Page 194 of The Darkest Chase

And now, he knows.

I’m gasping, making a strained, wheezing sound.

“Problem, Miss Grey?” he bites off.

I jerk my head up, my heart hammering, my lips working as I meet his eyes.

Except nothing comes out.

I don’t have air for words. Not with my entire body imploding while I’m trapped in those inhuman jade eyes.

Sometimes, I thought Micah’s eyes were hollow when he’d shut me away.

But they’re nothing like this.

Nothing like the arctic green void of Xavier’s as he tries to decide how to kill me.

“Mr. Arrendell, um…”

A tired, angry sigh boils out of him.

“I suppose I have you to blame for the fact that my domestic bank accounts have all been frozen by the federal government. You really should have minded your own goddamned business, little girl. Now that idiot cop you’ve been fucking is going to make himself a problem, too—or perhaps not, once he realizes you’re such a desperate little jezebel that you’d flirt with my valet for information.”

Flirt?

Oh. Without the sound on the camera, he must have thought I was—

Yeah, it doesn’t matter.

There’s a second of surreal relief knowing that Joseph Peters won’t be implicated by my stupidity.

But then Xavier’s gaze flicks past me with a weariness, like he’s done this a hundred times.

“Take her,” he growls.

I don’t understand the flick of his hand.

Not until a shadow falls over me from behind.

It’s hard to move, but I whirl around, half expecting to see Joseph Peters, complicit and doing his master’s bidding.

Oh, if only I was that lucky.

Eustace Jacobin stands over me, this hideous witch in black.

She leers like a nightmare, reaching bony hands out, aiming for my throat.

She doesn’t get a chance to strangle me.

Panic detonates in my brain until I’m spinning.

The lights go out as I fall down a black vortex of fear, screaming silently into total oblivion.

22

OH DARK HUNDRED (MICAH)

The very last thing I need to be thinking about right now is Talia Grey.

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