I reached the end of the corridor where a heavy locked door stood.“I need keys!” I cried back down the hallway.The guards came up behind me as Matt pulled me back. One of them shot the lock on the door and the door swung open. The damp scent of the basement gushed out along with Angelia’s scent and I ran in.My stomach roiled, memories I didn’t want to think about surfaced, but I ignored them.I smelled old water and molded bread. The stench of unwashed bodies, but I couldn’t focus on that.Angelia was here.I’d found her.Across the room, she lay on a dirty mattress on the ground, unmoving and unspeaking. I ran towards her as Alyssa tried to reach out to her and lifted her into my arms. She didn’t move. Her eyes stared out into nothing as if she would never speak again. She’d grown frail and thin since the last time I saw her. Her cheeks were drawn into her face and her eyes were a bit sunken. Her hair seemed dull and lifeless, but there was no mistaking her.“Angelia, say somethin
Matt’s POVI followed the guard out of the house to where another group was leaning together looking over a laptop. The screen showed drone footage of a large group of vehicles driving across the snowy tundra. They were heavily armed and unmarked for the most part, but the“What is it?”“There’s a force heading up from the south. They’ll be in Skyfall in a matter of minutes,” the leader of the group said. “We think they’re rogues, but they’re a bit too organized for that.”“It’s Ben,” Mordecai said.I looked at him, narrowing my eyes as he stared out into the distance as if he could see the coming forces.“You know, every man has a tipping point,” Mordecai said. “I think we’ve found his.”“What do you mean by that?”“Ben’s a sore loser,” Mordecai said. “We took Skyfall and Frost Melt from him and he’s pissed. He either planned to raid the place so there was nothing left or kill us here.”He smirked as something exploded in the distance and the guards started shouting orders through th
He shrieked in agony and rolled off me. The sticky heat of his blood coated my hand. The metallic stench of it filled the air and I turned, screaming, driving my knife into whatever part of him I could reach. He choked and cried out. The scent of the dungeon filled my nose. Blood and more blood came spurting out and I remembered the sight of my blood pooled beneath me, spreading across the ground.Two, three, four, five…He choked and thrashed. His body wiggled and jiggled, but I kept going, counting each thrust of my dagger as I heard his voice in my memories offering me candy, taunting me, ordering me to serve him. I heard Armina screaming in pain and fear. I heard Angelia whimpering. I heard the last breath rattling out of a young girl whose face I could no longer remembe
Ben’s POVSonia whimpered, clutching at my leg and rubbing her face against my leg, trying to restrain and convince me to spare the ungrateful little whelp on the ground. I should have listened to Mordecai years ago about Matt. While he was headstrong, had I kept a hold on him he would have never crossed me like this.At the least, he wouldn’t have been caught and cost me so much. Wade’s ambition overrode his sense.“Have you anything to say for yourself, you little shit? Huh?”He choked and curled up. His injuries from
Matt’s POVI collapsed into my seat and listened to Mordecai pour us drinks as the captain got ready to take off. If I didn’t have to stand in front of a news reporter again in life it would be too soon, but I was glad for it.Mordecai sputtered and laughed, “What a fucking dumbass!”I looked at him, “What’s going on?”He offered his phone, “Ben’s a dumber son of a bitch than I thought! Oh, moon. I didn’t think it was possible.”I sat up and took the
Matt’s POV The restaurant Ben chose was an upscale little place away from a main city. The entire building had been emptied out. Uriel warned us that Ben had armed people waiting around the area, but just outside their area of operation, I had stationed Warhammer Guard. If anyone wasn’t making it out of this alive it was Ben, Sonia, and Wade. “Matt, it’s so nice to see you,” Sonia said. “You should really come see your stepmother more.” I didn’t respond to her, “Odd that you’d bring her.” “I wanted it to be clear.” It was a ruse. He was hoping to keep the gunfire down from our side because she was here. “I figure the women can stay here and get acquainted,” Ben nodded upstairs, “I’ve had our table set up upstairs.” I turned to Glenda and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Don’t eat anything,” I whispered, drawing back. I ushered her to her seat and pushed her up to the table before following Mordecai and Ben who were putting on airs about how close they were. Wade glared at me wit