Page 174 of Hell Breaks Loose

We all glance at one another.

Hard to say whether she’s ranting or not, if any of this has any substance to it at all.

What is clear is that she’s losing it. Fast.

And whatever she thought she would find down here, she didn’t.

And Hellena is about to pay the price.

“I will punish each and every one of you for this,” she gurgles, practically foaming at the mouth.

“Aunt Rachelle, please…” Hell grits out, tensed against the pull of her hair, the bead of blood trickling down and soaking into her shirt. “Let me help you.”

“Or hurt her, and you get a bullet between the eyes.”

“My children?—”

“Are all but through,” Tell snaps. “Your coup flew the coop.”

“That was awful,” Ora huffs, her eyes never leaving Hellena. Just like the rest of us. Looking for any opening…

"Not my best work…” I feel him move beside me, vying for a better angle.

‘Enough!” Rachelle screams, shaking Hellena viciously, frantically scanning the array of opposition in front of her, weighing the odds.

“I agree.”

The blow comes out of nowhere, taking Rachelle in the side of the head as a hand snatches the knife from her grasp, tossing it away before Rachelle even hits the ground.

Where Evan stands over her, his eyes wide. His chest heaving.

He glares down at her, clarity returning to his eyes, pure, uninhibited rage coursing through his entire body, pounding at his neck and temples.

I know that feeling well.

“You can’t do this to me! I am the Sinful, I am the Seven, I am?—”

“Done with you,” Evan forces out, his body quivering. He’s still struggling, fighting.

“H–How…?” Rachelle asks, but it’s rhetorical, incoherent. She begins to babble, sputtering and falling to pieces before our eyes. In seconds, she’s gone.

Aside from the twitching, lip-fluttering tremors.

Seeing the break, even from an enemy, makes my stomach turn. It’s hard to watch.

But not that hard.

Not when she’s falling forward, free and safe and in my arms. Held tight to my chest. Pressed between Tell and me.

“It worked!” Hellena gasps, looking up at Tyler with wonder in her gaze.

“Uh, well, thing is…” He looks around a bit awkwardly. “I didn’t actually get the chance to use it on him.”

Everyone stops, watching Evan as he turns back toward us.

“So it was all…?”

“Him.” Tell nods.

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