“I’m sorry,” Nate whispers.
And then he snaps Scarlet’s neck. The crack resonates inside of me, paired with the sight of her body going limp, her eyes no longer blinking and her arms falling at her side.
A scream rips out of me, scratching at my throat.
My heart hammers as Nate turns to look at me, without an ounce of sympathy in his expression. With adrenaline surging through me, I turn to run and collide with a hard chest.
My body flinches, and tries to escape until I look up.
Declan grabs me, cold and cruel. He turns me around and pins me close, a hand over my mouth, the other pinning my arms down. “He killed her!” I try to scream, but I can’t. “Declan! Please!” My words are muted, my body hot and my entire being filled with terror even though Declan’s here. My mind is a whirlwind that won’t stop.
Help her, is all I can think. Even though I know she’s already dead. Tears leak from the corners of my eyes as my throat goes raw with my cries.
Declan turns my head in his hand so I have to look at him. His grip is brutal and it’s shocking when I see his face. His eyes hold a deadly anger and everything stills.
Very, very slowly, he removes his hand from my mouth. It’s not comforting. He’s still holding me too tight. Tight enough to crush me. It’s hard to catch my breath. My mind spins back through what just happened.
Scarlet is dead.
My friend. I saw her die. Nate snapped her neck. Killed in cold blood.
“Declan.” His name, a plea from me, is barely audible. I can’t breathe enough to put my voice behind it. “I’m scared.”
“My little pet,” he says, and his voice is brutal. I thought I knew fear before but ice spills through my veins. “You should be fucking terrified.”
* * *