Iniquitous (The Marked #3)(89)
“We were talking in the kitchen,” answered Gabriel, looking solemnly through the rearview mirror again. “Dominic got up to get a drink and when he didn’t return after a few minutes, I went to go look for him. I made it to the hallway and that was the last thing I remember.” He cursed inaudibly under his breath. “I never heard her coming.”
I looked back at Dominic. “And you?”
“The same, love. Just like I told you the first two times. I was fixing myself a drink and then suddenly, I wasn’t. When I came to, the blond was standing over me.”
“I have a name,” said Annabelle, glaring at him under her pin-straight bangs.
“Yes. I’m sure that you do,” answered Dominic without meeting her eyes.
I leaned towards the driver’s seat. “How much longer now?”
“It’s right up ahead,” assured Gabriel.
He pulled off on the next exit and then looped back under the overpass. We drove for another two miles in the opposite direction down a winding stretch of road lined with towering evergreens on both sides. There was something about the way they swayed in the wind, the way their branches rocked back and forth as though they were ushering us into the dawn of a horrible new day.
An opening in the middle of the dense forest came into view and the car suddenly fell silent as we read the sign up ahead. Angel’s Peak. We followed the arrow and turned into the gravel parking lot.
“Is this it? I don’t see them. Where’s the lake?” I strained to see through the falling rain as Gabriel cut the engine.
“There’s a small path just down the bend,” he said, ticking his chin to a small wooden area at the end of the rocky lot. “The lake is on the other side of the woods.” He met my eyes in the mirror again. “I think it’s best if we split up. Maybe you should wait here in case—”
“Not happening.” I didn’t even bother letting him finish. I pushed open the back door and climbed out over Dominic.
“Angel, perhaps you should listen to us for once,” said Dominic as he hopped out of the car right behind me. “We don’t know what she’s capable of right now.”
Scowling, I whipped around to face them, my hair swinging through the rain and then sticking to my face in thick, wet pieces. “Really? Then maybe you two should stay here since we wouldn’t even be in this mess if you’d done it right the first time!” I snapped back at them and then took off towards the small opening.
It wasn’t their fault and I knew that, but I needed someone to blame for this.
They thought I was too weak to put her down before—too emotionally invested to do what had to be done. But I knew they were wrong then, and they were wrong now.
I could wield my weapon with the best of them, and unlike them, I wouldn’t miss.
Pushing the overgrown trees apart, I slinked my way in between the wet branches, never bothering to slow down or wince as the jagged claws sliced out at my skin. My feet pounded hard against the sopping ground, working twice as hard just to keep myself from slipping in the mud. I was determined to make my way through to the end of this—to the shiny, blue-eyed ray of light at the end of this darkened tunnel.
I heard the sisters calling out behind me, warning me to slow down. But I couldn’t. I wasn’t even sure I was going in the right direction, but I had to keep going. I had to keep running. And then suddenly I knew. I felt it—the faint humming sensation under my skin that let me know Trace was near.
Leaving them behind, I ran even faster, faster than I ever had before as the ground dipped and shifted under me. I tried to keep pace on the uneven terrain, but the undergrowth kept clawing at my feet as though it were alive, knocking out my legs from under me. I scrambled back to my feet and ran faster still, visions of my happily-ever-after lighting me up from the inside out. I wasn’t going to let anyone take that away from me, and definitely not her!
Up ahead, I could see the moon hanging low through the thinning trees and I knew the end of the forest was in sight. I ran towards it like a sinner running from her demons and then tumbled out of the woods headfirst onto the muddy beach.
I squinted through the rain as I searched the hazy shore for any sign of Trace. My breathing halted as I spotted two silhouettes waiting in the shadowy horizon, one standing straight and one—the only one that mattered—on bended knee. I sucked in a deep breath and released the jagged pillars of smoke through my nose.
He was less than a hundred feet away from me and even though his back was to me and I couldn’t see his face, I knew he was still alive. He was upright and that was all that it took to hurdle me forward.
Squeezing the piece of wood in my palm, I kicked off the ground and rushed towards my mother. I wasn’t going to let her destroy my life all over again, to take away the one thing I loved on this cursed green earth. She would have to get through me first, and I didn’t intend on letting that happen.
At the sound of my pounding feet and the wailing cry I couldn’t smother, she turned and faced me through the rain. Her expression was one of disbelief, of shock and confusion, and then all life disappeared from her eyes as I grabbed her shoulder and wedged the stake inside her heart. No words. No warnings. No goodbye. I let her body tumble to the ground before me and I vowed that it would be the last time I’d ever look at that monster again.
My gaze immediately fell on Trace and I ran to him, dropping to my knees before him as though he were my god and I was but a humble servant. His vacant eyes stared forward, not at me, but through me.