Page 147 of Inside the Wicked

“Damn it, Ana. Get the fuck away from this place. Run, as fast as you can,now!” He storms up the steps.

“What is it?”

“We have the basement of this place set up with explosives. If that fire reaches it before we can clear out, we’re all fucked.”

“Liam!” Allie shouts from across the front lawn.

I spin to him with a new trembling coating of fear, but my adrenaline keeps me sharp.

This is really fucking bad.

“Go! Warn them all and get as far away as you can! Take Shadow with you.”

He takes Shadow’s collar, but Liam doesn’t want to leave me. Allie is struggling in Rix’s arms and will head this way if he doesn’t.

“Find him and get the hell out, please,” Liam says.

I nod and don’t waste another second, running back inside the ticking time bomb of a house.

The fire has spread so quickly I blanch at the inferno. It seems crazy, but I race upstairs.

“Rhett!” I call, heading along the hallways to my room as the first place I know.

I barge in. He’s not here, but a flicker outside the full-length window catches my attention. The figure disappears, racing though the trees at the edge of the cut lawn, and I know it’s Rhett.

Back downstairs I pass Silas carrying Kenna, who appears unconscious, but I hardly regard them, shooting past. He calls my name, but I’m sprinting to make it out the back door. Raging flames lick up the walls in this part of the manor, but I keep going against the heat sweltering on my skin and the smoke choking the air. Suddenly, the house is too big, too fucking long, but I make it.

The fresh air hits me like a first breath and I inhale it greedily. My vision clouds, and I curse the dizzy sweep from the smoke? Adrenaline? I have to keep going.

I run in the direction I saw Rhett disappear. He didn’t get far into the woods, and I stumble toward him, stopping just past the tree line and trying to blink him into focus.

He’s kneeling over someone.Alistair.I make him out with my next attempt to see straight. My urgency to get us far away from the house pushes me forward as Rhett lands another punch.

When I get close enough, I break at what I see. The tears down his face, the agony that contorts it. The limp form beneath him. His monster finally slain. It pricks my eyes to watch him mourn, because I know it’s not for what he had to do to get here; it’s for all he lost in himself.

“Rhett—”

I barely get to croak his name before the world around us ... erupts.

CHAPTER 48

Rhett

I’m hardly containing the rage that wants me to wrap my hands around the guy’s throat in front of me. There are two others following, but I’m confident I can take them out too. What stops me is the need to see Allie before I lose my shit completely.

I’m haunted the moment I step inside the small lounge area. Allie is tied up and gagged, her stunning face tearstained and terrified. When she sees me she sobs hard, yet I contain a wrecking ball inside me. Micah is across the room, relishing in her fear. I don’t see the months of torture at his hands when I look at him; all I see is what he did to my Ana. I’ve never wanted to kill a person as much as I do him. Not even Alistair. I can’t explain the type of stilling, calm fury that ripples over every inch of me. It’s not explosive anymore; it’s pure, calculated, murderous.

“We’ve been waiting for you, haven’t we, Alyra?”

“You’re a dead man fucking walking,” I say, low and promising.

“I take it you heard about the taste I got of Anastasia. She’s absolutely delicious. Feisty too. I do love it when they fight back.”

I breathe. Focusing on it.One. Two. Three.If I don’t, I feel like I could become something dark and bloody.

“Where’s Alistair?” I ask.

“Watching.”

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