Page 61 of Luna's Forgotten Vow

Really?

She adjusts her clothes and hugs me briefly, her soft scent of vanilla teasing my nostrils. "I'll miss you so much. Don't you dare forget to call me."

I don't bother with the goodbyes with Soren. One look says everything. *Longing.* I watch him through the tinted window as the car pulls away from the driveway and though he can't see me, he stands there in his sweats until we are out of sight.

Just then, I feel him in my head, caressing my mental walls seductively, a request to let him in. I lower my defenses for just a few seconds. But it is all the time he needs for the words to float in.Come back to me, Seraphina.

"It was my idea."

My eyes water from staring at one spot for too long. I turn to Eric, whose eyes are trained at where I was staring outside the window. "What?"

"Using you was originally my idea. If you're going to be mad at Soren, you should be mad at me, too."

I shift my arm, shielding my breast from Eric as Landon sucks slowly. He's been quiet for most of the ride, thank the goddess. "Who says I'm not?"

"You have a pretty fun way of showing it," he murmurs. "He didn't want to. He was reluctant at first, didn't want to admit it either that it disturbed him, but I pushed for it. I truly believed it to be the only way out and in my defense, I assumed you would be just as vile as Callahan."

I raised my gaze. "And I'm not?"

"Only when you're in a foul mood. But you're the necessary evil," he says, lips quirking up.

I laugh, narrowing my gaze at him. "You wouldn't mind having me as your sister-in-law in the long run? I must not have been annoying enough."

He playfully punches my arm, but it jostles my entire body and I hide my wince behind a smile. It falls, however, when I see the sleeve of his crisp white shirt ride up his arm and the burned skin underneath. Like the skin couldn't heal right after the incident.

Eric catches me stare and pulls down his sleeve, his expression suddenly dark and haunted.

"Soren told me," I say softly. Ruslan, goddess bless his soul, cranks up the music slightly, not too loud to wake Landon and his sensitive ears, but not too low that everyone else can eavesdrop on my conversation with Eric.

Eric only grunts in response.

"I'm sorry about what happened."

"Not your fault," he grunts again, clearly not quite there yet when it comes to talking about it, and I drop it, because I know what trauma looks and feels like. And I wonder if Eric's sunny personality is to cover for the demons that chase him. Much like mine. His is a scar that is visible, one that he'll be reminded of every passing day. Mine is like a scourge on my mind and soul, and shutting my eyes doesn't wash away the stickiness of it.

"You could stay for a couple of days--"

Boom.

The car jerks abruptly, veering off the path so suddenly, my body collides with the door.

The vehicle ahead of us, the one with my guard detail explodes in a monstrous roar, flames erupting into the sky like a vengeful god had struck it down. I scream in horror as the shockwave rips through the air and slams into us. Burning debris rains back down onto the road, the car somersaulting twice.

There were eight of Soren's most trusted men in there. Eight of them. *Gone.*

Ruslan's shouting something I can't hear over the ringing in my ears. Smoke blurs the view and we can't make out a thing. Ruslan reaches over to crack the window--

And his head snaps forward in an instant.

A sickening crack, and then silence.

Blood spatters the glass.

"Ruslan!" I scream, but he's already slumped over the wheel, lifeless. A single bullet that misses Mikhail by a fraction, splitting the glass beside his head.

Eric reacts before I can, barking an order I don't hear over my screaming. The guard in the front passenger seat lunges across Ruslan's body, grabs the wheel, tries to steady us, but the car's too fast, too wild and we're completely off the road, tearing down into the woods.

Eric throws himself over us just before we crash.

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