Page 160 of The Beautiful Dead

“You should have begged sooner.”

My finger slowly depressed the trigger but before I could release it?—

Bang.

Blood and brain matter splattered the pristine white walls, sliding down in thick rivers of red. Federico slumped, head rolling to the side, his lifeless gaze staring into nothing.

The silence that followed was thick, almost heavy.

Remi let out a slow, satisfied sigh, tilting his head back like he was savoring the moment. Like he was memorizing the feeling of the kill. He turned to me, his eyes still bright, still wild.

“That was fun.”

I exhaled, wiping blood from my jaw.

“He wasn’t yours to kill,” I growled.

Remi grinned, stepping closer, his voice taunting, breathless with excitement.

“Then make me pay for it.”

And just like that?—

The hunt started all over again.

CHAPTER 29

REMI

Marlow Heights was drowning in ghosts.

The streets were stained red, the gutters choked with the remnants of the war we waged. The bodies we left behind.

A kingdom burned to the ground. And now, Domino stood in its ashes.

But he didn’t want it. Not the throne, not the crown.

Not the power.

He carried it anyway, like a blade he didn’t know how to put down. Like it was cutting him open from the inside out.

And me?

I was waiting. Waiting for him to break. Waiting for him to snap. Because he would. Because he was already unraveling.

He didn’t sleep anymore. Didn’t even try. He just sat in the dark, watching me.

Always watching.

At first, I thought he was just lost in his head. Trapped in the wreckage of everything we had done. But then I realized—it wasn’t the past haunting him.

It wasme.

His obsession was a sickness. A hunger that had taken root inside him, festering, twisting into something bigger, darker, more insatiable. And he wasn’t fighting it.

He was letting it consume him.

Tonight was no different. I lay on the bed, my shirt discarded on the floor, arms tucked behind my head. Moonlight spilled through the window, casting pale light over my skin.

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