Dark Wish

Beach? There’s a beach?

“Copy that. Over.”

My heart beats in my throat at the thought, but I have to calm myself. It could be a riverbank.

No time to think about it. I keep running across the mossy floor, and I even jump over a few rocks just to stay ahead. Every time I look over my shoulder, he’s a little bit closer, and it only pushes me to run faster. Adrenaline rushes through my body, forcing me to stay in the here and now and to keep going no matter what.

Anna is right in front of me, a few feet away, her ragged breaths filling the air with panic. One glance over her shoulder, and she’s infected me too.

“Behind you!” she yelps.

I don’t even have to look to know. He must be close.

I run so hard my feet become numb, narrowly escaping the trees in my path. In a few seconds, I’ve managed to pass by Anna. I glance over my shoulder to see if the man is still catching up.

But the earth suddenly disappears from underneath my feet.

I shriek.

Tumbling down, I try to catch myself, but it’s no use. I land headfirst on the ground.

Dizziness overtakes me. My eyes feel like marbles rolling across the floor as the earth spins around me. Two feet jump down next to me.

There was a cliff. How did I not see it in time?

“Amelia!” Anna calls. “No! I need you!”

“Run!” I growl, barely able to see straight from the fall.

“I can’t … I can’t do this without you,” she says, her pitch fluctuating. “We were supposed to flee together.”

“You can still flee,” I reply. “Now go, before he’s here!”

“But I’m all alone …” she says, clutching a tree as she considers her options.

“You can do this. I know you can. I believe in you. You have to free yourself.” I muster the last bit of my energy and shout, “Don’t look back! GO!”

She hesitates, staring at me for a second. Then she runs off into the distance.

I groan from the pain and the whirlwind of emotions flooding my brain. I was so close … so damn close to escaping, but I didn’t look in front of me, and that was my greatest mistake.

And as I rise to my knees, the guard who was chasing us finally catches up with me.

He shoves me right back into the dirt and growls, “You’re not going anywhere.”

Chapter 24

Eli

I won’t let anyone in this House rest until Amelia’s back in my clutches.

No way I’ll let her escape. Not ever.

We’ve come way too far, made too much progress, for it to all end now.

And if she escapes, Lord knows what she’s going to do. A girl like her is volatile. She doesn’t know what she did, which makes it all the more dangerous if she manages to get out. If she doesn’t know the truth, no one else will. She’ll endanger my business, and I can’t let that happen.

So I grab some cuffs from my cabinet and head out for the hunt.

Ever since I took Amelia and brought her into this House, I’ve wanted nothing more than to indulge myself in a delicious chase.

Too bad this one might not end in devious sex … but in tears.

Amelia

The man grasps my wrists and pins them to my back while I cough and heave as he sits down on top of me.

He fishes the walkie-talkie from his pocket and talks into it. “I’ve got one of them. Amelia. Over.”

“Copy that. Owner on the way to your location. Over.”

Owner? As in … Eli?

As the guard puts his walkie-talkie away, I use my last bit of energy to wriggle my way out from underneath his grasp and fish the shard of glass from my pocket.

Without thinking about it, I shove it straight into his throat.

He gurgles and yelps in pain, his hand immediately rising to cover his throat.

My pupils dilate at the sight of all that blood oozing from his neck. I’m frozen in place as he grasps at his throat, blood pouring down on top of me. The glass shard stuck in his throat glistens, and in the light, it sometimes resembles a knife instead. I blink a couple of times, feeling as though the life is being choked out of me.

I quickly shove him off me and crawl away, my heart pounding. He falls backward into the dirt, struggling with his own mortality. For a second there, I feel guilty. Heinous for what I’ve done. But I tell myself I had no choice. That I had to do this in order to free not just myself but Anna too.

She’s waiting for me. I have to go. Don’t think, don’t feel, just act.

I scramble up to my feet and stumble away. My foot feels sprained, and every step hurts, but I keep going. I can’t give up. I won’t give up. Because if I do … it means I’d admit that he won. That Eli’s right about me. That I deserve this. That I did something terrible that deserves all of this …