wasn’t messy. It had been brushed. Someone had sat on this bed in the middle of the night, while I was helpless and unconscious and groomed me.

A hysterical sob ripped out of my throat. The fortress I had built for myself meant nothing to who ever was doing this.

I moved on blind adrenaline. I tore the hotel robe off, scrubbing at my skin where I felt the lingering weight of cold hands. I threw on the first clothes I could find, grabbed my tote bag, and practically ripped the door open.

I didn’t stop running until I hit the elevator.

The minute I stepped out onto the bustling downtown street, the claustrophobia returned, mutating into an overwhelming hyper awareness. Every pedestrian was a threat. Every idling vehicle was the black SUV.

I merged into the crowd, I needed people, lights, security.

I walked fast, my head on a swivel the whole time, probably looking like some fruit cake that needs to be admitted into the closest psych ward.

The heavy, alarming sensation of a gaze burning into the back of my neck returned, stronger than ever before. It felt predatory. Calculating.

I took a right turn down a busy commercial avenue, weaving through shoppers as I glanced over my shoulder.

Not far behind me, a man in dark clothes was walking. He was tall, moving with an unnatural, fluid grace through the clumsy crowd. I couldn’t make out his face, but I knew, with undeniable, terrifying certainty, that he was looking at me.

I pushed my screaming, fatigued muscles, breaking into a frantic jog. I burst onto the quad, a sea of students, backpacks, and chatter. It should have felt safe.