Gone?

Tuning him out, Elyon scoffs.

"That depends. Will dear Forest live long enough for her child to make it to term?" Elyon smiles. "Or will I have to get rid of yet another casualty standing in my way."

Glaring at him, it all comes together.

"You never had any intention of keeping Forest safe."

Glaring at me, Elyon wickedly smiles.

"I let the daughter I raised willingly go on the chopping block." Dusting off the front of my cloak, his smile deepens. "What the hell makes you think I won't do it again?"

Clouded with anger, I turn to face Mason.

"Where-"

No longer standing before me, I watch him rally his forces, urging them back the way they came.

It was a distraction.

All of this one was one big fucking distraction.

And I fed right into it.

Shifters and Revolutionists alike move in a group, retreating from the bloodshed with little to no care.

"After them!" I yell toward our lingering forces. "Kill any opposing forces."

Grabbing my shoulders, Elyon gets in my face.

"Who the hell allowed you to dictate my men-"

Grabbing his throat, I don't allow him to finish his statement.

"You're nothing," I hiss, lifting him up by his neck, too angered to see past my blind rage. "You will always be nothing," I continue. "You are a useless empty shell of a man, driven by the need to have power. You will leave this Earth mattering to no one and nothing because that's all you are," I hiss. "A worthless, pitiful example of what our kind's worst traits are. You will never harm Forest so long as I am living," holding him up, he gasps, too startled to make a move.

Clawing at my hand, he smiles.

"I-I guess it all depends," he gasps. "On whom makes it to that cabin first."

Winnowing free from my gasp, he vanishes into thin air, leaving nothing but my shaking hand in the space above me.

Letting out shaky breaths, I replay his words.

I guess it all depends on whom makes it to that cabin first.

The cabin.

Forest and my girl.

They must be in the cabin.

Looking around, I stare at the petrified onlookers of the Precipice. Staring me down, Atticus looks at me with raised brows.

"Is she there?" I whisper.

Shrugging his shoulders, he gives me a grin.