Page 162 of Consume Me

“She was a smart woman,” Blake says, realizing his slip when his eyes flit to me.

In a flurry of movement, Caleb marches over to me, a smirk playing on his lips. He shows me the golden dagger before he slowly pushes the tip into the soft skin just below my right collarbone, above my breast.

The pain hits me so fast, that a cry bursts out of me before I clamp my mouth shut. I try calming down by breathing through my nose and exhaling softly. This is just the beginning, and if Blake continues thrashing, he will kill himself to get to me.

“It’s just a flesh wound, nothing bad. Baby, look at me,” I say through the bout of pain and the perspiration coating me.

He does, and his crestfallen look rips my heart out. With eyes locked, he gives me strength. I feel the tip embedded intomy skin, the flesh around it pulsing and throbbing while I watch the blood painting my chest in a deep crimson.

Caleb twists the knife and I bite into my cheek so hard, blood coats my mouth. I don’t scream. I force myself to dissociate from my present, not breaking eye contact with the one I love. This is a lesson my father taught us back in London. To focus on something positive, a memory in case we’d ever been caught and tortured. While I get lost in the forest green of his eyes, I imagine our lodge and how happy we’ve been there.

“I love you,” I mouth, and Blake wrenches and pulls in his metallic confines. They rattle from the sheer force, but nothing happens.

“Son, be patient. You’ll get your chance soon.”

Blake’s movements halt abruptly.

“You’ll never get away with this.” I spit in Caleb’s face, and he takes a step back, incredulity washing over him. He quickly dabs at the dribble with the back of his hand.

“You think you’re tough? He can’t feel pain, but he can die. Test me again, and see what happens.”

I remain perfectly still. Fucking asshole, changing his plans like the insane person he is. I doubt he even knows what he’ll do. We riled him up, and that makes him even more dangerous.

“And then what?” I ask, trying to school my features into something neutral. The longer I keep him talking, the more likely he’ll delay his torment, and our friends will be closer to getting here.

The blood loss makes me dizzy, but I focus on Blake. We have to stay alive.

“Once we get rid of all of you, we can return as the kings we were meant to be. We’ll create a legacy from the ground up, with children who’d never dare go behind our backs.”

These damn lunatics. I cast a gaze at Blake, who’s wearing a horrified expression. We can’t allow that to happen.

“Cassandra is weak—just like her mother. But while the old witch hung in there as long as possible, her daughter will crumble when she realizes she couldn’t protect you.”

There’s no point arguing with a mad person. That’s his goal and nothing I can say will change that.

Caleb’s phone rings again, and from the heated conversation, it must be Felix.

“Five more minutes,” he says and hangs up.

“We have to cut this short. Your friends are on the way,” he says with a gleam that chills me to my bones. “You’re all going to die today.”

He goes to Blake, tsking and shaking his head at him.

“I really wanted to test my product on you. Death will be too merciful for you. But I have an empire to run. I win, son. Tell your useless mother when you see her that I regret her like I regret that she gave me this weakling. At least you will die knowing no one loved you. No one loves a monster.”

While Caleb is busy with his monologue and pointing the gun at Blake, Blake draws his features into a bored expression, which only makes Caleb trigger-happy as his finger flexes. This is the moment I break apart.

Lowering my mouth, I wrap my lips around the handle of the dagger and slowly pull it out—more blood gushes out,streaming down my chest in rivulets of dark scarlet. I’m glad the sight of blood never made me nauseous. I press the tip of the dagger onto the large green button on the machine next to me, freeing myself. The metallic cuffs snap open, but I remain perfectly still, checking first that the commotion didn’t alert Caleb.

Moving stealthily and with my heart thumping, I reach him.

“I love him. I will always love him,” I say, jumping onto Caleb’s back and impaling the dagger into his neck. Blood immediately coats the blade. All I feel is vindication. No regret. No remorse. Maybe I should, but right in this moment, all I can think of is Blake and what this asshole made him go through.

The gun fires, deafening me, and I leap back. Caleb drops to the side, blinking, and in his desperation, he pulls the dagger out of his neck.

I watch the life seep out of him for one moment before I move to press the button on Blake’s chair, freeing him from both his ankle and wrist restraints.

I leap into his arms, and he kisses me so hard, stealing the breath from my lungs.

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