Page 107 of Bound By Blood and Lies

“No—” the word tears out of me before I can stop it, as I start to run and break free from the shadows.

The gun goes off.

The sound rips through the church and my brain refuses to process what I’m seeing as a body drops to the floor. My vision fractures; red bleeds into everything, distorting the edges until there’s nothing left but movement and noise and the overwhelming, uncontrollable need to destroy whatever just caused that sound.

“Fae—” I cry out.

I don’t even hear myself say it. I don’t hear anything. My hand is already on my gun, already lifting, already firing before logic can step in, before anything has a chance to slow me down. The first shot hits him square in the chest, snapping his body back, but it doesn’t even register as enough.

I keep going.

Each pull of the trigger is harder than the last. My arm is locked and my aim is unwavering as I empty everything I haveinto him, watching his body jerk, then stumble, then collapse under the force of it. He hits the ground and I am already reloading my clip without thinking, driven by something far more violent than anger.

I stand over him.

And I keep firing.

Again.

Again.

Again.

I don’t stop when he stops moving.

I don’t stop when there’s nothing left of him to fight back.

I don’t stop until there’s nothing left in me at all.

“Roman!”

The sound cuts through me like a blade, sharp enough to slice straight through the haze, and everything crashes back in at once.

The ringing in my ears.

The smell of gunpowder.

The thick, metallic weight of blood coating the air.

I blink as my chest heaves but suddenly I can see again. There’s blood everywhere. It’s on my hands, my clothes, the floor, smeared across the marble in dark, spreading pools that reflect the shattered light from the windows, and I can’t tell what’s his and what’s?—

“FAE!”

My voice breaks as I turn. My feet move as my body drags me across the church until I drop beside my mum and Fae so hard my knees crack against the stone. Fae is on the floor, curled in on herself, and Mum is tangled slightly underneath her like she’s trying to hold Fae together.

“Fae,” I choke, reaching for her. My hands shake as I try to pull her back, to see, to understand.

“No—stop!” she screams, her voice comes out raw and desperate as her grip tightens and she shrugs me off. Her body locks around my mum like a shield.

I freeze.

Blood.

So much fucking blood is pouring out of her, and my hands shake as I try to run them over her body to stop the flow.

“Why—” Fae’s voice splinters apart as she looks down at Mum. “Why, Fiona… why did you do that to me?”

My heart slams violently against my ribs as I look between them, trying to catch up and make sense of all this, but it refuses to come together. My mum’s hand lifts, slow and weak, as her fingers brush against Fae’s cheek with a tenderness that doesn’t belong in a place like this.