Page 44 of Hate Me

She’d done this.

This… massacre.

I swallowed hard as the comparison to my own offenses in that area hit me deep in the gut.

And then I knew.

That was another reason that Caspian had sent me. Not just the explanation he’d given me, but because he thought I’d understand her state of mind, that I’d be in a position to pull her back, to pull her out of this blackness.

And, yeah, I could. After everything I’d gone through and all that I’d learned since being away from Rossun, I had the specific skills needed to pull that off.

But I couldn’t do it in one night.

It would take time.

A lot of it.

And without cooperation on her part, it would make it all the more difficult.

When I’d worked with Asher—and myself before that—we’d both been in the headspace of wanting to control those monsters in us.

But Skylar… just seeing this mess here tonight… watching her tearing into the last target left alive in this place… it was blatantly clear that she was so very far from that state of mind.

Jesus Christ, seeing her again after all this time was enough of a shock to my system without witnessing all of this from her, seeing how far she’d fallen and was currently drowning.

A shriek from the guy at her mercy pulled me out of it and I was able to focus up and do what I’d come all this way to do.

“Skylar!” I called out.

She jolted and swung her head my way.

I’d forgone my usual balaclava when I was in the field so she could look upon me and make the necessary connection to me a lot easier.

And I saw the shock and confusion all over her as she took me in.

It had her stopping the movement of her blade slicing deep down the torso of the big guy in her grasp slumped against one of the shipping crates, as she spilled his guts open, making him watch the destruction, her ripping him open.

She yanked the knife out and he shrieked again.

The bone-chilling sound didn’t even rattle her.

She just stood there spinning her blade in her hand as she eyed me, taking in every inch of me, her lips twitching indicating she was clearly affected, even as she tried to hide it by keeping her gaze steady and emotionless.

“What are you doing here?” she finally spoke.

Not the greatest greeting.

Then again, I didn’t expect much given her current state.

“We need to talk.”

She glared at me for a moment, then roughly released the guy and took a couple of steps back from him, keeping an eye on him in her peripheral vision while she spun her knife in her hand and addressed me, “Let me guess, Caspian wants me to stop my pursuit of Jett?”

“Taking down that motherfucker was never off the table.” I gestured at the bloodied mess all around. “But not like this.”

“This is the only way to get through to a psychopath like Jett.”

“Defeat him by becoming him?”

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