Page 186 of Vying Girls

‘You won’t make it,’ he says quickly. ‘I broke her. I made her mine, and I cut her into a thousand pieces and she’ll never be rid of me, and you’ll never have all of her because Itook it.I took the most important pieces. They’re mine.’

I’m stunned by this torrent of words. His fervour for Nic. It makes my guts twist. Blood related or not, they’recousins.It’s appalling to be in the presence of such a sick fuck. Like if I breathe in too much, I’ll become infected with it too.

After a pause, those hands leave my hips, traveling along my arms to cradle the gun as well.

‘You can’t take from an empty shell.’ Nic replaces my finger on the trigger with hers. ‘There was nothing there for you.’

Damien eyes her emptily. ‘And I suppose you’ve got everything now?’

‘Everything,’she breathes, melding the two of our bodies completely.

Oh, and this is power. This right here. The future at my back, ready for me to turn around and take it. And the past in front, backed into a corner and ready to be snuffed.

An electric moment passes before my gaze is snagged by movement to my right.

‘If you want this to end cleanly,’ Fina says, her voice disturbingly calm, ‘we can take it from here. Properly this time.’

The air in the room pauses as I breathe in tandem with Nic. It’s like she’s within me, without me, the very oxygen I breathe.

‘Nic?’ I prompt gently.

She hesitates too, readjusting her hands on mine.

‘Any mess there is, though,’ Fina goes on, coming to lean against the chamber wall, ‘we’ll make sure to clean.’

‘No stains?’ Nic burrs.

‘Nothing at all.’

So she’s leaving it up to us. To Nic. This is her ghost. As much as I want to cave his face in with a bullet, this has to be Nic’s choice.

Against my back, she sighs. ‘Look at you,’ she all but coos. ‘Not where you expected to end up, I bet. You’ve fallen so fucking far, Damien. A teenage king, student president…taking from thewrong guys and wanted for dead.’ She huffs against the back of my neck, making it tingle. ‘The very image of pathetic.’

Her breathing heightens. I feel it against my back. ‘God, I hate you. I fuckinghateyou.’

My breath catches when she raises the gun higher, her grip tight.

‘I want you to die so much,’ she rasps.

Damien blinks heavily, barely reacting. He looks on the cusp of passing out. Indignation grips me. The bastard’s not even aware enough to understand the gravity of what she’s saying.

‘But here’s the difference between you and me, Damien. Because that’s what you’d do, isn’t it? Be consumed by the blackness. Let it spread like a virus. An unbroken curse. And it’s easy. It’s so fuckingeasywhen you’re weak like you. But I don’t want to be like you. I want to be likeme.Little me. The Nicole before you. Before Dad. The Nicolesheknew.’ Nic nudges me lightly, making my whole heart sing. ‘So I’m not going to kill you. But you are going to be gone for good. Last chance. Show your face again, for any reason, and I won’t hesitate to shoot it.’

‘And I won’t hesitate to bury it,’ comes Blakely’s grinning voice.

‘Do you understand?’ Nic asks when Damien just continues to stand there.

‘I don’t think I’m able to understand,’ he finally utters, his voice breaking.

Pathetic, Nic had said. She was right.

With a disgusted sigh, she loosens her grip, my body cooling the instant she steps away.

She says something to the others, something I don’t hear as I continue watching Damien. I think I’m the only one to see the smirk form on his face, something in his eyes saying he’s won.

Rage takes over me. My hands tighten on the gun.

‘You fucker,’ I spit, just before pulling the trigger.