I leap like one of these goddamn ballerina troupers, catching some serious air. But I only have a split second to give myself a proverbial pat on the ass, because then I’m tackling Cliff mid-fall, shoving him off course.
He gets propelled to the back of the stage, far away from the magic, and I open my mouth to let out a whoop of victory at my badass leap, but it cuts off short into a bellow. Because even though I made sure Cliff cleared the magic, my body doesn’t.
I crash onto the stage, and my top half makes it on the wood, but from the waist down, I land in fucktard’s magic, and I get demolished.
All I can think right before I pass out is, my leap sucked ass.
29
Jetta
I watch the whole thing like it’s happening in slow motion.
A bolt of electricity surges into me, stunning my body and throwing me up into the air before I go crashing back down.
Cliff’s body careens off the beam, heading to his fatalistic fall. I scream, knowing I’m about to watch him die, but then Jericho comes out of fucking nowhere.
He arcs into the air right toward Cliff, and I’m forced to watch one love of my life saving the other love of my life, only for it to go terribly wrong.
Cliff lands safely a few feet away, but Jericho…
“No!”
I try to get up and run for him, but I get wrenched backward by a cane smacking against my shins and making me crash down to my knees again.
I’m shaky, not just from being fucking electrocuted, because I’ve endured that many, many times in the past, but because all of that confidence Cliff was feeding into me snapped away as soon as he fell.
Which means I’m on my own.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Kaazu says behind me.
The lower half of Jericho’s body looks like lightning is coursing through him. He’s convulsing, his legs encased with blue sparks and a tormented bellow releasing from his chest, and I need to get to him, I need to get him out.
Hugo is there in an instant, grasping Jericho beneath his arms and hauling him back, but the magic holds on, spreading out like sinister vines that don’t want to let him go.
Jericho can’t take it for that long. That power will fucking kill him. He needs to get out, out, out…
I realize I’m chanting the word, as more of Pack Aberrant appears in a flash, all of them yanking on Jericho’s body. They’re straining and pulling, using all of their combined strength to get him out. The power finally snaps, making them all fall backward in a heap, but Jericho’s not moving. He’s not breathing.
And it no longer matters that I lost the jolt of confidence. Because something inside of me snaps. My animal fucking snaps too, and I go fucking feral.
I snap my gaze to Kaazu, and I look up at him with such potent loathing that I should be able to power an entire city with it. Because he did this. He did all of this.
“I’m going to kill you.”
I rear back both arms and hit the heel of my hands into his kneecaps so hard that I hear them shatter, and he lands on the ground with a harrowing cry.
“I’m done with your fucking performance speeches. That’s what I am,” I spit, my chest heaving.
I’ve shocked him, both in my abrupt move and in his sudden pain. He writhes on the ground, sweating, cursing, his face gone bright-red, but I don’t hesitate. I straddle him where he lies and start punching him in his fucking face again and again and again.
I unleash. My anger has burst open in time with every single one of my knuckles.
I don’t give him a second to catch his breath, to speak, to think. I just beat the ever loving shit out of him, and I enjoy every moment.
I’m making him powerless for once. I’m showing him how it feels to be forced to submit. I’m showing him how it feels to have someone else hold your life in their hands. I’m punishing him for what he’s done. For all of it.
I knock his jaw out of place. I punch his sleezy fucking teeth out of his mouth. I split his lips. I crack his cheeks. I’m ready to fracture his goddamn skull and squeeze this twisted motherfuck’s brain in my hands until it pops and oozes between my fingers.
He stole Freddie. Hurt Cliff. Killed Jericho. And I’m going