September 12 | Morning
Air whistled through my parched throat, and I collapsed to the wet ground. Cold muddy water soaked through the knees of my pants, but I didn't feel it. I didn't feel anything except the excruciating spasms of a broken heart.
Kittie dashed from the idling car and grabbed me. I saw her lips moving, but I couldn't hear a word she said. My defeated cries blotted out everything else. I was pulled to my feet. My numb body was shoved into the car.
My vacant stare registered Haley crying and pointing straight ahead, Wallace scanning the woods for the she-wolf from the backseat. Kittie Cad threw up her hands in frustration and jerked the gearstick, and the car shot off with a splatter of mud.
Without my seatbelt, I slid, unmoored, into the dash, but I righted myself and leaned my aching head on the cool glass of the passenger window, still wracked by sobs. When my best friend tried to rub my shoulder in comfort, I shrugged Kittie off. There was nothing she could say or do. Nothing anyone could say or do.
My tingling hand fell upon the hilt of the enchanted Damascus sword, and the ringing in my ears faded to a buzz. It strummed deep in my bones. I throbbed with the fury that morphed from despair. Chest heaving, I cast a murderous glance at the plantation where the root of all my heartache was supposed to be.
"Change of plans. Find Aurie. Leave Darcy to me," I spat through clenched teeth. "Drive faster." Kittie Cad met my gaze and wordlessly accelerated. The speedometer needle kissed the redline as we closed the distance to the enemy.
My enemy. Darcy Cyprian was mine now. I knew he had destroyed everyone and everything that came up against him, but I had nothing left to lose. Justice no longer mattered. I wanted restitution for what he had taken from me, and he could only pay with his life.
The yowl of the engine blended with the din of the storm. Faster and faster, we flew along the narrow dirt lane with the house enlarging by the second. Just when it seemed the Nissan would crash into the marble columns, Kittie slammed on brakes. The vehicle whirled in a one-eighty-degree arc, tires spraying rain in a beautiful monochrome rainbow.
Haley threw open the car door mid-spin—as if the whiplashing action was in slow motion. Wallace, Kittie Cad, and I stared after the teen in awe as she launched from the moving vehicle and nailed her landing. Looming bigger than life, the vivacious teenager became something else in the hurricane gales.
She gathered an energy as ancient as time. The rain lashed her, but it didn't faze her. The gusts turned her hair to a black banner of defiance. Her balled fists at her sides emanated power. The gloves were off for all of us.
"Looks like someone's expecting us," said Wallace as he squinted at the open front door.
Kittie was skeptical. "Is it a trap?"
"It doesn't matter. He's in there. I can sense it." I leered at the house as I hit the switchblade of the Damascus short sword and found my place beside Haley. The steel gleamed in a flash of lightning.
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Lead Me Astray
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