Page 37 of Sutton's Shadow

Then she was outside in the oppressive, thick jungle air. Her lungs worked hard to breathe from the heat, humidity, and smoke. The latter she couldn’t make sense of. Not the familiar campfire scent, but something acrid, something sinister.

She floated through the village, passing tents riddled with holes and wooden huts ablaze. A kaleidoscope of images and colors surrounded her, their dizzying display making her nauseous. Flickering orange swallowed the huts. Red splattered across the blank canvas of the tents. The green of the jungle surrounding everything, containing the carnage. The black eyes of evil that surveyed his handiwork with pride.

Sutton stood in front of evil personified, searching for something in the dark depths of his eyes. Searching for a soul where there was only darkness.

To her left lay a pile of bodies. Young girls in a twisted bundle of limbs. To her right lay Liam. A strange red flower blooming from his stomach. Sutton stared at it in wonder, the bizarre beauty captivating. She knew she was supposed to feel something watching those velvety petals expand until completely engulfing him, but she couldn’t figure out what it was.

The evil in front of her wavered with an arm extended straight out, something grasped in his fist. He smiled; teeth too white in the darkness. He flicked his hand, and the sharp movement caught her by surprise. The world drifted away as time slowed. A dark projectile flew from his fist. It came toward her, a centimeter at a time, flipping end over end. A spinning blade of doom. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t duck, but she knew it was her death coming for her.

It floated closer and closer until it drifted past her head, so close she could feel the air displaced from its passing on her cheek. Still unable to move, she watched it go, the silver and black of the knife whirling in a hypnotizing display rooting her feet to the ground.

The grunt from behind her startled her, breaking the frozen hold on her body. Whipping around, she found another man, full of blinding light. She blinked, adjusting her eyes to the brightness. He smiled at her, and she couldn’t help but smile back. His hand reached out, and she wanted to grasp hold of it and never let go.

She took one step, then noticed it.

The same flowering red bloom erupting from his stomach that was on Liam’s. It spread, sending him to his knees. Her heart cried out. Then he was in her arms, the red petals still growing as he gazed up at her.

Laughter drifted over to the trio, breaking through the cries. Sutton followed the sound, finding the source. A woman she had once trusted cackled, mocking their anguish. Rage licked like flames through her bloodstream. Never had she felt such a fury. She wanted to destroy the woman with hair as dark as a shadow and the same soulless eyes as the evil man she stood next to, but a hand on her arm stayed her.

“It’s okay now. She will meet her end soon enough. You are safe. You both are.” Kneeling on the other side of him was a young girl with the same midnight blue eyes. Both of their hands were on him, trying to staunch the bloom.

When his eyes closed, the scream that rented the air was deafening. A keening, awful agony of sound. One word wrenched from her lips. “Wyatt!”

Sutton jerked awake; a scream lodged in her throat. She was sitting upright on the couch, the green of the jungle dissolving into the grays and blues of her living room. A pair of warm arms wrapped around her, and tender lips pressed to her temple.

“It’s okay now. You’re safe.” Sutton shivered; Wyatt’s words of comfort were too close to the words he’d uttered in her nightmare.

“Wyatt?”

“Yeah, honey. You had a nightmare.”

“Yeah,” she muttered, her face buried in his neck. His sandalwood and coffee scent filled her senses, calming her.

“Must have been a doozy.”

She snorted. “It was... weird.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“Not in the slightest.” The rumble of his chuckle rolled up his chest, to his throat, and out his mouth. She was pressed so tightly to him she could feel it, almost as if it were inside her own body.

“Okay. Want me to just keep holding you?”

“Yes, please.”

He kissed her temple near her scar, and she didn’t flinch away this time. She’d have to wonder about that later. Right now, she just wanted to enjoy the feel of his lips on her skin. His warm breath stirring the tiny wisps of hair at her temple. His hands splayed across her back, their warmth seeping inside her, banishing the last of the chill from the nightmare. She slid her hands around his waist, clutching his shirt on his back in her fists, like she never wanted to let go.

One of his hands drifted up to her hair, smoothing the strands down her back. She luxuriated in the touch, in his hold, the sense of safety in his arms. It was a strange sensation. One she’d never experienced before. Her thoughts inevitably turned to Liam, but the pang of guilt she expected while enjoying the embrace of another man was gone.

Sutton couldn’t remember the last time Liam had held her like this. He was always on the move. He would never have had the patience to just sit and hold her. Even after sex. He’d often spring out of bed afterward, ready for the next adventure. His energy and edginess wore on her after a while. It was one of the cracks she’d seen beginning in their relationship.

It was why she’d been alone in their tent when the gunfire erupted. He’d been too restless to remain in one place after he’d been sitting by her side for most of the day. He’d left her alone and unprotected. She had wanted to be angry about that but couldn’t be. In the end, he’d made the ultimate sacrifice for her. And that angered her more than his abandonment.

Images from her dream solidified in her mind’s eye. The evil emanating from the man. The woman’s laughter. The woman she now recognized as Valeria, the one who’d betrayed them all. Wyatt and the red erupting from his abdomen where the knife had penetrated.

The evil had killed him. He’d died for her. She was supposed to be the one to die; she’d seen it in the evil man’s eyes.

So why was it Wyatt’s death she’d dreamed of?

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