Page 128 of His Trick

Tyler dropped from the wall, right at Xanthy’s heels. He looked up at her, his mouth busted, his face a mess of cracked bone.

“Beg her,” I demanded, nothing but pure rage and venom.

“I-I-I’m sorry, Alex-Xanthy. I’m so sorry.”

Tears rolled down her pale cheeks as she shook her head and backed away from him. His blood now coated her feet.

With her denial, he staggered back, coughing and spitting up blood. I grabbed him by the collar, pulling him back up, and slamming him against the wall with enough force to rattle the frame.

“You…don’t…ever…” I growled, my voice shaking with something unrecognizable even to me. “Touch her again. You wanted her to break? How does it feel now? Hah! You can’t even handle a second of what you’ve done to her.”

His grin returned, just a faint, crooked, infuriating smile.

“She’s fine, Prince Charming. Don’t be so bitter. She downgraded to you. You’re a fucking placeholder for when I want her back. She’s always been mine. Haven’t you, Alexandra?”

Xanthy didn’t speak. She just kept crying.

I laughed, a brittle, broken sound. My calm had left the building the second he’d grabbed her.

My hands shook as I hit him again, until the blood on my knuckles felt like it belonged there, like it was a part of me.

My vision blurred with rage, and the world narrowed down to him, to the smell of blood and sweat, and the sound of his grunting under my fists.

I wasn’t thinking.

I wasn’t rational.

I was pure emotion, pure instinct, and the part of me that Carrington had clawed awake in the woods, the part that had no mercy, no patience.

I broke his wrist, cracked his jaw, snapped his fingers, and threw him down the side steps out of the building. Every mark on Xanthy’s body, I replicated on his.

Then I heard her.

“Shiloh, Stop! You’re going to kill him!”

Her scream split through the night, piercing through the chaos inside me. I froze mid strike, my chest rattling, while every nerve trembled.

My hands loosened their grip, letting the pulp of the man fall to the ground. I saw the carnage through new eyes. They slid from his bloodied collar to his broken face.

Tyler gasped on the ground, coughing, choking on blood, but still alive.

Barely.

Xanthy grabbed me by the shoulders, pulling me backward, her hands strong despite her shaking. “Shiloh. Stop. Don’t do this. You’ll get arrested, you’ll…”

I let her drag me away, resisting at first, needing one last second to make sure he couldn’t stand again. But her grip didn’t falter.

Her voice, that terrified, commanding scream, was enough to claw me out of the abyss I was falling into. She took me to the car and turned on the ignition, her eyes darting around to the entrance, as if to ensure no one saw us.

I took a breath as she pressed me against her, keeping me upright to her chest, holding me as much as the middle console allowed. It bit into my stomach.

My knuckles dripped with blood, mine and his, my chest stuttered like I’d run a marathon, and my mind was still half in the dark and half steadied in the bright, panicked light of her holding me.

“I…he…” I stuttered, my words failing, my throat too raw.

“You’re okay,” she said, holding me tighter. “You’re safe now. Just breathe, Shiloh. Please. I have you.”

Her dress was covered in blood. My suit was bathed in red.