Landon.
Awareness returns to me in a rush of prickling heat that invades my body. I bolt upright in bed, my heart pounding against my breastbone and tremors reverberating through me as I attempt to orient myself. Fragmented memories barrage me like flashes of lightning.
Flash.
The masked man.
Flash.
Landon.
Flash.
The knife.
Flash.
Landon.
Flash.
Blood.
Flash.
Landon.
Landon.
Landon.
A startled, pained cry escapes me, and I move before I can even form another coherent thought. When I last saw him, he was cold. Too cold. And there was so much blood…
Blood that still clings to me, and I don’t mean that figuratively. I can feel it on my skin. My hair. My clothes. The red splotches momentarily distract me, though not enough to tug me from my downward spiral. If anything, it only exacerbates it.
Is this Landon’s blood?
Or does it belong to the man I murdered?
I have a vague recollection of stabbing, stabbing, stabbing—my mind blank, red descending across my vision. I wasn’t thinking then, and I’m certainly not thinking now.
The old Ellie might’ve fixated on the blood. Might’ve begun to lose herself to the seductive call of madness, depression. She might’ve dropped to her knees and cried, unable to peel her eyes away from the blood saturating every bare inch of skin on her body.
But that one died a long time ago.
I can’t put my finger on when. It could’ve been when I discovered my mother was The Divine One and that she’s been running an underground trafficking ring and cult for years now.
It could’ve been before that, when I was first kidnapped by my uncle. Or maybe it was when Ryker was threatened by the Paragons of Prosperity and had to fake his death. Maybe it was when I found out my older brother was a member of the cult as well and was training to take over for our sadistic bio mom.
Either way, that Ellie is dead and buried, having long since decayed, nothing but brittle bones remaining.
This new Ellie has risen from the ashes of her old self with one purpose and one purpose alone—protecting her guys.
Myguys.
Mania.
And that means getting the fuck out of this room and finding Landon.
