“Please, please put me out of my misery. It’s the only way to save you. With or without the Dark One, I’ll always want to be with you. Always want you in ways I shouldn’t. I don’t trust myself, Sierra!”

Her face paled and pain clouded her eyes. I pressed my advantage. “Do you want to live with desires you shouldn’t have?”

She was silent for so long, I thought she was finally considering it. I closed my eyes, waiting for the blow that would surely come.

Her voice was small when she finally spoke. “I can’t, Heathcliff. I can’t kill you. I know I should. But … I … I still love you. Whether you’re my half-brother. My distant cousin. A stranger, or a … lover.” Her voice broke as our hearts did.

“We’ll get through this somehow,” she said more firmly. It had to be more to convince herself than me. I was never going to get through this.

“If you love me, then set me free! Take the estate. Take the school – save them. Save your family. Save Enzo. And Tor, and Riley. Find your brother. Find Artemis. Let them help get you past this. But for god’s sakes, Sierra, let me die!”

She fell to her knees, clutching her head in her arms, and sobbed in huge, ugly gasps. “No, no, no, no, no. Please don’t ask it of me. I can’t do it. Please don’t ask me to live without you.”

Fucking hell. All her stubborn refusal, I’d been able to meet with my own stubbornness. But this. This raw pain …

God fucking damn it. I would have to live with that pain rather than make her go through it.

“Alright, already” I sighed. “I repent.”

Her head jerked up, and I would have laughed if I weren’t so devastated. Her eyes were red and swollen, and a snot bubble hung on the end of her nose.

“You’ve got me, girl. Let’s get this over with.”

Her face radiated such happiness that I mentally kicked myself for not agreeing to this earlier. How she could want anything to do with me at all, I didn’t know, but I’d gladly suffer every day for the rest of my life if it meant she could find some peace and happiness.

The damned cleaver materialized in her hand again and I braced myself for a blow that didn’t come. Her lips drew back in a feral snarl, and she crouched, tiptoeing toward the only door in the room.

“Sierra? Heath? Are you here?”

That sounded like Victoria Murphy, Torin’s mom. Sierra motioned for me to stay quiet, but she didn’t need to. I felt the splash of joy from the Unconsecrated within me. I jerked my head toward the chains that bound me, trying to silently convince Sierra to release me. I didn’t want her to face Victoria alone. Tor’s mom was a powerful witch, and she had her own Dark One.

“Sierra? Are you in here?”

Her eyes widened at the sound of Gerald’s voice then a grin split her face when Tor, Riley, and Enzo joined the call.

“We’re in here!” I shouted. If the guys were with them, it had to be okay, didn’t it?

Sierra glared at me briefly then opened the door, still clutching her weapon, just in case.

“Oh, thank heavens,” Gerald breathed. “I’m glad you’re all—” he cut off when he saw me chained on the floor.

“All right?” he asked.

His wife followed him and hissed in a breath. The chains that bound me flew from me to her in an instant, and I struggled to my feet.

“You dare?!” Victoria gasped, outraged.

Sierra advanced on her, glowing brightly with the cleaver’s edge shining. “Do you repent of your sins and go freely into the afterlife?”

“Sierra, please … spare her,” Tor’s dad begged. “She is with us.”

That was hard to believe when Victoria’s neck began to bulge, and the whites of her eyes turned black. My own darkness was trying to break free again and it was all I could do to contain it after recently having given it permission to taunt Sierra.

Sierra swiftly turned to me, Reaper mode activated. In one sharp thrust of her hand, she freed the evil from within me and dispatched it with slash of blade in seconds before turning on Victoria again.

“Please, Sierra… she’s my mom.” Torin’s voice was pleading, and Sierra’s face softened for a fraction of a second.

The devil within his mother wasn’t going to go down without a fight. After several struggles, Sierra turned a tormented face to Tor and his father. “It won’t let go, and she’s not fighting it hard enough.”

“You got them out of the rest of us,” Tor argued, and his dad’s shoulders drooped.

“That’s because you love her. Your mother doesn’t even know her.”

Tor looked like he’d been kicked in the chest. He grabbed his mother’s face. “Mom, I know you’re in there. You’ve got to fight this. Do it for me. Do it for dad. He’s back now. We can be a family again.”

“You had your chance to be a family. I made you one of the most powerful families in Ravenswood,” the Dark One hissed. “Now you will all pay for your betrayal!”

His mother’s head twisted unnaturally, ready to snap and Sierra brought the cleaver down through Victoria’s neck. There was a horrible crack like a gunshot throughout the room and Mrs. Murphy went limp. Torin howled and his father cried silently.

“What have you done?” Tor yelled at Sierra, who was staring at his mother like she didn’t understand what had just happened.

“Why didn’t you save her too?” Gerald held him back, and Tor sobbed brokenly in his father’s arms. “She did. She did save me.” Victoria’s head lifted, and we all gasped as her lips twisted into a wry smile. “I think rumors of my death were premature.”

Torin and Gerald grabbed her, and Sierra’s knees gave out, as did the rest of ours. We huddled on the floor together and began laughing and crying hysterically.

The others stopped laughing before Sierra and I did, and goosebumps rose on my arms when I looked at Tor’s parents. There was more to come, I felt it. The expressions of sadness and regret on their faces tightened my gut. I braced for whatever was coming next.

Sierra glanced between them and me with a small furrow between her brows. She scooted closer to me and took my hand, surprising me, but I was grateful.

“What is it?” I asked.

They hesitated, and even Riley, Tor, and Enzo looked away.

Fuck. It had to be bad.

I raised my brows, unable to ask again, and his dad began to speak.

Several hours after Tor’s parents left, promising Riley they’d look in on his parents, the five of us laid piled together on a huge sectional like puppies seeking comfort from one another. My father was dead, and my mother was missing, yet I only felt numb. How could I grieve the people who had given me so much pain my entire life, and then torn that life so completely apart in the past few days. All of my friends—my mates—sought to comfort me in some way or another, even Sierra. Their hugs were kind, but beyond the hollow feeling in my head and chest, I felt a need to claw out of my own skin. I needed to do something. Anything. Yet, at the same time, I couldn’t even bring myself to get up off the couch.

It didn’t matter though. Because a moment later the window crashed behind us and brought the fight to me.

CHAPTER 15

ENZO

Glass exploded around us, and Anna burst through, a blur of black hair and bared fangs. Her red eyes glowed with demonic fury as she launched herself at Sierra.

I shoved Sierra behind me, bracing for impact. Anna slammed into me, her claws digging viciously into my shoulders. The stench of death and decay still wafted off her.