Page 376 of Evil Hearts

I was going to die because of my own stubbornness and stupidity. My attacker had been slaughtered right in front of me, but I was far too gone to feel any relief from his death.

That didn’t stop the stranger from slamming a hand down beside my face to support his weight as he hunched down, bringing that intimidating skull mask closer. Elegant black andsilver colors wove together unique shapes. The holes for the eyes soon lit up with the strange glow that his skin had emitted only minutes prior.

The air lingering in my lungs began to squeeze out, almost as if Death himself had me in his icy claws and he was eager to extend my suffering. I couldn’t find it within me to tremble. I was already so cold that most of the intense pain had been muffled.

I was numb. My soul was more than willing to walk into his waiting hands.

Only a weak tremor worked its way through my body when he shifted his weight above me, using his free hand to seize the bottom of his mask and push it upwards.

Long auburn brown strands strayed down along my chest as he came closer. That mask inched out of the way until a long pale face gazed down at me with those piercing silver eyes digging a hole to my soul.

How odd…This man looked human, despite all the shadows kissing at his skin.

Perhaps he wasn’t human at all, but rather an ancient deity that had been seeking a claim on me since I had first made the decision to storm into the building and straight into Ryan’s rage. He had to be Death himself. So I closed my eyes and prepared for him to sever that one little thread that kept me contained to this plane.

“We’re losing her!”

“Clear!”

Electricity pulsed through my veins, branching off into every single part of my body that — for a brief second — I feltalive. It was enough to leave my back arching from the intense strain. My eyes fluttered open. I was slammed with a bright wall of light that left me blind.

“Go again! I’m not reading anything!”

“Clear!”

The odd heat didn’t begin to fade, nor did that light dissipate in the slightest bit until that second wave of electricity worked its way through me. Only then did it begin to pull itself apart, allowing me to see a mixture of faces surrounding me.

The masked male had retreated back, though those piercing silver eyes had yet to leave me. His velvet voice sliced through my mind more clearly than the panicked men hovering over me. “Mine.”

My lips parted, but I couldn’t get a single word to launch off my tongue.

“We’ve got her back!” The blonde male that had pressed the paddles against my chest tossed them aside. “Let’s get her on the gurney before we lose her again. She’s probably got some internal bleeding and we need to get her to the hospital to get that under control!”

D-Don’t… Don’t take me away from him.

My soul wept at the idea of being separated, even if my mind couldn’t make sense of this strange yearning.

I could feel my eyes rolling up into the back of my head as they carefully pulled me onto a blanket. The promise of being kissed by the searing pain remained in the far off distance with the strange masked male lurking even closer. His powerful presence promised to soothe all the agony I would endure.

The offer to erase it all away was enough to leave me sinking back into that black abyss. Whether he truly walked this Earth as Death himself or he was simply a figment of my imagination, I didn’t hesitate to lose myself in those strong arms. I didn’t care what he did with me as long as he honored that promise.

I’m yours…

CHAPTER TWO: AMBROSE

It had beenso long since I had seen the light of day, whether it poured down from the actual sun itself or came from a small sliver of our simulation. I had been buried into a level far deeper than any existing being was meant to be. Existing here on this level risked tearing apart one’s sanity.

The admins didn’t give a single fuck if I maintained an intact mind, not when I had committed the worst crime against my own kind. They had shoved me into all this darkness with thehopethat I would destroy my own sanity. After all, I owed them some level of entertainment when I willingly sank down onto that blade to protect my prince.

That was the cost I was forced to pay in order to ensure he remained free in the world, to carry out the dangerous game he had begun with the king himself. I hadn’t hesitated, not even for a second. Neither had my kin. We had all folded at the knee to accept the punishment.

He was still out there, waging war. That was all that mattered.

I hadn’t cared what happened to me for the longest time. Days had passed. Weeks evolved into months before it eventually built up to a solid century. At least, that’s what they teased. Pain was followed by questions and then darkness. The cycle was always the same. There were never any surprises, not even when our warden decided to play.

Nothingchanged…not until today.

Something had finally sliced through all those shadows, tearing away at the talons that had their hooks in me for so long that they felt like a part of me. Little by little, their iron hold on my consciousness slipped and I found myself rising to a level I hadn’t seen in years. It had been so long that I forgot what it was like to maintain a physical form.

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