“Let her go, you fucking asshole!” Cassian roars, his bat raised.
“What are you going to do about it, you magicless swine?” With a flick of his wrist, Emmett sends Cassian flying in one direction. My large, smiling giant careens against the warehouse wall before collapsing on the floor with a pained groan.
At the same moment, Polo takes a step forward, his lips moving too quietly for me to hear as he chants a spell.
“Naughty, naughty,” Emmett tsks, turning towards Polo. With a malicious sneer, Emmett twists the doll’s arm, and my own arm jerks wildly to the side, the bone audibly snapping in half. Pain explodes inside of me like someone lit up dozens of fireworks. I scream in agony, my entire body sagging slightly to the side. I can feel myself growing dizzy from pain and blood loss, but the magic of the voodoo doll prohibits me from doing anything but standing here.
“I’m going to kill you,” Elias thunders, but Emmett merely laughs.
“Look how well that turned out for the last guy.” He nods his shaggy blond hair towards Gabriel’s dead body. And I can see the exact moment Nana recognizes his dark hair. The exact moment when Gabriel’s brothers realize that this sadistic prick killed their triplet.
It’s the slightest change, and if I didn’t know Nana as well as I do, I would’ve missed it. Her eyes seem to shutter, almost like a lunar eclipse. All of the color drains from her face as she stares at the man she once desperately loved. The man she still desperately loves. But I also see the moment she hardens herself, becoming nothing but a bereft shell with only one goal on her mind—saving me.
Polo releases an agonized scream, running towards Emmett, but the blond-haired Blood merely flicks him away with a wave of his wrist. He’s so much more powerful than us, the blood of dozens of witches currently coursing through his veins. I think of the missing witches and humans. At least, the ones that have been reported. How many did he actually kill? How many dead bodies is he actually responsible for? A few? A dozen? More?
His entire body seems to crackle with pure, malevolent energy. It’s almost palpable. I swear I can see the waves spouting from his skin.
We can’t defeat him.
“You killed my brother,” Christian whispers, sounding so broken and despondent that I can feel myself begin to shatter for him.
“He tried to kill me first,” Emmett dismisses insouciantly. “Tit for tat, as the kids these days say.”
“You fucking murdered him!” Before Christian can charge at him, Nana grips his arm, dragging him to a stop. She shakes her head quickly with a pointed look in my direction. The tension doesn’t leave Christian’s taut body, but he does stop his pursuit, anger and pain cloying his eyes.
“Can we just accept the fact that I’m more powerful than you?” Emmett asks cockily, turning to face Nana and Christian. “I have the blood of hundreds of witches flowing through me…and that’s just from this month alone.” He throws his head back in raucous laughter. “It’s a shame—”
A loud popping noise echoes through the air.
Emmett’s diatribe cuts off abruptly as he staggers backwards, eyes widening in shock. Only his head tilts downwards to stare at the bullet hole directly through his heart.
“You may be more powerful than some witches,” Lucas says coldly, staring down the barrel of his handgun. His expression is as cool and collected as always. There’s no remorse. No guilt. Just violence. “But even you can’t outrun my fucking gun.”
The doll once more falls to the ground, and Elias lunges forward to scoop it up, cradling it protectively against his chest. With nothing holding me up, I collapse as well. I would’ve face-planted straight into Gabriel’s pool of blood if Karsyn wasn’t suddenly there, desperately brushing at my hair as his face fills my vision.
“You’ll be okay, princess. You’re going to be okay. Fuck, you’re okay. I love you, so you need to be okay. Okay?”
“You’re saying okay a lot,” I murmur, attempting to lighten the dark mood. Something wet drips from my mouth and down my chin. Blood, I realize distantly. Pain tumbles around in my brain and rattles my skull
“Fucking hell! We need help!” Karsyn screams.
Dark spots dance at the edge of my vision as I teeter to the side. I have just a second to see Emmett’s glossy, blank eyes staring back at me and hear Nana’s agonized