The MC President's Forsaken Wife (Zara and Knox) novel Chapter 163

Chapter 91-1

The darkness in the penthouse isn’t quiet anymore. It heavy-presses against my eyelids, suffocating and thick, reeking of dirty snow and silver keys.

I’m running through a hallway that stretches into infinity. The floorboards beneath my bare feet are cold, slick with water, and every door I pass leads straight into an empty elevator shaft. Behind me, the sharp, rhythmic click of a deadbolt sliding into place echoes through the dark.

“Every step you take toward the grave is a step I take toward taking back what’s mine.”

Her voice isn’t coming from behind me. It’s coming from inside my own chest, rattling against my ribs like a trapped bird.

I turn around, and the dim yellow light of the outer corridor flares to life. Willow is standing there, her thin white tank top soaked through, her pale face illuminated by a sickly, fluorescent glow. But she isn’t holding the silver key anymore… she’s holding a mirror.

When I look into the glass, it isn’t my face staring back. It’s hers. My dark hair is covered in feathers. My eyes are hollowed out, replaced by her pale, dead gaze.

“Keep my seat warm, dear sister.”

She reaches into the mirror, her cold, wet fingers wrapping around my throat, squeezing until the air in my lungs turns to ice…

I snap awake with a violent, full-body convulsion.

A high, ragged scream tears from my throat, shattering the pitch-black silence of the master bedroom.

I scramble backward across the mattress, my hands wildly striking at the sheets, trying to claw my way out of the invisible tangle of arms and cold metal dragging me under. My lungs heave, sucking in air that feels too thin, too sharp, burning straight down into my chest.

“Zara! Zara, hey, look at me, baby, look at me.”

Hands, massive and warm, clamp firmly onto my shoulders.

I flinch violently, a choked sob erupting from my lips as I fight against the grip, my heels kicking uselessly against the heavy duvet. “Get off! Get off me!”

“Zara, it’s me. It’s Locke. You’re safe, I’ve got you.”

The deep, rumbling resonance of his voice cuts through the roaring panic in my ears like a blade. Locke doesn’t pull away when I thrash.

He shifts instantly, straddling my hips to anchor my wild movements without crushing me, his heavy hands sliding up from my shoulders to frame my face. His thumbs press firmly against my cheekbones, grounding me against the mattress.

“Breathe, baby. Look at my face. Come back to me.”

My vision, blurred by hot, furious tears, slowly snaps into focus.

Above me, Locke’s face is etched with lines of worry. His hair is rumpled from sleep, his broad chest heaving, bare skin stick with a cold sweat of his own.

“Locke,” I gasp, the word coming out as a shattered, pathetic whimpering sound “Oh my God”

“I’m right here,” he growls softly, his voice breaking on the edges as he immediately releases my face and gathers my shaking body into his arms. “Right here”

He pulls me flush against his chest, hauling me up into his lap as he sits back against the headboard I collapse into him, burying my face in the warm ook of his neck. I’m trembling so hard my teeth are clicking together, a hard, uncontrollable rigor sweeping through my entire body

“I’ve got you,” Locke whispers, his massive arms wrapping around my back and squeezing until the air is forced out of my lungs He pulls the heavy duvet up over my shivering shoulders, tucking us into a tight, impenetrable cocoon. “I’m right here. Nobody is touching you Nobody is getting near you.”

“She was… she was in the room,” I sob, my chest hitching violently against his The terror is still so fresh, a metallic taste coats the back of my tongue. “She was standing right at the foot of the bed. Locke She had the key, and she was she was taking my face -*

“Shh, no. No, baby,” Locke says, pressing his lips hard against my temple, then my cheek, then the corner of my wet mouth, trailing a desperate path of hot, fierce kisses across my skin. “It was a dream. Just a nightmare. Look at the room Look around us”

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