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Nathan walked over to him silently--then punched him over and over until Brennan's head was hanging down, blood streaming from his mouth. Amelia screamed and begged, and it just seemed to egg Nathan on, as if he were taking great pleasure in destroying Brennan.
“Your turn will come next,” Nathan promised her.
Two of Nathan’s henchmen forced Amelia’s clothes onto her body, leering and touching her as they did. Nathan just smiled his approval. Brennan thrashed against his captors, fighting to break free. But they held him back, raining blows upon his body as he fought. He started to shift and one of them slammed him across the temple with the butt of their handgun.
He crumpled to the ground, unconscious, and they let him fall.
"Too bad," Nathan told Amelia. "I wanted him to see what I'm going to do to you."
She raised her chin defiantly, her gaze flashing. I knew that look.
"I'm never going to love you," she told him. "You're a monster."
"Mm. Well, my father used to say you could rule through love or rule through fear." He gripped her chin, his fingers digging into her skin. "I'm happy to choose fear."
Nathan pulled out his cell phone and tossed it to one of his thugs. “Record this. I know some people who will want to see it.”
My hands tightened into fists. He meant me; he’d made sure I saw the video of my brother’s last tortured moments.
Amelia screamed as the thugs dragged him over. Nathan had to grab his hair to hold his head upright when he put the gun to his temple.
She whirled, trying to cover her eyes, when the gun went off. I stepped toward her protectively, my arms rising to shelter her against my chest, and she pushed me away, pushing back to face the scene. She didn’t want me.
Brennan sprawled on the floor, his face unrecognizable.
Agony lanced through my chest.
Seeing my brother die was different now than watching it in video, and I’d watched that video a thousand times.
She let out a scream, as full of pain and terror as the Amelia we’d just seen who was living in that moment.
Maybe Amelia was always living in these dark moments.
CHAPTER40
Liam
She was screamingin her nightmares again.
She used to have the good dreams, the key to escaping my nightmares for a while by slipping into hers.
But this nightmare… I strode outside into the forest, desperate to turn into the wolf and escape. The fragments of it were terrible and sharp. A door splintering open. The crack of gunfire. The scent of desperation. The feel of blood slippery and wet across skin. I had to get away.
The scent of smoke…
I paused, barefoot with mud squishing between my toes. Slowly, I realized I’d accidentally walked into the creek behind our house when I was desperate to escape the bad dreams. Reality came back to me. The moon shone down on the water, which rippled around my legs.
The scent of smoke…
And the thick, heady scent of magic.
She wasn’t just having a nightmare. Someone was guiding her through a nightmare, forcing her to see the terrible past. Louisa was at work.
I took off running through the forest.
When I reached the stone, Teresa saw me and stepped in front of me, her mouth opening in surprise as she raised her hands. Her wide eyes reflected my wild face as I pushed her aside. Teresa flew halfway across the clearing and landed hard on her ass. Her face was disbelieving as she stared up at me from the forest floor.
Louisa stumbled back, fear written across her face, as she dropped the copper bowl from which the smoke drifted.
