Page 127 of Point of No Return

The shadows prowl ever-closer. A small smile tips the corner of my mouth upwards. “Of course you’d send your hounds to do it. See… years ago, you had no problem trying to finish the job yourself.”

From the corner of my eye, I see movement. Two shadows dart across the bridge toward me, but I’m prepared. The blade that was hidden beneath my sleeve is in my hand, and I throw it with calculated accuracy. It lands home, lodging in my opponent’s shoulder and knocking them back just as the other shadow aims directly for my legs.

I swiftly maneuver around them, my knee catching their middle and knocking them down just as my arm locks them in a chokehold. They rear back attempting to loosen my hold, but I use the momentum to lift them over my previous attacker.

Both land squarely in a heap beside me, and when one of them tries to stand, I grab my blade and drag it across the back of their legs- across the one tendon that renders them useless. My heart is racing, my breath heavy, but I merely wipe the imaginary dust from my hands as my eyes land on my mother again.

“You taught me better than that.”

“Enough games,” she snaps her fingers, and in the cover of fog and darkness, the sound of a gun cocking rings out. Sudden awareness falls over me, skin prickling.

“I was really hoping you’d be up for another round.” Skar’s standing between us with a gun trained on her. Eva steps forward. “Anyone makes another move toward my wife, and they die.”

My heart stalls as my mother freezes. “Skar.” There’s a smile in her voice. “Didn’t think you’d be joining us.”

He motions her back with the barrel of his gun, the movement casual, controlled. “I heard I was supposed to be dead.”

She laughs, taking two slow steps backwards. “Yes, well. It appears my daughter is far more resourceful than she seems.”

“We’re leaving. And after tonight, there’s not a person in Westos who won’t be looking for you.”

“You’ve always had the balls of the family, Oskar. A shame you have to die this way.”

Skar is quiet, and the silence is damn near deafening as the shadows prowl closer. I remain poised, ready for attack. “You should have killed me yourself when you had the chance.”

“Don’t!”

Two shadows lunge toward Skar, and I tackle my mother to the ground just as two gunshots ring out in the night. Her hands are like a vice around my neck, nails digging into my throat as she pushes me onto my back and pins me into the stone.

“She deserved better than you.” I dig my blade upwards, struggling as it hovers between us. “Camila deserved better.” I can hear Skar fighting above us, and my mother smiles down as my muscles begin to shake with effort. She turns the blade, and the silver glints as its edge twists toward me. “I never should have let it get this far.”

“Charlotte!” Skar yells, and I only allow myself one glance up to see Skar’s gun- three feet above me. Just out of my reach.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers, and for a second, it’s almost like she means it. But the blade inches toward my chest. “I truly am.”

I kick and struggle and squirm, but there’s nothing that can stop the tip of the blade from digging into my chest. It breaks skin, blood flowing out of me. Another gunshot rings out, and pain radiates through me.

Fire, hot waves of heat, roll through me, and my mother smiles again. But her hands loosen, nails dragging as she slumps over me. The blade falls flat against me, and her weight is like a boulder.

Panic seizes me, clouding any thought like fog.

Shit. Get up.

“Charlie,” I hear Skar’s voice, and I will myself to focus on its low timbre. I push Eva’s body away, and the cool night air fills my lungs. “Fuck.”

I see him standing over me, and relief floods me as I shove the rest of the weight off and stand.

Blood is seeping out of my chest, and the sticky red substance coats the side of my face now. I’m furiously wiping it away as Skar’s hand cups my jaw, tilting my face to look at him.

Did he kill her?

His eyes are wild as he looks over me. “You’re okay?” His thumb brushes the blood away- the only comfort- and I’m nodding as I look at the carnage around us.

My mother lies face-first on the bridge, blood pooling from a hole in her chest. And I just stare at her, at the blood, at her still and lifeless body.

Is it really over?

I look at the bodies, at Skar. But then it hits me that Skar’s gun is still on the ground. I turn and find a figure standing at the end of the bridge, gun still aimed at the spot I’d been moments before.

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