Incipient A Dark Paranormal Romance - Bianca Scardoni Page 0,117

his neck, though before she could drag it fully across Dominic’s neck, Trace appeared out of thin air and pulled the knife from her trembling hand. Tessa bucked and screamed against his hold as he hauled her backward and away from Dominic, whispering something into her ear to calm her.

My gaze bounced from him to the Trace standing beside me and then back to the Trace holding my sister. It took my brain a few tries to realize there were two Trace’s standing in the room with us.

One of which was an Alt who had just saved Dominic’s life.

What the fuck was going on?

Before I could vocalize as much, the Trace holding my sister evaporated into thin air, leaving me stunned and confused. Unwilling to allow my sister another chance at ending Dominic permanently, I gripped my stake with both hands and then plunged it into Dominic’s chest, grabbing his arms as he fell backwards and then nearly landing on top of him as we hit the ground together.

My heart splintered with agony as his face turned ashen and all sign of life left his eyes. I told myself he wasn’t dead, just sleeping temporarily, and with that I pushed the hurt away for the moment and focused on my sister and friends instead.

“Is everyone okay?” I asked as my gaze darted around the room to make sure everyone was in one piece before landing on Ben who had shifted back into human form and was tending to a bloodied shoulder. His opponent lay on the ground beside him with a bowl-sized hole in his chest.

“How bad is it?” I asked, gesturing to his wound.

“Nothing a little magic won’t fix.” He winked.

My gaze shifted to my sister. “Tess?”

“I’m fine,” she said, looking battered and shaken up, but alive.

My eyes jumped to Gabriel who was standing beside her, his arm around her waist as he held her up. He gave me a single nod, letting me know he was still in one piece. “I’ll take her home.”

I nodded and then turned toward Trace, afraid of what I would see when I finally looked him in the eye.

His eyes were swirling with so much emotion, it knocked the air clear out of my lungs. “Is it true?” he asked evenly.

The room fell painfully silent at his question as I struggled to pull in a full breath of air.

How could I answer that? How could I tell him the truth? I wasn’t sure he was ready to hear it, or that the fragile wall around his memories could sustain it. But mostly, I was afraid to tell him because I wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to forgive me once he learned what I had done.

“No,” I lied, swallowing hard against the jagged lump in my throat. “She was just trying to—”

“Don’t fucking lie to me, Jemma,” he said, his jaw ticking furiously as he took a commanding step toward me. “Is it true?” he asked again.

I knew then that he already knew the answer. He just wanted to hear it from my mouth.

Dropping my head, I bit down on my bottom lip to keep the tears that were forming behind my lids from falling. The charade was over, and it was time to come clean and finally let go of the painful secret I had been shouldering for far too long. A secret that could potentially destroy him—and us—beyond repair.

With my heart in my throat, I silently prayed that this would not spell the end of us and then lifted my head to meet his eyes. “Yes. It’s true.”

He stared back at me for a long, grueling moment, his expression completely unflinching, save for the world of emotions swirling in his eyes like a vortex.

“Please say something.”

He lowered his head and shook his head. “All this time…you’ve been lying to me.”

“If you just let me explain—” My plea was cut short as he looked up and met my gaze. The pain in his eyes so profound that it sent a shockwave through my heart. My vision blurred as unfallen tears stung the corner of my eyes.

“Trace, please,” I said as I stepped forward to touch him—to connect with him, but he dissipated before I could wrap my arms around him, porting away to some other place in time where he wouldn’t have to look at me anymore.

The tears I’d been holding sprang free as I stared at the spot he’d been standing in, wincing as all signs of his proximity left my