Page 178 of Twilight Sins

“She’s alive,” Nik breathes.

Thank fucking God. But Luna’s name is a knife to my chest even as relief floods through me.

“It’s me,” Nik says. “Me and Yakov. We’re here. Where were you shot?”

Mariya coughs, instantly wincing and grabbing for her right shoulder. “Ow.”

Blood soaks into the knees of my pants. Thin streams of it are still flowing over her neck. “She’s losing a lot of blood.”

Nik takes off his shirt and presses it against Mariya’s shoulder.

“What happened, Mariya?” I ask her. “Who did this?”

I already know what she’s going to say. I figured it out at the club.

I figured it out too late, though. Too. Fucking. Late.

“Akim,” she gasps, wincing again as Nik applies pressure to her wound.

“Where is Luna?”

There are a million other questions I should be asking. When did Akim arrive? When did he leave? How many men were with him?

But Luna is the only thought in my head.

Mariya shakes her head. Her eyes roll around in her head like loose marbles. “I… don’t know.”

Her eyes flutter closed. I reach down and shake her other shoulder. “Mariya!”

“Yakov!” Nik snaps. “She’s been fucking shot.”

“And Luna could be dead any second,” I fire back. “I need to know what happened.”

“It’s blurry. I p-passed out.” Mariya’s voice is getting softer by the second. Like someone is slowly turning her volume down. “I remember… I saw L-Luna. For a second. She came out and then…”

“Then?” I press.

Nik gives me another warning glare, but I don’t care. If anything Mariya can tell me will save Luna, I have to try.

“They took her.”

As soon as the words are out of her mouth, I turn and sprint into the mansion. I run from room to room, yelling Luna’s name. I’ve been avoiding her for days, but I’d give my fucking life to see her curled up in the library with a book in her lap or nearly burning down my kitchen to make me breakfast.

I check my room, which belongs more to her than it does to me now. The soft vanilla scent of her is everywhere. It torments me with how close we were.

She was just here.

And now, she’s gone.

Just like I knew she’d be.

My laptop is lying on the bed. I have no idea how it got here, but it doesn’t matter. I sit on the edge of the bed and pull up the security footage. I scroll through the playback until I see movement. Until I see her.

Luna is running barefoot down the driveway, her blonde hair trailing behind her. I know how this ends. I know she doesn’t make it. But that doesn’t stop me from muttering under my breath.

“Run, Luna. Keep moving. Don’t stop.”

She cuts into the grass, sprinting… towards Mariya.

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