Page 119 of Ruthless Ends

Calla’s face twists in the way it does right before she starts to cry, looking anguished at the idea of leaving him to whatever fate here, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a hint of that too. All but a stranger, but someone who has fought for us more than our real father ever did.

I interlace my fingers with Calla’s and force her to look at me.

She shakes her head as a tear falls onto her cheek, her rising panic palpable, and she takes a step away from the portal. If we cross back and fail, we’ll die there, but there’s a chance we’ll overcome them. Here, our fate wouldn’t be any better.

I grab her by the shoulders before she can take another step away and tell her, “Fight like hell,” right before I shove her through the threshold.

The fire roars behind me, but I hear it the moment shadow-Rosemarie overtakes James, his body making a loud thump as she flips him onto his back and pins him by the throat. I spare a single moment to look over my shoulder. He’s already looking back at me, silently pleading with me to run.

It’s senseless, this wave of emotion threatening to drown me over a stranger. And maybe it has little to do with him, but rather, all the possibilities. For a life I’ll never have, but maybe I could have if we’d had this version of him in our lives instead. The chance for an actual family. A relationship with my father that wasn’t built on lies and manipulation.

Shadow-Rosemarie plants her hand in the center of his chest, her nails digging into flesh. Chicken snaps at her, forcing her to pull back. James shoves her away, rolling to the side before she can regain her balance.

I feel like I should have final words to say. Something meaningful. But in the end, James meets my eyes one more time, and we exchange a nod.

Then I follow my sister into the dark.

CHAPTERTHIRTY-NINE

Everything is on fire.It isn’t the flickering orange flames I see first, or the heat that I feel. It’s the taste. The smoke is so thick in the air it coats the back of my throat, and the burn in my lungs is immediate.

At first I think I’m still in the townhouse. That I waited too long and the portal closed without me. But no, the world is in blindingly bright color once more, and that is most definitely the Auclair estate engulfed in flames.

You’re even dumber than you look, says a voice in my head, and I can hear the smile in it, like this was exactly what she’d been hoping I’d do.

The roaring fire stretches toward the night sky, covering the main structure, the buildings behind the estate, the gardens. The surrounding land fills with noise and bodies as people evacuate, their movements panicked, frantic. Their mouths are open in screams or cries, I’m not sure, since I can’t hear them over the fire. What the hell happened here?

I don’t direct the question to V, but she must hear it because she says,Isn’t it magnificent?

My physical body registers next. I’m standing barefoot in the dirt behind the tree line, arms crossed over my chest. I try to take a step forward, to turn my head to look around, but my body doesn’t obey my commands.

Because I’m not in charge anymore.

Tsk, tsk.Thought you’d put up more of a fight than that. You don’t even know how, do you?

I search for the presence of her in my body, feeling around, but she’s everywhere and nowhere all at once.

“There she is!” barks a voice in the distance.

Uh-oh, V singsongs as a group of people breaks through the trees. The first is Wes. I can’t tell if his face is that red or if it’s the reflection of the fire, but he’s coming toward me fast, his eyes wide, wild.

“Wes!” Daniel appears next, hands extended like he’s trying to hold Wes back, but he keeps slipping through his fingers.

Another two, Warren and Laura—Daniel’s and Wes’s partners.

More branches crack, but I don’t see whoever joins us next, because then Wes’s hands are around my throat, and he throws me to the ground. It steals the air from my lungs, and I sputter internally as my instincts to fight back rage but my body doesn’t respond.

For some reason, V doesn’t even bother trying to stop him, though I know she could.

Instead, she starts to laugh. It’s a full, deep laugh that sounds nothing like my own and is somehow unperturbed by Wes cutting off our oxygen.

“Let her go, man,” says Daniel, pulling at Wes’s shoulder.

“Let hergo?” he scoffs, tightening his hands. “Why don’t you say that to Beth?”

Beth?

Wes’s hands shake as he tightens his hold, tears forming in his eyes now.

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