Page 56 of Of Daggers and Deceit

Defiance and determination exploded inside of me alongside a cool, unfamiliar thrum of energy that settled neatly alongside my gift.

Something like metal, cool and solid, slid into my grip as I dragged my hands up with a scream of fury and pushed them forward with every scrap of energy I had left inside me, straight into his chest.

He grunted low, his body jerking reactively on top of me, his face pulling back into a snarl as he looked down at his chest.

I stared down at my hands gripping tightly to two shiny golden daggers now embedded in his chest. White-hot panic instantly wove through me as the gold became soft, moving like water back across my palms and up to my wrists, reforming into the shape of those same cuffs my mother had given me from my father. What? How?

The Benefactor heaved in a terrible breath, muffling words that were completely inaudible, choking on them instead. Blood poured steadily from his wounds, my hands now slick with it, my body too fatigued to do anything to stop it.

All I could do with his weight pressed firmly on top of mine was watch as his body weakened, the light draining from his eyes until finally, he slumped on top of me unmoving. Tears streamed from my eyes, ignited by a sharp release of adrenaline from my system, leaving me too exhausted, in far too much pain to move.

But I was alive. Alive. Alive. Alive.

So many questions ran through my mind, all of them unable to be answered. Wetness began to seep around my stomach area, sticking to my skin as fear began its suffocation of me, both from what I had done and from the information I had acquired.

It was too much. This was all too much for me to deal with, as it felt like my very soul had reached its absolute tipping point, dragged there by all my previous actions, which had led me towards this very moment.

Only to be pushed off the edge.

I didn’t want anything from tonight to make sense, but the evidence was so glaringly obvious. I choked thinking about it, gulping in breaths of air. I had little options left.

The Haven was not safe. It would never be safe, and we would never be free, no matter what we gave up. My life as I once knew it was over.

I killed a Benefactor. A wicked, evil, disgusting Omega, but it would never be perceived as such.

My family would never have control of their own lives here, and Riley would never know she lived with someone who had been planning to give our mother away, to use her. Those great, gulping breaths grew louder the longer I lay there processing it all.

There was no one who could help me when everyone in the defence was unconscious.

Or dead.

My fingers trembled as I shakily pulled them out from underneath him. I couldn’t scream for fear that guards would find me like this. I would die immediately, with no hope of getting my family out.

So, I lay there, crying into the night as quietly as possible, praying to the stars above me that someone safe would find me and fix this mess I’d created.

Because if this problem wasn’t hidden, the only thing that would ever be certain was my death.

RILEY

Sly and I crouched low in the cabin as the carriage jostled when a shifted Dominant landed on the roof, his nails grating against the metal with every step he took.

I breathed out slowly, pushing my back further against Sly, who held me protectively, his grip the only reassurance I had that I could do this.

Strong was all I could be if I ever wanted to succeed in my dreams. For my family, for the Haven, but also for myself. I was not going to live the rest of my life underestimated.

His breath scattered warmth across my icy skin on the back of my neck, a welcome relief from the worry weaving its way through my body.

The carriage jostled more significantly this time, my arm snatching out to grip the support bar as the shifter jumped off and landed right next to the window we were hiding beneath.

We ducked lower, tighter against each other, as my eyes drifted upward, just high enough to peep over the edge of the windowsill.

A large, sleek, cat-like shifter prowled back and forth outside of the carriage, raising its nose in the air, scenting. I nestled in closer to Sly’s chest to make myself smaller, allowing him to pull me in tighter. His warm breath blew against the shell of my ear. “It will not scent us. My invisibility blocks sight and scent. Sound, I am still not entirely sure about, though.”

The cat’s ear’s flicked back and forth, as if hearing what Sly had just whispered, the muscles in my body coiling tighter. I lay my hand down and squeezed his thigh tight in warning, but the infuriating Omega behind me, in all his cocky confidence, didn’t seem to care as he sucked that same lobe right into his mouth, sending a shocked zing of pleasure straight down to my core. I gripped his leg tighter, another warning. We had never breached anything beyond close proximity before, and tonight was already leaping past so many of the boundaries I had placed between us.

But the devil of an Omega didn’t care about my nails digging into his leg, instead choosing to drag his irresistible lips down the side of my neck, kissing gently enough to not leave a mark, but with enough pressure to narrow my bodily awareness entirely to the places he touched. Tingles thrummed in my belly with every graze of his plump lips against my skin, marking it, scorching it.

This was wrong. This was breaching every boundary I had placed between us, but I didn’t dare move for fear of alerting the shifter to our presence. At least, that’s what I told myself.

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