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“Keep an eye out. Something doesn’t feel right,” I say. “Have you seen Fermin?”

“There he is,” Vash says, pointing over to Fermin as he walks into the warehouse.

“Hey,” I say with a smile. “I just wanted to say thank you for your help along the way. I’m glad you all got along so well.”

“Uhm… You’re welcome,” he says, shifting somewhat nervously.

“You okay?” I ask.

“Uh… Zypher was killed,” he says.

“Woah. I didn’t even know he was here,” I say. “Who killed him?”

“I did,” he says. He is shaky and won’t look at me.

“Hey. Hey, it is okay. You did what you had to do, yeah?” I say.

“Yeah,” he says dismissively, nodding. “Do you want to see him before they burn his body?”

“Uhm,” I say as I turn to see what the guys are doing. I see they are talking to some of the witches who were held captive with Volis. “Yeah. Yeah, okay. I’ll just update them later.” I nod. If he’s dead, I want to see his corpse to make sure, maybe burn it myself for the hell he has put me through.

“After you, my Queen,” he says, gesturing for me to walk ahead of him.

“Was Morwen found?” I ask. “I know they did some bad shit, but I don’t want anyone torturing anyone.”

“He’s over here,” Fermin says, pointing off to the side of the building.

“Was he running?” I say. I see his body, and he looks unharmed from here.

“No,” Fermin says simply.

“Why was he killed and not just brought to me or the kings?” I turn to ask Fermin. Instead of Fermin, Morwen is behind me with a sick, twisted grin. I gasp and try to step back away from him but run into someone else. A hand covers my mouth before I can scream, and Morwen promptly snaps a thick metal collar around my neck.

I scream against the hand on my mouth and try to drop my weight down to slip out of his grip, but they both grab ahold of me. My eyes are looking all over the place. I don’t see Zypher anymore. Where did he go? I begin to hyperventilate. Fermin is teary-eyed as he watches the scene unfold. I direct my anger at him, but he can’t understand what I am saying to him.

“You are an even bigger fool than she is,” Morwen says to Fermin as he pulls a knife from his waistband and stabs it into Fermin’s stomach and twists it before stabbing him again. They leave his body bleeding where it dropped.

Zypher drags me backward before throwing me into the backseat of an SUV that was hidden in an alley. Morwen slides in beside me as I am picking myself up from the floorboard. Morwen grabs me by the hair and drags me up to sit on the seat, and I scream in pain.

“Inpulsa,” I say through gritted teeth. Nothing happens. I try to imagine his blood boiling beneath his skin. Still nothing. Tears stream down my face as I turn and start hitting him when I realize none of my magic is working. “You sick piece of shit,” I scream at him as I hit him.

He still has a tight hold on my hair, but he grabs me by the throat and slams me back against the seat in an attempt to get me to stop. I breathe in sharply, momentarily stunned. I start kicking and punching him when he pushes me down flat on the seat and gets over the top of me to wrap both of his hands around my throat. I don’t stop thrashing, even when I know I can’t breathe.

Morwen lets go of my throat before pulling a pistol and pressing it to my forehead. “Fucking pull the trigger,” I scream at him. “Do it, you fucking coward. Go ahead. Be a big man and pull the goddamn trigger.”

Zypher is too fucking obsessed with me to let him kill me. Not right now, at least. I know they are going to try and break me down. Zypher knows exactly how to do it. He would call it his specialty. I have to remember that I have to fight. That I have a reason to fight. This is not the end of my story. It can’t be. They will not be how I leave this world.

Morwen hits me with the butt of the gun, and I laugh at him. When he rears back to do it again, Zypher slams on the breaks. “Stop fucking hitting her in the head. She’s fucking useless if you put her into a goddamn coma.”

“The bitch needs to learn her place,” Morwen growls.

“She’s got a perfectly good pussy. Fuck her until she cries or something. Don’t do hit her with that again,” Zypher says firmly.

“Better listen before he punishes you,” I say mockingly. When he turns back to face me, I smash my forehead on his nose.

“You fuckingbitch,” Morwen screams at me. Zypher jumps out and drags me out of the vehicle before Morwen can beat me to death.

“Are you fucking stupid?” Zypher growls at me as he slams me against the door. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”