Page 178 of The Hunter's Empire

A shaky breath leaves my lungs as I finally turn toward Nico. I want to see his face. I want to see that infuriatingly smug expression he wears whenever he's right about something. I want to hear him tell me.‘I told you so.’

I never get the chance. The second gunshot tears through the office.

For a split second, I don't understand what happened. Then something slams into my stomach hard enough to steal the air from my lungs. My fingers loosen around the pistol as I stumble backward, my eyes dropping instinctively to the blood already spreading across my shirt.

When I look up again, Sebastian is standing near the sofa with a handgun trembling in his hand.

Nico sees him.

"Zora." My name leaves his mouth with a kind of fear I've never heard from him before.

One moment he's standing across the room. The next he's moving.

My knees buckle beneath me as the room begins to tilt and blur around the edges. And the last thing I see before darkness takes me is Nico reaching Sebastian.

Chapter 40

Zora

Darkness is the first thing I become aware of. For a long time, I cannot tell whether my eyes are open or closed. Everything feels strangely weightless, as though I am floating somewhere between sleep and consciousness.

Gradually, distant sounds begin filtering through the silence. A steady electronic beeping repeats at regular intervals while quiet voices drift in and out around me, too muffled for me to make out the words. My body feels impossibly heavy. Even the simple act of opening my eyes feels exhausting, but after several attempts, my eyelids finally begin to cooperate.

The bright hospital lights immediately make me squint.

My vision remains blurred for several seconds before the outlines of the room slowly come into focus.

The first thing I notice is that I'm not alone.

A young woman sits beside the bed with her head resting against folded arms, clearly asleep and just as clearly exhausted. For several moments, I simply stare at her, trying to force my sluggish brain to catch up with what my eyes are seeing.

Eventually, her eyes flutter open. The moment she notices me looking at her, her entire body goes still.

"Zora?" Her voice breaks around my name.

I frown slightly. "...Who are you?"

The color drains from her face so quickly that I almost feel bad immediately.

"What?" Fresh panic floods her expression. "Zora, that's not funny."

I blink at her. "I wasn't joking."

"Zora." Her voice cracks. "Please don't do this."

For a moment, I let her suffer. Then the corner of my mouth betrays me.

"I'm kidding."

Aurelia stares at me. A laugh escapes despite the pain in my chest.

"Relax. I know exactly who you are." I tilt my head slightly. "You're the woman who somehow turned wedding planning into a full-time occupation for everyone around you."

For a heartbeat, she simply looks at me. Then she exhales sharply somewhere between a laugh and a sob before lightly smacking my arm.

"You are genuinely awful."

"That's fair."