I came for him.
But now he’s gone.
I recoiled in his arms. The last liveliness in my heart vanished. I’d witnessed the love of my life die in front of my eyes. I’d been audience to two murders and too many ruined lives. I couldn’t…I couldn’t cope any more.
I sank…
I gave in.
I evaporated inside.
I’m in shock.
Daniel chuckled, continuing to tug me down corridors I didn’t recognise. I stopped paying attention, following like a good sheep, stumbling over a threshold I’d never crossed before.
He shoved me forward. “Welcome to your new home, bitch.”
I tripped forward, arms whirling, mind fighting against vertigo.
A loud slam ricocheted from behind me. A door. A prison gate.
I spun around, breathing hard. I didn’t have any words or energy left. I was sick, terrified, heartbroken. But through it all, I was numb.
I’d accepted my fate, acknowledged the truth, and finally seen what it all meant.
He’s truly, truly dead.
Daniel stalked toward me.
Automatically, my feet shuffled back—not from conscious instruction but some primal need for self-preservation. In reality, I no longer cared what happened. It was as if I watched myself from the safety of the ceiling, peering down at the poor unfortunate Weaver, no longer caring what happened to blood and bone when I no longer inhabited it.
He’s dead.
He’s dead.
I want to die, too.
Daniel never stopped corralling me around the space. Through blurry eyes, I took in the rich emerald brocade on his four-poster bed, the priceless antiques, and moss-coloured walls. The shades of green looked like we’d traded indoors for some woodland glen.
He was the hunter, raising his shotgun to shoot the dismal deer.
I’m that deer.
His hands outstretched; face alight with manic lust. “You’re all mine now, Weaver. Locked in my room, bound to my rules, at my mercy. Fuck, this is gonna be good.”
My ears rang with his voice. My eyes smarted with his appearance. I wanted to leave—to chase Jethro into the stars. Suicide didn’t compute. Taking my own life didn’t register. It wasn’t a matter of life and death, killing or surviving, but about transcending from one world to another.
He’s not dead.
He’s just…evolved.
And I didn’t want him to leave without me.
We were a pair. A duo.
I’m done with this existence.
My mind was gone—unfocused and slow. But my body still wanted to survive. My feet tripped backward for every one of Daniel’s, but there was no finesse. I moved like a robot with no one at the controls.
From my sanctuary in the ceiling, I pitied the delusional girl below. Why was I backpedalling? Why prolong the inevitable? The sooner Daniel caught me, the sooner he would hurt me and ultimately send me to Jethro.
Let go.
Let it happen.
The numbness inside would block external pain, surely.
It was best to stop everything. To stop thinking, stop breathing, stop surviving.
My knees locked. I stood steadfast.
Daniel quirked an eyebrow. He stalled when I didn’t continue our morbid dance. Cocking his head, he searched for a trap. “Giving up so easily, whore?”
I didn’t respond. Not a whisper of a shrug or a flicker of an eye. I stared right through him—at a new dimension that promised a fresh beginning with Jethro and an end to hardship.
Daniel growled under his breath. “You’re seriously just giving up?” Stomping forward, he grabbed my hair, fisting it in his sweaty hands. “You’re not going to fight me like you did my brother?”
I was right.
No pain registered. No agony or discomfort.
My senses were meaningless decoration.
“Fight back! Where’s the fucking sport if you just give in?”
He tugged my hair, raising my eyes to his. If I focused, I would’ve brought his putrid face into vision. I would’ve cringed at the sharp bone structure, small black goatee, and swept back dark hair. If I still had my sense of smell, I would’ve inhaled his musky excitement, unable to be hidden beneath thick notes of aftershave. And if I had sense of touch, I would’ve felt his body heat infecting mine, seeping into me like a disease.
But I had none of that, so I noticed none.
All I saw, heard, felt was a void: nothing but silent wind across my face and emptiness before me.
His mouth twisted with rage. “Fuck you, Weaver. You’re mine now. What do you have to say for yourself?”
The burn in my scalp chased away the icy tears on my cheeks. My heart had given up the moment a bullet slammed into the love of my life. If he wanted a reaction, he wouldn’t get it.
Not this time, you bastard.
Nothing.
I have nothing.
“My brothers are dead. How does that make you feel?”
Nothing.
I feel nothing.
“Answer me, cunt! Tell me how much you don’t want me to touch you. How much you’re afraid of me!”
Nothing.
I care about nothing.
Jethro was gone. I’d never seen anyone die before. Never been to a funeral or witnessed a pet succumb—even my own mother just vanished rather than died. My first participation in death and it’d been two men who’d captured my affection, turning me into a completely different person.
The old Nila died the day she entered Hawksridge. But this new Nila was a fading photograph, vanishing piece by piece while her lover bled out on priceless carpet.
Daniel threw me away from him. “Snap out of it!”
Vertigo caught me in its sickening embrace. For once, I didn’t fight it. I tumbled to the carpet, letting a whirligig of rollercoasters and nausea take me, thanks to my broken brain. Normally, it was the worst kind of punishment, but now it was better than facing reality.
Vibrations in the carpet alerted me to Daniel’s closeness. He towered over me, rage painting his face. “Pay attention to me, Weaver!” His boot shot like a black meteor, connecting with my belly.
Air exploded from my lungs.
Pain crept over my senses—pain I didn’t want to feel because it reminded me I wasn’t dead…wasn’t free. I was still here—in this pointless game of madness and deception.
He’s dead.
He’s dead.
I’m all alone.
Daniel kicked me again.
His boot crunched against my belly, sending white-hot agony up my chest.
Agony.
And with agony came life.
You’re not alone.
Vaughn. My father. I still had family who mattered. People I couldn’t abandon.
I’m not dead.
I don’t have the luxury of giving up.
Jethro and Kes had been murdered by men who’d polluted the world for long enough. I’d made a promise to my ancestors to end this. I now made a promise to them.
I will kill your family.
I will end this once and for all.
My eyes shot wide. Energy zapped into my limbs. Agony made me reckless, granting false courage. I was stronger than this. Hadn’t I proven as much with what I’d lived through? Each debt I’d endured, I’d evolved from naïve little girl into a woman.
I’m braver than this.
Scrambling backward, I put as much distance between Daniel’s next kick and myself as I could.
He placed his hands on his hips, laughing coldly. “Finally decided to play, huh? Took you long enough.”
Coughing, I held my bruised belly and forced myself to stand.
He didn’t approach me, giving me time to regroup. He enjoyed me fighting—he wanted me alive and screaming.
Bastard.
“I’ll kill you,” I whispered, wincing with every breath.
He chuckled, moving toward me. “What did you say?”
Standing taller, I locked eyes with him. My ribs bellowed from his kick, but steel entered my tone. “I said I’ll kill you.”
He ran a hand through his dark hair, smiling. The evil tainting his soul suffocated him—he wasn’t attractive even though outwardly he had good bones and sex appeal. To me, he was a troll, a stinking pile of excrement.
“I’d like to see you try.” He closed the distance between us one boot at a time.
I parried backward. “You won’t see it coming.”
“You won’t be able to get close enough to do it.” He winked smugly. “You’re nothing compared to me.”
I bared my teeth. “It’ll happen when you least expect it.”
“It will never happen.” He flexed his muscles. “I’m invincible.”
“You’re human.”
And that makes you killable.
Every word filled me with power. Conviction and confidence shoved aside my numbness and grief.
Jethro and Kes were dead. But it wasn’t the end for me. I had a purpose. I would complete that purpose.
“Want to know why I came back? Why I didn’t run or hide?” The snow in my veins made its way into my heart. “I came back to ruin you.” Spit pooled in my mouth. If I’d been braver, I would’ve spat it all over his face. “I came back for him, but that’s over now.”
I’ll avenge him, so help me, God. Kestrel, too. And myself. And my brother. And my mother and grandmother and generations of Weaver women.
This was the beginning of the end.
The Debt Inheritance was null and void—Cut had seen to that. It was time to slaughter the Hawks and extinguish a dynasty of torture. Every second made me stronger, filling me with a strange acceptance. Happiness wasn’t my life path—but destruction was. I would be that instrument of destruction.