Page 84 of Reign By Wrath

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THE SIX OF US CREPTthrough the trees, each of us carrying a container of gasoline. It was a big cabin. It needed a lot to burn.

“Are we sure she’s not inside?” Victor asked.

“I texted Katie before we left. Everleigh’s at her place, drinking wine and painting her toenails. We’re good.”

“Remind me again why we need a confession so badly? We can wait a few hours and end this tonight.”

I shook my head, though he couldn’t see in the dark. “Without a confession, it’ll be ten thousand times harder to prove the guys aren’t terrorists. Not to mention we’ve got to get that fool Connor Langston out of prison. I looked him up on the site—just to make sure he didn’t belong in that cell.

“Connor’s big secret is that whatever money his family did have, all went to countless doctors and specialists for his sick little sister. He’s consistently refused dares that hurt people, even though he’s only allowed to refuse one. I bet anything that he took this dare because it came with a seven-figure reward, and the only one who suffered is himself.”

I found Victor’s hand in the dark. “Trust me, I want to end this tonight, but the wounds Everleigh left behind will keep bleeding. We have to force her to set it right... and then we can force her to hell.”

He sloshed his container. “Just tell me where to—”

A flash of light brightened the forest.

“Looks like Cato already started,” he said drily.

Giggling, I shot through the trees and ran straight for the front porch.

Spinning, twisting, sloshing the can—I wrote a single name on the wooden slats, then lit the letters on fire.

Winter.

“She took away our home,” I shouted over the rushing flames. “She made Winter feel so unsafe and hostile she didn’t know another way out. Let’s see how she likes it.”

I stumbled off the grass, laughing as the fires grew. Consuming the house. Sending black tendrils into the night sky.

I hoped Everleigh looked out Katie’s window, saw the smoke, and dismissed it as some poor sucker’s bad luck. Not knowing the poor sucker was her.

“Guys?” I called.

We split up—each of us surrounding the massive cabin and taking a side to burn.

“Cato, my love. Get over here and drop your pants. I want to fuck while it burns.”

Victor whipped around the corner, running full speed. “Luna!”

“Victor, this is amazing. Feels even better than—”

“Run!” Victor sprinted faster. Two shadowy figures were on his heels. “Luna, run! It’s a trap. She knew we were coming. It’s a trap!”

Pain burst in the back of my head. I dropped—darkness taking me before I hit the ground.

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