face.
“Do it,” I goad him. “Kill me just like you killed her.”
“It didn’t have to be this way,” Byron says, lifting the knife and stabbing me in the side.
Adrenaline cycles through my body, masking the initial pain. I cover the wound, lifting my hand long enough to see the damage. Blood seeps through my dress, and I reapply pressure. Dizziness creeps in, and the scent of copper infiltrates my senses, making my stomach churn.
I struggle to my feet, and Byron slashes at my calf, making it almost impossible to get away.
“Fight,” I whisper. I reach two doors, and choosing the one on the right, I walk out onto the roof.
“Wrong one, sweetheart!” Byron yells, the metal door slamming behind him. He rubs the blood-coated blade over the chest of his shirt, cleaning off the evidence of his evil. “Now what are you going to do?”
Dixon walks out on the roof and does a double-take.
“Jesus,” he whispers, seeing me pressing my hand to my stomach and limping as far away as I can. Remorse etches every feature of his face.
Seems this isn’t part of the plan.
“Like I said, it didn’t have to be like this, but sometimes evil stops evil, and I will do everything I have to do to right what happened,” Byron barks, closing in on me. “Grab her other side.”
Everything he says and does is lost inside my brain, hidden way beneath the fog my blood loss has created. Dixon holds my hands to my sides, exposing the wound Byron’s blade created.
“I’ll die, Dixon.” I swallow the lump in my throat. “I’m going to die.”
The back of Byron’s hand smacks my cheek. Blood pools around my tongue, and I spit it straight at his face, earning me another blow.
Breaker is the next to join us. When he notices me, beaten and broken, he grapples with the door, trying to keep someone inside. In the end, Marek’s too strong for him, pushing past Breaker’s weak barrier.
“No, no, no.” Marek stalks forward.
“You see, I knew this was going to be a problem.” Byron waves the knife between Marek and me. “I knew immediately that you’d slither into his chest and make yourself comfortable. Just like your sister did with me. He’d never be able to start what needed to be done.” He circles the metal blade in front of my face. “Not that he didn’t try, because he did, Palmer, you need to know that. Even right now, he’s struggling. He wants to run to you, save you, but he and I both know that’s not possible. When it comes to her, I’ll always choose her. Even over all of them.”
The knife stabs into my thigh. He pulls it out. Cold heat takes over my body. I fall backwards towards the snow-covered roof, swallowing the blood already making its way up my throat. The hard surface of the roof never greets me. Instead, I fall towards a dark oblivion, ready to swallow me whole.
Until a hand grasps around my arm and suspends me between reality and the black abyss waiting to suck me in.
Chaos and violence surround me, taking every last breath in my lungs.
Except one.
The last one is held until icy blue eyes find me.
Chapter Fourteen
Marek
I watch the heart rate monitor, making sure it’s bouncing up and down. Constant and consistent. This is the only true proof she’s still alive. Her skin is ashen, lifeless, torturing me as I wait for any movement. If she could just squeeze my hand, tell me she’s still in there, only then would I be able to take the breath I’ve been needing since I saw Byron holding the knife to her skin.
Beyond the curtains, the night sky is dark, clouds dancing around the moon, casting our world in shadows. I sit forward, watching her chest rise and fall, memories from tonight circulating through my mind. The blood on the snow-covered roof. The pure fear in Palmer’s eyes as she fell backwards. The wave of relief when I got to her in time. When my hand wrapped around her arm. Her fighting, harnessing what little energy she had left, to grip my forearm. The world could have split right in half, and I wouldn’t have noticed.
We held our breath together, feeling the end closing in on us.
Anything beyond her doesn’t matter.
“I almost lost you,” I whisper as I swipe her hair way from her face.
“Here.” Breaker steps into the hospital room, offering me a cup of coffee. I take it, barely able to