Page 108 of Wicked Salvation

But I crawl toward the blade.

It’s the only thing that might give me a chance out of this.

My brain feels like it’s in manual mode and every breath, every thought, every movement I make feels like an intentional,painfulmovement.

He grabs my ankle.

“Don’t you run from me. You belong to me, Eden!”

I twist again, kicking him in the knee with all the strength I have. He grunts, my kick hurts him just enough that his grip falters.

I grab the blade, spinning with all I can muster.

The motion slashes a wide arc across his shoulder. He screams like a child. I don’t know how deep the cut goes, but he reels back, clutching his arm. His eyes are wild and filled with what looks like…betrayal?

“You’d kill me?” he gasps, holding the wound on his shoulder. Blood spills over his fingers. “After everything, you’d kill me?”

My eyes widen in disbelief.

“I’d bury you,” I spit, rising to my feet on shaking legs. “For Vivienne. For me. For every time you hit me, for everything you carved into my chest. I’d bury you because someone as vile, as disgusting, ashorribleas you shouldn’t exist.”

My vision is tunneling and my head is spinning, but I’m up on my feet. We’re far enough apart that I feel safe enough to start backing out of the chamber.

He stares at me, panting like an animal. I must have hurt him more than I thought, because he’s struggling to stand, hobbling towards me like a maniac.

“You’re bleeding out,” he sneers. “You won’t make it far. We’re both going to die.”

“At least I’ll die free,” I growl. “Not chained to you.”

I turn and run.

Through the tunnel-like maze that winds itself underground. When I finally see the light streaking through the entrance and cold air slams into me, I know I’ve made it back to the outside world.

I have no idea where he took me, but I start running.

I don’t know where I’m going.

I don’t know if I’ll make it.

Still, I run.

I’m bloody.

I’m shaking.

But I’m alive.

Behind me, Silas shrieks like something inhuman, and I feel something snap in my chest. Like a rubber band, like a rope that’s finally broken from the pressure. It jerks me backward,but I also feel the pressure in my chest dissipate. The pain in the back of my head that felt like it was fueling my sickness.

That’s when I know.

Silas doesn’t own me anymore.

XXIV

LUCIAN

She should’ve been back by now.