Page 63 of High Stakes

Slumped in the corner beside a wardrobe, was Titus. He was clutching the side of his stomach, blood pouring over his fingers from a wound that looked too deep for his tech to heal. A wicked dagger lay on the floor beside him. “Go, Eve,” he panted.

I had to get a medic for him. I had to take him home.

Abram launched himself at me, but froze when Enoch’s hand lifted him off the ground by his throat. Asa and Terah filed into the room behind him, taking in the scene. Abram grabbed his stake and thrust it at Enoch’s heart.

“NO!” My scream filled the air.

Enoch caught Abram’s hand in a crushing grip, his lips trembling with rage. They pulled away from his gums, exposing his fangs. Before I could stop him, Enoch tore into Abram’s throat.

“Enoch, no!”

Titus screamed for me to jump. My hand glowed with a bright blue luminescence.

Without stopping to think, I ran to the window and leapt out the pane. A scream tore from my lungs. Cool wind rushed up all around me, buffeting my face. The gown Enoch had made for me flapped against my legs.

My body lurched forward as the suit accelerated me until all I could hear was wind, my own screams drowned out by the noise. Everything in me shredded and tore, my anguished cry the last sound I remembered.

Chapter Twenty-Five

ENOCH

The sound of shattering glass startled me out of the haze of rage I felt. The window had broken. I dropped Eve’s attacker to the floor and stepped over him, searching the room for her. Titus started to laugh, but it cut off quickly as he gripped his side and winced from the pain. The scent of blood wafted in the air.

I rushed to the window, grasping the sill. It splintered under my fingers.

Eve was plummeting toward the ground, her dark red dress flapping wildly as the wind surged around her body.

“Eve!”

I ran, faster than I’d ever pushed myself. Down stairs, through corridors, to the nearest door and across the lawn, leaping hedges and fences, and anything and anyone in my way. Time slowed. I was almost to her.

Reaching out to catch her, I slowed my pace.

But she somehow increased her speed, and instead of falling into my arms, I caught only the slightest blur of red before she disappeared in the middle of them.

Turning a circle, I gasped. Where had she gone?

From the window above, Asa and Terah watched, Terah’s hair flapping in the wind.

She was being truthful. She truly was from the future.

Terah appeared in front of me. “Titus is gone. So is Asa’s threat.” There was no softness, no kindness in her voice. There was only relief.

While she felt safer and more secure, I felt as though my heart had been ripped from my chest, that Eve still held it in her hands while it beat a rhythm that was hers alone.

“Brother, it’s for the best,” Terah consoled.

“Then why does it hurt so much, Terah? Answer me that.”

“Because you cared for her.”

Along the wall, my guard stirred. The captain called out for his men to arm themselves. “Lord Enoch!” one cried out, running toward me from the direction of the front gate.

“What is it?” I answered.

“Sir, an army approaches, unlike any we’ve seen,” he panted, eyes glistening with fear.

Instinctively, I knew this army was the work of my newfound nemesis. I turned to Terah. “See the people to the underground tunnels for safety, and bar the doors.”

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