Page 71 of Not Your Hero

I swallow hard and turn, heading down the stairs to find her. She isn’t inside. In fact, I know exactly where she is. Her new favorite place to hide.

I walk out the back door as quietly as I can and into the maze. I reach up and cover my shoulder where the arrow went in with my hand, pulling it away to see it’s still bleeding. I curse under my breath as I grab my last arrow and swing it in my good hand.

I move through the maze slowly until I can almost feel her. I close my eyes briefly before rounding the corner and find her trembling body curled into herself in the corner.

“Emerson,” I say her name. She jolts, jumping to her feet as if she’s ready to fight. She looks at the arrow in my hand and up to my face as I grin at her.

“I’m … I’m not like them, Gannix.” Fear. There’s the fear in her. She thinks I’m going to hurt her, kill her. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

I step closer, and I watch as her whole body shakes from the fear of what’s coming. With my injured arm, I reach for her, cupping the back of her neck while tears run down her cheeks.

“I told you to run, Em.”

“Where would I go?” she whispers.

“Anywhere but here,” I tell her. Then I pull her face toward mine and press my lips roughly to hers. She doesn’t kiss me back. I don’t expect her to.

I keep kissing her for a long minute before I pull away from her. I shove her back a little, far enough I have room to maneuver the arrow. Then I point it at her, and she cries harder.

“I’m sorry, Gannix! I’m sorry I couldn’t be what you needed me to be! I’m sorry I’m useless,” she screams as I look at her. I shake my head, and she watches me through her teary eyes.

“No, Em. I’m the one who’s sorry. I’m sorry I thought I could be what you needed. I’m sorry I stole your freedom for nothing.”

“What?” I flip the arrow in my hand so the tip is facing me instead of her and watch as her eyes grow wide.

“I’m sorry you had to go through all of this because of me,” I tell her. She’s about to say something when I do it.

Without another thought, I plunge the arrow into my chest.

Chapter 36

Emerson

It’s as if I can’t get air into my lungs. My hands shake, and my body trembles. Gannix lies there, and as soon as I start to crawl toward him, I’m ripped from the ground by someone. There’s a scream trapped in my throat as I’m hefted over someone’s shoulder. I’m in shock, that I’m sure of.

My body dangles from this man’s shoulder as other men rush around us. I have no idea who the hell they are or what they’re doing here.

The guy carries me inside, but I have no fight left in me. Gannix is gone. He’s gone, and that thought causes my chest to constrict. He can’t be gone, though, right? Because he fucking took me. He took me to keep me, and then he just dies? No, that’s not right. That’s not how this was supposed to be. How can this be?

I’m carried up the stairs and into Gannix’s room before I’m sat in a chair, my wrist yanked up and chained to the wall. I glance up and see that it’s Gannix’s friend, Ren.

“What are you doing?” I ask, my voice hoarse.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he tells me. Now I laugh darkly.

“Where the hell would I go?”

“Shit’s about to get worse, Emerson.”

“How could it possibly get worse than this?” I yell at him. He shakes his head, but I don’t understand. Ren doesn’t say anything else; he just turns and walks out, locking the door behind him. I knew this door could lock from the outside, but Inever knew why. Maybe Gannix thought I could break free from the chains he used on me.

I look around the room as tears spring to my eyes. He’s gone. He’s really gone. I can’t make sense of it. It’s not like I knew him long, but he knew me. He knew everything there was to know about me, and for some reason, he made me feel alive.

The bed is still a rumpled mess from where we slept in it. When Gannix thought I was asleep, I felt him move in close and wrap his arms around me, holding me as he whispered words in my ear.

“Why did you do it?” I scream at no one. He shouldn’t have done that. He shouldn’t have killed himself. Why? I thought he wanted to be with me. I thought maybe, just maybe, somewhere in this fucked up world we live in, someone wanted me.

And I thought that someone was Gannix. He did go through all this for me. And for what?

---