Page 103 of Unhinged Omega

The gun fires before I even realize I've pulled the trigger.

The sound is deafening in the enclosed space. Wyatt crumples, a look of shock frozen on his face as bright redsplashes from his throat. He hits the floor with a dull thud that seems to echo through my bones.

I stare at the body, unable to process what I've just done. The gun slips from my numb fingers, but the stranger catches it before it can clatter to the floor.

I've just killed a man.

I've just taken my first step toward freedom.

And somehow, watching the blood pool beneath Wyatt's body, I feel more alive than I ever have before.

"Not bad," the stranger purrs, twirling the gun into a better grip in his gloved hand. "You're a natural. Next time you're that close, aim right between the eyes. Cleaner that way."

Without missing a beat, he fires another shot right into Wyatt's forehead even though he's already dead.

"Never forget to double tap," he calls, already at the end of the hallway. When he realizes I'm still standing by Wyatt's body, frozen, he stops and looks back. "Are you coming or not?"

As if broken out of a trance, my feet start moving again. I step over the corpse and put one foot in front of the other, my hesitation melting away with each step.

In this moment, I know.

I'll follow my avenging demon anywhere.

Even into hell itself.

And that night, as we leave a pile of bodies and the brothel burning in our wake, the innocent survivors' screams piercing the night air as they flee, I do just that. I tell myself I'll never look back, and I don't.

Not until I realize the one truth I somehow have just enough innocence left to deny.

The devil is a fucking liar.

Chapter

Twenty-Six

COSIMA

Iwake with a start, my eyes flying open. For a moment, I'm disoriented, unsure where I am or how I got here. Then it all comes rushing back—the chaos at the airport, my desperate flight into the forest, finding the Knight...

The Knight.

My breath catches in my throat as I realize I'm still curled against his massive frame.

And he's awake.

Those eerie blue eyes are fixed on me, glowing faintly in the pre-dawn gloom. The weight of his gaze is heavy and intent. My heart flutters and pounds against my ribs as I wait for him to move, to attack, to finish what he started in so many of my nightmares.

But he doesn't.

He just... watches me.

Slowly, carefully, I push myself up into a sitting position. My muscles protest, stiff from sleeping on the cold, hard ground. A violent shiver wracks my body as the bitter morning air hits my skin. Without the Knight's fever-hot bulk pressed against me, I'm immediately aware of just how frigid it is.

That's probably the only thing keeping my heat at bay. It's still there, still lurking beneath the surface, but it's tough for me to feel anything but "freezing my fucking ass off" right now.

I wrap my arms around myself, teeth chattering. My breath puffs out in little clouds as I take stock of our surroundings. The forest is eerily quiet, the silence broken only by the soft gurgle of the nearby river. A thin layer of frost coats the dead leaves and branches scattered around us, glittering faintly in the weak light filtering through the skeletal trees.

It's beautiful, in a desolate sort of way.

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