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He’s so beautiful.
So cold.
So ridiculously cruel that I need my head examined for wanting his touch despite how much it hurts me.
I can feel him. In front of me. Behind me. All around me. He consumes me, even when doing nothing more than standing fifty feet away.
“Who’s missing? Which one of them isn’t here?”
It’s not until she mentions something that I notice there are only eight of the nine men standing around us.
“I don’t know. I see Ezra and Damon, but...”
My eyes are back on Ezra, and even though his eyes are hidden behind the mask he wears, I know his stare is locked on me.
Hating me.
Accusing me.
Wanting me, despite everything we do to each other.
For a few minutes, Ivy and I go back and forth about what to do. And while I’m being sensible by telling her to walk back inside the house with me, she’s losing her mind by wanting to do the stupid thing and run.
If she runs, they chase. And when they catch her, she won’t return to this cabin the same person.
Ivy can take care of herself. She’s a strong girl. But not even she is strong enough to endure whatever it is they do to people in the woods.
“Ivy, seriously, turn around and come with me.”
“I can’t do that,” she argues, and I’m about two seconds away from hitting her over the head, knocking her out, and dragging her inside since I’m the only rational person standing on this porch.
Only a crazy person would attempt to run. It’s the same thing as being faced down by a pack of wild dogs. You run, they chase, because you’re making it fun for them.
“Why?”
Glancing around at the men still standing with their torches and devil masks, Ivy blinks at me once before saying, “Because I’m running.”
She takes off before I can grab her, all of the Inferno turning their heads in some coordinated, creepy ass slow motion, to follow the direction she takes. My pulse becomes a staccato rhythm in my throat, my palms sweaty and my legs weak.
One of them lifts that damn horn they always have that’s like something out of the Viking era, and when the haunting sound of it fills the air, I tremble in place.
Where do you even get a horn like that? This entire thing is bullshit.
I know what’s next. After the horn blows, they take off, and I turn to face them, waiting for that exact thing.
Except...they’re not running. Not one of them so much as twitches to take off in Ivy’s direction.
Instead, all those creepy masks turn back my direction, and I damn near collapse right in front of them.
Noooooooo…
This isn’t happening.
There’s no possible way they’ll come after me instead of Ivy.
Unless...that’sexactlywhat they were planning all this time.
Nope.
