For a moment, something ugly flashes in her eyes. It looks like triumph mixed with disappointment. The hair on the back of my neck stands up and I glance around at our surroundings, but the darkness swallows my line of sight.
“That sounds good,” she says slowly, bringing my focus back go her. “But it’s too late for that.”
“Too late?” I frown.
“Roman can’t be trusted to make the right decision where you’re concerned. Hell, I don’t even think his mum can be trusted.”
She flicks her hand like it’s an inconvenience and confusion flickers through me. I shuffle on my feet as a cool breeze sends goose pimples across my body.
“What does that mean?” I snap as I feel my heart beating harder in my chest.
A twig snaps behind me. It’s small enough that on any other day I would have caught it instantly but instead I focus on Quinn, staring her down as she stands regally in the doorway. My body takes a step forward before I pause again as I hear the faint shift of weight against gravel. It sounds like the quiet compression of stone under a careful boot that doesn’t belong to wind or wildlife.
My hair whips my face as I spin around and see a dark shadow storming towards me. The scream to warn Quinn to get to safety is lodged in my throat as I duck under the masked man’s first punch. I stumble slightly and he manages to get a swift kick into my ribs. I groan at the shooting pain that tears through my chest before biting my tongue from the pain. Using my body, I throw my body to the floor before I spin back onmy haunches. Dropping my hands behind me, I spring off the ground and use the momentum to kick out his knee.
The man barks out a scream. I use the distraction to catch him off guard and rugby tackling him to the ground. The momentum makes my teeth clatter in my jaw and we both collide with a loud thud. I manage to get the upper hand, pinning him to the ground by his legs as he thrashes beneath me. Gritting my teeth I try to make my way up his body, but pain from a punch to my face explodes in the side of my head.
I growl before hitting his kidneys four times with as much power as possible and he freezes just enough for me to finally get up to his chest. Using my left knee, I press into his groin for maximum pain and a distant part of me dances in delight at his cries. My chest heaves as I try to get his wiggling body under my control before wrapping my hands around his throat.
“Die!” I cry out like a war cry, before gritting my teeth so hard I’m scared they’ll break.
“Die, you fat fuck!”
His nails dig into my arm, but I hold on keeping my elbows locked.
His legs go first, then his hands but I know I need to hold on. My breath comes out in sharp short pants as I look up to see Quinn standing stock still with a look of fear across her face.
Thank God she’s okay.
I breath another sigh of relief, before flopping down over the dead man’s chest breathing in deeply to try and get control of my pounding heart. Another crack makes me look up and I gasp as I see another shadow come towards us.
“Quinn, watch out!” I bark but she doesn’t move.
For half a second my brain tries to warn me of something. It’s like my instincts should flare but they don’t. They are dulled by grief and fury and the lingering echo of a door slamming shut in my face. I’m not sharp. I’m not steady. I’m just lying here withmy heart split open pretending I’m still the lethal assassin they trained me to be.
An arm slides around from behind me as I am still staring at Quinn and her assailant. My head tries to move to look but they lock my body with their arms across my chest. The move is practised and precise as they press down on my bruised ribs causing my breath to falter.
I try use my body to buck out of the hold, but it happens too quickly and I’m immobilised.
Then I feel it.
A sudden sting hits the side of my neck and the unmistakable rush of something cold slips beneath my skin.
The cold doesn’t stay cold for long. It turns warm beneath my skin, then hot, then something altogether wrong as it threads through me, slipping into my bloodstream like it belongs there. I can almost feel it travelling, as a slow and deliberate invasion winding through veins, curling around muscle, unspooling me from the inside out.
My skin prickles.
Then my limbs.
My fingers lose their certainty and my strength drains so subtly I don’t notice until I try to move my arms and they no longer feel like mine. My eyes grow heavy, my lashes drag as though someone has stitched weights to them. The barn lights smear at the edges, Quinn’s outline bleeds into the dark, the world softening in a way that feels dangerously peaceful.
No. Not peaceful.
Wrong.
My heart begins to pound harder, slamming against my ribs as if it understands what my fading mind is only just catching up to. It beats and beats and beats, trying to outrun whatever is coiling through me. The ground shifts beneath my body like it’s turned to water.
I find Quinn again with my gaze and my foggy brain is shocked as she seems unaffected secure and steady as she was before. That’s when it hits me. Clarity despite my clouding brain.
