Page 165 of His Trick

Her brother.

He was mine to hold again. She was mine to destroy, and I would do just that if it released what I had been burying for a year.

It’s what he wanted. All he asked of me.

I was already a killer.

I stumbled back from the grave, the brown sludge clinging to my shoes, seeming to drag me under, pulling at my limbs to him below.

Every step I took back to my truck felt weighted, and every time I took a breath, it felt thick in my throat, choking me.

I imagined Carrington watching me from the sky. Maybe he wasn’t there at all, just the ghost I carried in my chest, the echo of what I’d destroyed and could never have again.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered to the air around me, my hands pressed to my broken heart as I walked through the rain-soaked field. “I’m so fucking sorry, Carrington. You were my light…and it’s gone. And now…Now I can’t stop myself. I want to accept the darkness. I need to feel you again. I will do it. I will break her. For you. I will let the darkness in.”

The first rowof hay bales rose ahead of me, slick with the downpour. The maze loomed ahead of us, twisting paths disappearing into shadowed corners I remembered well. My mind raced, replaying the past over and over—our memories, our fights, our touches, and the night I lost him forever. All the blood, the pleading, the look in his eyes that haunted me for the rest of my miserable fucking life.

I remembered every time I had touched Xanthy over the past year, seeking comfort, seeking a tether to the humanity Carrington had left behind. I felt hollow, and I couldn’t getthrough it without remembering she was a part of him. That he wasn’t truly gone. I loved her because of him. And now…she was the only thing standing between me and the darkness I had buried behind the mask.

The hunger he had left me with.

I paused at the maze’s entrance, Xanthy’s hand in mine. Our rings shone in the dim moonlight. Rain poured over our faces, mixing with the tears she couldn’t see, running down my neck and over my broken chest.

My hands trembled violently as the wind whipped at me, rain slapping into my eyes, yet all I could see was her. She didn’t know yet. She wouldn’t understand. But she would. She had to because it was the only thing that made sense.

The hunger coiled tighter. My chest constricted. My fists clenched. And I knew what I had to do.

I was going to take her. For him. Sacrifice the light like he wanted me to. I was going to make him mine forever. Make her feel what I had felt for the past year. She wouldn’t survive this. It needed to end. There was no light anymore for any of us.

The rain fell harder. The storm screamed in my ears. And for the first time in a year, I felt alive.

Not with joy. Not with love. Not with light.

I felt alive with the void inside me.

The darkness Carrington had left me.

The rain hammered harder, soaking me to the bone. Mud clung to my boots and seeped into my socks, the cold biting at my skin. Every step in the hay maze felt like wading through quicksand, yet I didn’t care. All that mattered was her.

Xanthy.

My tether.

My wife.

My prey.

The only thing that had kept me tethered to humanity after Carrington was gone, and now the only thing I could lose myself to.

Her laughter from earlier, soft, oblivious, sounded in my mind, twisted by the storm. The maze split ahead, rows of soaked corn rising like walls in some labyrinthine tomb. Cheaplanterns flickered along the paths, throwing shadows that danced like phantoms across the corn.

I lunged first, grabbing her arm in a bruising grip, my body vibrating. The rain spattered against my face, and her pulse rattled against my chest.

“Shiloh…what—” Her voice trembled, confusion and fear blending with desire as I ripped her dress from her body and slammed her onto the ground.

“Shhh,” I rasped, pressing her against the earth. My hands shook, trembling violently as I yanked my jeans down. “No words. Not tonight, my wife. Just feel me. All of me.”

Her wet hair was a tangled mess, mud coating her, rain streaming into her eyes, and I could feel the pulse of her fear vibrating through her body.