Page 144 of Cinder
Blood squirts across the white marble floor. Arterial spray.
“Call an ambulance.” He grips his wrist, trying to stem the blood flow. “Ella, call a fucking ambulance.”
Sweat beads his brow and the color drains from his face. He’s getting weak.Dying.
He collapses to the floor, and as I watch, I think about every time he laid a finger on me. A punch in the stomach here. A slap to the ground there. The twist of my wrist until it burned so bad, I cried out and begged him to stop.
I bend down to pick up the gun.
I think about him pinning me to the bed and slicing open my thigh and the horrific pain that followed.
I grip the gun tighter.
I think about him wrapping his hands around my throat and calling me a whore.
“I want you to know something.” I raise the gun. “You will be forgotten, Luca. And while you are rotting in the ground, I will be ruling this kingdom, and no one is ever going to mention your name again.”
He lets out a cry. “Sister?—”
But I aim the gun at his head.
And I pull the trigger.
CHAPTER 64
Lars
The bullet hitsLuca between his eyes, and he drops dead on the marble floor, blood spreading out from under him.
Ella drops the gun and looks over her shoulder at me. Moonlight streams down from the sky dome above, washing her in a white glow, and I’ve never seen her look so strong.
I close the distance between us and take her in my arms, pulling her to my chest. “Are you okay?”
I kiss the crown of her head and hold her tight.
She lets out a rough exhale and nods. “It’s over. He can’t hurt me anymore.”
“That’s right. He won’t ever put his hands on you again.”
A sudden scream rips into the night. We both look in the direction of the screaming banshee tearing down the stairs toward us. Carolina De La Cinto’s face is a mask of evil as she runs toward her dead son, her hands curled into claws at the end of her outstretched arms.
She looks possessed. Wild.Insane.
I ready my sword, but it’s Ella who stops her. As soon as Carolina is close enough, Ella stops her with a right hook that sends her flying onto her ass.
Then, standing over her, Ella slams another into the old witch’s face and knocks her out. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that.”
I grab her and kiss her.Fucking gorgeous girl.
She pulls back to look up at me. “We need to get out of here before Luca’s men arrive. They will have heard the gunshot. Not to mention Wailing Wendy over here.”
I can’t help but look sheepish. “You can’t hear when you’re dead.”
Her eyebrows shoot up. “You killed them?”
“They were in my way.”
“All of them?”
