Page 156 of Deviant

My back molars grind at the conviction in her voice.

“You dying won’t bring back Nora.”

“I know that. Don’t you think I know that?” she mumbles, head hung low. “But why should I get to live when she didn’t?”

“My thoughts exactly.”

She lifts her head back up with that fucking grateful expression once again plastered all over her face.

And how I loathe to see it there.

“Did she suffer?” I ask, balling my hands into two fists.

“Elias… I don’t think—”

“DID MY SISTER SUFFER?” I yell at the top of my lungs.

I watch her swallow back her tears as she shakes her head.

“It was quick. She died quickly.”

I push my rage down so I can have the strength of mind to ask my next question, knowing that it will be the nail in Rowen’s coffin.

“Was she scared? In the end, was she… scared of dying?”

Tears stream down her cheeks as she nods once again. “Yes.”

Nostrils flaring, I look deep into her eyes and utter, “Then that’s how you’ll die, too. Choking on your own tears and fear.”

My hatred for the girl who stole my sister away runs so deep that I don’t even register when all the lights turn green on my chair, releasing me from its grip.

“Elias…” Rowen sobs as I jump out of the chair.

“Don’t fucking say a word to me. Not one. If you don’t want to die right here in this room, then keep whatever pitiful excuse you were about to say to yourself.”

I charge over to the door, only to see it’s still locked.

“Henry, if you’re out there, open this fucking door! Get me the fuck out of here!” I yell, banging my fists at the damn thing.

When I hear a clicking sound, I turn the knob and start to race out of there.

Yet, I haven’t taken two full steps out when I see a disheveled Lucy, sitting on the floor crying.

“I killed him,” she says between sobs. “I killed Lucas.”

Chapter 29

Rowen

“How is she?” Andy asks once I’ve stepped out of Lucy’s bedroom, leaving Harper and Abbie to remain inside with her.

“She’s as well as she can be, given the circumstances. She’s still in shock.”

“Aren’t we all? Who would have thought that Lucy would kill Lucas?” Andy shakes his head in disbelief.

“I don’t think that was her intention. From what I could understand, they somehow forced her to do it.”

Though Lucy hasn’t told us exactly what happened earlier today, the rope mark burns around her neck are a good indicator that she could have died today just as easily as Lucas did.

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