Page 130 of Corpse Roads

The world narrows as it parts the air, slashing into Jace’s left arm before hitting the floor. He screeches, dropping the gun in the confusion.

I don’t wait to see him fall. The lighthouse blurs around me. They’re screaming in my ears—the ghosts fuelling my rage.

Run.

Run.

Run.

Bursting outside, I’m nearly swept off my feet by the wind. The snow has stopped, settling along the cliffs while the raging torrent of the ocean sweeps into shore.

I can’t run down the hillside with the path obscured by snow and frozen ice. All around me, there’s nothing but sheer drops and a frozen wasteland.

“You fucking cunt! Get back here!”

Limping into the snow, I scan for an escape route. A sudden crack breaks through the air as something whizzes past me. Jace is in the doorway, the gun in his blood-slicked hand.

“There’s nowhere to run, bitch!”

Another crack.

I duck again, sliding over a huge patch of ice. The bullet barely misses me. The only way out is straight ahead where the cliff ends, leaving nothing but thin air.

Dark, foreboding waves await nearly a hundred feet down. The drop is huge, but adrenaline is forcing me forward, closer to oblivion.

“You’re gonna pay for stabbing him!” Jace yells, attempting to pick his way across the ice field. “There’s nowhere to run!”

“Fuck you,” I shout back.

Crack.

Fierce pain tears through my thigh, a burning laser point melting flesh and bone. The bullet passes straight through me, tearing a deep, oozing hole.

“Next bullet’s going in your head!”

Reaching the edge, I face the sheer drop. The ledge I threw myself off months ago was nothing compared to this suicide mission.

I’d rather die for my freedom.

Drowning isn’t a bad way to go.

“Please,” I whisper to God. “Please.”

Eyes shut, I leave myself to his heavenly mercy. Plummeting hard and fast, wind tears into my hair and clothes, the roar of waves growing closer with each millisecond.

All my pain and fear are obliterated as I surrender to fate. Water rushes up to meet me, pouring into my throat and lungs as I’m swallowed by ocean waves.

CHAPTER 24

HUNTER

KEEPER - REIGNWOLF

I must’ve watched the video a thousand times in the hour since it came in. Harlow looks so small, so broken, her unconscious body crumpled on the floor of some shithole.

“I want my money, Rodriguez,” the voiceover croons. “You’re going to put the cash back where you found it and I’ll let the girl go.”

Drawing his foot back, he boots Harlow straight in the stomach. Her mouth lolls open, but she doesn’t wake up. They’ve pumped her full of something.