Page 5 of Hunted in Holly

My gaze narrowed, and with new determination, I used all of my body weight to push the blade in deeper. Ipressed the heel of my palm into the back of the ice, and I forced the icicle through clothing, skin, muscle, and his rib cage. The shard slotted into his body with a slow and pronounced squelch. Warm crimson spread through his cotton shirt and climbed higher on my blade.

His expression never wavered. His confidence remained untouched. The pain of the intrusion only registered in the slightest knitting of his brow. Yet still, he didn’t protest or push me away.

He was a fool if he thought for even a second that I wasn’t serious.

When my blade touched the soft flesh of his heart, I felt each beat reverberating back through the icicle. Now his blood was coating my fingers, as I held the point against his right ventricle, taking it all in for several seconds. I stared into those evil red eyes for what would be the last time, before I snuffed out their glow for good. No one would miss the false saint.

I was doing the world a favor.

“Don’t stop, baby.” He whispered, unraveled and husky. The passive implication flared heat through my cheeks and sent an unwanted shiver down my spine. He leaned back further, until he was on his elbows, forcing me to follow his retreat if I wanted to keep the tension against his fragile organ. He lowered until I was fully on top of him. He shifted his hips beneath me, and my breathing hitched as I felt firmness pressing against my core. “Show me how much you hate me.”

My heart raced in ways it shouldn’t. Nicholas placed a hand on each of my thighs, then he massaged along the line of my quads, climbing up my legs until he reached my hips. With strong muscles, he pulled me forward, better slotting me against the hard, thick shape. Hetilted his head back, letting his platinum hair scatter beautifully on the red velvet comforter, and he dragged his lower lip along his teeth. The quiet groan as I pressed onto his clothed erection damn near short circuited my brain.

I focused on my breathing, and only my breathing, in an effort to suppress my panic. I leveraged the new angle to bear down more of my weight, trying—and failing—to not notice every small shift and grind between us whenever I moved on his hips. Sweat speckled my brow, my clit fucking throbbed, and fuck, I shouldn’t be feeling this as I killed someone for the first time. How was I this fucked up?

Really? I’M fucked up?

HEwas the one who was beyond hard knowing he was about to die at my hand.

Stop thinking about it.

Kill. Him. That voice demanded anew, interrupting thoughts I didn’t want to listen to anyway.Just a little more. Go all the way through.

I grounded myself on those violently intrusive thoughts, and I made the final push to shove that ice blade through the chamber. With a sickening pop, I pierced my way all the way through his beating heart.

I didn’t stop there. I pushed harder, until that ice broke through the muscles of his back, and until the bloodied blade tore into the bed beneath us.

Saint Nicholas’ once prideful smile was now painted with blood. A single, scarlet drop trickled down his chin, catching and staining the bristles of his platinum stubble. He choked out his own life force, and droplets spattered all over my still flushed cheeks.

He went limp on the bed beneath me. I released the ice blade in as much relief as disbelief.

His chest stilled, no longer rising and falling with too steady breaths. The thrum of his heartbeat had quieted to nothing, and his eyes rolled upwards. The frozen dagger melted in his chest, pouring cold blood into the blanket.

And the evil king laid dead beneath me.

I… I did it.

I did it?

You did it.The voice said, like it was foreign and proud.The devil is dead.

My shoulders slumped, yet I couldn’t seem to relax. This was too easy. Had he simply wanted to die? Perhaps he regretted what he’d done. Maybe this was his way of repenting for his sins.

I closed my eyes and released a long held breath, letting the tension and fear leave my soul.

Now my brother could rest. So could mother, my people. I could restore my kingdom without fear of new siege, take the North Pole, and create a new, more peaceful world for all of us.

I’d gotten my revenge.

The back of my mind kept nagging at me that it couldn’t be so simple, but it shouldn’t surprise me that a king’s arrogance was his ultimate undoing. This was the only possible outcome for anyone who dared to disrespect the people of the South Pole.

The fool who would take the fight to Mother Nature, herself, and think himself so untouchable. He was never going to get away with that. We were fighters.

Iwas a fighter.

“So you truly were serious.” That familiar voice was punctuated by a chuckle. My eyes popped back open just in time to see his chest wound close around the dissipating steam from what was once my ice magic.

The vicious Saint’s hand shot straight to my neck, then he reversed our position in a rapid flash of strength and violence. He threw me onto my back, sat on my hips, and he pinned me beneath him with an unyielding fist.

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