Chapter Eleven #3
—for the second it lasted.
“Argh!”
All of a sudden, Santino ripped away from me. My eyes snapped open in time to see Ronin heft him up and throw him into the secret entrance.
I didn’t have a chance to cry out—to stop him.
Ronin snapped his fingers and the walls rumbled. A shower of dust, dirt, and debris kicked back, choking the air as the tunnel caved in—burying Radu under seventeen tons of stone.
I screamed.
“Don’t you dare!” Ronin seized and hauled me around. “Don’t you dare cry for him after what you’ve done! You lied to me! You chose him!”
My eyes were huge in face of his fury... in face of his pain. “I— You—” I snapped to Dora, who was backing away—plastering herself against the shelves. “It’s not what you think!” I cried. “You’ve got it all wrong, I was just—”
“Let’s skip the flirting and go straight to leaving,” Ronin repeated word for word—trapping the air in my lungs. “How long to get to Pomaris?” His eyes burned me. His lower lip trembled as hard as the grip clutching my arms. I’d never seen this Ronin before.
Hurt.
“What part of that did I get wrong, Hunter? Huh? Huh!” He tossed his head, and I gasped.
His face was changing. Like a spinning coin, it was rapidly switching back and forth from the beautiful, glamourized face of Ronin, and that bat-like monster who appeared in the courtyard and killed Kazuya, Bruno, and Pravat.
His muscles were rippling beneath the skin as his nails retracted and grew, piercing my skin half a dozen times. This was his malevolent form. The form he could only take when he was overflowing with hatred.
“Ronin, you need to calm down,” I cried. “I promise, you’ve got it all wrong. Yes, I was leaving, but I was coming back!”
“Tch, likely fucking story,” he growled, eyes flashing.
“Yeah, I bet you were coming back—for him! For that fucking leech you were kissing! The guy you can’t stay away from, even though he sicced every vampire in hell on you, just to force you to be his personal blood bag. That’s the guy you want so bad!”
“Ronin—” I struggled in his grip. “Just wait! Listen!”
“Did he say sorry? Huh?” Ronin demanded. “Did he make a fucking fool of himself in front of everyone with all that communication and telling-the-truth bullshit! Huh? Did he?!”
My face soaked with tears.
“Did you and your precious sister get a big laugh watching me humiliate m-myself?” His voice cracked, and my heart sank deeper.
“I bet you could barely contain yourself, standing there listening to me blathering on about you giving me something to live for, while the whole time, you were planning to fuck off as far from me as possible.”
“No!” I sobbed. “That’s not true! None of that’s true!
I loved everything you said, Ronin, I really did.
It’s what convinced me to stay!” I surged forward, grabbing him in turn.
“I was going to come back to you, I swear I was but— But you have to get Santino out of there! You have to help him. None of this is his fault. It’s all a misunderstanding! ”
Ronin rolled his neck, snarling as hair sprouted from his pores, and a sickly, mottled gray tinge bled into his skin. “This is all a misunderstanding, huh?” he forced through gritted teeth. “But if you were coming right back, why leave in the first place?”
“For Dora! She’s not safe here, and I can’t focus on what I need to do if I’m worrying about her twenty-four seven. I was leaving to take her to—”
“Arggh!” he roared, blowing me back. “Dora, Dora, Dora! I’m so fucking sick of her being the excuse for every shitty thing you do!” His gaze hardened. “No more.”
“Wha— What?” I rasped. “What are you talking ab—?”
Ronin released my arm and snapped his fingers. A dagger appeared in his hand. “From now on, you’ll have no reason to lie, no reason to hide, and no reason to leave.” He shoved the hilt into my palm. “Kill her.”
“What! No!” The icy sharpness sprouted from my tattoo and spread down my arm. I was a puppet dangling from invisible strings. Screaming my throat raw, an invisible force yanked me around and threw me at Dora.
“NOOOOOOOO!”
I plunged the knife in her heart, burying it to the hilt.
Dora choked. Eyes bugging, black blood welled up in her throat and dribbled down her mouth. Her lips moved as though she was trying to say something, then she crumpled to the ground.
Dead.
“DORA! No! Noooo!” I shrieked, sobs ravaging my throat.
Snap.
The library, the stacks, Santino’s crushing tomb, and my Adora all blinked away.
I stumbled across Ronin’s carpet, but I didn’t need to catch myself. He picked me up and tossed me on the bed.
Another snap, and shackles clanked around my ankles—their biting chill seeping into my bones.
Ronin bore down on me. “You won’t understand this now, but I did you a favor. This sisterly love bullshit has been an anvil on your back your whole life until it finally dragged you down and plunged you into hell.”
“Waaahhh,” I cried—heart-wrenching sobs that shredded my throat and ripped open my chest.
“I freed you, Charlotte.”
Ronin slammed out the door.
“You’re welcome.”