Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 148397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 742(@200wpm)___ 594(@250wpm)___ 495(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 742(@200wpm)___ 594(@250wpm)___ 495(@300wpm)
No more blowholes or rockpools.
The beach and its sea glass sand were gone.
I’d swum to the treeline and hauled myself out of the sea.
And then, I’d started to climb.
I’d left Charles’ paintball gun behind.
I’d lost the axe when I’d gotten trapped in a dead end—
Another scream.
This one cut short with a heart-ripping gurgle.
The trees thinned; the ground opened wide.
I almost fell into an open-top cave.
Skidding to a stop, I grabbed a gnarly branch for balance and peered down.
Someone had rested a cellphone against a boulder, shining its torch at a corner of the cave and casting huge shadows on the walls. He loomed over his prey, looking like a twelve-foot-high demon.
Beneath him, I barely made out the bare legs of a jewel.
A jewel covered head to toe in scarlet red.
Blood.
Her blood—
Everything switched off.
Every longing.
Every loneliness.
Every need for love.
That was the moment.
The last moment.
The final moment of my humanity.
I dropped over the lip of the cave and descended into hell.
Chapter Seven
………………………….
Ily
GOD, EVERYTHING HURT.
So, so much.
Too much.
I couldn’t breathe. Think. Or move.
Hands on my body, smearing the crimson paint.
Red gloop in my eyes from him shoving a handful of pigment over my face.
The clatter of the knife as he picked it up.
The first sting as he—
“What the fuc—”
A cursing Master never finished his sentence.
The sickest thwack followed by a thud.
Rachel stopped screaming.
I didn’t know what was worse.
Knowing she was being hurt or not knowing if she was dead.
Mollie yelled something I didn’t catch.
And Kyle, who sat on my belly with his knees on either side of my hips, paused his first cut and looked over his shoulder.
His legs tightened around me, holding me down.
I tried to raise an arm—to claw away some of the paint to see, but Kyle shifted and snatched me from the ground. Crawling behind me and wrapping his arm around my throbbing chest, he pressed the tip of the knife against my throat. “Fuck off and I won’t kill her.”
Rubbing my face on his arm, I blinked through the red and froze.
Henri.
Or at least…it looked like Henri.
Sodden jeans, torn t-shirt, dirty bare feet. Orange streaks on his face and remnants of orange staining denim. His dark hair dangled over his forehead, dripping with the occasional droplet of ocean.
He looked like Henri, but…this man wasn’t Henri.
The fire in his grey eyes…extinguished.
The longing in his handsome face…dead.
With his jaw tipped down, lashes lowered, and fists balled, he looked as cold and as merciless as the caves below.
He didn’t look at me.
Didn’t even seem to recognise me.
His focus locked on Kyle and only Kyle.
I gasped in fresh pain as Kyle dug the tip of the knife into my throat. “Fuck off, Mercer.” His heart pounded against my spine, hinting he sensed the same unhinged ferocity in Henri that I did. “I won. Fair and square. She’s covered in my paint. I can do whatever the fuck I want with Victor’s blessing.” He dared to laugh. “She was open game. He said it so himself. You can’t do shit.”
A darkness rippled beneath Henri’s skin.
Nightmares flickered over his face.
Looking past him, I made eye contact with Mollie and Rachel. Beside Rachel, the older Master lay unmoving with a heavy log dropped by his head. The other two Masters stood side by side.
I’d seen how ruthless Henri could be.
I’d watched him turn into pure violence the night of the treasure hunt.
He’d taken on three men and won.
But…he didn’t seem to even notice the others behind him.
The two men crept closer with the faintest nod from Kyle.
“Watch out!” I croaked.
“You little bitch.” Kyle wrapped his hand around my neck.
Henri merely turned on his heel and glanced at the two Masters.
Quietly, coldly, he murmured, “I’ll give you one chance to leave. Just one.”
He flexed his fingers. His voice all wrong.
None of the passion I was used to.
No echoes of the man who’d confessed what he was and forced me to admit my own downfall.
Kyle spat on the ground, his fingers vised around my throat. “Gut him, Gary. I’ll finish him off.”
Henri shrugged and crossed his arms.
He didn’t say a damn word, never looking away from the two men.
His silence was absolutely petrifying.
An icy breeze whipped.
The heavy pound of surf against the cliffs sounded like the earth’s heartbeat.
I flinched for carnage.
I tensed for war.
But then…the two Masters bowed slightly and held up their hands. “This isn’t our fight. We’ll go.” With a quick glance at Kyle holding me as his shield, they marched toward the south end of the cave, brushed aside a curtain of dead shrubs, and vanished.
“Fucking cowards,” Kyle spat.
The moment they were gone, Rachel and Mollie charged back to Peter. Resting their hands on his unconscious form, they never took their eyes off Henri as he took a single step toward Kyle and me.
I scrambled for air. I flinched from the knife.
Henri didn’t drop his eyes to mine.