Page 166 of Sinful Lord

Still, there’s a stone in my gut that won’t go away. It grows heavier as I deactivate my other traps and click the door open.

Rian immediately races past me.

“Out of my way.”

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I try to blink away the pain raging through my skull. But it’s not like I have all the time in the world.

“Good job,” Maksim murmurs, stepping up behind me.

“Aren’t you glad you kept me alive?” I dryly taunt, buying time as I push myself back to my feet.

“Barely.”

“Grumpy old man,” I humorlessly chuckle.

It takes a second before I gather my bearings. But I’m less worried now. Especially as I hear Rian storm down the stairs to the basement. He must think I’m keeping Melina in some kind of dungeon. Fool.

All he’s doing is giving me a head start.

I’ll get to see her first. Maybe, if I move discreetly enough, I’ll even get a chance to explain everything before she’s ripped away from me again.

My heart sinks as I picture the inevitable.

“No,” I mumble to myself, stumbling into the house. “Don’t think about the bad. Only the good.”

Behind me, Roz says something, but the world quickly becomes muffled. My ears fill with white noise. My heart tugs me upstairs. I don’t even look back to see if anyone’s following me. I just go to Melina.

“’Please don’t be too mad.”

I practically have to pull myself up the railing. My body is fine, but my head won’t stay put. It feels like my brain is being tugged in a thousand different directions, even if at the center of it all there’s only one thing.

Her.

“… Melina?”

When I reach the top of the staircase, my stomach drops. The blood rushes from my ears. My mind goes blank.

Down the hall, I can see the door to her bedroom.

It’s open.

On the floor outside is a body.

It’s not moving.

“No!” I roar.

It feels like the ground collapses beneath my feet as I race forward. The walls disappear. The black spots and the blurriness all explode into a singular focus.

But then, suddenly, the world comes rushing back and I come to a sliding stop.

That’s not Melina.

“… What the fuck?”

Slowly, I approach the corpse. A dark pool of blood has crusted around the woman’s ruptured skull. Her lifeless eyes stare up at the ceiling.

Yasha.