Page 130 of Wait For It

“What I said before about you being fake—” His eyes welled up. “You are, without a doubt, the most genuine and caring person I’ve ever met.”

I pressed my fist to my lips to hold back my tears, making a sound of protest when I saw Dean approaching. “No. I’m not ready.”

“Ariana, we’ve got a car waiting,” he said with an apologetic smile. “Morgan’s already been taken to a safe location—”

“No,” I repeated, my voice raw. “I won’t leave him to face this alone.”

“We need to extract you tonight before the shit hits the fan.”

Dean said it so matter-of-factly, but every part of my body tensed with the realization that he hadn’t brought me here for a nighttime reunion.

He was forcing me to say goodbye.

“Baby,” Killian murmured, keeping one hand on my jaw. “He’s giving you a way out. Take it. Don’t worry about me. I’ve been through the wringer before. I can handle it as long as I know you’re safe—”

“You don’t understand—we’re not safe! Nobody knows Tristan like I do, and he’s not going to stop until he gets what he wants!”

“The case against Killian falls apart without you, Ariana,” Dean answered patiently. “It’s the only way to keep you from perjuring yourself if it makes it to trial.”

Hysterical laughter bubbled up in my throat, and I shook my head. “If I don’t go through with the press conference, they’ll have him killed.” I turned back to Killian. “It was me, or you and I chose—”

Pick up your shield and fight back.

The weight of the words nearly knocked me over, and I suddenly knew what to do.

“Oh, my God.” My eyes widened. “Me. I’m the only one who can stop him. Dean, Killian’s going to be taking my place.”

“Ari, no—”

I silenced his protest with my lips, before pulling away with a victorious smirk. “If I don’t make it out of this alive, make sure the world knows I died a hero.”

How do you destroy a monster when you have nothing?

By turning yourself into a weapon.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Ariana

“There is love in me the likes of which you’ve never seen. There is rage in me the likes of which should never escape. If I am not satisfied in the one, I will indulge the other.”

-Mary Shelley,Frankenstein

There wasa soft rap at the door. “Fifteen minutes.”

A sheen of cold sweat coated my face. I dropped to my knees again, retching violently in the small bathroom attached to the church nursery. I'd prayed for aneleventh-hourrescue, but this wasn't a movie or one ofmy beloved books.

After promising he’d get Killian to a safe place, Dean had led me back to my room, where I’d spent most of the night hugging the toilet. During the rare moments my eyes had drifted shut in exhaustion, I’d been plagued by disjointed nightmares.

In them, I was back inside the car again. Only, this time, it was sinking. The community pool had decayed into ruins, no longer recognizable as the place where Ashlynn had taught me to swim. Weeds sprouted through the cracked blue tiles, and thick, choking vines had taken over the diving board.

Murky black water swallowed the front of the convertible. I kicked and kicked but couldn’t free my legs from the windshield. Something brushed against my arm, and I opened my mouth to scream, inhaling a mouthful of inky sludge before everything went dark.

In another, I saw it. The creature was darkness itself, suspended motionless above me, watching through wide pupils. Its long tentacles unfurled, dancing toward me with an almost mesmerizing grace the likes of which I’d never seen before.

Surprisingly, I hadn’t been afraid.

Not at first. It wasn’t until I tried bringing my hand up as one brushed across my forehead, only to find I couldn’t move. A pale tentacle caressed my cheek before disappearing into one of my nostrils. Two more forced their way past my lips and down my throat, silencing my cries for help, as the car sank deeper.

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