Page 33 of The Curse Trilogy

“I’m so sorry, and I can’t say it enough. I know I fucked up, but I swear I never meant to hurt you,” he pleads.

“No. Don’t. you just never thought you’d lose me because I loved you too fucking much. You think because you’re my counter-”

His lips pound against mine suddenly as he uses his passionate need to shut me up. I feel the wall against my back cracking more and more as his hips dig in, and I almost give into the savage lusting at play. I grip the back of his head, my hands weaving through the soft strands of hair, to pull him closer, deeper into the kiss.

My sanity returns as quickly as it fled, and I shove him off me once again before slapping him hard across the face.

“Fuck you. Don’t ever touch me again,” I snarl, and then I stalk away from the party and him.

My phone rings in my purse at almost the exact same time his does, and my heart almost breaks into pieces when I see the name. It’s Brazen.

I’m such a stupid bitch for ever having dabbled in such a foolish thing with Hale.

“Hey,” I breathe into the phone, my well deserved guilt weighing me down.

“Araya, get everyone to safety now!” he blares into my ear.

“What?” I ask with complete bewilderment.

“Javeline, it’s gone… completely gone. Get everyone to safety now. There should be bomb shelters there. Find one, and stay low until we can get there.”

“Javeline?” I squeal, and tears pour free from my eyes. “What about the people?”

He sighs hard into the phone, hesitance radiating around his silent breaths. In the absence of his response, my mind is forced to play out horrific scenarios I can’t bear to imagine.

“Brazen,” I prompt through the emotional ball in my chest.

“Gone,” he finally exhales. “Listen to me, there’s several hundred men traveling in your direction right now, and they’ve got a huge head start. They could be there at any time, and-”

The sound of a loud buzzer going wild across the building interrupts Brazen’s instructions. The phone drops from my hand and shatters against the ground when Hale jerks my hand in his. Panic and hysteria break free from the partiers as everyone rushes to duck and cover.

“Get everyone into the bomb shelters now. I’ll head to the towers to see what’s going on,” he barks to several uniformed men, and then he whips me around to be in front of him as he speaks very worriedly. “Go with them. Take shelter and keep everyone calm. I’ll come get you when it’s safe.”

I jerk free from his grip while blaring, “Like hell you will. You’re going to need me. Over half your men went to go help out with the Hensen investigation. I’m not letting you go up there without me.”

“Araya, I really don’t have time to argue right now,” he growls.

“Then stop arguing,” I hiss, and then I swish away too fast for him to catch up as I race to the towers.

I see cars coming in by the swarms just miles down the road, and I hear the first blasts connecting before I even see the warning signs. Screams erupt as the explosions pound against the wall, but the sturdy structure holds steady against the attack.

It won’t take them long to reach us at this pace. I see men catching missiles and throwing them back at our attackers, but they’re armed to the guild. We shouldn’t be outmatched, but we are. It’s as though they know what we’re capable of.

Blinding flares and deafening booms continue to litter the once peaceful night air. Blood spews and splatters across the compound as the wounded collapse and scream out their agony.

“Send them a taste of what’s to come,” Hale commands.

A man fires a loud, screeching missile from a launcher attached to the wall. It connects with three of the approaching vehicles, and the explosions after take out several more.

“There’s too many. There are kids in here. I’m not watching anyone else die tonight,” I assert as I stalk over to the wall.

“Araya, don’t,” Hale screams, but he’s not stopping me.

I’m devastated, I’m in pain, and I’m fucking pissed right now. My home, my friends, and so much more rested in Javeline… now it’s all gone. Now they want to take even more. I won’t let them take Hale. I won’t let them take from him away from me too. I won’t let them touch him.

I rush toward the oncoming fleet, and I hear more screams as the explosions reach inside the compound. I pull out a gun filled with the uranium dipped bullets, and I start firing through the windows of the oncoming sons of bitches heading straight for me.

I feel the impact of a car slamming into my back, but they’re a little stunned when I don’t budge from the ground. The car curls around me as the iron folds and distorts, the crunching of metal and bones sounding out in unison - not my bones though. I dust it off of me as though it’s a speck of sand.