Page 59 of The Umbra King

He sighed and gave her one last kiss. “Time to wake up.”

Rory shotup in bed and looked around. She was in the sky room, and her alarm was loud enough to wake the dead. Her hand swatted the stupid thing onto the floor, and she threw herself back on the pillow with a huff.

Her pussy was wet and aching, and she groaned as she rolled over. Of course, she had a wet dream she couldn’t remember. It was bad enough she wasn’t getting any, she didn’t need her own mind teasing her.

With a sigh, she threw back the comforter and stood to stretch. She needed to pee and sneak downstairs to her room undetected, and for once, she was thankful she had third shift.

20

A few days later,Rory carried a lantern with her as she made her way through the park toward the lake. As she suspected, it was deserted at this time of night, and she released a sigh of relief.

Her small room was suffocating, and she needed to be away from other people where she could breathe in the fresh air, even if it meant staying up past her bedtime. There was too great a chance she would run into Caius in the gardens.

She walked onto the closest pier, removed her socks and shoes, rolled up her pant legs, and sat at the end to dangle her feet over the edge. The water lapped against her ankles, and she wondered if it ever rained here.

She thought of her mother, her friends, and her sister. Her heart burned, and a chasm formed in her chest. She missed them terribly, and she would never see them again, unless by some chance, theSeraphimlet her into the aether. She doubted it, even if the Scales of Justice said her soul wasn’t black.

The knowledge made her happier than she thought it would. Killing the Umbra King would be a ticket to hell, but since he killedinnocents, she hoped they would make an exception for her. Hope was a dangerous thing. It made people destroy in the name of good intentions.

“Please save a place for me,” she whispered into the dark.

It was eerie how dark it was at night. In town there were streetlights, but out here, it was almost impossible to see her own hand in front of her face. The lights from the town gave the park a slight glow, but not enough. She mentally patted herself on the back for remembering to bring a lantern.

“Well, if it isn’t the little butcher bitch,” a voice snarled behind her.

Her heart stopped beating as she climbed to her feet and whipped around in time to see a burly man with a black beard stalking across the pier, making the wood groan beneath him.Ronny.

The water below was the only escape, but she wasn’t sure what sort of creatures inhabited it.

She’d seen no one swim in it before, and that couldn’t be a good sign. Her feet were at the edge, and she needed to decide. Fighting him off wasn’t an option. He was big.Really big.

He was fast too, because before she could decide, he had her around the throat, and her lungs no longer filled with air. “You think you can treat one of our own like you’re better than her?” he sneered and grabbed her hair with his other hand.

Nina. This was because Rory showed up Nina at the bar?

She clawed at his hand, and he shoved her into the water as he released her neck, keeping one hand in her hair. Her scalp burned, and before he pushed her under, he said, “You don’t deserve to kiss the dirt beneath her feet, you dirty whore.” Her head plunged under the water.

Floundering, she grappled for the edge of the pier, but he pushed her head down farther. He was going to drown her, and there was nothing she could do about it. She fought as hard as she could, refusing to let him win, but all she did was exhaust herself.

He released her, and she broke the surface, choking and trying to gulp down air. Ronny’s cries for help filled the quiet night, and when Rory wiped the water from her eyes, she screamed at what she saw.

Lo, the supposedly gentle cat, was dragging him to the bank, and once on land, she pounced and ripped out his throat. It was fast, and Rory blinked to assure herself it was real.

When the panther was satisfied the attacker was dead, she walked down the pier toward Rory.

Lo sat down a few feet from where Rory hung on for dear life and looked at her.

“Please don’t eat me,” Rory begged, and then kicked herself for talking to an animal.

Lo cocked her head to the side, and Rory glanced at the shore and let go of the pier to swim away from the murder machine. Maybe she could climb onto the bank and run before the panther realized what she was doing.

When she waded out of the water, Lo met her at the bank, and Rory froze. “You can’t still be hungry after eating that mountain of meat,” Rory said, pointing at Ronny.

The panther chuffed and approached her. This was it. She was going to survive the Scales of Justice, only to be mauled by an overgrown cat.

To her utter amazement, Lo put her head in Rory’s hand and nudged her. “You want me to pet you?”

The panther nudged her again, and Rory rubbed Lo’s soft fur in a daze. This was the weirdest night of her life, and that was saying a lot.

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