Page 286 of Halfblood Deceived

NO!

Panic sank claws into her insides, and she hyperventilated.

Please let this be a nightmare. Please! She begged. But she wasn’t so lucky.

Eli laughed at her. He hadn’t changed in the past few months—same short blond hair, same disgusting sneer, same lustful fury in his blue eyes. “Missed me, whore?”

Move, Aella ordered her cowardly body. Move. Move. MOVE!

Eli tried to grab her again.

She dodged, crouching, and then straightened, kicking him in the balls.

“Fucking bitch!” he growled.

Aella stepped away from him, trying to orient herself—and then she saw that the black Escalade she’d escaped from had been parked outside a manor with a massive fountain near the entrance doors.

The manor where she’d spent the worst years of her life.

She felt as if gravity was inverting. Everything whirled around her at a dizzying speed as if she were in a carousel—spinning-spinning-spinning.

She shook her head. The blaring pain helped to stop the spinning, and she ran for the forest. As rocks sent pain from the soles of her feet to her legs, she realized they’d taken her shoes. She was wearing only her rainbow socks.

How did they find me? How? I have to get back. I have to get back to Diana. I have to get back to Zeydan.

Someone gripped her braid and pulled her back so hard she feared her neck would break.

A powerful, stone-skinned arm wrapped around her shoulders and dragged her back.

Aella planted her heels on the ground, but it was useless. Rocks tore through the fabric of her socks and cut her heels, but she kept fighting. She kicked, she screamed, she squirmed. “Let me go!”

“You’re going nowhere, little whore,” Eli said near her ear as he dragged her toward the manor. His hot, foul breath sent a powerful curl of nausea through her system. “You are going to get what you deserve for being a treacherous slut.”

“Go straight to Hell, Eli!” Aella growled.

“So mouthy,” he jeered. “Let’s see how long that lasts.”

Someone came down the entrance steps.

A male dressed in leathers, with hard features, brown hair, and brown eyes full of furious disdain.

Aella sucked in a broken breath, a scream trapped in her throat.

Micah.

No.

Not again. Not again. Not again!

No. No. NO!

I can’t breathe.

I can’t breathe.

I can’t think.

I can’t—

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