Page 242 of Blackwood

Next to me, Celeste lifts her head, tongue flicking toward Cade like she’s tasting the air around him. Sabine watches with a slow, knowing smile. “Ahh, this one loves true. Not with fire, but with root. Deep, old, and hard to kill. That’s the kind that holds you when the storm won’t pass.”

Cade doesn’t move. Doesn’t speak. But I swear, he looks at Bella like he already knew that and just needed the universe to say it out loud.

Sabine steps closer, Celeste still curled around her shoulders like a crown of serpents and looks at me… then at Cade. “She’sblessed to have y’all. And you? You’re blessed ‘cause she chose you. Don’t let the gods forget it.”

Bella turns back to Vince, smiling like this is just a game she’s already won. “I am theirs,Vincent. In every way that matters. And definitely not yours.Never was. Never will be. No matter how much you paid or what you signed on Carlos’s pathetic little dotted line.”

She leans in close, her voice a whisper sharpened to a blade. “But you know what I will be?” A pause. “I’ll be the last face you ever see, Vincent.”

She straightens, eyes flicking to me, then Cade. “That is… after I let the loves of my life have a little fun with you first.”

The second she gives the word, something in me snaps.There’s no more holding back. No more breathing through the rage. Tex clamps his hands on Vince’s shoulders like he knew I was about to explode. And thank fuck he does, because if Vince were loose right now, I’d tear his spine out through his throat.

I move in, fast, fists already flying. The first hit lands square on his jaw. The second, his ribs. I hear something crack. Good.

“You think she belonged toyou?” I spit, my voice hoarse with hate. “You think that you bought her? Claimed her?”

I grab him by the throat, slam him back against the chair, and keep swinging.

“No. You don’t get to say her name. You don’t even have the right to breathe her air.”

Vince is coughing blood now, spitting teeth between screams. And I don’t care. I don’t fucking care. One more punch. One more crack.

Behind me, I hear Cade, his breath uneven. He’s not ready yet. Still processing. Still on the edge of the dark. But I live here in the darkness, here in the abyss with Bella.

Tex lets out a laugh. “Damn, Barinov. Looks like you got some demons to exorcise.”

“Yeah,” I growl. “And this fucker just volunteered to be my altar.”

“That’ll do, Lex.” Bella’s voice slices through the red haze in my head, soft but absolute. My fist freezes mid-air. I step back, chest heaving, blood dripping from my knuckles. Vince’s face is unrecognizable now—swollen, broken, a portrait of everything he’s done finally coming back to bury his ass.

Bella steps forward, calm as ever as Tex straightens behind Vince and claps a hand on his ruined shoulder.

“Well Bells,” he drawls, “final judgment?”

Bella tilts her head. Her smile is ice. “Oh, he’s guilty, alright.”

Tex laughs. Bella laughs. And it’s terrifying. The sound of two wolves finding joy in the slaughter. She turns to Sabine and nods once.

Sabine just raises a single finger. “Jacques,” she says coolly.

The door creaks open and Jacques walks in, quiet, casual, like this is just business. He’s carrying a red container and a silver lighter.

Bella takes a step back. I move to her left, Cade to her right. We’re a wall now, final and unshakable. Sabine and Celeste stand beside me, Celeste hissing low, like she knowswhat’s coming. Tex falls in next to Cade, eyes fixed on the scene like he’s watching a sermon.

Jacques doesn’t speak. Just uncaps the can and starts pouring it over Vince’s slumped body. The bastard twitches. Groans. But he doesn’t beg. He knows it’s over. Gasoline splashes across his shirt, his hair, the concrete floor beneath him.

Then the click of the lighter.

A spark.

A flame.

And then—whoosh.

Fire consumes him. He screams. The sound is music to my ears.

I don’t look away. Not once. I just reach over and take my girl’s hand, squeezing tight, anchoring her to the moment she’s been chasing for years. She doesn’t flinch. She doesn’t look away either. And then I feel it, Cade reaching across her, wrapping his fingers through hers from the other side.