Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 118042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 590(@200wpm)___ 472(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 590(@200wpm)___ 472(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
His eyes refocused. He swallowed hard. He smiled a heartbreaking smile as we stared and saw and loved.
I love you. I opened my heart. So, so much. For always.
His eyelashes hooded. He nodded. His lips parted to—
Cruel hands landed in my hair and wrenched me backward.
I cried out as pain flashed across my scalp.
Henri slipped free from me.
His warm pleasure oozed down my inner thigh.
And my knees crunched agonisingly as Victor tossed me onto the stage beside the chaise lounge where Henri lay strapped and bound.
“Don’t.” His chest strained beneath his bandages as he struggled to sit up. “Victor…I beg you. Don’t hurt her.” The chain holding him in place jangled like a war drum signalling our battle’s end.
An awful knowing shot down my spine.
Just like I’d known it was Henri I’d been gifted to; I knew I was about to be gifted to death.
I won’t make it to Christmas…
I froze as fate allowed itself to be seen.
I saw what Victor had planned.
Saw the same diamond-handled knife that he used to transform his gems in the Temple of Facets.
No…
My mouth parted to tell Henri everything.
That I’d wait for him. That I’d see him again. That this wasn’t over.
But…Peter.
Give Henri comfort, and Peter paid the price. Keep my silence, and Henri would watch me die without a single goodbye.
Tears glossed and dripped down my cheeks.
Heartbreak wrenched open my chest.
I’m so sorry.
Victor tightened his fist in my hair, shaking me like a hyena. Yanking my head back, he pressed the knife to my throat above my heavy collar. “I hope you enjoyed having her one last time. A quick little send-off. That’s the last time you’ll ever feel a woman’s cunt again.”
“Don’t!” Henri fought so hard that the chaise squeaked and shifted over the wooden floor. “Victor, please—”
“Sir V.”
“Sir V. Let her go. You have me. Take me. I’ll do whatever you want.”
“Oh, I know you will.” Victor chuckled. “And the moment this is done, you will prove to me just how obedient you are.”
“If you hurt her, I’ll kill you.”
“For that lie, I will fuck you right here, right now. I was going to give you a night to grieve, my friend. I was willing to let you accept your new place, but…I think fucking you in the congealing blood of Ilyana is more apt. You can become mine all while she turns cold.”
My tears flowed faster as Victor pressed the knife deeper against my skin. “Any last words, pretty Ily?”
I met his eyes.
I saw true filth.
I saw a man who’d transformed into a complete monster.
A monster that couldn’t be defeated.
I opened my mouth to reply—to accept his gift of speech after such denial, but…the quickest flash in his navy gaze. The arrogant thrill. The sick anticipation. He looked behind me to Peter on the wall, and I knew.
One word, and it wouldn’t just be me who died tonight.
Peter would join me and…if Peter stayed alive, Henri might not break completely.
He might keep fighting.
Hoping.
Pressing my lips together, I didn’t say a thing.
Henri roared and jerked and fought.
But it was no use.
The chains held him down.
Starvation stole his strength.
And Victor pressed the softest kiss on my forehead. “You finally learned, little jewel. What a shame you learned too late. Goodbye.”
Chapter Fourteen
………………………….
Henri
VICTOR SLICED.
“No! Fuck, STOP!”
I lost myself to fury.
The cuffs cut into my arms.
The chain rang.
The very couch almost broke apart.
The image of her kneeling, head wrenched back, and blood—
No.
“FUCK!”
I felt it.
The end.
The goodbye.
The loss.
Ily never looked away from me.
She didn’t say a word.
But I felt all of them.
Her love, her sacrifice, her pleas for me to stay sane.
I roared like a beast.
I kicked and bucked and motherfucking sobbed at the helplessness, the weakness, the powerlessness.
“Ily! Don’t. Victor, please—”
“Fuck this!” a man bellowed. “Now. Do it now!”
A scuffle in the distance.
A curse and a command.
And then…the loudest crack sliced the air.
A bang followed.
A volley of pop, pop, pop.
A man screamed.
A glass fell to the ground, shattering into crystal shards as two Masters went from standing to falling into corpses.
For a second, no one moved.
Men scowled and blinked and—
Another crack.
Another Master became nothing more than a carcass.
And then everyone and everything exploded.
Bullets ricocheted into painted panelling, sending fragments of tapestries and artwork flying.
Gunfire rained.
Masters bolted.
Victor froze and looked up. The blade in his foul hand dripped with Ily’s blood. “What the—” He reeled backward as a bullet smacked him in the shoulder. He cursed and stumbled backward. The dagger fell and bounced off the stage.
Ily fell sideways.
She clutched her throat, stemming the wound he’d caused.
“Ily,” I shouted. “Get down!”
More low-flying bullets whizzed past as guards opened fire on whoever fired first. The ballroom became chaos. Nothing but anarchy and mayhem.
BOOM!
The entire island shook.
An earthquake and ocean shake as part of Victor’s fortress blew up.
Holy shit…
Was that one of the bombs the jewels had planted?
So Victor hadn’t found them all?