Page 152 of Nocturne

I watched the light fade from Willow’s eyes. I watched as the one anchor I had left slipped away. And in her place, the darkness surged forward, unstoppable.

When her light went out, so did mine.

* * *

Month four

Run.

Run.

Make sure you don’t get caught! Make sure you aren’t being followed!

The thoughts rang inside my head. Everything in my body ached. My legs screamed in exhaustion, unprepared for the strain I was forcing on them after months of disuse. I hadn’t been allowed to step out of the cage after Willow escaped. I hadn’t been allowed anywhere except the ritual grounds and the killing area—the place that transformed me into what I was now. A killer. A killer who had taken lives and would take more if it meant my survival.

I heard the rustling in the bushes. The silent footfalls following me were all too familiar. I had only been here four months, but I’d learned quickly. I knew their mannerisms, the way they moved, fought, and taunted their prey before they pounced. Icould picture the wicked glee on his face as he chased me. I could imagine how he licked his lips—the same lips that had promised ruin for me and my family. But I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop.

“Got you.”

I felt his breath on my neck, smelled the stench of the blood he’d smeared across his torso the night before—the blood he’d made me collect. I heard the others on either side of me, his brothers. Those wretched creatures, more beast than human, were born for this jungle. Bapo’s hand grazed my filthy shirt, and instinct took over.

My hands moved on their own. My mind surged in a way it never had before. I felt and anticipated the movements of the bastards closing in on me, desperate to drag me back to the hell I had escaped. To the chaos, I created back there. The place that needed to burn to the ground. My hand tightened around the ritual dagger, and I drove it into the palm that tried to encircle my waist.

The blade bit into my skin as well, but the pain didn’t register. Satisfaction coursed through me as Bapo screamed. His brothers reacted exactly as I’d expected. They couldn’t stand to see one of their own hurt, though they revelled in the suffering of others.

Gir—the bigger one who branded my back—threw himself at me, and we tumbled to the ground. We rolled down the path, rocks and branches scraping our skin. His yellowed teeth parted, aiming to bite anywhere he could, but I didn’t give him the chance.

I pulled the glass shard from my pocket and stabbed him in the side of his neck. I knew that had to strike a crucial nerve. He only had minutes left.

Sin’s, the other brother’s, roar echoed before he reached me, but I was ready. I had planned this for weeks, forcing myself to stay alert, to observe their behaviour even as they abused me and the others in the cages. The punch to the side of my head made my vision blur, but I recovered quickly. Months of torture had conditioned my body to endure.

The precious seconds Sin wasted crying over his dying brother were all I needed. Bapo prowled toward me, his eyes full of fury and promises of pain. But I didn’t flinch. I met his gaze, defiance burning in mine, and he gritted his teeth.

“You will cry tears of blood, little one,” he sneered.

The nickname grated on my nerves. It unleashed the darkness within me—the part of me that no longer feared death. That darkness promised vengeance. I let it take over me as I turned to Sin.

Bapo underestimated me, just like his brothers had. Their arrogance blinded them to my strength. To them, I was nothing but a broken woman. But I wasn’t broken. I was a furious woman who wanted to take everything from them.

Sin, the most superstitious of the three and also the one who gave me the stupid book about their useless god, froze as I whispered words I had mimicked from their master.

“He dies by the hands of the blessed one, Sin.”

His devotion to his master clouded his judgment, and I used it against him.

“His death was imminent for the greater path,” I added, stepping closer.

I saw Bapo running now, but the dense jungle slowed him. He was too far to stop what was about to happen. Sin’s tear-streaked face wavered between fury and confusion as I stroked his cheek, the way I’d seen their master do.

“And so is yours,” I said.

I removed the glass shard from Gir’s neck, my movements deliberate. Bapo screamed, his rage echoing through the trees, but he was too far to stop me. I made sure to look into his eyes as I gripped Sin’s hair.

With a smile that mirrored Bapo’s when he’d turned me into a killer, I slit Sin’s throat the same way they’d made me kill so many others. The same way they made me kill Willow.

Bapo’s scream shattered the air as he charged forward, but his foot caught on a thick branch. He stumbled and fell into the steep valley. I didn’t need to check if he survived. No one survived that fall. If the jagged rocks didn’t kill him, the violent waters below would.

Thirty-Eight

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