Page 102 of An Unexpected Ascension
She nods, dragging a finger through the white frosting and licking it off.
My husband trails her with those glassy eyes.
“What? You’re not going to say hi to your own father?”
“You were late,” I cut him off, demanding his attention.
His face reddens and the man storms toward me, but I see him coming. As calmly as I can, I jump from my seat and round the table, keeping it between us. I glance toward our daughter on the couch barely out of ear shot and definitely not out of sight.
She watches, her cake untouched.
“I work for a living, what do you do?” he snarls.
“You act like I don’t have a job!”
“You think teaching is a job? It pays next to nothing, and you hardly ever work. You’re pathetic. You know that? PATHETIC! You can’t even wait for me to get home, probably just ecstatic I’m not here. Huh? Turning my own daughter against me?”
He’s working himself up now, I can see the veins in his neck pulsing beneath his reddened skin.
As calmly as I can, I say, “I’m not turning her against you. It was getting late, and she was excited for her cake.”
He scoffs, turning to face her. “You hate your daddy, now?”
“Hey!” I growl at him in warning. “This is between us.”
He nods, his eyes glazing over with a darkness I’ve never seen before. Panic settles deep inside of me, my breath catching as his hand reaches behind him. I hear the tell-tale click of him cocking a gun before the black metal glares back at me.
It all happens within seconds. Mere seconds.
A blood curdling scream.
His pivot.
The sound of a bullet blasting through the barrel.
Her little body dropping to the ground.
The blood soaking her chest.
My heart.
My heart.
My heart.
Chapter 33
The Demon
Briar’s voice was like a little pinch in the ass, waking me from a short-lived sleep. Only, when I open my eyes, she’s not next to me.
Fuck.
I curse the entire time it takes to don my clothes, already sprinting from the tent before I can slip my sword over my head and across my back. Her panicked voice sounds distant, but I follow after it, searching behind every tree.
It’s a long heartbeat before I find Briar and when I do, it’s a sight that coils my stomach.
Another beast of Hell, the Demon of Fear, looms over her kneeling body. Its claws pierce her skull drawing rivulets of blood to drip down her ashen face. My approach is slow as not to startle the demon into doing something rash, but with my advance I find Briar’s glowing green eyes now fading into the color of sea foam and her lips tinted a pale blue.
