Page 150 of Hunted By Fae
A shudder rattles me.
I steel myself against it, my breaths harsh and choppy through the misty air.
But is he wrong?
If I pull the trigger, and he moves out the way fast enough, it’s Tesni who will take the buckshot.
Right in the face, too.
Close range.
“Stand up.” I wish I sounded strong. Determined. Like I am as much of a threat to him as he is to me. But my voice wavers, pitched, and I know he can taste my tears in the air.
But he does as I say.
His hands press into his thighs before, slowly, he rises—and rises, and rises, and I forget how huge these fae are.
This one might be different in a way, but not in size.
His muscles slink beneath his leathers as he towers over Tesni, who’s still huddled up on the ground at his boots.
I slide a step back. “Turn around.”
He doesn’t.
His boot moves for the right, and he sidesteps away from Tesni.
I trail him with the barrel of the gun.
My finger trembles around the trigger, the faintestalmosttouch—but squeezes the moment he blurs in front of me.
And that’s what he does.
Blurs.
This male moveswiththe cold, the ice in the air, as though he’s shuddering through space, as though he belongs with the frost, not the darkness.
In that blurring moment, he’s turned to stand over me, his hand firm on the barrel—the barrel that he’s pushed down to aim at Tesni…
And I squeezed the trigger.
In the panic, in the rush, I squeezed it—and the gun trembles in my grip with the blast.
Tesni is thrown back onto the ice, a harrowing scream splitting her.
And I just stare.
Wide-eyed, I can just watch as she screams and screams and…
I loosen a shuddering breath.
It’s not loaded.
A hollow sound grates me, the purest ugliest relief I have ever felt. It sags me, and for this moment, this heartbeat, I forget all about the dark male holding the barrel of the gun, looming over me.
He reminds me of his presence.
He yanks the gun out of my grip in one, swift move.
