I had to get up. If I didn’t, my father would die at Sin’s hand. I couldn’t let it happen. I took a pained breath and shot my foot out, striking Brianne in the knee. It caved inward and she fell, still flailing with the baton. Darkness crept in at the edges of my vision, and everything was hazed in red. I crawled on top of her as she swung again with the baton. Something snapped in my upper arm on the impact. She’d dropped the stun gun when she fell.
Lightning blasted nearby, and the deep roll of thunder shook the earth beneath us. She swung again, slower this time, and I grabbed the baton and ripped it from her grip.
Tossing it away, I leaned over her and ignored her clawing fingers. I gripped her throat with my good hand and pressed as she scratched at my face. She was too weak, the fight leaving her as surely as the oxygen left her bloodstream. I bore down on her throat with my weight as she stared up at me.
Her movements grew more and more sluggish until the crazed light finally left her eyes. They closed, and she was at peace, as if I’d soothed her to sleep with a caress instead of the bleakest violence.
The crowd erupted in cheers as I collapsed onto the wet ground beside Brianne. Rain poured down my face, but I would never be washed clean of what I’d done.
“It looks like Sin’s feisty redhead has won this round. Team Vinemont sure knows how to pick ‘em.” I could hear the leer in Cal’s voice, his words snaking down my body like the rivulets of rain.
“Red, get to it. Give us a grand sendoff for this riveting trial.”
I turned to where my father sat in a huddle. The child rocked with her hand over her eyes. Red was bent over, and he bobbed up and down, working on something. He rose, yanked Brianne’s mother to her feet, and pushed her over the side of the battlement. But she didn’t hit the ground. The rope around her neck stopped her halfway down.
My mind seized.
She clawed at her neck and kicked. It was no use. Red had tied her tight. Her face was a ruined crimson mask, everything obliterated but her eyes. She stared down at her daughter as she gave a few more futile kicks.
The crowd sat in silence—her strangled noises the only sound other than the thud of her feet against the stone wall.
When she quieted, her dead eyes still stared at Brianne. Or was it me? I couldn’t tell. I couldn’t exist there anymore. The spectators roared with approval, and I screamed until my chest burned and the attendants dragged me away.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
STELLA
“I TOLD YOU CHRISTMAS was the worst.” Renee pressed cold compresses to my face. “It was. For me. But you, I think—no, I hope—this was the worst of it.”
I could barely see her. One of my eyes was swollen shut, and the other gave me only a sliver of vision. Everything ached, especially my arm. I couldn’t lift it. Reaching across my body with my left hand, I ran my fingers down the rough material of a cast.
Sin drugged me the second I got into the car after the trial. I should have been livid. Instead, I was thankful for the brief reprieve from reality. Had my dreams been happy? I didn’t know. All I knew was that I was awake now, thrown back into the hell of Acquisitions and trials.
“Sin?” My voice was a rasp, sandpaper scraping rough wood.
“He’s gone to town. Work.”
I tried to shake my head clear, but shooting pains rushed up my neck at the movement. “How long?”
Renee moved the compress so it was against the eye that wouldn’t open. “Two days. The doctor came and set your arm and your fingers.”
Right. Brianne’s eyes, the swing of the baton, and the sharp crack of bone that I could still hear. She was always there now—crying in the woods or screaming at me that it was my fault. Was it?
“Brianne has her mother’s eyes.” My words slurred and fuzzed, my tongue too thick and my lips too swollen.
“Shh, don’t talk about that now. You’re here safe. The worst is over.”
I wanted to believe her. I didn’t. Cal’s proposition floated through my mind like a bloated body on a bayou.
A knock at the door sounded. I tried to look, but my neck muscles wouldn’t cooperate. Instead, they ached and burned.
“It’s me.” Teddy’s voice was like a burst of sunlight through the vapors of hell.
“No.” I couldn’t let him see me like this.
“Not now, Teddy.” Renee rose to go to the door. “Stella isn’t dressed.”
“Get dressed. I want to see you. I came all the way home for the weekend just to check on you. The trial was a few days ago, wasn’t it?” His voice fell.