Page 83 of Tainted Saints

“Forest!” a hiss sounds from my other side, then hands are cupping my face, Lan’s dark eyes full of storms. He always had such beautiful eyes. “Don’t you fucking dare die!”

I gasp as white-hot pain flares in my shoulder, seeing Blaine on my other side with his T-shirt balled into his fist as he plugs the wound, but the coldness spreading across my limbs tells me that they may just be too late.

“Take care of her, Lan,” I say, my voice barely above a whisper. “Keep her safe.”

“You will be there to help me do all of that,” Lan chokes out, his head lowering as he presses a tender kiss to my lips. “You are not leaving us, we won. It’s midnight.”

I breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that Aspen is finally free. My Little Lady, our angel is ours and safe from the Ambassador. A frown dips my brows.

“Take him out, he can’t be trusted, Daddy,” I breathe out, hoping Lan knows who I’m talking about.

“You can help me, help us,” Lan promises, but I know that it’s hope speaking, not fact.

“We need to get him back to the car and to Howard right the fuck now,” Blaine grits out, but the darkness around me is already closing in.

“Stay with us, please, Forest,” Lan begs, and I hate the sob in his voice, but I’m helpless to say anything in response as I’m engulfed in black as dark as his eyes.

ChapterThirty-Four

“Hands” by ORKID

ASPEN

I wake up with a gasp,the most awful nightmare still fresh in my mind. It was so cold and dark, and I could hear Forest calling for me but I couldn’t find him. I wipe my cheeks, my fingers coming away damp, the salt of my sadness staining them just as the door opens and Rosie walks in.

She looks away as soon as our eyes connect, but I don’t miss the red rim around hers, the sympathy making them dull.

“What’s wrong?” I breathe out, shards of glass lodging in my throat as I force the words out.

“Oh, Miss Aspen,” she whispers, coming over to me and taking my cold hand in hers. “I’m so sorry.”

“For what?” I can hardly get the words out, shivers making my hands tremble.

“Some of the others were saying there was a hunt last night,” she chokes out, her voice thick and her eyes filling.

“A hunt? I don’t know what that means.” I shake my head, trying to work out what the fuck she’s talking about.

“The Saints were offered a deal; if they could evade capture by the hunters, they could take you,” she tells me, her eyes locked on mine, and all I see is sorrow and pain. “But they lost, Miss, and they were tricked because the hunters had guns.”

A shuddered exhale leaves my chest, knowing what she’s going to say before the words fall from her lips.

“They didn’t win, Miss.”

The world stops spinning, my lungs no longer taking in any oxygen as those terrible words sink in.

“Rosie.” It’s his voice, the sound of my tormentor, and it snaps me out of my desolation, white-hot rage pulsing through me. Rosie jumps as I leap out of the bed, launching myself at him. He catches me, his cruel hands burning when they grip my arms in a punishing hold.

“I did everything you asked! You didn’t have to…” The anger drains out of me as the reality of the situation sinks in.

They’re dead.He killed them and there is nothing I can do to bring them back.

It’s all my fault.I fall to the floor when he releases me suddenly as my weight sags, but the pain of hitting the rug is nothing to the tearing of my soul. I look up at him, his lips curled and his eyes cold, flat, and dead-looking.

“Get her cleaned up,” he orders, then strides out of the room as if he didn’t just facilitate the death of three men, my soulmates.

“It’s better this way,” my mother says, gripping my arm and hauling me to my feet, pushing me onto the stool that sits in front of my dressing table. “It’s easier to just give in to his demands. Why could you never see that? We all have to make the best of the hand that we’re dealt with.”

I look at her, really look at her, and for the first time, I wonder what she was like before she married a monster. Did she know what he was like before their wedding? Or was she sacrificed by her family too?

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