Page 87 of Is It Wrong to Escape My Fate?
“Are you teasing me now, pet?” His voice was low but amused. He tried to hide his confusion about my actions. I learned something new again: he couldn’t use his memory wipe at this distance, or he would’ve done it already.
“You know something funny?” He continued speaking louder. “I lied to the Prince. I didn’t use my Unique on you. Yougot the old-fashioned hit to the back of the head. Achieved the same thing anyway. Or rather, Icouldn’tuse my Unique on you. Isn’t that funny? You’ll get the same treatment when I bring you home.”
Stop talking, or you’ll bringthemhere.I could practically feel their looming presence everywhere, ready to maim this creep.No time.
Was it true that he couldn’t use his Unique on me? Time to find out.
I stepped closer once more, and as expected, he copied my movement; what he didn’t expect was that I rushed him instead, almost knocking him with how close I was. I didn’t give him time to react as I grabbed his wrist — his eyes widened in shock as he stared at mine, years of instinct taking over as the weird sensation of his Unique tried to crawl over my body — hewastrying to use it on me. And failing. So, it was through touch.
I forced his hand on the other, and he couldn’t stop me.
“What the fuck — why are you so strong —” He couldn’t finish his sentence as the effect of hisownUnique hit him. He’d get disoriented, and by habit, use it again as self-defense, only to use it on himself.
Again.
Over and over.
I didn’t let go. When would he realize this was a losing battle? I’d stop if he stopped.
Shouts of my name echoed around us, but I was focused on this monster. I was winning. My hands clamped on his wrists, holding them together. I didn’t care I was bruising him. It was only fair for the rope burns he gave me.
“Bea, let go,” Derrick’s voice cut through the haze, and I immediately released the man. He fell to the floor, unconscious. Or dead. Did I kill him?
Hands held my shoulders and massaged my palms, uncurling my fingers that seemed to lock back into position, as if I was still gripping something. Another hand soothed my back, and another patted my head.
“What happened?” Winston mumbled, crouching next to Compton’s crumpled form.
I didn’t realize I was breathing heavily until my body took lungful breaths of air. A tremble made its way out, and my knees almost buckled before someone held me at my waist to keep me up. “He used his Unique on himself by instinct,” I explained when I regained my breath. “I just held onto him. He couldn’t shake me off. How long did it take?”
“A minute or so,” Vincent answered for me; he was the one massaging my left hand. “He’s not immune to his own ability?”
“Apparently not,” I smiled, still a little breathless. “Do you think it compounds? Exponentially? If he can erase memories for the past ten seconds in the blink of an eye, do you think the longer he activates it, the longer the time span?”
“Woman, you were just in the presence of a psychopath,” Amos grunted as he held my waist. “How are you not more scared?”
“Because you’re all here with me?” I stated honestly. “You promised to keep me safe.”
There was a silent moment before groans of annoyance or anger or disbelief echoed everywhere. Robin and Reuben volunteered to lift Compton’s body and place it on the couch while the rest had to brace themselves against something or someone.
“Iwas scared!” Claude exclaimed, leaning against Uriel against his wishes. “I had no fucking idea how that would go!”
“Is she always like this?” Theodore complained to my knights, who looked the least affected with my words.
“Oh, yes,” Robin grinned, hip against the couch where the monster lay. “You’ll never get used to it. You just accept it.”
It was comforting to know there were similarities between OG Bea and me. Although … was Robin talking about me orme?
They were wrong though; I was scared, too. But I had to do something before this monster could make things worse, and that knowledge overruled my fear.
Samuel, who had massaged my right hand, glanced from Compton to me. “Is this how you did it? How you escaped from your kidnappers?”
“Kind of, yeah.” Let’s go with that.
Derrick cast a diagnostics spell on the creep as Elias pulled me away from the men holding me, sat down on an armchair and pulled me onto his lap. The heat crawled up from my chest as he wrapped his arms around my waist and buried his face in the crook of my neck and shoulder. He was quite literally hoarding me like a dragon.
“Wow, dude,” Claude yelled, glaring at Elias. “Selfish much?”
“She almost died. I think I’m allowed this much,” Eli retorted. My gentle, sweet-tempered man was snarking back? He must have been really nervous about the entire ordeal.
