Greymoor Academy: I Accidentally Bonded With Four Lycan Royals! novel Chapter 212

Chapter 212: 212. Samhain IX

(Trigger warning... er... violence... with a sprinkle of blood? I think.)

Maisie

Last words.

I wondered if anyone who had been in the same shit position I was in had ever been able to think of anything besides, "I don’t want to die." "Please." "Please don’t."

If I could’ve spoken, I would’ve begged for more time.

I wanted mornings where I woke up tangled between all of them. I wanted nights where I didn’t have to pretend I was fine.

I wanted to argue with them and make up and do it all over again. I wanted to grow into someone who could stand beside them without feeling like I was constantly catching up.

I wanted to live. I wanted to tell them the things I was always too busy, too scared, too angry to say. I wanted to tell them... I loved them.

When all that left my lips was a senseless whimper, because the ash had stripped me completely of my ability to speak, Tessa smiled.

"Pity."

And I thought, this was it. Would it be slow? Would it hurt? Would it be swift? Would I take my last breath and simply cease to exist?

But Tessa glanced down at her watch and blew out an irritated breath. "You think the goddess might be slowing down time for her cunt little prodigy? Here I am twitching with excitement and we’ve still got a couple of minutes left with each other. How romantic."

Her grey eyes flicked from my face to my neck. And then, she got a strange look in her eyes, almost like an idea popped into her mind. Knowing Tessa, it couldn’t be anything good.

She flicked the dagger between her fingers and ran the tip along my pulse where Soren’s mark sat.

"I’ve always wanted to tear this off you," she said. "I suppose now’s as good a time as any. Consider this retribution for the fire."

She slammed the dagger home.

White-hot pain exploded through my neck as the dagger sank deep.

I couldn’t even scream.

My body jerked once, violently, and then went terrifyingly still.

Blood poured hot and fast down my chest, soaking into the black lace of my dress.

And then, Tessa began to... flay the skin off.

It might have been seconds, or a small eternity, but it was even worse than the pain of the ash pouring into me.

She twisted the blade once, then pulled it free with a wet pop. And then she went on to the next mark. Jericho’s. Her face twisted with hatred as she stabbed me again. "You know, the first time he called me ’malyshka’, I felt special. I thought... I thought I had finally gotten him to treat me like I meant something."

The sharp tip of the knife scraped against my skin viciously. "But he called me May. And then I tried to drown you in the bathtub. And he was still looking at you. He never looked at me that way. Every time we met, he didn’t even remember what my name was, even if we were engaged. This is for taking him from me."

When she was done hacking at my skin with the blade, her hand shook and something dark and twisted maligned her expression as she held the dagger over my face.

"And this," she spat at me, tearing rimming her eyes. "Is because I hate your stupid face."

The blade came down.

But it never reached me.

The sound of bone snapping and an alarmed cry echoed in the night, stopping Tessa. Her head snapped left, just as something--one of the rogues--slammed into Tessa from the side with bone-cracking force, like he’d been hurled by a god.

The impact sent us both skidding across the stone, toward the edge of the cliff. Tessa’s frightened scream tore echoed through the mountains as she landed just shy of the edge, but the rogue and I weren’t so lucky.

We both rolled over the cliff.

"MAISIE!"

Lyon.

"I’ve got you--fuck," he gasped, squinting as he searched for purchase so he could pull me up. "Hold on--shit--shit. Shit. I just killed someone. Shit. Hold on, Mace."

I was screaming in my head. Not again. Useless. Always so useless when it matters. I hated myself. Hated my life. I wanted to die.

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