Page 71 of Betrayed

“These woods are spooking me. Can we move in closer?”

He looks at me. Sighs. “Fine. But on the other side.”

We move towards the building, but to the left, away from Rory.

Bayne comes up from nowhere, whispering into Lucian’s ear. Lucian’s entire body tenses beside me.

“What?” I whisper.

His words are pained. “They can’t find Gregory.”

“No…” My heart sinks into my stomach. I grab his hand, holding it tight. “They’ll find him, Lucian?—”

The side door opens. Rory steps out.

Gregory appears from nowhere. Coming around the left side of the bar, to the back, on the opposite side of us. He’s followed Lucian, putting himself in danger.

I elbow Lucian, whispering, “There!”

“Shit.” His voice breaks. “Gregory.”

Everything happens all at once, but also in slow motion. To the right, our men jump on Rory. To the left, there’s a slamming of a truck door. My head snaps toward the sound.

A man with a gun creeps around the side of the truck. Gregory, painfully unaware of his presence, walks towards the tree line, looking for us.

The man trains the barrel of the gun on him.

And I know what Lucian’s seeing. I know this part of his story by heart. He’s seeing Gregory standing where Isobel once stood, where he shouldn’t be.

Where he doesn’t belong.

And now he’s going to get killed.

And break Lucian’s heart all over again.

Just. Like. Isobel.

And in this moment, time stands still. The world shrinks.

I know what it feels like to see your sibling lying in a pool of blood, the one you’ve given everything to try and protect.

And I won’t let that happen to Lucian.

There is no other way. The time is now.

I cry out, drawing his attention as I run out from the woods.

And I throw myself in front of Gregory.

There’s a loud sound, an echo, shouts. Then, silence.

And I’m somewhere else.

The moors stretch out around me, showing their friendly summer face, all sunshine and warm grass.

Cass grins and tucks the final stem into the halo. She presses the flower crown onto my head until it stays, a purple circle of heather against my dark hair, then sets hers on her light brown, unruly hair that refuses to lie flat.

She slides her hand into mine.