Page 51 of Reign By Wrath

What else did I need? This was the place.

I bounced from foot to foot, fists opening and closing. I hadn’t been thinking when I fished the list out of my pocket and ran into the woods. The only thing on my mind was making Everleigh pay for destroying my family.

Now I was there. Six feet from the bitch and I had nothing. No weapon. No backup. No clear shot.

I whipped back and forth, looking for something. Anything! I wasn’t leaving without takingpiecesof her with me. Fuck carefully laid plans. Fuck police captains that sat on their asses. Fuck scheming hackers and their twisted deals.

I was ending this tonight.

Twisting around, I landed on exactly what I needed. I darted off the porch and snatched up one of the riverbed stones. Charging the window, I smashed the windowpanes—roaring my fury.

“Ahhhh!”

“Surprise, bitch!” I reached through and yanked back the curtain. “It’s your turn to burn—”

I choked, eyes blowing up at the couple screaming in the living room who were not Everleigh and Wolf. I’d never seen them before in my life.

“No! No,” the slipper-footed woman wailed. “Don’t hurt us!”

The man raced to the fireplace and grabbed a poker. “Argh!”

He charged the window. I spun and bolted.

“Ah!” My feet tangled, pitching me off the porch. I crashed on the river stone path and jarred every bone in my body. I must’ve blacked out because the next thing I knew, light from their front hallway fell over me.

The man ran out of the house, poker held high. “You messed with the wrong people! How do you like this, bitch!”

He struck—bringing the poker down on my head.

I twisted at the last moment. Snapping to the side, the metal hit the spot my skull had just been in.

He lifted the poker for another try.

Reacting fast, I kicked out and smashed my foot between his legs. He doubled over and dropped the weapon, grabbing his crotch as he went down.

I didn’t waste another second. I scrambled to my feet and took off. Their screams and angry shouts jangled in my head long after I couldn’t hear them.

***

MY FEET DRAGGED UPthe path, moving as slowly as the tears streaking my cheeks.

Four in the morning, I was back at Adonis’s place and what did I have to show for myself? Scraped knees, a sore shoulder, no Everleigh, and no father.

Wilder waited for me on the porch. “I’m guessing you went through with it.”

I looked at him and burst out sobbing. “The w-way he looked at me, Wilder.”

There was only ever one choice when Wolf said they were going to use me to kill my father. Making a deal with that guy was never going to happen. He’d figure that out when I didn’t show up at midnight with the laptop. All I could do was make Alistair leave, so the days of our family being used against each other finally ended.

If only I didn’t know in my heart that he wouldn’t go for anything less than the extreme.

“It’s not fair. I just got him back and now...” I trailed off, shaking my head. “I said so many horrible things to him.”

Wilder gathered me in his arms, holding me tight. “When this is all over, you’ll apologize. He’ll understand, Luna. He loves you.”

I buried my face in his chest and breathed him in. Wilder always smelled like sunshine after the rain. The hope of something wonderful.

He didn’t judge or try to talk me out of it when I told him I wouldn’t hand over the laptop and would instead send it and my father out of Regalia.

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