Page 95 of Claiming Pretty

“You’re a sick, sick fuck,” Ciaran spat, his lips tremblingwith rage as he unsheathed a knife, the sharp blade glinting with deadly promise.

“And you are a coward,” Ty replied with cold fury and he pulled out his own lethal blade.

Both their eyes contained a murderous fury as they faced off, ignoring my screams for them to stop.

The tension that had been simmering between them since the moment Ty and I returned to Darkmoor ignited, crackling like a live wire finally overwhelmed by the current.

This was it—the storm breaking. They weren’t just going to argue, weren’t just going to throw words laced with venom or punch each other.

No, this time, they were going to cut each other into pieces.

Ciaran lunged, his blade slashing out, a raw, unrestrained force of anger, his movements wild but driven by pure emotion.

Ty leaped back smoothly, calculated in every motion, raising his weapon in front of him as he took a disciplined fighting stance, his sharp focus in stark contrast to Ciaran’s explosive rage.

I stood helpless between them, knowing that once the first blood was drawn, there would be no stopping it.

They were going to kill each other.

Fuck. There was only one way to stop this.

I grabbed the vial from the table and yanked off the stopper as I stepped between them, wincing at the bitterness as I drank it down.

THE SHADOW

Ava tilted back the vial and swallowed down the bitter liquid. The paralytic. The disinhibitor. The poison.

My heart stopped.

“Ava!” I roared, the knife in my hand slipping from my fingers and clattering onto the floor with a hollow distant sound like in a dream.

I was across the room in an instant, grabbing her by the shoulders, crushing her against my chest as if I could will it back out of her.

“What have you done, baby? What have you done?” My voice cracked, the words spilling out before I could stop them. I gripped her tighter, like holding her could somehow undo the damage, erase what she’d just done to herself. To us.

“It’s not too late,” I told her desperately, my hands shaking as I cupped her face. “You can throw it up—”

“No, Scáth,” she interrupted. “I want to do this. Ineedto.”

Her eyes burned with conviction, and it killed me because I knew she wasn’t going to back down.

Ty’s voice cut through the haze. “If you love her, trust her.”

I tore my gaze from Ava to him, and the rage that had been simmering in my chest boiled over.

“You.” I let go of Ava to advance on him. “This is your fucking fault.”

His expression stayed maddeningly calm, but I saw the tension in his jaw. “She made the decision, Ciaran.”

“No,” I hissed, my fists curling at my sides. “Youmade this happen.Youplanted the fucking idea in her head. Do you want her to suffer?”

“Of course I don’t!” Ty snapped, finally losing that infuriating control. “It kills me to watch her in pain. But that’s fucking life, Ci. You can’t bubble wrap the ones you love from pain. You can only stand by them, support them, and honor them when they suffer.”

I couldn’t hear him anymore. Red clouded my vision as my arm lifted, ready to break his perfect, stoic face. But before I could swing, a sharp cry broke through the tension.

Ava.

We both turned as the empty vial slipped from her hand and hit the floor with a dull clatter and she began to fall.

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