Page 10 of All Your Deadly Truths (The Filthy Duet #2)

I barely register her absence before Lars steps into view, towering over me.

“If you promise to be a good girl…” His voice drips with mockery as he straddles my legs, his grip on the back of my neck tightening like a vise.

My body trembles under the weight of the pain, every nerve alight with agony.

“You can stay with me,” he continues, his tone turning cruelly sweet.

“I was always your favorite. You never fought that hard against me, did you?”

A deafening scream tears from my throat, raw and unrelenting, as I thrash against the invisible chains holding me down. My eyes burn with everything I despise, a rage so consuming it’s almost blinding.

“Fuck you, Lars, and the ship you floated in on,” I snarl, venom lacing every word. I spit in his face, and to my disgust he just laughs, low and mocking, while gathering it up with his fingers and shoving them into his mouth.

“Oh, I’ll fuck you. Your cunt is perfect with or without a head.”

My body shakes violently, overtaken by the wrath surging through me, obliterating every shred of a coherent thought.

I hardly process that I’m now sitting alone— Lars has walked away without a word. The world around me fades to black, my senses dulled to everything. Even when a hand wraps around my neck, the pressure feels like nothing more than a breeze.

“Keep your mouth shut about me, Xeraphine,” Tali commands.

I try to respond, but I don’t even know if I have a voice left to speak.

Kai… No… Oh my Gods. Please don’t do this. I can’t be without him. I won’t survive.

It isn’t just my Amoro that would die, but I truly believe my heart wouldn’t survive either. The weight of that truth crushes me, and I don’t know what will become of me when I finally emerge. Will I still be me, or will I be a shell, lost to the nothingness that’s waiting to swallow me whole?

One… Five… Seventy years from now… What would I be when… if I come back?

I’ll lose myself if they take him away from me…

“What the fuck are you doing there, Marcos?”

I try to lift my head, but Tali’s fingers are threaded through my hair, forcing me to keep my gaze fixed on the ground. Every fiber of my being wants to look up, to find Kairhyse’s voice, to see where it’s coming from, but I can’t.

“You know I’m not going to answer that. You are just going to listen for a moment. Also, stay at that stoplight.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck. Kai, please!

“I have to say, I’m very disappointed in you.” I didn’t think it possible to hate Lars more, but the way he talks to what is mine…

I clench my jaw tightly, my shoulders trembling.

“I do not give a fuck what you are. Release her, or so help me?—”

A sob cracks from my throat.

I’m so godsdamn sorry.

“No talking, okay?” I will kill this son of a bitch for speaking to him this way!

There’s a moment of silence before Lars finally continues, “Good boy. Now, as I was saying... I’m very disappointed in you.

I was hoping that when my father died you could be by my side.

Everything about you is strong, except for your weakness for a mere woman.

” Another pause, heavier this time, before he resumes talking.

“I knew I smelled her on you. I wanted to think it was a coincidence, that maybe I was daydreaming of my forgotten Xeraphine. But when I saw you show up in the mountains, getting out of your car parked at the ranger’s station, and then carrying her back…

” He lets out a slow, almost amused sigh. “I knew I wasn’t mi staken.”

I find my voice, albeit gentle. “Kai…” I don’t know if he can hear me, but I hope that he does. “He’s Lars…”

“I would rather not have to put her back in the ground, you see.”

I despise that I’m crying, but I’m powerless to stop it. If there’s one thing I loathe more than anything, it’s not being in control.

Now, I hate that I’ll be taken away from him—the one person who has made me feel, and understands me without taking anything away in the process.

The thought of being torn from him fills me with a cold terror.

I will suffer, for who knows how long, not knowing if he’ll still be alive when I’m found.

If … I’m found.

Something deep inside tells me I won’t be as lucky this time.

“They are going to put me back, Kai.” A sob fractures through my attempt at being strong. “I’m sorry—” My voice comes out louder than I intended, and instantly, Tali’s grip on my hair tightens.

“Don’t you fucking look at her!” He’s pissed, and I can’t imagine loving him more, but somehow, I do. “Please… I’ll do anything. Don’t do this…. What do you want?”

I love you. I’m so sorry I pushed you away.

The fact that he’s pleading for me, and I hurt him the way I did, shatters me. My heart, which has barely started to come back together, breaks apart all over again.

“Nothing from you. Well, before I didn’t want anything from you. Now, you are playing a nice piece in the game. So really, thank you, Kairhyse.”

Don’t say his fucking name!

Tali yanks my head back, and I force my eyes open to see the phone in Lars’s hand.

Kairhyse is staring at me through the screen, his gaze locked onto mine.

My lip trembles as I see the helplessness in his eyes.

His arm is outstretched to his side, and I can only imagine it’s Sydni he’s trying to protect. The one other person I can’t lose.

Keep her safe… please… Tears stain my cheeks, each drop a searing mix of pain and sorrow, and my mind fractures with each new one that falls.

“No…” His voice is barely audible.

I know what’s coming before it happens. It’s as if my senses can already feel the blade slicing through the air, its silent promise of fatality closing in on me.

“Find me. Please, I l?—”

Death is so peaceful; so quiet.

Until it reminds you that you aren’t welcome in its sanctuary, and that you’re still bound to this world. One that is bent on making you suffer.