Iniquitous (The Marked #3)(35)

Old-ass omnipotent Engel, running scared like a fraidy-cat.

I took off after him, my feet barely touching the ground as I leaped from the clearing and ran. The rough terrain slammed back against my feet mercilessly as I weaved my way through the chaos. Dodging Revenant after Revenant, I pushed them out of my way as though they were feather light and inconsequential. Nothing else existed to me but my target. Nothing else mattered except catching up to him.

In what felt like seconds, I was right behind Engel, chasing him down savagely as my feet pounded against the earth at unnatural speeds. The air whipped by my ears louder than a howling pack of wolves, and I imagined all the things I would do to him. All the revenge I would take on him for what he’d done to me—to my friends.

It was the push I needed to end this.

I dove forward and tackled him to the ground. Our bodies rolled over each other violently before crashing into an oak tree. Within seconds, he was back on his feet, and I was right there with him, Armageddon raining down all around us.

A cautious smile swept across his face as he stared back at me. “Remarkable, isn’t it?”

“What is?” I asked as everything around me faded into the background.

“How far we’ve come, you and I.” He looked me over unhurriedly as though we had all the time in the world to talk it over. “I must say. In this light, you look just like your mother.”

My jaw clenched. “You don’t know anything about my mother.”

“I know a great deal about your mother. After all, it was I who sired her.”

I faltered, my spine curling from the impact of his words. But only for a second, and then I realized what he was trying to do. He was trying to distract me—to throw me off my game again. Only this time, I wasn’t going to let him.

“You’re a filthy liar. A dead one at that.”

His lips pushed up into a small smile. “Perhaps my time has indeed come to pass. But you cannot undo what has been done, child. You’re too late. The door has been opened.”

I didn’t answer him. I didn’t answer because I wasn’t listening anymore. The only words that mattered to me in that moment was the scratching whispers under my skin.

Kill him.

Kill him now.

I kicked off the ground and pounced on him, taking him down to the ground with one easy swoop. His teeth clicked beside my ear, making promises of peace and certain-death, but that was as close to me as I would allow him to get. Flipping him over, I straddled his body and he rewarded me with a fist to my jaw. But it had little impact on me.

There was nothing he could do to hurt me now.

Nothing he could do to stop me from what I was born to do.

I hit him hard with an open hand and then a closed fist. His head shook from the impact and a part of me lit up at the sight of it. I hit him again, and then again, pounding down on him until blood was pouring out from every orifice on his face. I wanted to dismember his existence, to take him apart piece by piece. The vengeance in my heart begged me to make his death slow and torturous, to drag him into the dungeon he’d held me in and make him suffer a fate a thousand times more insufferable than death.

But I had to ignore it. I couldn’t allow myself to be overcome by dangerous emotion and risk letting him get away again. There was no confusion. No self-doubt. No hesitation. I rammed my hand through his chest, plunging through skin and muscle and bone, until I reached the chamber of his beating heart and then I yanked it out. Thick streaks of blood dripped down my arm as I watched him desiccate right before my eyes.

And with that, it was finally over.

Engel was dead.

In the distance, I heard his men calling out to each other, urging one another to abandon their fallen king and his castle. Their feet pounded against the soil from all directions as they bolted from the clearing in search of safer grounds. Those who were too loyal (or too stupid) to leave were being ripped to shreds by Dominic’s exquisite wolf form.

As much beauty as there was in that moment in time, I didn’t bother turning back to watch the slaughter or bask in the victory of their defeat.

My gaze was fixed on the heavens above me.

And it stayed that way until Dominic killed off the last of the Revs and finally found his way back to my side. Shifting back into his human form, he knelt beside me in all his glory.

“You did it, angel,” he said, his dark eyes painting tracks over my face as he spoke. “You finally slayed your dragon.”

I tipped my head at his words, still holding Engel’s heart in my hand. As gruesome as it sounded, it wasn’t nearly as disturbing as the other real-life nightmare that had unfurled itself before my eyes.

“We can go home now.” He reached over and pried the dead heart from my hand. “It’s all over.”

“No.” I shook my head, my eyes never leaving the crimson sky from all my nightmares. I pointed up to it as terror shivered its way down the length of my spine. “I think it’s only just begun.”





17. ALL ROADS LEAD HOME


The drive back to Hollow Hills was mostly silent. I was too stunned to do anything more than stare out the window at the crimson sky and the miles of blurry trees that swept by us like oil streaks.

Dominic had done his best to pry out the details about what had happened out there—about the blatant runes all over my hands and arms—but I couldn’t produce any answers for him. I was going to need truck loads of alone-time to sort through the mess in my head before I would be ready to talk about it with anyone. The truth was, I had no idea what happened out there tonight. With Engel. With the Dark Casters…the ritual.