Page 344 of Legacy
Everything inside me rips apart.
No.
Not her.
Not this way.
She’s all I’ve got.
The world erupts before I reach her.
The air splits open, a thunderous crack echoing as the first shot fires.
Then another.
Then all of them.
A symphony of suppressed gunfire rains down from the rafters, from between crates, from every dark corner of the warehouse. Flashes of light strobe in the fog and smoke, muzzle flashes sparking like lightning.
Karekin’s men don’t even have time to scream.
Bodies drop in perfect synchronicity—headshots, throat shots, chest shots. Red sprays across concrete, glinting under the swinging floodlights.
I don’t stop.
I can’t stop.
I’m running, eyes locked on her.
Karekin fumbles in to his jacket for his weapon, his eyes wide for the first time, fear breaking through that smug veneer—
But I’m already there.
I wrap around her, pulling her into my chest, turning so I take the line of fire, shielding her body with mine.
I hear the final shot.
See the red mist.
Karekin’s skull explodes, fragments scattering across the floor.
He drops.
Dead.
The gun slips from her fingers, clattering to the ground, the sound swallowed by the ringing in my ears.
Her hands grab at my shirt, clutching, twisting, like it’s the only thing anchoring her to this world.
And maybe it is.
Maybe we’re both falling, and she’s the only thing I’ll ever hold onto.
“I’ve got you,” I whisper, pressing my face into her hair, breathing her in like I’m drowning and she’s the only air left in the world. “It’s over. You’re safe. I’ve got you.”
She’s shaking so hard I can feel it in my bones, and for the first time in my life I’m shaking, too, because I almost lost her.
I almost fucking lost her.
