Page 112 of Stalk the Dark
“Orina! Help me!”
Agatha!
I forced my eyes open and found the doorway where Agatha thrashed in Ezekiel’s grip. He held her loosely by the arm. Playing with her. Toying with her.
“Orina, you promised!” Agatha cried. “You promised to keep me safe!”
I tried to sit up, but my limbs refused to work. “Please…” I reached for them, locking gazes with Ezekiel, pleading with my eyes, with my whole being for him not to do this. “Please don’t…”
Ezekiel’s lips curved in a cold smile and my heart sank because the intent in his eyes was clear.
“No…Ezekiel, don’t!”
He yanked Agatha to his chest and tore out her throat.
Her bloodcurdling scream rattled my mind, shattering my heart and penetrating the place insideme that held all my dark thoughts and impulses, the place kept at bay by will alone. It expanded, swallowing me whole, and one word filled my mind.
Kill.
My body was no longer my own, propelled across the room by a force that was alien, stronger, bigger than me. A force that was pure wrath, judgment, and death.
It cared nothing for Agatha as she fell to the ground, pale and lifeless. It cared only to tear Ezekiel’s heart from his chest. My blade sliced through the air, aimed for his throat.
His eyes widened a fraction, but he didn’t move, unafraid.
A roar burned its way up my throat and past my lips as I swiped, anticipating the headythunkof blade to flesh and bone, but it never came.
I was torn away from my target by bands of steel.
Whispers filled my mind. Urgent and incomprehensible.
Sleep now. Sleep.
So I slept.
Chapter 35
There’s a moment between sleep and waking where the world is soft and safe. Where actions haven’t been taken and consequences haven’t been set. Where there is no pain and no judgment. No anxiety or fear.
But that moment never lasts.
I was jolted out of mine by the violent rocking of the carriage. Memory hit me like a slug to the chest, and hot tears burned my eyelids.
“It’s okay.” Ordell cradled me in his lap as the carriage came to a halt. “You’re safe now.”
Bile shot up my throat, and I shoved him away, clambering out of the carriage in time to throw up on the side of the road.
Agatha…all those people…
I could have killed him.Shouldhavekilled him.
A warm hand fell on my shoulder. “Orina…” Ordell said.
I shrugged him off, tears leaking down my face, chest aching with impotent rage and acute grief. “Why? Why did you stop me?”
“The covenant?—”
I whipped my head up to glare at him. “Fuck the covenant. He’s a monster. An evil fucking monster, and he needs to die.”
