Page 104 of The Delta’s Rogue (Crescent Lake #4)

My wait for death is endless. I teeter on the precipice between the living and the not, waiting for the end to come.

Only, it never does.

Sarina’s body collapses on top of mine. Her arms wind around me, clinging to me like she’ll float away into the vast open sky if she doesn’t hold me. The chains loosen and detach, although the shackles remain on my body, and I return her embrace.

“ Lo siento ,” she sobs. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…”

The apology shatters me. She breaks me into tinier pieces with each repetition of the unnecessary phrase.

There’s nothing for her to apologize for. None of this is her fault.

“It’s okay.” I wrap her tighter in my arms, grimacing from the pressure on the wounds she gave me. “It’s okay. I’ve got you.”

A piercing scream flies over the grounds.

I jerk upright, Sarina clasped in my arms. Wesley, Reid, and Nolan—running towards us now that the barrier keeping them away is gone—all skid to a halt. Sarina yanks her head from my chest. The sound snags our attention, erasing all other thoughts.

Around the lake, near Nuncio’s dead and mutilated body, Amara screams, flanked by Maddie, Cav, and my dad.

Blood spurts from stubs at the end of her arms. Maddie tosses a hand to the ground, and Cav shakes his head before spitting another out, right next to the first. The hand uncurls, and a small vial of blood rolls out of it and disappears into the tall grass .

That’s why Sarina stopped attacking me. Witches need their hands to perform magic. Without her hands, Amara could no longer control Sarina.

Amara’s screams are endless.

Cav attacks her detached hands, throwing them in the air and catching them like they’re his new favorite chew toys. As Cav plays with her hands, my dad and Maddie continue their assault on Amara’s body.

My dad grabs her long, too-perfect hair, wraps it around his wrist, and yanks so her face tilts to the sky.

Maddie sprints towards her and towers over her as she slams her palm into Amara’s face, breaking her nose in a single, powerful strike.

Keeping her momentum, Maddie spins and kicks Amara in the throat.

Amara’s scream morphs into a grunt of pain before disappearing completely as she reaches for her throat with the bloody, shaking stumps where her hands used to be.

“Please…” she begs.

Maddie is already slicing through Amara’s legs below the knees. Amara falls to the ground as my dad releases her, and the lower halves of her legs detach from her body.

Maddie rises to her full height, spits on Amara, and smashes her face with her foot.

Icy rage fuels each of Maddie’s blows against Amara.

Her foot meets Amara’s face relentlessly.

She doesn’t stop until we no longer see Amara’s chest rise and fall, and even then, Maddie lands one last stomp to her face for good measure.

We all jump to our feet as Maddie backs away and gazes down at her handiwork.

The surprise of her brutal takedown of Amara kept us frozen in place, stuck on the edge of our seats in limbo, as we watched and waited for the end.

But now that it’s over, our stunned trances break, and the five of us run to join her, Cav, and my dad.

“Remind me to stay on Maddie’s good side,” Reid mutters.

His hand covers his mouth as he gags and turns his face towards the forest, his skin tinted with green.

“Why did you watch?” Nolan asks.

“I couldn’t look away!”

My steps are slower than usual. The silver, the unhealed wounds all over my body, and a limp in my left leg mess with my pace. The others stay by my side instead of running ahead and leaving me in the dust .

We barely make it halfway to my dad and Maddie when another yell stops us in our tracks.

One hundred yards away from where Amara lays dead, two individuals appear—a male and a female.

The male roars his displeasure. His beady eyes glare at Maddie, who prepares to give our dad a high-five in celebration of their win over Amara. The female—dark-haired and blue-eyed—scans the grounds desperately, searching for something or someone.

Brenna, and the male who must be Lyall.

Everything slows to a crawl. The moments play out at a snail’s pace but also overlap, happening almost simultaneously.

Lyall’s yell of displeasure catches my dad’s attention.

A weapon—blinding white and as long as a forearm—slides out of Lyall’s sleeve and into his hand.

He angles his body and launches the weapon at Maddie like a javelin.

It hurtles through the air, sparking and crackling, creating rumbles of thunder so loud they rattle my teeth.

“Maddie!” Wes exclaims.

We both dart forward, but the others hold us back.

Across the lake, my dad and Cav move at the same time. Cav lunges towards Maddie, striking her in the chest and knocking her to the ground. They roll until they land, with her on her back and him on her chest.

My dad dives in front of them, blocking them from the lightning flying through the sky. He hovers in midair. The weapon hits him in the center of his chest. He convulses, his eyes rolling into the back of his head, and he falls to the ground, unmoving.

Wes shoves at the hands holding his arms. His face twists, and a roar tears from his chest as he breaks free of their grasp. “No!”

I’m right beside him, sprinting across the shore, as Maddie’s screaming sobs pierce my eardrums.

“Dad!” she cries, reaching for him. Cav presses her down to the ground with all his might to keep her away from Dad’s body. “Dad, get up, please. Please…”

Her desperate pleas spur me to keep pace with Wes’s strides, even with my unhealed injuries. Sarina darts in front of me, palms flattening on my chest to stop me. Reid tackles Wesley, and Nolan tackles me .

Under normal circumstances, Reid and Nolan wouldn’t be a fair match for either of us, but the overwhelming grief and the sobs wracking our exhausted bodies weaken us.

I clutch Sarina to my chest as I fall, angling myself to take the brunt of the impact. The air slams out of my lungs, and sand clings to my tears.

“Get up, you stupid bastard!” Wesley gasps, struggling against Reid’s grip. “Get up!”

My dad doesn’t move. He doesn’t blink, doesn’t breathe, doesn’t flinch.

He’s gone.

He’s gone, and he didn’t let any of us say goodbye.

“Finish them! Finish all of them!” Lyall yells as time returns to normal speed. He gestures wildly at the grounds, eyes bulging and crazed. “Just because our warriors are down, it doesn’t mean we’ve lost! We can still end them! Take them out now, Brenna!”

When nothing happens, he whirls on her with a growl. But she’s yards away from him, running up the hill towards the forest, where Dominic beckons to her from behind a fallen log. Every few steps, she glances back to check if Lyall has noticed her escape.

Her eyes widen as they clash with Lyall’s. She picks up her pace, keeping her focus on Lyall as she continues running to Dominic.

Lyall whips out a second lightning bolt and catapults it into the air.

“Brenna!” Sarina pushes to her elbows, but I yank her down and clamp my hand over her mouth.

The bolt flies insanely fast, almost too fast to track, but Brenna’s face turns ghostly white as she follows its trajectory. Up and over her it flies, missing her as it heads straight to—

“Dominic!” Brenna shrieks.

Her arms fling out in front of her as she breaks into a sprint. An ear-splitting, earth-shaking crack rents the air. Dazzling white and burning blue lights ripple across the ground, forcing us to close our eyes.

When the light fades and our eyes open, Dominic is gone. Gone . There’s no body, no trace of him. Just a smoking log, sizzling grass, and sparks in the air where he stood only one second before.

“NO!” Brenna shouts.

Her cry is echoed by a whisper from Reid. “No! ”

Brenna falls to the ground. Her hands curl into the grass, and she shakes violently with every breath. A scream of despair and frustration erupts from her as she rises to her knees. Her bright blue eyes glow with magic. She glares with fierce, unfiltered hatred and rage as Lyall stalks towards her.

He only takes one step—one small step—before he freezes in place. He blinks and holds his hands out in front of him, whirling around and around in a frenzy. He clutches at his throat and falls to the ground as if tackled, his body convulsing with his mouth open in a silent, horrified scream.

Lyall writhes in pain, like his insides are on fire.

Every time he tries to stand, he’s knocked down again.

Over and over, he gets to his feet and falls to the ground.

He claws at his neck. His face turns red as he gasps for air, and sweat leaks from his pores, but his bizarre, frantic fit of terror doesn’t end.

I tear my gaze from the gruesome scene in front of me. My eyes flick to the smoking log where Dominic once stood, to my dad’s body, and finally to my mate curled within my arms.

Her dark brown eyes shimmer with tears, and I dip my face into her neck, bringing her closer to me. A shaky exhale leaves me as I kiss her collarbone.

A gaping hole grows within me. Sarina caresses my back, saying nothing.

There’s nothing to say.

Beside me, Wesley scrambles to his feet, and this time, Reid doesn’t hold him back.

I lift my chin. Over on the other side of the grounds, Cav no longer holds Maddie hostage. I guess he’s decided it’s safe now.

Maddie crawls across the trampled grass to Dad’s body, her eyes swollen and her cheeks red and tear stained. She shakes him over and over when she reaches him, her face contorting with anguish when he doesn’t respond.

Wes falls to his knees beside her as another fierce sob rips through her. He catches her in his arms as she collapses beneath the weight of our shared agony. Tears stream from Wesley’s eyes and into Maddie’s hair. He blinks and grimaces while sobbing silently with Maddie, glaring down at our dad.

I roll onto my back and release Sarina, bringing the heels of my hands to my eyes.

I press as hard as I can, but the tears come anyway.

Hot and intense, they flood my eyes, pool around my hands, and flow down my cheeks.

The salt of them stings the silver burns as they slip beneath the collar on my neck.

With a click, it falls to the ground, followed quickly by the cuffs on my wrists and those around my ankles. I gasp in a mixture of relief and despair as I meet Sarina’s eyes again.

The pain from the silver vanishes. The wounds mend themselves now that my lycan and my supernatural healing abilities are not blocked. But despair rocks me to my core as my lycan comes to his senses and realizes we’ve lost something so dear, so important to us.

I may be grown, but he was still my dad. My lycan may be royalty now, but that was once his alpha.

Howls resound in my mind as Sarina tosses the keys to the cuffs aside. She takes my face in her hands. I kiss her palm and wrap my hands around her scarred wrists, once more realizing how much she endured by wearing those awful shackles for so long.

“I’m here,” she whispers. “I’ve got you.”

I’ve got you. Words I’ve said to her countless times. Words she now says to me in my moment of need.

I nod my response, too choked up to speak at all. She collects me in her embrace as I sit. The heartbreaking sobs of my brother and sister worm their way into my ears and burn themselves into my soul. They rip me to shreds from the inside out and urge me to join them.

This isn’t over. Not yet. Not until Lyall is taken care of. I have a duty to fulfill at Sarina’s side before I can let myself break and grieve.

Sarina helps me to my feet. Nolan, Cassandra, and Reid follow us as we approach Brenna and Lyall.

Lyall stays on the ground, but his strange fit continues. It’s horrifying and grotesque, but I can’t look away.

Reid leans closer to me, muttering out of the side of his mouth. “What is she doing to—”

“He’s reliving the moment Conan killed him on repeat,” Brenna answers without taking her focus off Lyall.

She barely blinks as she watches him, her normally vivid blue irises all but gone with how wide her pupils are .

“And I thought Maddie was the one to watch out for,” Reid whispers as he scoots away from Brenna.

“How long can you keep him like this?” I ask.

“He’ll continue to relive his death until I decide he’s had enough. Or until I kill him.”

“Don’t kill him yet,” a commanding voice says from behind us. “We have questions for him.”