Page 91 of The Sinner's Bargain

I could just make out the men moving through lights and shadows. Flickering in and out of sight as they stalked deeper towards the swamps. Voices hollered into the darkness, barking orders, and setting grids.

Fuck sakes.

Goddamn it, Blue, I wanted to yell, but how could I blame her when it was my fault as much as it was hers? I left her alone in a place she didn’t know and expected her to simply stay in her room like some porcelain doll.

I swore to whatever God was listening that I would do better if she returned unharmed.

I followed the harshly cut slabs of stone glowing white beneath my boots down the incline to the boathouse and the boardwalk extending deep into the center of the lake.

“Thoran?” Cyrus slammed a hand down on my shoulder, pulling me to a stop.

I turned my head, but his attention was on something in the distance. A figure sprinting through the dark landscape. Arms and legs pumping. It was the run of someone being chased by a monster. A desperate pounding of adrenaline and terror. I almost couldn’t wrap my head around what I was seeing when the light caught strip of pale gold as the owner whipped her head around. A pale face peeked out through the coils. Even with almost two football fields between us, I didn’t miss the panic in her blue eyes.

“Blue.” Her name whispered from my chest as if in a prayer. An exhale of my fears into the universe.

Until I realized she wasn’t running to get home. She was running from something. Something was causing her to bolt like a deer in the crosshairs of a rifle. Something that stupidly thought it was going to survive the night once I got my hands on it.

“Give me your gun,” I told Cyrus, palm extended.

He didn’t hesitate pulling out his backup and settling the weight into my outstretched hand.

I set off, strides wide. Gun at my side. I couldn’t see the fucker, but I was ready to blow a hole big enough to drive a Buick through right between his eyes.

“Blue!”

She didn’t hear me, nor did she slow down as she moved with neck breaking speed further through the grounds.

A new fear clicked into place as I realized she couldn’t see the still waters lurking at the bottom of the cliff.

The fucking rocks at the bottom.

“Blue!” My roar tore gashes into my esophagus. I tasted the blood as thick and bitter as the chilling grip of terror that closed around my throat.

The gun hit the dirt at my feet.

I no longer knew why I’d even been holding it as I tore after Blue. I pounded across the field with the madness of a man knowing his own soul was on the line. I ate the distance with my heart thundering between my ears, a war cry of panic and desperation. My entire world was a pinprick surrounding Blue and the countries seemingly between us. Everything moved as if in a dream, a fucked up mess of a dream where I couldn’t feel my fucking legs. I couldn’t even be sure I was running because I wasn’t getting any closer and Blue was still so fucking far.

I screamed her name again.

I heard it shatter the night.

The silence.

The fucking sound barrier and still Blue never stopped. Didn’t even slow. She was so lost in whatever was behind her, she couldn’t see how close she was to becoming a broken mess across the rocks.

I watched it happen.

I saw her realize a second too late.

I stood witness to the moment her foot slipped on the edge. When air caught her flailing body and gravity ... fucking gravity pulled her over.

Her scream would haunt me until my dying day.

“No!”

Even to my own ears, the howl was more animal than man. It was madness and despair. But even as my world collapsed like a house of cards against a tornado, I never stopped. My body never ceased its single-minded focus.

I dove in after her.

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