Page 74 of Ruling the Green

Serin was gone.

Taken by fuck-knew who for a fate I didn’t even want to imagine.

“Stay with her. Get answers. I’m following the footsteps.”

I pointed toward where I was going.

Then I was gone.

I was vaguely aware of Vishen calling out to me but I was already tearing through the woods. My heart was galloping in my chest as my guts twisted.

How long ago had all this happened?

How far could he have gotten with Serin?

What could they have done to her already?

But then I heard it.

A scream from a man.

I pushed myself faster, my thighs screaming in objection.

But I was getting closer. I was getting to her.

Just before I broke into the clearing, I heard him.

“I can’t wait to hear you scream, bitch.”

I flew forward, taking it all in.

Serin facedown in the dirt. Her undergarment yanked down to expose her. A redheaded man pinning her legs as he held a tree limb like he was about to…

The thought couldn’t even fully form before I felt it overtake me.

The rage.

The darkness.

It blotted out the corners of my vision.

It slowed my heartbeat to a thick tick.

“I can’t wait to hear you scream, bitch,” I snarled, hearing it as from far away as I grabbed the man’s throat and lifted him into the air.

Then I did it.

I dropped him.

And I did the thing I’d sworn I would never do again.

But I did it.

And he deserved it.

I even took joy in closing my hand around that part of him and snuffing it out forever.

When I heard Vishen, though, I seemed to snap back to myself, to focus on Serin and her bone-deep burns, the scratches and bruises all over her body.