Page 113 of Darkness of Mine

Zach roars and slams his elbow into my chest. Air shocks out of me and I gasp, desperately trying to fill my lungs. The secondscost me and by the time I can breathe again Zach has yanked the bedroom door open and stumbled into the hall.

I haul myself up and go after him only to grind to a halt when I find him standing by the front door, laughter bubbling from his mouth. “That was your plan? Send the defenseless child out into the woods?” He laughs harder before the sound cuts off, darkness slamming down over his face. “We’re in the middle of nowhere,Freya, and it’s freezing out there.” He laughs again. “You just sent that little girl to her death. And now…” He steps towards me. “It’s just you and me.” He shakes his head, sick amusement lighting his face. “You ran so far only to gift yourself to me. Screw Jeremiah. This? This is fate.”

Zach takes another step.

I debate my chances of getting back to the bedroom and retrieving the knife before he can reach me and decide they’re next to nothing. Zach’s bigger than me and our scuffle in the bedroom told me he’s been trained to fight, probably by Jeremiah. The likelihood of me coming out on top in hand-to-hand combat is low.

My eyes scan the hall for anything I can use to help, and I almost start laughing myself because Zach’s obsession has unintentionally given me the home advantage. I know this house like the back of my hand.

He takes another step. Without looking, I grab the painting off the wall above my head and throw it at him. Glass smashes against the floor as it deflects off his arm and I run to the right towards the second entrance to the kitchen.

I sprint as fast as I can, sending one of the kitchen chairs flying behind me to slow him down. I’m almost at the door that leads back into the hall, right by the front of the house.

My lungs burn but I push harder. I can do this. I can make it.

A deafening crack.

White-hot pain sears across my leg.

I smack into the wooden floorboards and grip my thigh. Warm blood soaks my hand and I can barely breathe past the pain, but I can’t stop. I’m pushing myself back up when another bullet whips past my ear. I freeze. My breath shallow. Fast.

“Looks like I’ve caught myself a little star,” Zach sing songs.

A hand clasps my ankle and a scream tears out of me as he tugs my bad leg, yanking me back across the floor.

He flips me over, sending fire shooting down my leg. The gun stays steady, aimed between my eyes as Zach lowers himself to the ground and straddles my waist. I can feel his hardness pressed against my stomach and it takes everything I have not to pass out. His face is stone, black tar in his eyes. “You never fucking learn. You can’t run from me, Annie.”

He leans forward and harsh fingers grab my wrists. He yanks my arms above my head, and I cry out as a sharp pain stabs through my hand.

Zach stops moving.

His eyes zero in on my hand, the one I’d been hiding under my shirt sleeve. Deep lines dig into his forehead. “Why the fuck is your thumb broken?”

I bite my lip and grunt as he presses down on the bruised and swollen flesh. Brows knitted, he pulls my sleeve up my arm.

“You had a bracelet on.”

It would really work in my favor right now if Zach wasn’t smart. If he didn’t work out that the bracelet that’s now around Harley’s arm has a tracker in it, but I know the second he curses that he’s figured it out.

“You’re too late,” I say as he gets to his feet. As soon as Harley got out of range of Zach’s jammer the bracelet would have started transmitting again.

Zach leans down over me. “I’ll find her,” he promises. “Then I’ll bring her back and make you watch as I slice her pretty little throat. After all, I don’t need her when I have you.”

Fear wrenches through me and I make one last ditch effort to grab his gun. I miss and Zach’s boot crashes into the side of my face. My skull crunches against the table leg and the edges of my vision blur.

Pain blooms sharp and furious.

The front door slams behind Zach and I try to follow him, but I can’t get my body to move.

My head swims, darkness tugging me under. Fire streams through my body like my blood is burning.

I can’t stop thinking about how mad Jude will be with me for dying. How Eli won’t laugh anymore, and Oz will bury himself in the dark web. And River. Fuck, I’m not sure the world will survive an angry River.

Tears run down the side of my face.

My leg hurts. And my hand. And my head.

I close my eyes.