Page 81 of Bound

The phoenix that rose from the ashes.

Me.

Me loving Erin, Erin loving every twisted part of me. Loving me enough to force me to let her stand at my side, a place where no one has stood for a very long time. I see Erin and our family seated around the table, eating, laughing, and loving one another. I see Ryan speeding down the hallway, cape billowing behind him, knowing he is loved.

Our forever.

My hand closes around Carlos’s throat.

“This is not for the man I was,” I say. “He would have made this last.”

Carlos claws at my wrist. “No! Stop!”

“This is for the man I am now.”

“Stop!” His breath breaks.

“For the men you burned.”

He gasps, his nails cutting into my skin.

“For Marina, who deserved judgment but not your ending.”

His face purples.

“For Isobel, who chose wrong and still did not belong to you.”

His mouth opens. Nothing comes out. His eyes begin to roll in the back of his head.

“And for Erin.” His eyes widen. “The woman you thought you sent to ruin me.” I tighten my grip. “She saved me instead.”

Carlos tries one last time to speak.

I snap his neck with my bare hands. The sound is small. It’s one of the first things I was trained to do as a Bachman. An ugly click in a room full of the dead past and hope for the future.

Carlos drops to the concrete.

For a moment, the room is silent.

Then Blaze crouches, checks him, and looks up. “Dead.”

The word should satisfy me.

It doesn’t. Instead, it feels almost anticlimactic.

Am I getting soft? Or was this too easy?

I chalk the feeling to adrenaline and poor emotional regulation.

Gregory’s voice cracks through radio. “Is it over?”

I look down at Carlos. “Yes,” I say. “It’s over.”

As I say the words, I don’t feel the full flood of relief I thought I would. I guess that’s what love does to you. Makes you feel vulnerable even in your victory.

Static fills the line.

Then Erin’s voice. “Lucian?”