Page 28 of Absolution (Favorite Malady Trilogy #3)

My defiant scream is a battle cry, and I lunge at the man who’s caused me so much misery. He whirls to face me, pale blue eyes wide with shock. The sword is in his upraised hand, but I’m faster.

The bayonet slams into his stomach, shredding flesh and vital organs. He roars in agony and tries to stumble away from my attack.

But he’s still holding the sword. He’s still a threat to Dane.

I yank the blade free and jab again, plunging it straight into my uncle’s chest. He falls to his knees, jaw slack as he stares up at me.

My lips peel back from my teeth in a vicious snarl. “You will not hurt my husband. You won’t hurt anyone ever again.”

I twist the rifle, and the blade shreds his black heart.

His body goes rigid for a moment, and then he slumps over the rifle. My fingers are locked around the weapon, and I’m dragged down to my knees from his dead weight on the bayonet.

“You can let go now, Abigail.”

Dane’s steady, elegant fingers tug at mine, urging me to release the rifle.

I instantly drop it and wrap my arms around him with a sharp cry of relief.

He shushes me gently. “You’re all right. He’s not a threat anymore.”

I pull back so that I can cup his cheeks in both hands. His blood wets my palm. It flows from a gash at his brow in a sluggish stream.

“You’re hurt!” I exclaim. “Where’s your phone? I’ll call an ambulance.”

His fingers thread through my hair, grounding me to him. “I’m fine,” he promises. “It looks worse than it is. Head wounds bleed a lot.”

“But you were unconscious,” I protest.

“For a few seconds,” he reassures me. “We can’t call an ambulance, or the authorities will come to the property. I need to clean up this mess.”

My gaze finds my dead uncle. I simply stare at his body for several seconds, and I realize that I don’t feel a shred of distress or remorse.

He was going to hurt Dane, and I stopped him.

He hurt me, and I made him pay for it.

No one will ever suffer at his cruel hands ever again.

I turn back to Dane. “What do we do now?”

He traces the shape of my purple curl with reverence. “My brave Abigail,” he praises. “I need to get patched up. Then I’ll destroy the evidence. You can wait outside in my car. I’ll handle this.”

I shake my head. “I’m not leaving your side. You’re the medical professional, but you’re injured. I’ll be right here if you need me.”

His lips twist in a lopsided smile. “My wife is so fierce. Whatever you say, my queen.”

Ten minutes later, Dane’s head wound is bandaged, and his face is no longer covered in blood.

He made quick work of treating the gash with a first aid kit that we found in the downstairs bathroom.

I’m calmer now that his eyes are fully focused, and he’s able to walk in a straight line without wavering.

We return to the armory. Uncle Jeffrey looks smaller in death, diminished. The shadowy figure that haunted my nightmares has been vanquished: he’s flesh and blood. Fallible.

I’ve slain my own personal monster.

Dane moves with unhurried steps, his posture relaxed and utterly unbothered by the dead man. He crosses to the humidor and selects a cigar. Then he grabs a bottle of whiskey from the cabinet.

I lift a brow at him. “Are we celebrating?”

“We’ll celebrate later,” he reassures me. “I’m destroying the evidence.”

He drags Uncle Jeffrey’s body into one of the green leather armchairs beside the drinks cabinet.

He pours two fingers of whiskey into a crystal glass before tipping it so that the alcohol spills onto my uncle’s ruined chest. A discarded newspaper sits on the small table beside the armchair, and Dane sets the empty glass atop it.

His fingers loosen around the bottle, and it smashes on the floor.

I jolt slightly at the sound of shattering glass, but I don’t say a word of protest. I simply watch while he lights the cigar and places it on the newspaper.

The paper curls as it begins to burn. Dane waits for flames to lick the antique wooden table before kicking it over.

The spilled whiskey acts as an accelerant, and fire races to the alcohol-soaked cream rug.

“Let’s go,” he rumbles, picking up the bloody bayonet. “We’ll drop this in the river on our way back to Charleston. Where’s the fuse box?”

“This way.”

His hand wraps around mine, and we both walk out of the armory.

In less than two minutes, we’ve cut the power and made it out of the house. Dane is leading me toward his waiting car, but I pause and turn.

“Wait,” I request.

He seems to know what I need. His arm drapes over my shoulder, holding me close as we watch the orange glow in the armory grow brighter.

It takes several, long minutes for the fire to spread across the first floor.

With the power off, there will be no alert to the authorities that the place is burning.

And the families who lived on the plantation left in disgust when my story went viral.

There’s no one around to stop the destruction of the historic mansion where centuries of evil have taken place.

Flames gradually engulf the nightmarish house that I used to call home. The fire is cleansing, searing the toxicity of my past from my soul. I watch it all burn, imprinting the scene on my memory so that I can paint it later as a reminder that I’m free. I survived.

When the house is nothing more than a glowing skeleton of its former self, I finally turn to Dane.

“It’s over. I’m ready to go home.”

He’s watching me with that keen green gaze, and the flames are reflected in my dark god’s eyes. Night has fallen, but the raging fire throws his heartbreaking features into fierce relief.

“I love you, Abigail.”

My breath catches, and my heart squeezes to the point of pain.

“You don’t have to say that,” I protest, even as longing tugs at my chest.

His hands frame my face, so that I’m trapped in his reverent hold. “I love you.”

“Dane…”

His fiery eyes flash. “I mean it. I’ve never meant anything more in my life. I didn’t think I was capable of feeling this way, but I do love you. I was a coward not to say it before. Maybe it’s obsession to the point of madness, but I choose to call this love.”

My heart swells, my love every bit as obsessive as his. “If this is madness, then I don’t want sanity,” I declare in a feverish whisper. “I love you too, Dane.”

He crushes his lips to mine in a hungry, savage kiss, as though he wants to devour my declaration of devotion.

As my painful past burns to ash behind us, I’m swept up in the man who is my future. My family. My everything.