Page 143 of Wrath

Pain distorted his grotesque features. “For now.” He cried out and dug his nails into his skull. “But I can’t stop it. I can’t stopher. She’s in my head. She won’t leave. You have to kill me.”

Something wet touched the corner of my mouth. I absently licked it away, surprised at the salty taste. Was I…crying?

“She’s here,” S rasped, rocking back and forth. “She’s here. She came for them. She’s here.”

Alarm arrowed through me, and I dropped to my knees before him. “Aaliyah? She’s at the capital?”

“I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.” S began to cry even harder. The noise burrowed itself deep in my chest and carved out my heart. “This isn’t me. This isn’t me. Please kill me. Please. You need to stop her. You have what you need to do it. Without her power, she’s nothing. You need to…” A scream wrenched free, and he lowered his forehead to the ground, sobbing. “You can do it. With your mates at your side, you can do it.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” I started to reach for him but then pulled my hand back.

My tears ran faster now. Each one scalded my skin where it touched.

“I’m sorry, Z.” S released a pitiful whimper. “For everything. That wasn’t me. This isn’t me. I’m not this. Please help me. Please.”

Shakily, S reached into his coat pocket—fumbling with the item a few times—and then produced a dagger. It was longer than the average dagger, though the blade itself was thinner and looked wickedly sharp.

He slid it across the floor until it landed in front of my knees. “Please, Z. Please. I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

“I’m sorry too,” I whispered through numb lips as I grabbed the copper handle.

For the first time in my life, I couldn’t hold the blade steady.

I began to sob as I knee-walked closer to him and then held the blade high above his neck, where the tendons and sinew were visible.

“I’m so sorry.” My hand shook.

Then I lowered the blade, quickly and efficiently.

Just before it came in contact with his neck, I heard a soft, “Thank you.”

The dagger sliced through his flesh like butter.

His head rolled in one direction, and his body fell in the other.

S was no more.

I was belatedly aware of a shadowy figure breaking through the slightly opened window and sending glass flying in every direction, but I couldn’t pull my gaze away from the man I once loved. The man I’d just killed. My tears ran in hot rivulets down my cheeks as Ryland cursed, grabbed at my shoulders, and pulled me into his chest.

And for one minute exactly, I allowed myself to fall apart.

I cried for S and T, two brothers who’d had their lives snuffed out because of Aaliyah and her games.

I cried for myself and the love I once had.

I cried for my mates and what they would have to endure in the years to come.

I cried for all of the humans who had been tortured, ridiculed, and laughed at by the nightmares in power.

I cried for Axel and Mali and Atta and B and Diego and all of my friends I’d met along the way.

Voices reached me, muffled and indistinct, almost as if they were coming from the end of a long tunnel.

“How the fuck did he get in?”

“Where were you, Devlin? Why weren’t you here?”

“I’d forgotten the wine! I was gone for a minute! I didn’t know… Fuck!”

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