1. Spirit
Adora
My lungs burn, my scalp stings from the brutal grip that yanks me out of the water. Filthy water. Of course. If Dominic is going to kill me, couldn't he at least make sure it's clean? I suck in the deepest breath I can and send a silent prayer skyward.
This is it. The end. And I'm weirdly okay with it.
I knew I was living on borrowed time the moment I told that lie. I knew he'd find me eventually, and when he did, he'd take his pound of flesh.
"Thirteen years," he hisses in my ear, his breath hot against my skin. "Thirteen years I've dreamed of this moment. Of watching the light die in your lying eyes. Adora. My adorable Adora." A dark chuckle rumbles from his chest. "I'm going to make you feel every ounce of pain I felt before I stomp on your soul and bury you alive."
A shiver rattles through my entire body.
At least Liz is safe, I tell myself. No one will find her. She's old enough now to survive without me. That has to be enough.
His grip tightens in my hair, forcing me to meet his gaze. These aren't Dominic's eyes anymore. He isn't the boy I loved, he's something else. I shattered him in ways I never meantto. But what choice did I have? Let Liz die? It had been an impossible decision. My eight-year-old sister's life or the man I loved more than my own soul.
What the fuck was I supposed to do?
Tears sting my eyes. I haven't cried since the day I walked out of that police station, sealing Dominic's fate. Now, the weight of it all threatens to crush me.
"I'm going to be sick," I mutter, nausea twisting my gut. Maybe it's the dirty water. Maybe it's the years of guilt clawing their way up my throat.
He’s always known how to make an entrance. Catching me mid-bath, half-asleep in the tub, was a stroke of strategy. Naked, wet and powerless, I had nowhere to run. The most I could do was slip on the tile and crack my skull open.
Honestly? That would have been better. Quick and painless, no drawn-out torment. No more water torture. And most importantly, no more fucking guilt.
Maybe if I tell him everything, he'll understand. He loved Liz just as much as I do...
"Dominic," I rasp, my throat raw.
His grip tightens like a vice.
"Don't," he growls. "Don't you fucking say my name."
His voice is ice, laced with a warning so deadly it could cut through bone. "You're nothing but a dead woman walking. You've been dead for thirteen years. I'm just here to put you in the ground."
A strangled breath catches in my throat. His voice is so cold it freezes me from the inside.
"Ghost," I try again, my voice shaking. "You don't know everything. I didn't want to lie—"
His sneer cuts me off.
"Oh, well, that makes it all better, doesn't it?" His voice softens, but somehow, it's far more dangerous. "You didn't wantto lie. You didn't want to send me to hell. You didn't want me getting nearly killed every fucking day for five years. No, you justhadto do it. Out of love."
The guilt suffocates me. It feels like he just dropped a mountain onto my chest.
"Who tried to kill you?" I whisper, my voice trembling.
His eyes flash. "Who the fuck do you think?"
I flinch. My heart pounds.No.They promised.They fucking promised.
"You know, if you end up in a prison hospital," he continues, his voice eerily calm, "they don't give you the nice treatments like out here. You get the bare fucking minimum. I've got bones that healed wrong and scars that look like I was mauled by hellhounds. Pain that will never go away because they didn't have the equipment or the right meds to bring me back to 100%."
He leans in, his voice razor-sharp.
"And it's all your fucking fault,adorable."
