“I looked up to you,” I continued, each word a painful knife twisting in my gut. “I loved you like a father. You were my hero.”
The chilling echo of my words hung between us.
“But you took him from me,” I said, my voice dropping to a bare whisper.
There was silence, a deadly calm that seemed to suspend time itself. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed, the facade slipping just a fraction.
“I won’t allow you to take her, too.”
“I won’t stop until I do,” he vowed.
The words lingered in the air, a profound proclamation of the heartbreaking path I was forced to tread.
“It didn’t have to be this way,” I whispered. It was the final goodbye, a farewell to the uncle I once knew and the father figure I’d lost twice.
And with that, I plunged the knife into his heart.
And then I collapsed.
CHAPTER66
Luna
“Hunter!” Through my dizziness, a fresh avalanche of adrenaline helped me crawl over to him, terrified to see how ghostly white he’d become.
At least I had a tourniquet on my leg, but there was no way to cut off the blood loss seeping from his deep laceration.
“Hold on!” I peeled the shirt off my body, wadded its fabric into a ball, and pressed it against the warm, slick wound on his back.
He let out a raspy groan—a good sign that he could still feel pain. But his eyelids began drooping as I patted down his pockets and tugged his cell phone out.
Horrified to see it had shattered in the struggle. It wouldn’t even turn on.
“Shit!” I leaned down and cupped his cheek.
“Stay with me, Hunter. I need you. I can’t live in a world where you don’t exist. Do you hear me?”
Hunter’s eyes dimmed, but he offered a slight nod and whispered, “I’m sorry.”
My throat clenched.What if this is the last time I ever see him?And after all he’d been through, having to kill his uncle, too?
“You saved me.”
His eyes shimmered with tears as I planted a gentle kiss on his soft lips, which were colder than they should have been.
Reminding me I needed to hurry.
“Hold on,” I said.
With immense effort, I got to my feet. I held on to the wall of the underground passage as I stumbled down it as fast as I could, then held on to both cold banisters as I clanked up the metal staircase. Sharp, searing pain radiated from my thigh, sending nauseating waves up my stomach. The world began to blur, and I worried I’d pass out, but I managed to get the door at the top of the steps open. I pushed through it, navigated the secret closet, and emerged into Hunter’s bedroom.
Where I ran smack into the chest of Grayson.
Thank God it was him; I trusted him most with what I needed to do.
He gripped my upper arms, steadying me as I wobbled, his hold firm—ensuring I stayed upright as he scanned my body, head to toe.
I could only imagine what I looked like.
