Page 108 of Vengeance Becomes Her

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Samara smirked at her when Rhiannon entered Tristain’s room where they’d been waiting but her eyes went wide when she saw the blood she was wiping off her hands.

“Tristain needs help.” It was all she said before she left.

She only allowed her eyes to linger a moment, taking a good look at her friends she likely wouldn’t see again.

“What the hell?” Kyra shouted after her as they rushed tofind Tristain.

“Rhiannon!” Samara nearly yelled. “Why would you do this? What is wrong with you?”

The words stung. Shedeserved them.

Kyra came out, hands covered in blood. She confronted Rhiannon at the top of the staircase. She shoved Rhiannon back, causing her to stumble. “How could you do this to him?”

Rhiannon ignored their questions. Allowed the disgust in their eyes to settle into her bones. They should be angry with her. She was a monster. She had to be. “He needs help. Take care of him.” And she turned to go.

“Rhiannon!” Kyra called after her, frustration straining her voice.

Rhiannon ignored her, racing down the stairs. Conflicting emotions clashed in her mind loudly. It was enough to make her sick. She needed todrown them out.

The cold burned her hands and face as she trudged toward the tavern. The warmth inside wasn’t comforting though. It was suffocating. She needed to be numb.

She forced her way through the crowd. Apparently, everyone needed the alcohol to chase away thechill tonight.

“What do you want?” The bartender spat as he filled glasses quickly.

“Fireale. Three of them.”

He arched a brow at her but didn’t deny her.

The reality of what she’d done was burning through her. Pain and something sharp and acidic like regret started to claw at her gut. There was no way she could go back. She was on her own just as she wanted. He would never forgive her.

You got what you wanted. Be grateful.She told herself.

She chugged the first fireale as soon as the barkeep set in on the counter then grabbed the remainingslick glasses.

“Thank you.” She left a few coins on the bar as she started sipping the second.

Rhiannon didn’t see the point in finding a table. She had no friends to gather with, so she stood there polishing off her second fireale as quickly as the first. She told herself she needed to pace the third if she hoped to walk out of there. She was torn between reason and the need to claim the relief she knew sat at the bottom of that next glass.

She would come up with a plan before she allowed herself to finish it.

Rhiannon needed to end things. It was time. There was nothing else to wait for. Her friends were distracted, Silas was weak, and she knew she had at least some trace of the Volskruga’s power. Now was the perfect opportunity. But she wasn’t sure how she was supposed to destroy an ancient being she hardly knew anything about.

Rhiannon’s thoughts spun around and around her, every idea turning to a dead end. She gave in, gulping down the third fireale. That one pushed her over the edge, forcing her to make her way to the washroom. By the time she stumbled back out, she decided she had to try. She was donedoing nothing.

Rhiannon went to leave the bar but then she wavered, debating whether she should indulge herself in another drink first. If she was going to her almost certain death, she didn’t think one more could hurt.

Before she could make a decision, the man to her left found courage in his drink.

“Those are quite some pants,” he slurred as a loud smack cracked through the room, announcing his hand making contact with her ass. To further insult her, he gave it a tight squeeze.

She forced a sickeningly sweet smile forward as she turned to the man. Without warning, her leg kicked out aiming for the seat beneath him that was wavering precariously on its old lean legs. It shot back, throwing him on his back.

Before he had a chance to sit up, she was there sitting on his chest, his arms pinned beneath her strong thighs. Her blade was restingunder his chin.

“You like the view now?” She was still smiling, but this one was much wilder than the first she showed him.

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