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“Thought you could hide behind your soldiers, huh?” I spit at him as we grapple, his blows glancing off me because I’m fueled by something fiercer than mere survival—it’s fury, it’s betrayal, it’s the raw ache in my chest that screams ‘mine.’
“Little bitch,” Jasper wheezes, grappling with me, but I’m beyond words now, beyond anything but the need to make him pay.
Then, just as I feel like I’m gaining the upper hand, the weight of numbers tips against me. Eclipse agents swarm me from behind, their combined strength dragging me down. “Gunnar!” I hear Vance shout somewhere in the chaos, but he’s too far, entangled in his own fight.
They slam me to the ground, and for a moment, the world is just pain and the coppery taste of blood. I shake my head, trying to clear it, just in time to see Jasper charging towards me.
It’s do or die.
I roll to the side, missing death by inches, and then I’m being thrown to the ground by two other men, Jasper over me. He starts wailing on me with his fists, laughing through the blood at his lips, one eye swollen shut.
“My whore daughter…doesn’t deserve…” he’s snarling—
—then he suddenly stops, words choked.
Frothy blood bubbles from his lips, eyes wide with shock. He looks down at the growing red stain on his shirt, then back at me…then collapses to the floor with a thud that echoes in the sudden stillness.
Aisling stands over him, her face a mask of tears and rage, the knife in her hand slick with her father’s blood. She looks from me to her father, and she looks like she might help me up…but she narrows her gaze back at her dad.
“Fuck you!”
She drops to her knees, plunging the blade into him again.
“You’re a fucking monster, you always have been!” Again, again she plunges the blade into him, and she’s sobbing, the sound mixing with the wet sound of steel meeting flesh.
“Monster,” she chokes out with each strike, giving voice to years of torment, each word punctuated by the grim finality of her vengeance. I push myself up, ignoring the fire in my ribs, watching her dismantle the tyrant of New Eden.
Dead and gone…and good riddance.
I move toward her hesitantly, not wanting to catch any of that rage. “Aisling…enough,” I murmur. “He’s dead.”
She jerks her head up toward mine, tears streaming down her face. “He deserved so much worse,” she rasps.
I reach for her, touching her, about to take her in my arms and bracing for another man’s scent on her.
…but it isn’t her father’s scent, as sick as that would be.
It’s Luka’s.
I pull away as fast as I reached out, and Aisling’s face falls. My brow furrows, a million emotions racing through my head.
And I know she’ll think I’m being stupid, immature.
But it hurts.
It hurts worse than any bruise.
“You…you fucked him,” I wrench out, my eyes darting to Luka and back. “You marked each other.”
Aisling crawls toward me slightly, over her father’s corpse. She’s covered in blood, eyes wide. “It wasn’t like that,” she whispers. “Please, I missed you so much—“
“Stop.” I jump to my feet, practically stumbling to escape her clutches. “I just…I need a second.”
“Gun—“ she starts, her voice breaking.
“Get away from me.” The words come out colder than I intend, but the betrayal stings, sharp and fresh.
To make matters worse, Vance materializes at my shoulder. His arm is still bleeding, but he’s wrapped it with a piece of cloth to stem the flood. “She needs you,” Vance mutters.
