Page 58 of The Wicked

“It’s useless. I’m taller than you are, and even I won’t be able to make the jump. Trust me, I tried.” His voice was closer.

I turned sharply, and he was closing in on me as I had guessed. I moved to run again but didn’t get far. He caught me just at thepool’s edge; I tried to squirm out of his hold. I failed pitifully at trying to elbow him in his stomach.

I dropped my head to sink my teeth into the skin on his forearm and reveled in the bliss that came from his groan of pain. I dipped my teeth further until I tasted blood. He forcefully pulled his arm from my mouth, and his grip loosened.

When I thought I had the running opportunity, his leg swept mine from underneath me, and I was falling towards the pool. On reflex, I grabbed his shirt collar as I went down, and we both hit the water with a massive splash.

For about five seconds, I was underwater, but I pumped my arms and legs furiously until my head broke the surface again. I coughed, my chest heaving.

Elio surfaced right after me, his hair wet and pressed against his forehead as he angrily brushed it away, his gaze furious and dead set on me.

“You don’t want to do this,” I said with trembling lips.

He swam towards me, and my attempt to swim backward was a total failure. I tried to fight him off again, trying to move my legs to hit him, but I was too slow, and somehow, he was faster, like he had mastered the act of moving stealthily underwater. I moved to hit him with my hand in the open air, but he caught it, his other hand wrapping around my neck.

“You… you don’t want to do this,” I stuttered in a shiver.

“Why not?” he seethed, not even shivering as violently as I was, but I could see the goosebumps on his forearm as his grip tightened around my neck, almost cutting off my airflow.

My last resort was my leverage.

“Devil—he’ll never forgive you.”

He blinked, amusement filling his eyes as he responded, “Surprise… that’sexactlywhy I’m doing this.”

“You piece of shi—” My words were swallowed the moment the water swallowed my head and my entire body.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Elio

It was simple.

I needed Street. They were skillful. Chaotic in the face of danger, but still conceivably effective. But I had never been one to rely on people before making my next move. I was beginning to lean on the idea of them, becoming perturbingly dependent on their presence to get things done.

There was the fact that I wanted Elia far away from me, from this country, but a lingering sense of peace seemed to fill me, knowing he was close by. The urge to keep him safe and shield him from danger was like a bow to a violin—still, him being close was messing with things. And him being attached to a person who attracted danger like a moth to a flame was worse than him being close to me.

I didn’t know who she was, but I knew she was someone. Someone bold enough to kill the second-in-command of a pernicious family and show no remorse or fear—it put me on guard. It was a symptomatic sign that I had to cut her off. She was a threat. A threat to me and a threat to my brother’s life.

She had to go.

Zahra’s hand pulled at my wrist in an attempt to break my grip on her neck. Her face scrunched tight, trying to hold her breath and survive. The sheer determination she gave off was impressive. She’d been trained for this too. It was painfully obvious how she’d lasted this long, but I knew she was at her breaking point.

I allowed her a chance for a little hope, and she sprang up to fight me, resurfacing a couple of times, but I pushed her backunder, her hands tangling with mine, her body slow from the fight and pull of the water.

A struggle she was failing to keep up.

My grip tightened, and her eyes widened, mouth falling open.

“There we go,” I whispered, watching the bubbles from her mouth rush up and fade. “Don’t fight it,” I said, holding firm through every jerk of her struggle until it stopped. Until her grip loosened from my wrist. Until no sound of struggling or rippling water was heard, and it was just… silence.

I looked up, blew out a breath, and yanked her body back up to the surface, signaling to one of the soldiers as he rushed towards me. I grunted, lifting her heavy unconscious body from the pool, the soldier assisting in pulling her out completely, laying her beside the pool.

I brushed my hair back with both hands before getting out of the water, drenched and dripping from head to toe, my clothes sticking to me like a second skin.

I signaled to another soldier. “Turn the cameras back on,” I said before turning to the other soldier, who had assisted in lifting her body from the pool.

“Make it seem like she drowned, and you tried to revive her. Do not exert effort; I want her to stay dead,” I said to the soldier, who dutifully went to his knees, pumping her chest with little effort.