Hook smirked and touched the blood on his chest. “Bad form, Mr. Smee. Bad form…” He fell flat to the deck. Dead.
Silence hung in the air as the pirates stared at her.
The crow of a great bird filled the air as Peter Pan swooped low and landed on the yardarm of the ship. “I’ve come to save the—” He stopped. “Am I late?”
If she had a second bullet in the gun, she’d probably shoot himjust out of frustration. Lucky for him, that wasn’t how blackpowder pistols worked and she knew it.
Sasha dropped the gun on the deck next to Hook’s corpse with a clatter.
Sidney walked up to her, hugging her tight for a second in a silent “thank you” before saying the thing they were both feeling. “I think I fucking hate this story now. Can we go?”
Sasha let out a breath. “Yeah. I think we can.”
The End
CHAPTER TWELVE
Sasha was in trouble.
She knew it the moment the world of Vile’s library reformed around her. Was there even any point in running? Probably not. It was probably like running from a mountain lion—it’d just encourage him to chase her.
Rage filled the room like a palpable fog. She took a slow breath and braced herself for what was about to happen to her. Flashes of imagery of him pulling her limbs off or disemboweling her played through her mind.
“Think you’re clever,do you?” The snarling words came from right behind her.
“I couldn’t let you?—”
He grabbed her by the upper arm and whirled her to face him. Before she could react, his hand was around her throat. Or rather, she thought it was his hand at first. But it wasn’t. The room around her was almost consumed by those strange, drawn-on, black tendrils that seemed to spread from him whenever he was angry. And from the darkness, too many eyes. Too many of those purple, strange, inhuman eyes were glowering at her in matching anger.
It was one of those tendrils that had coiled around her throat andwas cinching tight, limiting her air, but not cutting it off all the way. Not yet. The thing yanked her backwards and she had no choice but to go with it, staggering to keep her footing.
Vile followed after her, wearing his own face—his purple eyes dark with fury. “After all I was doing for you! That is how you thank me?”
Gasping for air, she grabbed uselessly at the thing around her throat, trying to get her fingers under it to pull in more breath. She hit one of the long reading tables that ran the length of the impossible library as the tendril kept pulling her backwards. But it didn’t stop there. It pulled her down until her back was flat against it.
He was going to kill her.
Maybe he’d skip the game entirely and just kill her for keeps.
Vile loomed over her, his lip curled in disgust. “I wanted to ease you into all this, I really did. But I see now how pointless that endeavor truly was.”
“I wasn’t going to”—she could just barely get enough air to speak in bursts—“let you kill Sidney.”
He slammed his hands down on the table on either side of her, blotting out the dim light of the amber stained glass lamps overhead, his purple eyes eerily and faintly glowing in the darkness. “Thenyou’lldie in her stead. Don’t you understand? In games where someone wins, someone has to lose.”
“And you don’t care which.” She tugged at the thing around her throat. But it was impossible to grab. It wasn’t slimy, but it was extremely slippery. She couldn’t get a purchase on it no matter how hard she tried.
“Precisely.” Lifting one of his hands, he placed his palm against her cheek, his thumb resting against the underside of her chin. He studied her for a moment before a slow, terrible smile crept over his face. “At first, I thought I had clearly picked the more entertaining twin. But now, I wonder if the sexual one would be more fun. I wonder how she might take to my more…twisted instincts.”
“Don’t—you—dare—”That got her struggling for the first timesince they’d reappeared. She kicked and punched at him, forgetting the thing around her throat in her attempt to get him away from her.
He merely laughed like the villain he was. It was made no less terrifying by how perfectly it would’ve fit into a Vincent Price movie. More of those inky-black things snapped around her wrists and ankles, pulling her back down to the table. “How sweet. You think you have a say in the matter.”
“Leave. Her. Alone!” She glared right back at him, not caring about her own safety at that point. She was stuck. There was no saving herself. She could only worry about Sidney. At least she had Virtue to protect her, for as much good as that would do.
“Why should I?” Vile rested his thumb against the hollow of her chin. His gaze flicked to her lips and lingered there. “Give me a good reason.”
That…stumped her.Because it’s wrong. Because you should. Because I said so. Because. Or else.
