Page 39 of Beneath Her Skin

Firm. Heavy. Sharp at the edges.

And he shoves it inside her…us. Causing a piercing, guttural scream that rips through the night, but it’s weak, too weak. And then he drags her.

Drags me.

Toward the water.

The ground is cold beneath my skin. The world spins.

Then—PLOP.

Her body hits the stream, the water swallowing her whole.

She reaches…. I reach for her baby.

"My baby." The words barely slip from her lips, choked by water, by death, by the weight of what was stolen from her. I snap out of the trance, gasping, sobbing, choking on my own breath. My hands clamp over my mouth, my entire body shaking.

No. No. No.

I scan the area, eyes darting through the darkness and through the rain.

Rey is here. He is coming.

I won’t run.

Not anymore.

I will fight.

Fight for my life. Fight for her life. Fight for vengeance.

Because there is no greater wrath than that of a mother. "Help me," I whisper to the woman standing in front of me, her hollow eyes locked onto mine. She looks toward the woods, and I hear him closing in.

"Help me," I plead again, my voice frail and desperate. I crouch, my fingers curling around the jagged weight of a rock, shifting out of sight, waiting. She moves first, her long, rotting nails stretching toward him, reaching. But nothing happens.

He does not flinch.

He does not see her.

He is untouched by her rage.

I realize it then—he is beyond her reach.

He is not haunted.

He is the haunt.

"Take me," I whisper, biting my lower lip as I sink into the damp earth. The contraction rips through me, my breath trembling, breaking into small, quiet gasps. And then I feel it.

The cold.

The way my body drops in temperature, my limbs going rigid, my vision tunneling.

She enters me.

No pain.

Only fury.

---