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Blond hair gleams in the air as a slender figure dashes from the front of the manor. Briar. Startled, Sergei turns toward her and the world explodes with a monstrous sound.Bang!
Acrid smoke tickles my throat as my ears ring in the aftermath. I can taste death; it comesthatclose to claiming me. But, as I stagger a few steps back, I realize I’m unscathed.
He missed…
But I wasn’t his target. Paces away, a limp, blonde figure lies motionless on the lawn.
“No!” Even as I scream, there isn’t time to think. React. Mourn.
Sergei’s already whirling in my direction—but he doesn’t expect the second I lunge.
There’s no way I can overpower him. Stunning him is my only goal as my hand grapples with his. The gun swishes wildly in his grasp, pointing at me. The ground.
“Shit!” Finally, he drops it entirely.
But I don’t have long to feel triumphant.
“You bitch!” He grabs my throat, wrenching my feet off the ground.
In vain, I strain and kick and flail until he trips, crushing me to the ground. Panic flares as the air leaves my chest. I brace my hand protectively over my stomach and fight for leverage to slip from his grasp.
“You little bitch,” he grunts, tightening his grip. “I knew the moment I saw you that you were like her,” he hisses. “Marnie Winthorp. Meddling and foolish—”
“I…saw…through you,” I manage to croak. “Just…like…she did…”
Blood rushes through my ears, drowning him out. Closing my eyes, I focus every ounce of strength I have into kicking. Clawing. Biting. But he’s no easy foe to overpower.
His angry growls seep into my ears as every attempt I make to resist has less and less impact. “Just…like….that fucking…whore…”
Suddenly, he stiffens, impossibly heavy. Crushing me…
“Ellen?”
The faint shout triggers a sharp pang through my chest. Hope? I open my eyes as unseen hands roll Sergei off of me. Gasping for breath, I blink up at the figure in question, braced to fight. A haggard face stares back at me and I shake my head. I’m dreaming.
Still, I indulge my insanity. “V-Vanya?”
He’s holding a knife. Blood streaks the tip and my brain takes a pathetically long second to put the pieces together: the weapon, the unmistakable shape of a larger body lying beside mine.
Swallowing hard, Vanya flexes his free hand without looking away from me once. “Come with me.” He hauls me to my feet, and into his arms.
“Briar…”
“She’s alive.” He jerks his chin toward a man racing past us, Briar in his arms.
But she wasn’t the only potential victim.
I crane my neck, hunting for the awkward shape lying on the ground nearby. “Sergei—”
“Don’t look.” Vanya grabs my chin, forcing me to face him. “Come. Come!”
“How?” I rasp as he approaches the main manor. “How?”
It isn’t long before someone lunges from the dark to meet us and I have my answer.
A tattered scream rips from my throat. First, from fear. Then, as the moonlight plays over the planes of the attacker’s face…
Air wheezes from my chest as any words I mean to say die as a gasp. I’m dreaming. I have to be. But even my imagination isn’t so vivid.
